Feast of St. Kolbe

Sweet Kolbe celebrated his feast day this past week.  He was so happy to inform everyone that it was "St. Babby".  So cute.  He received a copy of this book (which was great for the feast of the Assumption, and next week's feast of the Coronation), and some religious stickers that our local Catholic store now carries!!  His sweet godmother also brought him a Brother Francis "DDD"  (as he calls it) which both kids are enjoying, although Kolbe was admittedly a bit befuddled at the fact that the whole show didn't revolve around the "ball-ball" on the DVD cover.  ;-D  That's my boy!  Happy Feast Day to my big little guy!  May St. Kolbe always pray for you as you grow in Christ.

Review: Signing Time

Ahhh television.  The thing everyone loves to hate.  Or hates to love.  Hmmmm...  Aaron and I enjoy turning it on more evenings than not after the kids are in bed.  I justify it in that we watch pretty much exclusively things from which we learn something...learn about history, our planet, animal and plant life, things along those lines.  I know there are probably still better things we could do with our time, but it is something we enjoy doing together, and a nice way to just kind of kick back and relax after a long day.  Right or wrong, it's where we are right now.  We're still finding our way with the whole TV thing for our kids.  It is a balance I know.  Part of me wants to just throw the whole thing out completely, another part of me certainly sees some value in it.  So I don't know.  It's this big interior struggle for me.  I'm just weird like that.  We don't do the whole Disney (Pixar, etc. etc.) movie thing now and I don't know that we ever will.  I'm not going to swear them off completely, and I certainly don't judge those whose kids do watch movies, but at this point we just don't see the value in them for Gemma.  Talk to me again in several years, or when my youngest is three, and who knows where I'll be.  That's just how it's been with everything for me when it comes to parenting.  Don't judge, and never say never.  I'm still working on that, but alas...I digress.  A lot.   (I will get to the aforementioned review, promise!)

Anyways, to digress further yet, Gemma got really into Little Bear about a year ago now.  She had been enjoying the books (which were mine as a child!) for quite some time and one night while Aaron and I were searching for something on our DVR we realized that there were TV episodes of it on our OnDemand!!!  They are 25 minutes long and all very sweet.  There is no hidden agenda, and Little Bear is always sweet and polite to his friends, and respectful and loving to his parents.  His parents emanate patience, which always tickles me.  Anyways, so that was the only thing she watched for a very long time.  Until I asked (I think?) for some recommendations, and my dear friend Mary came to the rescue.  One of the series' she mentioned was Signing Time and oh I could rave and rave!!   This is such a neat series.  Each DVD is about 30 minutes long, with another 30 minutes or so of extras.  They are all hosted by Rachel (adult), Alex and Leah (children) and Hopkins (animated frog).  Leah is Rachel's real-life daughter and she was born deaf.  Signing Time was Rachel's way of not only sharing ASL (American Sign Language) with those who use it as a communication tool because they are deaf, but also for babies, toddlers and preschoolers to use prior to and along with speech.  We have done quite a bit of sign with Kolbe, as he doesn't talk much (at all) yet.  It has been fun and helpful (I own this book and it is a great resource).  Gemma talked really early so we hardly signed at all with her, but she thinks it's super-cool now.  She really enjoys these DVDs and I am amazed how quickly she picks up new signs.  I know this is due mainly to the way the videos are designed, using songs and lots of repetition.  I will admit, some of the songs (especially the theme song) really grate on me.  Like, if Gemma watches a DVD one afternoon, I may still be singing the theme song two days later.  BUT, I'll take one for the team because I really do like these DVDs that much.  There are a number of videos in the series geared towards all different ages.  While they are a bit pricey in my opinion, I have found that our library carries most of them so we have had a steady rotation coming in and out of the house which has been nice.  We own one, and honestly as long as the library keeps carrying them I don't see buying many (if any) more.  That being said though, I would highly, highly recommend these DVDs.  They are cute, fun, free of agenda (can you tell that's a big deal for me) and (at least in Gemma's opinion) highly entertaining.  Kolbe (at almost 18 months) really doesn't sit down and "watch" TV yet, but the other day Gemma was watching one while he played in the living room and I caught him standing by the TV signing along with "brush teeth" I believe.  So yes, fun and educational for all ages.  Check 'em out!!!

Pawn coolness

We are not huge TV watchers around here, but we do enjoy having cable and a DVR. I think if we didn't have cable we probably wouldn't ever watch any TV...I can't tell you the last time we watched anything network (aside from occasionally watching the local weather and an on-again off-again ~currently off-again~ relationship with The Office). And if we didn't have DVR, well, with kids we probably wouldn't watch any TV either, because it would always be either interrupted or inconvenient. Or both. (Plus don't even get me started on commercials these days...) And maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing, I gave a great amount of respect for those whose households are TV-free (check out my friend Debi!). But alas, we admittedly enjoy a handful of shows/documentaries (and the occasional sporting event, namely MLB) on channels like History, Discovery, TLC, Food Network, Science, NatGeo and if it were up to me solely, HGTV as well.

One of the shows that we regularly DVR is Pawn Stars, a show featuring the family-run Gold and Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas, NV and the various interesting items that make their way into the shop. I just think it's really cool, and it always holds our interest and makes for some fun conversation as we watch: guessing at item values, answering the trivia questions, and talking about some of the obscure, cool items (once they even had someone bring in a relic of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton - and no, if you were wondering, they didn't buy it, as the buying and selling of relics is forbidden) and eccentric people that come into the shop. But I digress. The whole point of this blog-post stems from the episode we watched last week called "Pedal to the Metal". In it, a man brings in a 1950's toy pedal-car in fairly rough condition. As it turned out (spoiler alert), the car ended up being worth upwards of $1000 restored...which I found to be particularly cool as our family actually owns one of these cars. It was my dad's as a child, and after I emailed him about the show he dug up this picture of him in the pedal car circa 1956.
Pretty cool. It has actually been painted since and is red now, so would probably need some restoring of its own to reach its potential worth. Not that we intend to restore or sell it or anything like that (I believe my sister has it now), but never-the-less pretty neat to know its worth. One of those random things that made this particular episode especially enjoyable.