For some unknown reason, I have a Wiggles song stuck in my head today and it won't go away. I was getting coffee in the office this morning and found myself whistling the tune of "Henry the Octopus." I didn't see anyone standing near me once I realized what i was doing, but now I'm wondering if anyone heard me? The coffee machine is right next to a corner in a fairly trafficked area of the office. The horror...The horror!

Not really. I wish I did, but I got the next best thing for my nerdy self anyway. A 50% off coupon for the local half-price books store. I'm so going there today, but since I'm on baby duty while the wife is having a spa day today for her birthday, I hope my son behaves better than he did last time we went there. I didn't even make it to the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section before he lost it.

The last trip went something like this: I walked in the store, briefly browsed the sale rack up front for about two minutes, and promptly walked out with a screaming banshee over my shoulder a few seconds later. I'm hoping for a better result today since he's a few months older and can walk around himself. Not that he'll be good, mind you, but I'm hoping that if he gets bored in the stroller, he can get out and walk around the section I'm browsing, or at least hang in the kids section, where I can watch him a little better.

Wish me luck!

My wife just took my son for a free preview of an infant through young childhood music program. It encourages all ages attending to explore music in their own way, whether it through playing with instruments or having their parents clap their hands/feet or bounce them to the beat (for those who aren't mobile yet).

The class is called Heart Song Music, and apparently, my son LOVES it. My wife said she had never seen him so animated before, even at Gymboree, so I think we're going to start sending him. I'm hoping that he'll be come a famous rockstar or songwriter and be able to support his parents when we reach old age :)

As I read yet another story about a disturbance at Chuck E. Cheese, it struck me that there seem to have been lots of incidents at that particular restaurant lately. I have frequented this place with my kid before (admittedly only once), and never saw anything quite like the stories linked below.

I'm convinced that they are putting something in the pizza that drives adults wild. How else could you explain all of these recent incidents? Maybe the restaurant attracts a greater proportion of crazy people. Or maybe the only people that would take their kids to one of these after reading all of these links are crazy by definition. Who knows? All I know if that nothing that exciting has ever happened when I've been to that place, but maybe I'll have a front row seat to a good tasering one day.


Here are some examples of what you're missing out on if you've never been:

Taser Incident - nothing goes with salad like a few thousand volts. Gives it that extra kick!

Spitting Incident - now this one is just scary.

Attempted Kidnapping - again, just scary.

Big Brawl - Ahh. There we go - a good, old fashioned, 80-person brawl.

Another Brawl - Girl fight!!!

An Update on the Big Brawl location (above) - Wow. Maybe I'm going to the wrong Chuck E. Cheese. Favorite quote from the article: "Flint Township police say they were called 30 separate times to Chuck E. Cheese last year. The cases range from assault to disorderly conduct to even one case of criminal sexual conduct." Sounds like good family fun! :)

Another great location - Apparently, just like Flint Township, Milwaukee knows how to throw a proper pizza party too :)

Abandoned! - Seriously - this one actually breaks my heart, especially when I see that cute little face. :(

Wait! Me Too! - not to be outdone by Flint Township and Milwaukee, Gulfport gets in on the action too!

Wild, wild west - this is also another scary one involving a shooting.

I'm thinking about trying out model rockets when my son is a couple of years older. I remember building and launching one during a summer science program at a university near my hometown. It was definitely a fun experience that I'd like to try, and I remember there being a pretty cool science lesson involved during the project as well.

I think things like this are a great way to impart a love or interest in science - they are a valuable teaching tool because they can offer a hands-on, real world approach to learning, and even if your young one doesn't learn anything, launching the rocket is pretty darn cool.

I must confess that i probably don't remember much science from that particular project, but one of my more vivid memories of the university event was launching the rocket. for that alone, it was well worth it.

Head over to NASA's site on rockets to learn more about the science behind model rockets.

Head over to Kids Make Stuff to find some neat articles covering projects that you can do with your kids. I'm a big advocate of doing things that are both educational and fun, and this site has several science and craft 'type' projects that you can easily do with your kids. One think I like about the site is that it gives guidelines for age ranges and time required to create the experiment or activity. Head over and check it out for some great ideas.

I have spent the past few days and cleaning out our office to make room for our new baby. We'll be moving my 1 year old to the former office while the new baby will get his room. Of course, true to fashion, we chose a very dark color (navy) to go over the previous white paint, so I'm having to paint several coats to get tings even looking. Other than the paint, I also wanted something to make his room a little nicer, so my wife and I bought a wallpaper border to run around the middle of the wall where the color changes from navy to light blue.

I'm not sure if the border will be enough for my (admittedly little) artistic sensibilities. Since the boy currently has a mural in his room now, I would like something similar in his room now, but don't have the money to pay someone to do it (even if I do have some artistic sensibilities, I have no artistic talent).

However, I was surfing over at Wired's Geek Dad blog and saw these cool wall decals. We can add to the jungle theme on the wallpaper border without having to paint a full mural! Yay!

I found a great article today that reminded me about how fun some of the science projects I did as a child were. I used to love making a 'homemade volcano' out of baking soda and vinegar. The article I found today gives tips on how to encourage your children's interest in Science. My little one is too young for me to do any science projects just yet, but I have yet to find a kid that didn't think the volcano project was cool the first time they saw it.

My wife will be taking my son to an event at Austin Children's Museum today. They are attending the Baby Bloomers program, which is only for kids 3 and under. It sounds like a neat place based on what she's told me, and as I was on their site earlier today, it looks like they have a cool event for older children as well.

It's called the Tinkerer's Workshop, and it's basically a scaled-down engineering style event that allows kids to build things out of provided materials. From their site:

Designed for children ages 5-11, activities in the Tinkerer's Workshop build creative problem solving and critical thinking skills through project-based learning and the engineering design process.

Go check it out!

More info on admission, hours, etc:

Hours
Tuesday - Saturday 10 am to 5 pm
Wednesday Nights - 5pm to 8pm, admission by donation
Sunday - Noon to 5pm, (4pm - 5pm FREE)

Admissions
Adults: $5.50
Children 2 yrs. old & older: $5.50
12-23 months: $3.50 | under 12 months FREE

I was surfing over the weekend and saw a great site that I found several good articles on (as well as a funny SNL skit with Kevin Federline's parenting tips): Daddy Rock Star

Head over if you have time and check it out. I really liked the article about raising spoiled brats, because that has been an area where I'm nervous about my child-rearing abilities. I like for my son to have things that are nice or things that he wants, but I'm not too sure where to draw the line between enriching his life and spoiling him rotten and giving him everything he wants.