Category: Kids & Cute Stories

But what if just the opposite is true? What if parenting really isn’t a zero-sum, children-take-all game? What if raising children is actually mentally enriching for mothers – and fathers?

This is, in fact, what some leading brain scientists, like Michael Merzenich at the University of California, San Francisco, now believe. Becoming a parent, they say, can power up the mind with uniquely motivated learning. Having a baby is “a revolution for the brain,” Dr. Merzenich says.

The human brain, we now know, creates cells throughout life, cells more likely to survive if they’re used. Emotional, challenging and novel experiences provide particularly helpful use of these new neurons, and what adjectives better describe raising a child? Children constantly drag their parents into challenging, novel situations, be it talking a 4-year-old out of a backseat meltdown on the Interstate or figuring out a third-grade homework assignment to make a model of a black hole in space.

Excerpted from This Is Your Brain on Motherhood by Katherine Ellison in Sunday’s New York Times.

From Science Daily, Slow Balls Take The Swing Out Of Young Ball Players:

Exasperated parents practicing throw-and-connect skills with their young children will be relieved to know that their child’s inability to hit a slow-moving ball has a scientific explanation: Children cannot hit slow balls because their brains are not wired to handle slow motion.

“When you throw something slowly to a child, you think you’re doing them a favour by trying to be helpful,” said Terri Lewis, professor of psychology at McMaster University. “Slow balls actually appear stationary to a child.”

This explains why a young child holding a bat or a catcher’s mitt will often not react to a ball thrown toward her, prompting flummoxed parents to continue throwing the ball even slower. By adding a little speed to the pitch, Lewis and her team found that children were able to judge speed more accurately. There are several reasons for the phenomenon.

As for NewMexiKen, slower is better.

NewMexiKen’s favorite niece was expecting to deliver a son today on 05/05/05. I suggested she call him “Cinco.”

Having a mind of his own, he arrived on Tuesday and he’ll just have to settle for Steven. Mother and son are doing great.

I hear the little guy already made his debut on Tucson TV. You’ve got famous down kid; now go for rich.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger burns his children’s clothing if they fail to put it in the hamper. “He’s strict about laundry,” said his wife, Maria Shriver. “He throws things in the fire.”

The Week Newsletter

The boss of a big company needed to call one of his employees about an urgent problem with one of the main computers, dialed the employee’s home phone number and was greeted with a child’s whisper.

“Hello.”

“Is your daddy home?” he asked.

“Yes,” whispered the small voice.

“May I talk with him?”

The child whispered, “No.”

Surprised, and wanting to talk with an adult, the boss asked, “Is your mommy there?”

“Yes.”

“May I talk with her?”

Again the small voice whispered, “No.”

Hoping there was somebody with whom he could leave a message, the boss asked, “Is anybody else there?”

“Yes, “whispered the child, “a policeman.”

Wondering what a cop would be doing at his employee’s home, the boss asked, “May I speak with the policeman?”

“No, he’s busy”, whispered the child.

“Busy doing what?”

“Talking to Daddy and Mommy and the fireman,” came the whispered answer.

Growing concerned and even worried as he heard what sounded like a helicopter through the earpiece on the phone the boss asked, “What is that noise?”

“A hello-copper” answered the whispering voice.

“What is going on there?” asked the boss, now truly alarmed.

In an awed whispering voice the child answered, “The search team just landed the hello-copper.”

Alarmed, concerned, and even more then just a little frustrated the boss asked, “What are they searching for?”

Still whispering, the young voice replied along with a muffled giggle:

“ME.”

Thanks to Amy.

The little guy seems more proud than irritated.

Another report from Jill:

In the car on the way to the chocolate festival, Erinn could not contain her enthusiasm.

“Tommy, you’re going to have such a fun day,” she enthused to her four-year old son.

Tommy smiled excitedly,

Erinn continued, “There’s going to be a fountain made of different kinds of chocolate. And you can buy some candy to take home with you. And you can taste some of Mommy’s ice cream. Then, afterwards we’re going to have pizza for lunch. Your perfect day! You are going to be in heaven!”

She looked in the rear-view mirror. Tommy’s face was ashen. His lip quivered.

“I’m going to heaven?” he asked.

Jill, official daughter of NewMexiKen, reports on the four-year-old world:

Today was Purple Day at school. Mack wore a purple shirt and his purple Mack hat.

When I dropped him off, Mrs. Corish said, “Oh, Mack, you look great!”

At which point, a mother who was standing nearby, taking off her daughter’s coat, turned and said, “Oh, is this Mack? Amanda is in looooooove with Mack.”

Amanda, by the way…..long blond hair and incredibly cute. But famous as the girl who picked her nose, right in front row center, during the class’s singing presentation at church.

No, not the pizza. The kind of dominoes you play. NewMexiKen got out a set of dominoes for the grandkids to play with while they were here. First thing we knew, 12 of the 28 tiles were missing.

They’re still missing, and keep in mind the entire house has been torn apart and reassembled to accomodate the installation of new carpet.

Where are the dominoes?

I’m just hoping none of the grandkids saw Maria Full of Grace.

From Wired News: Furthermore —

A 4-year-old Michigan boy with a late-night craving got into his mom’s car and idled all the way to the video store, according to a police officer who initially thought he had spotted a driverless automobile weaving down the street. The store was closed, so the boy — whose feet didn’t even reach the accelerator pedal — came home empty-handed. But not before he did some damage: He rammed two parked autos and backed up into the cop car driven by the officer following him. “His mom didn’t even know he was up,” said the police chief, noting that no charges will be filed. “I don’t think he even realizes what he did.”

A kid this precocious probably wanted an R-rated video.

Read the previous entry with last week’s story first. This is today’s chapter from official NewMexiKen daughter Jill:

Today at tee-ball, big-kid Ryan was really ripping the ball. (Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the child, who turns five next month, enjoyed a nice 16-ounce bottle of Coke throughout the class.)

Anyway, he and Mack were placed on opposite teams by the coach, as always. The first two times he hit, Ryan got home runs. Both times, Mack fielded the ball, but didn’t catch Ryan to tag him out. (This in part because Mack employs the apparently universal tee-ball strategy of falling in place behind the base runner, clutching the ball, and basically running the bases behind him. I’ve tried to explain that the fielder can angle across the field and cut the runner off, but that apparently does not compute.)

After the second home run, Mack threw the ball across the gym. I made him go get it. He returned in tears, incredibly frustrated by the double turn of events. I told him to try again next time.

Ryan’s third time up, Mack again got the ball. This time, he tagged Ryan out just in front of second base. Ryan was visibly upset.

The coach actually stopped the class, went out and brought the two boys together, and made them shake hands. (Actually, neither boy would shake hands – I think more out of confusion than pique – so they ended up doing a high five.) She explained that sometimes you get out, and sometimes you don’t, and then everyone needed to get along and play nice.

After which, Mack walked back over to me and said, under his breath, “Did you see? I got him. Yes!”

I think Mack and I are the people in this class that everyone else hates.

This from Jill, official daughter of NewMexiKen, took place last week:

In information that should shock no one, Mack’s t-ball coach today informed me that he is “super competitive.”

I’m just surprised it took her three whole classes to impart this to me.

I replied, “Really?” To which she responded with an outblow of breath, a small throwing-out of hands and a “Yeah!”

During today’s game of flag tag, about five boys converged on Ryan, the class bully. (You know the type, the borderline obese one who shoves any kid that gets between him and the ball, and “accidentally” knocks people down when he tags them out.) Mack came away with Ryan’s flag, a fact cheered by the kids and by all but one mom who was watching.

Ryan snarled from his spot under the pile.

During the class-ending game of duck, duck, goose, Ryan picked Mack.

Then he caught him and gave him a good shove from behind. Mack went down hard. I couldn’t hear from where I was, but the coach said Mack came up and accused Ryan of going after him because Mack had earlier gotten his flag.

The coach said that she explained to Mack that wasn’t the case, and Mack calmed down.

However, I kind of think Mack might have been right.

Then again, I’m sorta “super competitive.”

Almost as if he were here with this Grandpa’s Sweeties, Dwight Perry has kids on his mind in this morning’s Sideline Chatter —

For the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Fred Hoiberg, the NBA All-Star three-point shootout is just kid stuff.

“I’d love to go out there and give it a shot,” Hoiberg, the league’s top long-distance shooter, told the Chicago Tribune. “The biggest reason would be to take my kids.

“My 5-year-old (Jack) now has some interest in sports. Before, all he asked me was about Power Rangers.

“It would be fun for him to go out there and meet the guys in his PlayStation.”

. . .

There are Green Bay Packers fans, and then there is 8-year-old David Witthoft of Ridgefield, Conn., who has worn his Brett Favre jersey every day — that’s 409 days and counting — since he received it as a Christmas gift in 2003.

As David’s father, Chuck, told the Green Bay Press-Gazette: “David has a lot of sticktoitiveness.”

And after 400-plus days, we assume, the same can be said for the jersey.

The oldest of the Sweeties, Mack, turns four Monday, so his parents decided to host a birthday party. To their horror, nearly everyone invited accepted — and all who accepted came. That meant that Saturday afternoon 24 three- and four-year-old boys (and one two-year-old girl cousin and one little brother) took over the island that is Mack’s playroom.

Jill, official mother of Mack, reports that the swarm was amazingly well behaved, but that it did require a periodic “Freeze!” so that a census could be taken to make certain no one had escaped to some other part of the house, or worse, outside. (“Christopher? Are you sure you dropped him off? We don’t remember seeing him.”) There were moments, Jill also reported, when the boys seemed to realize that they had the adults grossly outnumbered, but she says they were easily held at bay with the cake knife.

The ice cream and cake was delayed until the last minute so that the children could be released to the custody of their parents before the sugar fully kicked in.

NewMexiKen is sad to live so far from his grandchildren; hence the prominent display of their photos on this blog. Even so, 1900 miles seemed about right while this party was on.

From Boing Boing:

Sixty-five percent of children say that by age seven, they’ve played with an imaginary companion. Children interviewed for a study by psychologists at the University of Washington and University of Oregon were considered to have an imaginary companion if they were able to discuss its psychological traits, “such as ‘She is nice to me.'”

The study also showed that:
• While preschool girls were more likely to have an imaginary companion, by age 7 boys were just as likely as girls to have one.
• 27 percent of the children described an imaginary friend that their parents did not know about.
• 57 percent of the imaginary companions of school-age youngsters were humans and 41 percent were animals. One companion was a human capable of transforming herself into any animal the child wanted.
• Not all imaginary companions are friendly. A number were quite uncontrollable and some were a nuisance.

Link

The oldest of The Sweeties, Mack, who won’t be four for a couple more weeks, asked his mother yesterday, “Is Santa fake?”

He’s obviously intelligent, already doing the analysis necessary to reach this conclusion.

Of course, if he was really smart he’d have kept his beliefs under wraps for a few more years.

Abstracts of recent decisions by Ian Frazier. An example:

A and B, siblings, on car trip, entered ill-advisedly into burping contest. Drinking soda was involved. B said new flavor of soda, tried by him for first time, was pretty good. A replied, “I’ll bet it’s really not.” This later construed as evidence of animus against B. Contest proceeded without further dispute. Burps of A and B roughly equal in quality, volume, etc. After ten minutes, A said she was bored. B then produced outstanding burp, which A let go by without comment. B, noting A’s silence, asked her opinion. Still receiving no answer, B said, “Hey, I complimented your burps.” A replied in a way seen as unforthcoming by B, who then put pressure on A’s seat belt until she screamed.

Court pulled over and refused to continue until A and B were silent; both enjoined to remain like that; contest suspended.