More SFgate fun

More fun from the comments on SFgate. Those who choose the childless route hate the whiny toddlers, the property owners hate the renters, and in the case of this article, everyone hates the hipsters.

Olivia-isms: The reprimanding finger

Today's Olivia-ism -- the reprimanding finger. When Olivia is trying to make a point, she often uses the 'reprimanding finger.' For example, when I try to get her to wake Daddy up, she says, "Daddy sleeping," while pointing a scolding index finger at me. Clearly she learned the reprimanding finger from her daycare providers (she must get in trouble a lot at daycare.) No video, so you will have to trust me that it's funny to get lectured by a 2 year old.

Yeah, this new feature is corny, but this blog is aimed at the 4 people (i.e, my immediate family) who care about the little details in Olivia's life. (it might only be three people as I'm not sure my brother actually cares about this level of minutiae.)

Bridge to Nowhere

It astounds me that the bay bridge bike lane has passed, with a projected cost in the $200-300 million range. Wouldn't solutions like this make more sense? No wonder California is in a serious deficit.

Move over Elmo

Olivia has been watching a lot of Christmas specials lately and her new favorite character is Santa (move over Elmo.) We made an effort to take Olivia to see Santa. As you can see, it took Olivia two trips to warm up to the idea of visiting Santa. On the first trip she was both frightened and puzzled. On the second trip she was just puzzled. I attribute it to the significantly higher beard quality of the second Santa.

Etsy and Regretsy

If you are a fan of etsy (like me), you also need to check out this site

Joyce

Kids on planes, part II

Before I get myself kicked off a plane or am categorized in the kid-hater group, I should clarify my position on ejecting unruly kids from flights. I wasn't on the flight that this woman got kicked off from, so I don't know whether her kid was disruptive of just annoying. I also don't know whether the flight attendant was being excessively intolerant or just trying to get the flight off the ground. Olivia has certainly had her share of in-flight meltdowns so I am definitely not in the 'seen but not heard' camp.

I think it's a matter of extremes -- if a kid is being so disruptive that they're having trouble getting the flight off the ground in spite of the best efforts of the parents and the flight attendants, by all means ask the parent to take a later flight. I maintain that domestic airlines would gain a lot by taking small steps to be more kid friendly (come on, there had to be a chocolate chip cookie somewhere on that flight.)

Sweeps week debate -- kids on planes

My father sent me a link to this article today with one writer's take on kids on planes.

"There is a notion, reflected in numerous blog comments about the incident, that other passengers should "just deal" and "give a kid a break." This notion is wrong. Parents like Root and others who selfishly force the rest of us to pay the cost of their choices in life aren't just bothering us; they're stealing from us. Most people don't see it this way, because what they're stealing isn't a thing we can grab on to, like a wallet. They're stealing our attention, our time and our peace of mind."

It must be sweeps week because this blog post on kids in fancy restaurants also appeared this week in SFGate.

I think posts such as this are designed solely to get people to leave comments (one of the more useful web metrics for engagement.) It's like religion -- neither party is going to change (well, until they have kids.)

I think that parents should control their kids during the flight (especially during preparations for a departure) and that it's not wrong to eject a passenger with a uncontrollable child from a flight if the plane has not taken off yet. At least, I believe that until I am forced to spend the night at O'Hare. I also think that it's the flight attendants job to do more to help passengers with children and offer assistance or suggestions before asking a passenger to leave a flight.

"Reading" with Olivia

As previously mentioned in this blog, we believe that the daycare providers used TV as a daycare tool much more than they let on. The first giveaway was reading a Sesame Street book with Olivia and realizing that she was able to name all of the muppets, even the obscure ones. The second giveaway was when she started sprinting for the TV room as soon as we dropped her off each morning.

Knowing Olivia's love of Elmo, my parents and sister bought Olivia this book for Christmas. She loves it, it is her go-to book for reading time.

Unfortunately, I'm not such a fan. But why should I be the only one tortured? Here's a transcript of a typical reading of "Guess Who Elmo"


"O... M.... L (pointing to the "E") ... "E" (pointing to the "L")

Then, pointing to the characters
"Elmo"
"Zoey"
"Cookie Monster."

"Zoey"
"Duck"
"Elmo"


"Nose" (pointing to the knob on the cookie jar lid)
"Cookie Monster"
"Elmo"
"Zoey"

"Berd"
"Worm" (points to the picture of the worm in Big Bird's book.)
"Berd"
"See, see, Berd"
"Elmo"
"Zoey"
"Cookie Monster"

What do you think? Will this book will stunt Olivia's language development, leaving her incapable of learning words other than the names of muppets?