And How Was Your Weekender

1) Which comes first, the hit kiddie tv/ movie, or the toy? Friendship is complicated: Art, commerce, and the battle for the soul of My Little Pony. 

Hopefully, friendship at least is… colorblind? (Rainbow Pony, geddit? 🙂

“…The difference between playing dress up and dressing up for real begins to blur around age 6 or 8 and is entirely blurred by age 14 or so…”

Explores other popular tween cartoons as well – I watched the clips and just really have this idea there’s a lot of Mean Girls and Crushes On Mean Girls’ Ex Boyfriends yuck stuff going on. What worries me is how the Powers That Be That Decide What’s On TV do so based on popularity, and certainly to some extent what sells toys, and they chose that, the yuck stuff.

“…Business and marketing analyses of children’s toys and games commonly mention the acronym KGOY (“Kids Getting Older Younger”) or the phrase “age compression,” meaning that younger and younger kids are being sold clothes, toys and stories hinting at adolescent themes…” 

I’ll let you in on a little secret: Before we knew if the Miss was going to be a boy or a girl, I once prayed a heartfelt prayer. “Lord, please don’t bless me with a girl unless You really think I can handle it.”

This was from memories of 1) burly English former RMs telling me while in the Starbucks queue how his 8 year old struck a pose and asked, “Do ya think I’m sexy, Daddy?” <spits coffee> 2) senior ex colleague with a 15 year old telling us his greatest fear was of his daughter coming home from Lan Kwai Fong with a 30-year old banker 3) one of my favorite ex colleagues and friends telling me you need to invite the most popular girl over for tea every now and again so at least she’s not total strangers with your daughter on the playground, and oh, you need to start from about age 4, and 4) a mum I know telling me how she ended up taking her 5 year old to Tony and Guy’s for an edgy bob hair-cut after she was told on the playground she was too dark to be pretty.

(Oh, you won’t Tony and Guy? You think you won’t, and if someone mouthed off at you you probably wouldn’t, but if it’s your child you’d totally do something, even if it’s not the haircut. 

See, when you have kids – and kids who are particularly sensitive – is when suddenly Tough As Nails You finds themselves terrifyingly vulnerable. You are now like the evil king El-Carim from the 1963 Captain Sindbad, whose heart beats encased in magic crystal atop a bell tower protected by a giant disembodied hand, except well, yours trips off to school each day with nary an idea how terrified you are, and watches My Little Pony. Giant disembodied hands that smash the living daylights out of trespassers aren’t a bad idea. I’m just saying.

Sindbad Fingerwag. (pic from monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com)

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2) Cats That Live Better Than You. Self-explanatory.

Now the rockstars want one! (Not the cat).

(Seriously though, WHY does it need the lift, it’s a cat…)

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3) Not an iPad in sight... The Art of Playing In The Snow.

This would just totally impress Rockstar

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4) In honor of Rockstar’s latest favorite book (about DNA, cross-breeding etc, kiddie-lite) The Big Mouthed Birds Of Sarah Deremer.

Chirp.

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5) Rockstar Skit this week is titled Come Fly With Me, inspired by their friend’s birthday bash theme this weekend (and my excuse for being late 🙂

The Birthday Boy designed his own invite… (Reminiscent of Stravinsky’s Firebird, don’t you think?)

Which was made into t-shirt souvenirs (The Miss’ expression is in response to JD hounding her for some lurve; also why Rockstar’s smile is wobbling because he’s worried she’s about to let fly)

This is the first Twopresents.com party we’ve ever been invited to – birthday child chooses to split their gifts with a charity (so guests specify an amount that is then split between the charity and purchase of a birthday gift) – in this case, Birthday Boy picked Food Angel “Because food is the most basic and important thing in life”. 

AND the party was held at RYZE trampoline park (also our first time there) to boot:

(Sorry not many action shots even though there are umpteen places to bounce about including foam pits and basketball hoops because the trampolines are seriously bouncy – every time someone larger bounced next to these two, especially the smaller one, they would go flying.)

And then onward to the function room for cake and balloons!

The Miss and Friend, the Birthday Boy’s younger bro… They’re just about a month apart, and were at a previous pre-school AND Putonghua class together…

Which is how small-talking Rockstar and Birthday Boy first met – and totally hit it off (yes, seriously they are ALSO close to a month apart; what are the odds?!)

All 4 play together when their busy schedules can coincide… I couldn’t decide on any one pic, and anyway I like how natural these are:

…And that was our weekend. Hope yours was awesome too…