Linus the scuba diver

Linus made this adorable scuba diver self-portrait at camp yesterday.

Linus raced at Point to Point

Linus likes to race in the horsey races at Point to Point at Wintherthur.  He always brings his on Hobby Horse.  He really pretends to ride his horse.

And since these races are the most poorly run event at Point to Pint, there was a false start and they all ran again.  He enjoys it, so that is what matters.

Super cute in the hat.

Toddler Space Suit!

Not a toddler or preschooler spacesuit, unfortunately, but a Mercury doll.  Still Linus and I can wish.

Found at the other National Air and Space Museum, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy center.  During our visit.

Linus and I fly a plane at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Air and Space center in washington D.C,

We visited the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy center in Washington D.C. (the one with the Space Shuttle!) two weeks ago and Linus really wanted to go in all of the planes that were there.  They had a Piper-Cub that you could go in and use the controls of, so he and I gave it a shot.

They also had a tower that you could go up in and see the planes landing at Dulles.  One floor down from that was a mock-up of an air-traffic control tower with desks and displays.  Linus is directing air traffic right now.

Modern Design and Toddlers do not mix

A great blog post suggesting that some of the hallmarks of mid-20th century modern design may not be compatible with children, or at least children that you want to keep alive.

Some of my favorites:


Falling off the ledge and then getting stuck in that rocky nook underneath.



These stairs have no hadlrail!!  Linus at least is good in holding onto the handrail at our house, but these steps would be a temptation to disatser even for me.



I would love to have a rock formation like this in my living room, but not the steam cleaning necessary to get the blood stains off of everything when the inevitable accident happens.

Granted living on Shellpot Creek with the four foot waterfall right in our backyard as a continuing attraction is just as incompatible.  Linus is learning to navigate the creek and rocks safely, perhaps he would be OK in these modern homes.

(via BOINGBOING via projectophile)

Children and their favorite toys from around the world

Toy Stories by Gabriele Galimberti.



I would totally love to do a picture like these with Linus.  I am not sure what his favorites would be, I suspect that right now it would be the duplo blocks like for Niko in Homer, Alaska.

Thief steals iPhone from a baby!!!

I am sure this guy is going to get fried by the internet.  He stole an iPhone from a baby who was watching a video in her baby carriage.

Linus loves to watch videos on my iPhone and has his favorites, PBS kids, and the Disney shows like Jake and the Neverland pirates.  I always keep an eye on him when he has the phone if we are not at home.  I think I would go crazy if someone did this to Linus.

(via BoingBoing, via CultofMac, via macgasm, via macobserver, via CNET, via The Sun)

Eating sugar doesn't make children hyper, or does it?

It turns out that eating sugar doesn't make children "hyper".  Studies do show that thinking that children ate sugar does make parents think that the children are acting hyper.  The animated GIF says it all.

(via Mind the Science Gap, via BoingBoing)

Linus as Woody from Toy Story for Haloween

 Linus wanted to be Woody from Toy Story for Halloween.  It's understandable given that we have watched Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 2 dozens of times in the past few weeks (the original only once).  Lynn made the vest and scoured his closet for the appropriate clothes.

 He even has a cowboy hat.  It's an interpretation given that the vest is a dalmatian print instead of a cow print.  Linus doesn't have a snake in his boot, or boots for that matter.

After some intensive training to teach him to say trick or treat, we went out into the neighborhood.  It turns out it is relatively easy to teach Linus something when there is an immediate reward of candy during the process.  Finally Lynn and Linus devoured the take.

Happy Halloween!

Linus captured experimenting with spooky science in the Community News

Linus and Lynn got to perform a spooky science experiment at the Delaware Childrens Museum last week where they made slime from glue and borax and food coloring.  Linus' awed expression was caught by a Community News photographer.  He's in the third picture in at the link.

I am perfectly happen to encourage his fascination with science, even spooky science.

Linus sends a message

I am not sure where he got this from but last night suddenly Linus wanted to send me a message.  I suppose he has seen us send text messages or discuss it so he wanted to do one.

He was playing at the computer and out of the blue says, "Daddy, I am gonna send you a message."  he furiously types at the keyboard, then stands on the chair and "grabs" an imaginary something from behind the monitor and then mimes throwing me the message.   Across the room I catch the message, open it up like it is a little piece of imaginary paper and read it, "It says Linus loves Daddy.", and we all laugh.  We spent the next half hour throwing imaginary messages back and forth.  Some to Lynn, which read "Linus loves Mommy".  I supplied the reading of the messages, since Linus wasn't to clear on their content, he was more interested in the typing and sending. 

He has a good imagination.

Linus and Daddy at Pirate Day

Duplo Blocks Pareidolia

Do you see a face in this Duplo block house?  We were just trying to make the tallest house using all of the blocks with Linus.  We jammed that little car on the top, and lo and behold, the face appears.

World's Saftest Crib, made from DuPont Corian®

A Corian® crib at The Mexican Museum of Design (warning horrible, useless flash website) was chosen as the Mexican public's favorite piece in the exhibition "Transform your ideas with Corian®". The design was presented as the World's Safest crib.

The crib is made of Corain®, obviously, and the article talk about it's design being possible because the material is thermo-formable.



I do like the ability to have the "bars" be evocative of branches and flowers and be uneven instead of just straight. It looks expensive though. Sure it is thermo-formable or can be cut this way but I would imagine that both materials and setup of a mold would be very expensive unless you made many cribs.




This design is by architects Jihei Aoki, Alejandro Cortes, Carlos Gonzalez and Constanze Martens.

The description describes and lists the safety attributes:

• Safe because it is hypoallergenic.
• Safe because a child's heads or arms cannot get stuck in the crib
• Safe because is easily cleaned

I have to admit that I like it for it's design and look, but I am not too concerned with the other safety attributes except that it meets the appropriate level of safety for a child's crib.

(via DuPont News, archiRed, Nuestres Casas -translation, Fahrenheit Magazine,

Linus and the wheelbarrow

Linus "borrowed" the neighbors kid-sized wheelbarrow for a stroll around the yard.

Linus wants the snow gone.

Linus grabbed a shovel and tried chipping away at the last of the big snow piles left after the warm temperatures yesterday.

Above Linus takes delight in getting rid of the ice.

And more shoveling.

My little meteorologist confirms snow height measurement

In the second wave of the snow last night we got about 7.5 inches. Linus helped to shovel this morning and then he confirmed my earlier measurement.

Overzealous law enforcement detonate suspicious toy pony!

The bomb squad in Orange County Florida detonated a toy pony that had been left in a cul-de-sac near an elementary school. It is presented here as an example of rampant crazy fear and over zealous law enforcement overcoming common sense. Perhaps it belonged to a child nearby?

From the Orlando Sentinel:

A “suspicious” toy pony was blown up after it was found abandoned in the middle of a cul-de-sac near an Orange County elementary school this morning.

The FurReal pony, an expensive, life-like toy, was investigated as a possible explosive device after someone called Orange County deputies to report it. A robot inspected the toy before a pack of explosives was placed near the stuffed animal and detonated.

If we blew up every toy we found on our cul-de-sac it would be like the trenches of the on our street. I just assume that it belongs to one of our neighbors and sometimes put it back in the yard of the kid it belongs to. At no point do we blow it up.

(via BoingBoing)

Linus and the Sisyphean task

While we were on vacation in August we visited the Chicago Botanic Garden. Linus found these giant stone spheres and proceed to reenact the punishment of Sisyphus.

I wonder if abaies or toddlers think it is cool that everything around them is giant or lifesized or whether it is frustrating. I suppose it depends on the circumstance. Maybe its just the way things are because that's all they have ever know thus far.

Linus gets a swingset

We spent last weekend putting together a swing set for Linus in the backyard. By one reckoning it only took two days, or four if you count this weekend putting in the anchors or months if you count getting the parts and wrangling over placement and how to build it.

All we bought that was part of a "kit" were metal pieces that set the angle of the "A" pieces and would also serve to join the crossbeam to the legs. There were other metal pieces that were braces from the "A" parts to the long beam.


The other pieces we bought were the swing parts. Our neighbors had give us a hand-me-down toddler swing for Linus and we got adult swings with upgraded hardware for ourselves. Linus helped with some measurements.


We bought the lumber on Saturday and went to work. Four 4x4x10 for height. One 4x6x12 for the length. One 2x6x12 to cut in half for the cross piece of the A's on the side.

We assembled the A pieces using the metal bracket to guide the angle. It was just screwed in using 3" screws. We made sure they were identical and then cut the 2x6x12 in half, out those on each A to be identical and then cut off the ends at an angle to match the angle of the A's.

We drilled holes and attached all of the hardware to the long beam. Keep in mind that during the process we had to go to the hardware store twice after the initial trip to get more bolts and nuts and to get a long enough drill bit as well as more chain since the parts we got must have been for a shorter swing. The chains without extensions had Lynn hanging so high off the ground that her feet didn't touch.

One note: We upsized the legs from a traditional 8 ft to 10 ft for better swinging and we used 4x4's for sturdiness. We also used a 4x6 as the long piece for strength since we wanted our set to be 12ft long for three spots. there is plenty of room for us with this setup.

The hardest part was getting the long piece up on to the legs with only two people since we needed to keep the legs up. We had a convenient tree to lean one side upon and a step ladder on the other side. Still, there was some clever sliding up the legs to get it up there.

Once we side it onto the bolts we then spent a lot of time measuring distances to get it squared up. The instructions with the brackets gave less than helpful instructions to make sure the legs were square t the cross beam. I found that only one leg would square because wood isn't straight and ground isn't flat. We settled on eyeballing it and we measured the diagonal of the legs and the lengths of the legs to try to square the bottom. We did this several times. before we put all of the bolts on. After we did and each time we moved it to a new position.

We also got anchors to anchor the legs into the ground. When I swing I can lift a leg of the swingset with my momentum so we need anchors for everyone's safety. Your task: drill the 12 inch anchor all the way into rocky soil, good luck.

I was able to get two in, and broke one when it hit wood or rocks in the ground. I haven't finished this portion of the task. The anchors go in and then there is a strap with holes in it that gets screwed to the leg of the swingset. That is probably today's task.

The swing set in use:



I am glad we built it adult sized since we can swing with Linus and it is ready for him to grow into it.