How to raise the perfect child: move to the city

Pastor T. Keller of Redeemer church (oh how I miss his weekly shards of brilliance on how to live the Christian life) gives his thoughts on why raising a child in the city has greater advantages than raising a child in the burbs. I nearly started packing my bags. You can find the free sermon here:
http://sermons.redeemer.com/store/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=26
Click on "it takes a city to raise a child".

His opinion on the matter holds a great deal of weight for me since he uprooted his children from the burbs to NYC and has witnessed what difference this has made in the quality of life for his children. Keller sketches the profile of the type of adult your child would likely become (all thing being equal) and honestly, that's the kind of person I myself would want to be, or befriend, or just admire from afar. Anyway, I really enjoyed listening to the city vs. burbs argument via Keller because he emphasized how living in the city can actually aid in the child's respecting a parent's Christian beliefs and adopting it themselves. Now if he could give explicit instructions on how to juggle a 20 lb. stroller and fidgety toddler down a subway stairwell and how to manage more than 1 child in a 600 sq. feet of living space, we'd be all set.

Why I never bothered to paint my walls

This is Blik's new addition to their wee gallary collection. Look at those colors! And dragonflys - how can you go wrong with those happy critters on your child's walls.

I have the "sea creatures" in K's bathroom and the "sheep" in the bedroom, next to the bed. K and I both equally adore them and luckily, she hasn't shown any desire to tear them off and reposition them every day (although since they are a party of Blik's re-stick collection, no tears will be shed by me if she does).

The quality of decals really do vary. I recently bought decals from Ikea and they refused to stay on the walls, even after repeated applications of double-sided tape!! One of the happiest design developments of late is the tremendous explosion in the variety of decals out there and the widespread use of them. I would love to work with wall paper, but decals are offering me instant gratification without the commitment issues.

K's first year album

One of the many good intentions that falls to the wayside as a first time mommy is the the formal documentation of your infant's first year, which is conventionally done via a scrapbook. You purchase the scrapbook, breeze through a few scrapbook magazines and even get around to printing out the 10,000 pictures of your infant (99,959 of which are not in focus because your husband's hands seems to be mysteriously perpetually trembling when taking photos of your child at the most memorable moments). But then the scrapbook gets pushed to a lonely corner of the room or is sent to the bottom of a growing pile of unread catalogs. Either way, it collects dust and is increasingly resented as every glimpse of it reminds you that you are woefully inadequate as a mommy since you can't even put together a mere scrapbook for your first born. And so the distress mounts. Until....


Enter My Publisher. I am indebted to a good friend, CH, for her having passed on this web-based photo publisher. There may be other options out there, but thanks to My Publisher, I finally put together a book that accounts of K's first year - in great quality pictures. It is the modern scrapbook, and truly suitable for those who share my lack of talent and patience in cutting, glueing and sticking.

Admittedly it still took me 10 months to finish the book online since I seem to act upon nothing unless there is a sense of urgency or impending doom. But since K's 2nd birthday is coming up, I thought it would be too shameful to dwaddle any longer. But we all know sometimes procrastination pays off big time because Costco.com is currently offering a dicsount at My Pulisher!
http://www.costco.com/PhotoCenter/PhotoCenter.aspx?cat=2781&cm_re=1_en-_-Top_Right_Nav2-_-Top_photo&lang=en-US

You can find K's album here if you want to know what took me so long:
http://www.mypublisher.com/bookstore/book_viewer.py?book_id=2123502&sp=x

(I hope this link above works but if not, let me know and I'll forward you another link)