iBeth

Gift shopping for the girls

For those of you asking about possible gifts for the girls, see their wishlist over on the right margin.  They don't have any particular wants, but right now they enjoy Star Trek* and Futurama (in the unlikely event that you find anything themed to those shows).  (*That is, the Treks with Kirk & Spock characters, from either TOS or the recent movie, but not the other Trek series with Picard, Janeway, etc. We have all the dvds already.)  They both like jewelry (necklaces, bracelets, rings) and hair doodads (barrettes, headbands, rubberbands for hair, ponytail decorations) and umbrellas.  Amelia still loves tigers, kittens, and puppies.  Emma still loves cats, kittens, and guinea pigs.  They both like to draw and play board games.  Here are their sizes:

• Emma: shoe size 1, clothes size L or 9/10. (She wears size 8 right now, but not for much longer.)
• Amelia: shoe size 12, clothes size M or 7/8. (She wears size 6x right now, but not for much longer.)

Birthday Gift Ideas

People are asking me for gift ideas, now that we're headed into birthday season.

This information from Christmas is still accurate, but I'm buying bigger sizes now:

• Emma = size 9, size 8 in pants, children's shoe size 12.5 or 1
• Amelia = size 7, children's shoe

Emma loves Club Penguin.  Amelia loves Club Penguin and tigers.  Check the right margin for a link to their Amazon wishlist.   Thanks for thinking of them.

Gifts You Probably Don't Need

Dave Barry's newest gift guide is out.  I don't know anyone who needs these items (e.g., butt glue has a rather specialized purpose) but the list is fun to read through.  My favorite is the restroom baby hanger--and yes, I can believe that the device would come in very handy.

Wish Lists

I'm getting some requests for gift ideas.

Girls' sizes: 

• Emma = size 8 (size 7 in pants), shoes = size 12.5 or 1 
• Amelia = size 6, shoes = size 10.5 or 11

They always seem to need socks.  And panties.  And they love tights.  Their school won't allow them to wear anything that doesn't have sleeves or cover their bellies; skirts must have shorts underneath or they aren't allowed to participate in P.E.

Also:

• Emma = favorite color is purple, she really likes kittens
• Amelia = favorite color is yellow, she likes kittens AND puppies AND, especially, TIGERS

For toy & book ideas, check their wishlist.  I have a wishlist too.  I'm also delighted to have money donated to charity in lieu of gifts to me.  Charities that I support include Smile Train, CHILD, the Salvation Army, and Florida's Vision Quest.

My husband does not keep a wishlist.  Call or email me if you need ideas.

Melts in Your Mouth, Not in Your . . . Oh, Never Mind

This gift idea is only for those of you who are over 18.   Go. Click.  Be sure to read the comments, too.  I'm not going to say anything more in a family blog.

Topiary Mickeys

We thought these topiary Mickeys, spotted recently at EPCOT during their Flower and Garden festival, were pretty darned cute.  My husband wanted to buy one, but I persuaded him to settle for this picture.  They're cuter en masse anyway.  I'm sure they are the perfect gift for someone, but I don't know who at the moment. 

Here are some nice photos someone else took at this festival--not sure which year though.  I love going to EPCOT for this festival.  This year we bought some after-4p annual passes, so I suspect we'll be there a lot.  (I know we'll go at least 3x to get our money's worth out of the tix.)

Birthday Season

As we enter birthday season*, I asked Emma what she wanted for a birthday present.

"I don't know," she responded.  "I just know I want A LOT OF presents!"

Ah, childhood.

This year, figuring out what gifts to suggest for our girls has been a significant challenge.  They truly do not need much of anything.  But here are some ideas:

• Anything dealing with  The Incredibles (but contact us first--some of this stuff has already been purchased)
• Clothes (Emma is still wearing her 4T clothes, but she'll need 5T soon enough; Amelia is still wearing 18mo but she'll need 2T soon enough; both girls will get more wear out of leggings/shirts than dresses)
• Socks (since the girls both really like colorful socks, I'm listing them separately; Emma wears size 8 1/2 shoes and Amelia wears size 6 1/2, but usually little kid socks are sized like the other clothes according to years; Old Navy and Gap for Kids tend to have nifty socks but I'm sure you can find them other places too)
• Paint (the girls prefer the Crayola® Washable No Drip Gel Paint that comes in little squares)
• good paper for painting on (we normally use lightweight scrap paper, not the best)
  
• plastic easel that we can keep on the patio (like this one from Little Tykes)
• books (always a hit--check with us if you want to be sure we don't have a given title)

If you're local, please consider sharing an experience with the girls instead of giving a gift.  Each girl would enjoy a special time with you.  You don't even have to take them anywhere--they both would enjoy spending time in your yard (playing in sprinkler if it's warm enough, or planting something, or watering plants, or painting something really big like an old sheet or a piece of plywood) or in your house (baking, making a craft).   I'm sure they will treasure the time together even more than they would a gift, and you could probably figure out something to wrap that relates to the experience (a baking ingredient, a paintbrush, seeds).

Even if you're not local, an "experience" gift would be very much appreciated--movie tickets, a gift certificate to the bookstore or the local mall, tickets to the children's theater or puppet theater or science center.

* Not surprisingly, children of academics tend to be born in April or May, which makes the usual end-of-semester rush just that much more hectic for parents.

Maybe someday . . .

Maybe someday I'll gather my pennies and purchase one of these Cybook e-readers . . .

Charitable Giving

The tsunamis have made our regular charitable giving that much more urgent.  Like Lilliputian Lillith, I want to give to a reputable organization that gets as much of my donation on the ground as possible.  To that end, Charity Navigator, itself a charitable organization, is an invaluable resource, a sort of consumer reports for public charities.

Here are the organizations to which we'll be donating at this year-end:

• Save the Children:  "Save the Children fights for children's rights. We deliver immediate and lasting improvements to children's lives worldwide."  I've never donated to this group before; this is where our extra tsunami-relief donations will go.


• Children's Healthcare Is a Legal Duty:  "Children's Healthcare Is a Legal Duty (CHILD, Inc.) is a nonprofit national membership organization established in 1983 to protect children from abusive religious and cultural practices, especially religion-based medical neglect. CHILD opposes religious exemptions from duties of care for children.  CHILD is a member of the National Child Abuse Coalition."  As someone raised in a Christian Science home, I know firsthand the damage that religious exemptions can do to families (children and parents).  I've met the people who founded this organization; their caring, selfless dedication to children has earned my utmost respect.


• The Smile Train: "Provides cleft lip and palate surgery for poor children around the world.  100% of donations go towards programs."  This organization views cleft palate as a problem that can be eradicated.  We know the cure--the difficulty is getting the cure to the patients.  The Smile Train not only funds these operations, it also trains local doctors to perform them.


• The Salvation Army:  "The Salvation Army is a truly international movement, sharing in the mission of Christ for the salvation and transformation of the world. Its members are at worship and at work in over a hundred countries." The Salvation Army is Christian in action as well as in words, providing compassionate, practical help for people in need.  I learned more about this organization while searching for my birthfamily and haven't walked past a bellringer since without dropping something in the kettle.


• Unitarian Universalist Service Committee:  "Grounded in Unitarian Universalist principles that affirm the worth, dignity and human rights of every person, and the interdependence of all life, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee is a voluntary, nonsectarian organization working to advance justice throughout the world." One of the reasons I'm UU is the church's emphasis on living your values, so naturally I support this organization through which I can help do just that. 

Every time we give to charity, which we do throughout the year (though every year-end we make a special point to contribute), I'm simultaneously comforted, depressed, grateful, and challenged.  Comforted to know that so many organizations are doing good work.  Depressed that so much needs to be done.  Grateful to be in a position to give.  Challenged--I know I could be doing more on a local/action level as well as a global/checkbook level.

Girl Presents II

I listed some gift ideas (click that link to see them) earlier, but forgot to provide clothes sizes.  Here they are:

Emma
clothes: 5 (these will be a little big, but her 4Ts are getting small; she refuses to wear all pants/shorts unless they are stretchy leggings-type because she "can't climb" in the regular fabric kind; she especially loathes blue jeans)
shoes: 8 1/2 W (you can tell sock size from this, right?  She needs socks!)
undies: S 4-6 (that's what the label says)
height: 40"
weight: 37 lbs.

Amelia
clothes: 2T (these will be a little big, but her 18mo are getting small; dresses should have some kind of panty because otherwise she takes off her diaper and leaves it lying around, with disastrous consequences)
shoes: 5 1/2 W (again, I hope this is enough of a clue to her sock size, since she needs socks)
height: 33"
weight: 25 lbs.