On the Hot Seat

I just signed Kai up for a toddler program. Parents will understand the schedule. Circle time, crafts, snack, storytime, and finally playtime.

It’s fun to be involved with his play group. It’s a new thing for me. I’ve never been particularly crafty and I can’t sing… but I’m trying my best. We sang songs and made a cute name tag for his room today. (At least I think it was cute.) Confession time… My competitive side checked out what the other parents had created with their children to make sure ours (which for now, is really more mine since Kai is a tad destructive with arts and crafts at this stage) stacked up well.

Next week forces me to get past my inability to carry a tune or to create amazing decorations. Because I’m on the hot seat. I’m in charge of choosing and leading activities for circle time and our craft project. I have my work cut out for me…

Mar

5

And The Award Goes to…

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I think Alec Baldwin & Steve Martin will be wonderful Oscar hosts this Sunday. I know Billy Crystal is the gold standard, but I expect Baldwin & Martin to strike the right balance of self deprecating, sarcastic and serious. I expected more from Jon Stewart, David Letterman, and Chris Rock when they hosted too, but none of them hit it out of the park.

This year, the Academy is trying to keep acceptance speeches to a minimum to prevent those boring laundry lists of thank you’s. Instead, there’s a booth backstage to do that. Interesting idea, but will it work? Don’t count on it.

I’m personally pulling for Sandra Bullock to win best actress. I must confess I haven’t seen the Blind Side, but I plan to. I’m also rooting for Jeremy Renner to win best actor for Hurt Locker… although I hear Jeff Bridges was phenomenal in Crazy Heart. Of course, Avatar could rack up a ton of statuettes. I still need to see that movie too.

Any predictions?

Mar

4

Tricky Tongue Twisters

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As newscasters, we’re trained to avoid tongue twisters on air. If we have the time, we like to read our stories aloud before our news begins to catch any tricky turns of phrase.

But today, I went there intentionally… not on the news, but for a Dr. Seuss reading at Heeia Elementary. I was invited to read to students. Turns out the two classes I read to were a little older than I expected. 5th & 6th graders, to be exact.

I thought to myself, are they interested in Dr. Seuss? I know I read it to my 18 month old son and the books are timeless, but I could feel silly reading the same way I do to the students as I do to my son. Well, I found one Dr. Seuss book called “Oh Say Can You Say. Terrible Tongue Twisters.” Perfect! Why not have some fun with it?

A fun read and I added a little flair. I let the kids vote. Do you want me to read it “news anchor” style or like a Mom? Most of them wanted sterotypical News anchor. Not a problem. I also read some of the most difficult passages faster and faster and challenged some students and teachers to try to do the same.

A bunch of our news team turned out to read. Tim Sakahara, Duane Shimogawa, Grace Lee, Lisa Kubota, & Byron Furukawa. Today at the end of our 5pm news, you’ll see a clip shot on my iPhone of a few of us reading those tongue twisters.

Mar

3

I Survived the Tsunami… and Kai’s First Tantrum

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I’m a survivor. Made it through intact from our long day of tsunami coverage (It caught up with Stephanie Lum. She has been out sick the past couple of days.) and now, I’ve survived (relatively unscathed) Kai’s first tantrum.

We were taking a stroll and he found an old basketball on someone’s lawn and started playing with it. Fine for a few minutes, but then he started throwing it into the street and I worried about him chasing it. So, I returned it to the lawn and scooped him up to walk back home. Kai was not a happy camper. He screamed bloody murder and stiffened and straightened his body so it would be hard for me to pick him up. That continued the whole way home.

I simply thought another ball at home would do. Nope. He wanted that one and even tried to run back to finish what he started! Again when I picked him up, he flipped out and tried those classic tantrum moves again.

So, for fun sake, I looked up the definition for tantrum. Tantrums are “disruptive or undesirable behaviors or emotional outbursts displayed in response to unmet needs or desires. They may also refer to an inability to control emotions due to frustration or difficulty expressing a particular need or desire.”

It goes on about kids and temper tantrums. Temper tantrums or “acting-out” behaviors are natural during early childhood development. Children have a normal and natural tendency to assert their independence as they learn they are separate beings from their parents.

This desire for control often shows up as saying “no” often and having tantrums, which are compounded by the fact that the child may not have the vocabulary to adequately express his or her feelings.

Tantrums generally begin around age 12-18 months, (Kai is 18 months now)… and get worse between 2 and 3 years, (oh joy!)

I had heard the terrible two’s are nothing compared to 3. We’ll see…