Toys “R” Us® Animal Alley

Animal Alley Plush Darby

Childhood Memories

Kids Preferred, Inc. is known for bringing products to the marketplace under its own brand and through private label programs such as “Animal Alley” for Toys “R” Us!

A short tale for parents looking for that special Animal Alley plush toy from Toys “R” Us! I hope it helps you find your child’s most favorite friend.

In March 2004, Evil and I took our son for his first childhood shots. An unhappy experience for everyone concerned. Of course the little Prince doesn’t remember anything about it, thankfully. But Mom and Dad sure do! So when your parents tell you “It hurt me more than you”, what they mean is, your folks keep that memory of fear and tears with them for the rest of their lives.

To celebrate his being a “big boy”, we took the little prince to our local Toys “R” Us®. We put him in the cart and started through the aisles. At some point we made our way down the stuffed animal aisle. Continue reading →

The 2013 Russian Meteor & Nascar

Feb16

Kids Are Funny:
Tiny Asteroid Commentary Through The Eyes Of A Kid

If you hadn’t heard, a large meteor streaked through the sky over Russia on February 15th, 2013. The fireball was seen above Russia’s Urals region Friday morning before it exploded with a flash and boom that shattered glass in buildings and left about 1,000 people hurt, authorities said.

From CNN: Described by NASA as a “tiny asteroid,” the meteor’s explosion created a blast in central Russia equivalent to 300,000 tons of TNT, the space agency’s officials said Friday, adding that the incident was a once-in-100-years event.

We watched the video on the news and of course there were many of those to see. When we heard people were injured, we of course were concerned and we hope everyone will be ok. By the end of the day, the big concern for serious injury was seemingly over, as reported by the news. Thank goodness.

More video had come in and of course we were watching those.

Our little Prince watches the news of the meteor coming down and says:
“Was Montoya visiting Russia?”

A true Nascar fan!

The Prince And Racing

Feb11

Commentary By An Almost 10 Year Old

This evening we were watching How It’s Made and we saw a rally where the cars were running through mud puddles. I said, “That’s what they need for those dull mile and a half tracks in Nascar, a big mud puddle in the middle of the back stretch.”

Kid says, “No matter what, Montoya will still be able to set something on fire in it.”

The Queen and I both cracked up.

It’s pretty scary that the Queen actually found a picture of a car in the mud, on fire. Hope that’s not Montoya that they’re pulling out of there.

When Your Kid Becomes Smarter Than You

Nov17

Just Give Up Now

It’s Going To Happen To Every Parent

This week the little Prince, who’s 9 wrote his first blog post on our family Pirate101 fan site. He really made a pretty good Captain’s Log chronicling his character’s progress.

Now this kid has been teaching himself how to program for the past 2 years. If he wants to know something, he reads the “man” pages or Googles for instructions then does it. It not only has improved his reading (the 4th grader who is reading on a college level); but it has taught him how to problem solve and resolve. Considering Dad and I are both techno-geeks, it’s something we’re very proud of and even impressed by.

In praising him, I mentioned the slide show he added to his post and how that was really neat. I asked how he learned to do that.

He responds: “I found a button“.

Making this even worse….I can’t find the button and I’m actually looking for it!

From The Edge Of Hurricane Sandy

Oct30

Touched By Sandy In Central Virginia

Even in the midst of disaster and challenge our little Prince looked at the storm raging outside with the innocence that only a child could have.

He opened the bedroom window and felt the full force of a misty wind gust blowing through the screen.

He came to me and said:
“Momma, I opened the window and got kissed by the hurricane.”

Hurricane Sandy wasn’t the most powerful hurricane to hit the east coast, but it was an unusually large one in area. NASA posted this picture on Sunday October 28th, 2012 to show just how big it was.

Here in central Virginia it wasn’t the catastrophic storm the news had been making it out to be. We were lucky compared to the coastal areas and especially New jersey. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone who suffered damage and loss due to the storm.

Looking Through A Kids Eyes

Oct11

Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy

What The Universe Looks Like – When You’re 9

We’ve made mention here before about the advanced reading of our son. When he was in 3rd grade he was tested at school for his reading and comprehension ability. As all kids are. Our little Prince was scored on a 12th grade reading level. Ok, we knew he was smart; but he’s still a kid.

This year his reading ability is so high, the school test can’t score his reading ability. So they’re saying he’s on a college level with his reading. Now there are good and bad sides to this. The good side, he’s smart and when he wants to know something he goes to Google and he reads about it. His interests lean toward science and computers. The first webpage he book marked was a page that discusses the periodic table.

The bad side is that it’s hard to find books for him to read for his homework that aren’t too easy and will still keep his interest. His favorite books are “Hank The Cowdog” by John Erickson. Now these aren’t real hard books to read, but they aren’t really written for kids. Mr. Erickson has a history of saying he didn’t intend these books to be for children. But kids love them! And adults too. They really are hilarious and not in a childish way. Continue reading →

The Little Prince & Technology

Aug25

Samsung Galaxy Nexus

The Funny Things Kids Say

So Momma got a new phone this week. I LOVE my new phone! It’s a Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

The man child also loves my new phone because he can play Angry Birds and F18 Flight Simulator. I think he’s spent more time on my phone than I have.

But last night when we were looking for the flight simulator game, he said the funniest thing. Well it’s not what he said, it was the way he said it.

“Momma, can you play MetalStorm on your Nukesus phone?”

..the answer is No..MetalStorm is for Apple devices only. But I’m not sure it would work on a “Nuke-sus” phone either.

Olympic Humor

Aug4

Future Olympic Diver

2012 Summer Olympics – London

Opening ceremonies were made interesting by a little observation by the Prince. At 9 years old, most of the ceremony was boring to him. Finally he sees someone he knows, J.K. Rowling author of Harry Potter. Right after seeing her, the big finale….they finally light the Olympic torch. As soon as they do, the Prince says:

“Well, there’s no going back now.”

Which conjured an image for Daddy Evil of a fight to death in each Olympic sport. And the Queen envisions the Tri-Wizard Cup which creates a binding contract for all participants.

It seems the Queen’s vision was closer to what the Prince meant with his comment. There’s no way to quit, once the torch was lit!

Scratch One Career Option

Apr25

The Prince will never be suited for a life of crime. Here’s why:

When I’m away on business, the last thing the Prince does in the evening is read a chapter of his reading book. Currently that would be the Hank the Cowdog series by John Erickson. So one night a few weeks ago, it’s reading time and I ask him what chapter we’re reading. He tells me that it’s chapter 5 and I tell him no, it’s got to be chapter 6 because we already read the part at the end of chapter 5.

To this he replies, “Are you sure? I thought I read that when I was sneaking in the closet last night.”

I said, “What?”

“Oh… um… nothing, never mind.”

E.W.

My son sneaks out of bed to read. Guess that explains the 12th grade reading level.

This Is Your Brain On Stupid — #5

Mar30

The Wheel Barrel Incident

Um..Momma..I went into the backyard and recognized that the wheel barrel was filled with water and I put dirt in it, so it was muddy water. And I tried to pour it out…and…I poured it out into the lake…and..the wheel barrel went with it! Now I can’t get out!

Yep..the man child does it again…