A Christmas Tradition Worth Sharing and Keeping

Kids grow up, get married, and start families of their own.  It's at this point, or maybe it actually happens earlier - during the growing up bit - that kids start to become detached from their parents.  Phone conversations become more and more infrequent, y'all see each other even less.  It's kinda understandable, but no less tragic.


Two people who invest so much in you as youngsters - time, money, energy, worry, and love - drive you to soccer games scheduled way too far away from home, drop you off at the movies with your friends (and even return to pick you up despite not getting a "thank you" 2 hours prior!) and "loan" you more money than they probably should, knowing full-well the odds are stacked against them ever seeing it paid back.  Family dinners, always hot (although never the mashed potatoes) and mostly delicious, quarters for the arcade, packs of baseball cards (then) - pay the deposit on your 1st new car, paint the living room of your 1st house, wash/dry/rehang your curtains, trim unruly azaleas (more recently) - never show up empty handed when visiting your kids or refuse to host them for a sleepover so that you and your wife can head to the city to see your favorite band or go out to dinner as a couple (now).  

In a perfect world, we'd never stray very far from those two people, but as is often the case, the world is far from flawless.

It's why my family's Christmas tradition is so special to my parents, myself, my 2 older brothers and, I hope, to our wives and all of our kids.  Every year we assemble as a family at my parent's home to watch football, enjoy my mother's homemade turkey soup (made with turkey leftover from Thanksgiving) and, ultimately, to decorate their Christmas tree.  I'm not sure how many adult kids help to decorate their (able-bodied) parent's tree each year, but we do and it's one of the best days of the holiday season.  We all have our jobs on this day.  The middle son strings the lights.  I, the youngest but tallest, am in charge of the star, a task that now primarily involves me lifting one of the lucky grandchildren up high and hoping we don't fall into the tree together.  My oldest brother, well, no one is quite sure what his job is on this day.  I think it's been years since he actually hung an ornament in their house.  If I remember correctly, he used to hang just one each year, but I'm not sure he does that anymore.  If so, it happens fast when no one is around.  Really though, the bulk of the work has been handed down to the 7 grandkids.  They now carry on the tradition of selecting the best branches to hang the shiny maroon and gold balls, fancy ribbons and teddy bear ornaments.


I'm not sure what the future will hold for this tradition or for us as a family, but I'm thankful for every year we still can all be together decorating a fresh Douglas fir in my parent's living room.  This year, thanks to a tripod I didn't know we owned and a wife who figured out how to use the timer feature on our camera, we managed to pull off a family portrait in front of the tree that's barely visible behind us - which is appropriate because as much as this tradition is about decorating that tree, what it's really about is all of us spending a day together, being merry and showing our young kids (aka the next generation of moms and dads) what it means to love and to be a real family. The tree is just a symbol, the excuse to make all this happen.


It was the 1st time we got such a photograph, hopefully the 1st of many.


Yes, I'm crying as I type all this...as if you didn't know that.

Kindie Rock Birthday Mix

The Mrs. celebrated her 31st birthday last week.  To mark the special occasion, I delivered to her a tasty cinnamon chip muffin topped with a candle en fuego, a cup of hot English Breakfast tea, and a bitchin' iTunes birthday mix using nothing but the finest in kid's rock-n-roll. 

Many of these tunes are not yet available on iTunes, otherwise I'd have turned this into an iMix for you to sample and purchase for your own (or your kid's) special day.  Maybe, if I ever get around to figuring out how to record a podcast (anyone wanna help?), I'll someday be able deliver all these tunes to you and your gang too.

Additionally, in a sign that we listen to WAY too much kid's music, we enjoyed a "cookie as big as her head" (thank you, Lunch Money) and "pizza and punch for her birthday lunch" (that's for you, Recess Monkey).  Essentially, the Mrs. was a living, breathing kindie rock song for her birthday.

Here's the tracklist of the mix I made:

The Jellydots - "It's Your Birthday"
The Jimmies - 2 songs from the new live CD (let's call 'em "Somebody's Birthday" and "My Birthday Party")
Justin Roberts - "It's Your Birthday"
Lunch Money - "Cookie As Big As My Head"
Recees Monkey - "Birthday Bite"
Baze and His Silly Friends - "Happy Happy Birthday"
Daddy A Go-Go - "Birthday Song"
Mr. Leebot - "It's Your Birthday" (popular song title!)
Ralph's World - "Happy Not My Birthday" (this one was for the kids and I who aren't a year older)
The Hipwaders - "Birthday Ruckus"

Rebecca Frezza and Big Truck - "Birthday Song"
Hullabaloo - "400 Cupcakes"
The Not It's! - "Let's Birthday" (a song that proves "Birthday" can be a verb)

*The snazzy TODAY, I EAT CAKE button is available in my t-shirt & gift shop...in case you were curious.

Weird Dreams and a Sick Bear

Over the past several nights, my dreams have been getting more and more odd. Usually, I don't remember a single one. They're either too vanilla to warrant a memory in the morning or I'm just not at all capable of recalling them. Well, I remember 1 from last night. Here goes:

I'm called into the Mouse's room, where the Bear and the Mrs. already have convened, because there is a squirrel in the crib. I yell for Tilly (our brown tabby cat), saying that it's her job to patrol for bugs and, in this case, a baby squirrel. Apparently I'm able to easily communicate with Tilly as she quickly jumps into the crib to investigate the situation. Instead of playing animal cop, she gets playful. The two play for a bit before snuggling and falling asleep together. Nice.

Meanwhile, I'm searching for a cardboard box to capture the squirrel. By the time I find one the squirrel and Tilly are down on the floor playing again. Somehow I manage to get the squirrel into the box, however the creature is no longer little. What was once a kinda cute, furry squirrel baby is now a grown women in a squirrel suit. She crouches down to squeeze into the box. She's whimpering, something about not wanting to go back outside. Once again I posses the power to speak directly to an animal and politely (and with impressive calm) explain that while I'd love to keep her as a pet, it's just not something that's done. I went on to add that most Vets, I don't think, can examine and treat squirrels and at the very least I'd need her to get a check up before we took her as a member of the family. So out she went, but she didn't go far. Nope, she walked to the front window and stood there starring in at us with the biggest sad lip ever seen on a woman wearing a squirrel suit.

Additionally, last night saw the Bear get sick. 1st time in a while. A fever of 101 developed after the Squeek party. She wasn't her boisterous self in Hoboken either, but her condition worsened (and the fever was discovered) at her cousins birthday party later in the day. She awoke in the middle of the night to throw up, although nothing came up (she hadn't eaten much - passing on the WorryWoo cake and the birthday cake - 2 cakes in one day and she missed out!)

Pumpkin pickin' might be postponed for this lovely Sunday morning. Probably a good thing. Not sure I want to go out front with that squirrel lady still standing there.

Free Food from Outback this Father's Day

Outback's Father Day Promotion is back! Every Dad who eats at Outback Steakhouse this Father’s Day weekend will receive a $10 gift certificate towards his next visit.

That's a decent deal in any economic climate but really stands out in 2009. You'll feel a little less guilty about dropping some coin on a family meal in honor of Papa when you get $10 back for next time.

Outback will be open at 11AM on Dad's Day so you can take him for lunch or dinner.

In case you haven't seen the commercials, Outback is also running a 15 meals under $15 promotion right now. Check out some of the new menu items here. And while I don't fancy myself a fan of chain restaurants in general, I must admit that those crab stuffed shrimp look pretty tasty!

I'll Always Love You Harry

Harry Kalas, you are the man.

Your the primary reason I love baseball and, more specifically, baseball on the AM dial so very much. At the start of every season I reminisce all those hours spent in my bedroom as a child listening to your beautiful voice. You taught me so much about the game of baseball. This is a tremendously sad day for Phillies fans everywhere. I'm so happy you got to see your Phillies win the World Series and, more importantly, call the final out - a moment that will live forever in the hearts, minds and ears of Philly fans young and old. I knew the day would come, but I wanted more than anything to have the Bear and the Mouse grow up with your voice just a little bit more.

RIP Harry the K.



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They've Been Plotting All Winter

SQUIRRELS!!!
It took them over 2 years, but those little bastards finally figured out the (now in quotes) "Squirrel Proof" Droll Yankee bird feeder that hangs in our backyard.





I rose this morning to find this acrobatic little devil enoying a black oil seed breakfast at our expense. As you can see, the secret seems to be hanging upside-down by your hind legs then pulling your squirrel-self up so that your little squirrel mouth is positioned directly at one of the openings.

Seems this new generation of squirrels, much like our modern-day athletes with their as-yet-undetectable human growth hormones, is one step ahead of The Man.

I emailed Droll Yankee (no response yet) to alert them of this fact with the much-too-threatening claim that "I HAVE PICTURES!!!" - probably coming off more like a man who's discovered a cheating spouse then one who simply has clever squirrels in residence.

Here's how it's supposed to work (and did for a while):

Extreme Emotions for Moderate Seasons

I loved Winter. As a young boy Winter was far and away my favorite season. I loved the snow and ice. I loved the cold temperatures and the warm fireplace. I loved ice hockey and days home from school.

Conversely, as a child, I generally loathed Summertime. I was a product of AC. I feared sweat, heat and did anything I could to avoid the sun's rays touching my fair skin.

Times have changed. I still love the snow, the way it clings to branches and lays silently on the fields and blankets our yards. But the cold? Blah. I could do without it. And playing in the snow? What a chore - all the preparation, the multiple layers of clothes, runny noses and such. I could do without all of it.

By the end of Fall, I long for Spring. By the first flurry of Winter I'm pining for dancing curtains in front of wide open windows, the smell of fresh cut grass and the natural warmth of the sun. My visions now are not of the clean sheets of puffy white snow stretching out before my eyes but of kids on swings, burgers on the grill, first pitch at 7:05 and sunset an hour later.

When I think about Spring and all that comes with the season of renewal I am filled with much joy and feelings that I've never known to be this strong. My senses are alive with the sights (birds queuing at the feeder, squirrels racing up the tree trunks in a barbershop pole motion, geese splashing down in the stream), sounds (sizzling grill, chirping sparrows, crack of a wooden bat, Harry Kalas on the radio) and, maybe above all else, the smells (a just-mowed lawn, charcoal on fire and the beautiful smell of warm).

That damn groundhog predicted more winter. In my mind I've already moved on. Pitchers and Catchers in less than two weeks. I'll be joining them in sunny FLA five weeks later.

It's the most moderate of seasons that is capable of stoking my most extreme emotions. No matter the temp outside all I need to do is take a gander at those front windows. I see in my mind's eye the gentle flapping of the sheers and I feel the warm breeze responsible for the movement. I'm overcome with the kind of pure happiness only a child knows, as he plays outside in the snow.

And I Think to Myself, What a Wonderful Year

The OWTK 2008 Year in Review

2008 was by all personal accounts, the greatest year of my life. I have more to be thankful for than at any point in my nearly 33 years on this planet. With all the strife, misfortune and economic hardship so many have and are continuing to experience both nationally and across the globe I am trying awfully hard not to take any of my own happiness for granted.

• My favorite professional hockey team, the Detroit Red Wings, won the Stanley Cup over the Summer. It was their 4th championship since I became a fan in 1989.
  
• My hometown (and favorite) baseball club, the Philadelphia Phillies, Phinallie ended their 28 year World Series drought.
• My Fantasy Football team won the league championship (my 2nd in the 8 year history of the league).
  
• My candidate, Barack Obama, won the presidency.
• I abandoned corporate America to be a Stay At Home Dad, to write OWTK and to work on ye olde T-Shirt Shop.
• My 4.75 year old is reading, tying her own shoes, showering by herself, is an amazing big sister and one hell of a daughter.
• My 18 month old is hilarious, adorable and is saying new words everyday.
• I'm (still) happily married to a beautiful, smart and vibrant young lady.
  
• My family has been privileged enough to see numerous live musical performances this year by Justin Roberts, Randy Kaplan, Ellis Paul, Gustafer Yellowgold, Brady Rymer, Bill Harley, Recess Monkey and Hayes Greenfield among others. And most recently we got to see the perfect off-Broadway kid's show - Dear Edwina.

I can only hope that 2009 is 1/2 as good.

I wish tremendous happiness, peace and joy to each and every one of you.
Thank you for reading OWTK this year.

Happy Holidays!

Clever Commercials

I've been meaning, for almost a year now, to post about the abundance of super cool commercials on TV, ones that the kiddies will likely enjoy, but I just never feel like putting all the clips together. Lazy, I know. What is that like 4-5 clicks on You Tube?

Anyway, I just saw this one during a college basketball game and felt like sharing it here. It's wordless and awesome. The Ad is for Coke and features Underdog, the Baby from Family Guy and good ol' Charlie Brown - who finally wins something...high above Central Park.
Maybe 'tis old, but it's new to me. This happens a lot, since the TV isn't on that much and if it's not advertised during a sporting event, I prolly won't see it. Which means all I'm being sold, quite ineffectively I might add, are beer and trucks and a way to turn my old or unwanted GOLD into COLD HARD CASH!!!

There are a ton of crappy, under produced, sexist, demeaning and nasty commercials - like, say, every CSI or Cold Case promo which tease us with the first few fun moments of this week's rape and/or murder. That's pretty awesome to see while trying to watch football with your young girls on a Sunday afternoon.


But then there are clever adverts like this one:

A Decade Together

Right now, 8:30pm on December 10th, marks the 10th anniversary for my wife and I. We've been married for a mere 6 of those but on 12/10/98 we had our first date and have been by each other's side ever since. I mean that literally. She moved in with me, into my apartment on South Street in Philly, pretty much the next day. We just knew it was meant to be. Even though our courtship would make the most boring film ever, I recognize just how rare and storybook that start actually was.

The Mrs. is my best friend and she remains the only person I want to hang out with, watch football with, kiss, snuggle and be beside for the best and worst days still to come.

Sure, we will continue to have the occasional argument - she doesn't pick up after herself and I am an impatient, condescending a-hole - but we're perfect for one another and I'm still the luckiest SOB in the world for having her in my life.

Thank you darling, for believing in and loving me.

File Under: Absurd Gifts

Even in the best of economic times, a fiscal utopia where $50 bills sprout up from the cracks of pavement in place of weeds, how in the hell could anyone ever in their right mind spend $89 for a cardboard box!

Keep in mind that your $103 (that includes the $14 extra to ship your cardboard treasure) doesn't even get your kid this pretty colored one pictured in the magazine...nope, you get a blank canvas...6 plain pieces of sturdy cardboard for the bargain basement price of 89 DOLLARS.

The upside is that your cardboard will be shipped in even more cardboard and those extra pieces may just allow for the construction of a guest quarters or an out house adjacent to the primary residence.

At a bit over $100 you're nearly 25% of the way to buying a new refrigerator which comes with a free children's playhouse, ready to be scribbled on.

It's as if there was a Land of Nod office bet to see if they could get anyone to pay $89 for a box. Seems to have worked for at least one happy customer (who is posting their 5 Star review before their children have played with it). That happy mom thinks this box is "so different and unique". Yeah, something like that.

Our Moustaches Can Change the World

It's Movember!

Check out this funny, yet at the same time serious, charity that encourages the growth of upper lip facial hair as a way to raise awareness of prostate cancer and other men's health issues. Movember is an international movement that has raised more than 29 million dollars globally since it's inception 4 years ago. The Prostate Cancer Foundation is the primary beneficiary of U.S. based Movember fundraising.

The idea is to start November clean shaven (so you missed 1 day if you're just learning about Movember today) then grow it and style your moustache as you see fit. Talk about your lovely young stache throughout the month and encourage others to donate to this cool cause.

You can register as an individual or as a team. Get started and become a Mo Bro or Mo Sista today.

What Wii did yesterday

I bought our first gaming system yesterday. The OWTK household has officially become a part of the Wii generation. I spent a couple hours in Best Buy learning about the differences between LCD and Plasma and a variety of other entertainment-system related factoids and on the way out empty handed I spotted a table with 4 Wii systems and 2 Wii Fits. I picked up one of each along with MarioKart. Expect full reviews and some Wii game/accessory giveaways on OWTK in the coming weeks/months!

I was in Best Buy because we are going to be upgrading our old 27" boob tube to a 46" HDTV with a Blue Ray DVD/Home Theater setup. While it's pretty exciting, the thought of watching football, basketball and hockey on that size screen, I've been terribly conflicted about what this kind of purchase means. I feel like I am about to get sucked into a materialistic black hole, one from which I will not be able to return. Or maybe it's just a "treat ourselves" and help the economy kind of purchase that won't escalate any further. I'll go with the latter.

In other more traditional entertainment news the Bear is totally in love with The Little Miss and Little Mr. book series from Roger Hargreaves. Her "train mom mom" (my mother-in-law who always arrives in our neighborhood via the regional rail from Philly) bought her 5 books a couple weeks ago and the Please Touch Museum (full review coming this weekend) gift shop had a whole display so we bought 5 more.

Constantly seeking that delicate balance of old and new media. I think the first thing we'll watch on the new HDTV is The Muppets or something. Or maybe The Jazz Singer. Haha.

Meet Tilly

We got a new cat from the SPCA today! A 3 year old orange tabby named Tilly. The girls are in heaven.











How cute!!!

Cheap Unexpected Entertainment

The girls and I took a little drive today so I could do some drive-thru banking. On the way back home the Mouse fell asleep so I kept on truckin'. I ended up at a Philly-style soft pretzel store nearby, just as the little girl awoke. The pretzel shop sits at the end of a strip mall and to it's left, where a movie theater once stood, is a pile of dirt...currently a construction site. How perfect for a Mouse infatuated with trucks! We sat in the car eating our pretzels and watching from the front row as the big scooper truck collected dirt and deposited it into dump truck after dump truck. We had to be there for at least 20 minutes and the Mouse loved every second of it.

It reminds me, in an odd way, of my trip to Chicago last month with my Dad. Other than the ballgame, I made no plans. We decided on a whim to visit Soldier Field early on Saturday morning and discovered a high school football game about to kickoff. We got to experience the legendary venue from the inside and saw Donovan McNabb's (our hometown QB) famous high school play ball on a gorgeous August morning. A totally random situation that had we planned a visit probably wouldn't have occurred.

I tend to prefer both traveling and living this way...plan-less. I do often enjoy the skeletal outline of a plan when heading into a day home with the girls, a weekend or a vacation but generally speaking I love to wing it. There are seriously annoying downsides to this manner of being, of course. Like in Paris during our first trip there 5 years ago, when it was just The Mrs. and I. We walked for hours trying to decide where to dine one evening. I was so unsure of my choice that I wish I had researched a place and booked it in advance. The wife still brings up that evening every now and again when a plan-less plan of mine goes down the crapper. While that Paris dinner experience could be blamed more on indecision than a lack of a plan (after all it's not like we couldn't find a place to eat and went hungry that night, I just couldn't pick a Parisian cafe for one of our 3 dinners in the city of lights. I wanted perfection and was paralyzed by the fear of anything less).

Many folks can't handle a day without a detailed map of the whats/whens/wheres let alone an entire vacation but sometimes the best plans are the ones not made and the best entertainment is that which occurs all around us everyday...especially for a little Mouse.

What's Up with Us

Been quieter than usual on these pages. There is a good reason for that. I'm still seeking a rhythm to my days, both the two a week at home with the girls and the two I spend home alone. I am backed up on parenting blog topics and CD/Book reviews. I have oodles of fatherly wisdom such waiting to dazzle you, trust me.

Here's a quick roundup of what is going on inside and around chateau OWTK:

The Bear now takes showers by herself. She just got out of the bathroom actually and it's pretty cool to see her growing up in that way. Now, the reason she was showering again this morning after one just last night is that she soaked the bed with pee. So, maybe she's not growing up that fast after all...and you know what, that's alright too.

The Mouse is sorta getting snuggly. She is less robo-baby and more like a warm blooded animal who loves her family. Pretty sweet. The hugs and kisses come in short bursts but when they come they stop time.

It is a lovely day here in SE Pennsylvania. 74 degrees, sunny and breezy. Perfect weather for day baseball and, wouldn't you know it, the OWTK gang are heading to the 4pm Phillies game this afternoon. 4pm is such an ideal start time for a midweek baseball game. Arrive before rush hour and by the time the game concludes around 7pm, the traffic shouldn't be too unbearable. Those 1:30pm starts are brutal as the game typically let's out at 4:30...possibly the worst time to be on the road around here (and in most metropolitan areas in the country).

The Bear has been introduced to The Muppets via the season one DVD series. I also showed her Muppet Babies via YouTube clips. She loves it all. What great shows they were. Her early favorite is Animal. I still like Beeker.

Also digging Jane and the Dragon DVD series (review to come). Had no idea what this was when it arrived but it's great, witty "girl-power" stuff set in medieval times.

Happy 70th Birthday Dad!

Sunday was my father's 70th birthday. In an odd move precipitated by my two older brothers and I being unable to come together on a joint birthday day gift/getaway for him (and our mom) all three of us produced something separate and unique for him. First, my youngest older brother took our parents away to a house in the Hudson Valley for a long weekend. They toured West Point, took a boat cruise and relaxed in a backyard that was on a cliff 90 feet above the Hudson River. Wow.

This past weekend my dad and I went away to New York City for the final Red Sox vs. Yankees game in old Yankee Stadium then we flew to Chicago from JKF airport to spend two nights in the windy city. We caught one of the Phillies vs. Cubs games at Wrigley, an amazing place that he'd never been. The Chicago piece of that gift was a surprise. We went to NYC with an extra overnight bag in the trunk for him and I sprung the news at ESPN Zone in Times Square. He was pretty floored.
As an extra bonus we got to see a High School football game at Soldier Field, an event we just stumbled into as we only went there on Saturday morning to see it from the outside and take some photos. But it turned out the 1st game of a Kickoff triple-header was starting in 15 minutes. So I bought a pair of tickets and we watched powerhouse Mt. Carmel dismantle Curie inside one of the most famous football arenas in the country. How cool.


All that was special but my oldest brother may have topped it all. He didn't whisk my dad away anywhere...his gift was enjoyed by all in my parent's living room. My oldest bro had collected old slides, photos and some of our dad's favorite songs and had a DVD made that serves as a 15 minute this-is-your-life style retrospective. We saw our dad from his childhood in West Philly to his time in the service stationed in Alaska to him and our mom meeting and getting hitched and then us as little kids and our kids, his grandchildren. We were all in tears at the end.

My brothers and I are pretty lucky dudes, and I think most of the time we three know that, but what we learned this past weekend is that my dad is also an amazingly lucky guy to have such a beautiful & wonderful wife, three sons and seven grandkids who love him so much as to want to make brand new memories with him and also to capture all the old ones for him to remember forever.

Happy 70th Birthday Dad.

Cake Jumper!

For the longest time the Games page on the Gustafer Yellowgold website teased visitors with this image of Cake Jumper, a fun looking activity that was always "coming soon". Well "soon" has finally arrived as the big red ribbon on the Cake Jumper game was cut today.

The game is a hoot. You play as Gustafer and the object is to smash as many cakes, pies and treats as possible collecting points along the way. As you advance through the three rounds the desserts get more interesting and the speed of the game quickens. Head on over to the Gustafer Yellowgold website and play a game or two.

In other exciting Gusty news, the yellow dude from the sun is back in the big apple for another Off-Broadway run. Having caught the show the last time around I recommend that anyone and everyone head into lower Manhattan this Fall to check it out.

The Station Agent

After the tiny tots were nestled all snug in their beds (my one and only reference to Christmas in July, I promise) the Mrs. and I got cozy atop our own bed and watched The Station Agent on the big laptop last night. What a fantastic film. It stars the terrific Peter Dinklage (known most, I'd imagine, from The Chronicles of Narnia movies) who we saw turn in another wonderful performance as a fall-down drunk in Jonathan Marc Sherman's Things We Want, a great off-Broadway show last year also starring Paul Dano (from There Will Be Blood) and Josh Hamilton (from Kicking & Screaming, my favorite film of all time).

I can't recommend The Station Agent enough. Add it to your Netflix queue today, pick it up from your local library or just buy the damn thing. It's a classic.

The Kids are Alright

The Bear and the Mouse are both healthy. The weather is pleasant. The Phillies are back playing National League foes. The Red Wings signed Marian Hossa. And the fantasy football season is right around the corner. Life is pretty sweet right now.

The Bear was on a school bus twice this week, on back to back days. That makes three times total over the course of the past two weeks. The thrill has already worn off. Geez, kids these days!

Today her class visited a local supermarket, got to touch a live lobster, sample some apples and generally had a swell time. Yesterday was the Bear's first "in-school" swim lesson. Once per week the kiddies get bussed to an outdoor pool for some light aquatic instruction. She already knows how to swim but I have no doubt she'll get even better, from a technical standpoint (you know, kick & paddle and all that kind of stuff) during these trips.

Speaking of school buses (nice segue, no?) - Check out Daddy-A-Go-Go's new video for School Bus Driver. Sweet guitar lick at the 1:20 mark.



And speaking of children's rock-n-roll...there has been tons of kid's music goodness flooding my mailbox over the past few weeks. French party tunes, a new collection from Music Together (giveaway alert!) and oodles of solo indie efforts. I'm hoping to begin the review parade next week. Stay Tuned.