Babies Breakthroughs

Baby Manual; 1957

I love the birth record.  It's very cute.  I wish they made things like that these days.

Baby Manual; 1957

I think the development record is cute.  A list is nice and it gives you goals to shoot for.

Baby Manual; 1957

Looking back at Height and Weight records is fun as you get older.  I remember having a height chart on the wall when I was growing up, a Strawberry Shortcake one.  I wish I still had it.

Ramona, Bluing, and Powder People

As part of my reading adventure this year, I'm trying to read 12 books published in the year of my birth.  So far I have been pretty disappointed, as I was with this book.  I guess I just must be too much of a Beezus or something, but I did not enjoy Beverly Cleary books as a child, and I still do not find them enjoyable as an adult.  It seemed like a combination of fighting parents and trouble-making.  Since I remembered my parents fighting before they divorced, when I read Cleary books as a child I found the parental arguing to be distressing.  And as to Ramona's shenanigans, I was and still am a rule stickler, so I never found Ramona's antics humorous.  I imagine some children enjoy it and feel a kinship with Ramona, but all I felt was frustration.

I did find two instances in the book humorous:  the Kleenex incident and the bluing incident.  How many people use bluing anymore?  I have used it before but I haven't used any in my laundry lately.  I need to restock at Vermont Country Store or at a store you can pick up Mrs. Stewart's Bluing.

I can definitely sympathize with Wanda running around the house throwing Kleenexes everywhere.  It reminds me of one of few times I acted up as a child.  It would be the infamous 'Powder People' episode.  When I was about five years old, my three year old sister and I had a brilliant idea.  

The 'brilliance' of 'Powder People' was us running through the house puffing baby powder above our heads.  My mother was just thrilled to find the entire upper floor of our grandparent's home caked in a thick layer of fine, white powder.  Our dance of joy did not last long, for we spent the entire day dusting, vacuuming, and washing the walls.  Both the joy, and the punishment from the 'Powder People' incident, are some of the strongest memories of my childhood.  

Crying over Creativity

Thanks to Mark for letting me know about http://guromusic.blogspot.com and http://pakway.blogspot.com. My entire post was taken directly (the Marilyn Monroe 1956 wishes) and put on one of the sites. There is a disclaimer on the bottom, but there is ZERO credit given. It is fine to put up the best of the web, but it would be nice to be credited. I spend a lot of time working on my posts (approximately 2 hours per post). I try to credit those I get help from, that's why a lot of my pictures have the little Life logo on them. I definitely try to tag the source if nothing else. I appreciate everyone who does credit me when they use the content. Thanks for reading my rant and that's the last I will say about the subject.

Weird Wednesday Kiddie Koop

I found this fun little invention for child protection called the Kiddie Koop. It is basically the same concept as a chicken coop, or a playpen on stilts that is completely enclosed.

The Kiddie Koop was patented in Nov 25, 1913 by Edward Maurice Trimble of Rochester, New York. It is basically supposed to be a combination Crib and Play Pen.

According to the Patent Application, the crib could be lowered to the floor and the top removed so the baby could play.

To be used as a crib, the legs can be raised and covered so it can be an enclosed crib.

Sounds really interesting, because it could be folded up like a carrying crib of today.

Wonder why it fell out of style. All I can think of is that not many kids wanted to feel like a chicken in a cage.