I'm easily amazed

My work blog gets a couple thousand hits per post, not because I deserve it due to the regularly updated, dynamic content (last post with any substance whatsoever: May 26) but because of the domain. And then I've been blogging along here for the last couple of years on mostly parenting-related topics without really worrying about readership because at the end of the day, I honestly am doing this for myself[1], and lo and behold, I find out that some people read it. It's like Sally Field all over again. Or maybe it's like finally getting out of the hellhole known as high school and finding out that there are other dorks like you out there in the world.

Earlier this year, I was breastfeeding my 3 month old and miserable about it, and I turned to a series of books about breastfeeding to try to boost my spirits... This one made me feel even more guilty for not enjoying the whole process, and then I stumbled on Andy Steiner's Spilled Milk which I devoured in the bathtub every night for a week. Spilled Milk was like reading a bunch of my favorite mommy blogs all in one place, and I gobbled up each page, feeling better and better about myself and our struggles as I did so. I of course have been meaning to write up a comparative review of the two for going on six months now, which means that I'll get around to it roughly never.

At any rate, the reason I bring this up is that a while back, Andy Steiner commented on a blog entry of mine. Be still thine beating heart! And in my latest attempt at egosurfing (unfortunately I totally wiped out) I saw that she linked to me too. That carried me along for a while, until I came back down to reality and figured it was a one-off event. And then the woman behind printakid (who make personalized books for kids) posts a comment offering to send me a free sample of her product as long as I'd review it on my blog, and I'm allowed to say whatever I want.

Let me get this straight.

You're going to send me a book, for free.

And all I have to do is write about it?

And I can say whatever I want?

(Now if I were a less mature person, such as my son for example, if someone told me that I can say whatever I want, I would make sure to liberally sprinkle around the word 'poop').

Naturally I told her to bugger off, I can't be bought, my pride is more important to me than any amount of dollars, etc etc blah blah OK who am I kidding here?

Really it wasn't fair, it's like offering to send a free sample of anti-broccoli spray to George H.W. Bush, because I'd already professed an interest in personalized products (plus this awakened a heretofore unrealized passion for animal noses).

So naturally I took her up on the freebie, and I ordered "Laughing all the way", and when it arrived I read it to my son who got all wide-eyed at the idea of his name being in a book. He can recognize the letters in his name and was thrilled to spell them out. He gets to bring one toy in to school every day for practicing sharing, and he asked to bring the book in. When we picked him up that next afternoon the teachers told me that everyone wanted to know more about the book.

My only complaint about the entire product came up when ordering it. I entered Jared's name and also had to enter the names of three friends. Since he has four cousins, his friendships are more transient than most people's pants and I didn't want to be a cousin-ist, I chose the two cousins closest in age, Lincoln and Anastasia, and for the third name I chose Boogaloo which is a nickname I use for Jared when I tell him stories ("Once, there was a little boy named Boogaloo..."[2]). But apparently they don't allow nicknames (I'm not clear why), and my husband got the phone call indicating so and he ended up choosing the other name, Liam (Sorry Malcolm! Blame Uncle David, it's all his fault).

So I'm bummed that the book couldn't incorporate his current childhood pal Boogaloo (whose last name, by the way, is Flibbertygibbit, no I'm not kidding), but outside of that, the product is a great one. It's got a nice high quality cover and bright color pages, the story is decently cute - simple enough that a 3 year old can follow along, with enough opportunity for silliness so that a parent who tends to boredom can add a little variety - although not the variety that includes naming people Boogaloo Flibbertygibbit.

Without having the foggiest idea of how the product is created (except I'm going to go out on a limb here with the wacky idea that it involves a color laser printer), it would be so cool if they would branch out into inserting actual pictures of the kids into the books, just the heads on top of a cartoony body. Heck, I'll even volunteer for head cropping duty to transform parental snapshots into headshots to be grafted onto cartoon bodies, I can magnetic lasso like nobody's business. And try to drum up repeat business - include a few sheets at the end of the book with ideas for how parents and kids can use them, such as a "This book owned by {name}" with a place for a handprint (buy a kid their own customized book each year and stamp a handprint in the back), or some such.[3]

They do have a christmas-themed book, but unfortunately no jewish-themed one. Now if only my sisters with kids didn't both read my blog (and by "read" I mean "ah-ha, the tables have turned, and now they're the ones nagging me for not posting enough"), then I'd have some great gift ideas already lined up for the upcoming holidays, so all I can do is hope that they will read this and promptly forget about it for a conveniently timed four months.

[1] The one feminine activity I will cop to is being an avid scrapbooker. I love documenting my life and those of my children, even if no one else will ever see the pages I make, it gives me great pleasure to mark the passing of time in this way.
[2] And oh, the stories we tell. About waking up in the morning and asking mommy & daddy nicely if we can go to the train station, and being told we have to eat a nice healthy breakfast first, and getting buckled into our car seat before we go, and peeing in the potty after the day is over, etc etc. I wonder when he's going to figure out that there is such a thing as a story that's not training-in-hiding?
[3] I'm a sucker for this kind of thing - I own a stack of five tins of plaster in increasing sizes, and every year for each of my son's first three years I have vainly attempted to get a tiny little handprint into the plaster and failed miserably (however on a related note, I do have three tins full of my son's magnificent artwork, a relief map of the south pole).

Comments

[Mike]

Hmm.

I hope I get a free book offer, too.

My 3-year old can’t read yet, but he loves sitting beside me as I read him a story. He’s into Backyardigans now. Unfortunately, I keep reading the same story everyday for the past … well, six months now. (I actually read him the adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh for over the two years.)

I guess it’s a 3-year old thing.

So I try to keep the reading interesting, at least to me. I tried skipping pages. I tried changing words, sometimes the whole plot.

Doesn’t work.

“Daddy, you’re making up words!” my 3-year old would say.

One time, while surfing the Internet, I chanced upon a web page that offered to change character names with your kid’s name … or whatever you choose. I like the idea. I didn’t like the price, though.

So, I did the next best thing.

The next time I read Backyardigans to my 3-year old, I changed Pablo’s name to his name. Tyrone became Daddy. Uniqua became Mommy. Austin became his 1-year old brother.

It worked. He loves it.

Of course, two or three years from now, I would have to explain to him why his name, Zachary, is spelled P-A-B-L-O.

Always fun reading your posts,

http://somethingaboutparenting.typepad.com

[Kendra]

Have been reading your blog for some time now and can relate to much of what you say. Wanted to comment on your "footnotes":\
[1]-I aman avid scrapboker as well. Don't count on no one ever seeing your pages! They are great references for the kids as they get older and don't remember being babies. My oldest is 6 and we also have a 2yo. Well, for the first 12-18 months of the 2 yo life we took LOTS of pictures of his development, milestones etc. Of course we also took them of the 6yo but not quite in the same volume. He asked me once, about a year ago, "how come you never take my picture?" I whipped out the 3" thick album I had made of his first year. I told him "Mommy and Daddy still take pictures of you. But Gabe is growing so much right now it seems like we take more of him. Here's ALL the pictures I took of you when you were a baby." Page after page - that's me? Are you sure??
[3] I have those tins too....sounds like a GREAT, easy, pretty idea but I either make the plaster too hard or not hard enough. Plaster of paris should NOT be this hard to figure out!

[Elizabeth]

I'd be afraid to get the book -- I'm sure my son would love it, and then I'd have to read it a million times. He's got a pretty common name though, so it's not too hard to find books with characters with the same name.

[Andy Steiner]

So it's crazy. I stopped by your blog tonight, and here you go mentioning my book again. Thanks SO MUCH.

You crack me up, by the way. I love your stories.

If you've got a second, drop me an email. I'm moderating a blog carnival, and I want to know if you'd like to contribute. I'll tell you more when you email.

Andy Steiner