Hey all. Andrea here again...
Wow, I look different blonde, ne? (This is a pic from last year when I went blond for a short time.)
Well, today my brother John, his wife and baby John John came to visit. my nephew's 2nd birthday is coming up next week, so I spent the weeks before their visit searching for the right gift.
I like to buy unique gifts. Things I know no one else would think of buying. I bought both of my nephews a slide, I had their faces superimposed into DVDs of Dora the Explorer, Arthur the Aardvark and Barney where they appear in an entire episode... I did the same thing only with a book where their pictures are on every page, as the main character of the book.
Like I said, I like to get gifts I know no one else is going to buy.
I finally found some good gifts.
For John John's 2nd birthday I bought him Little Pim DVDs. Little Pim is a cartoon Panda who teaches toddlers and preschoolers different languages. I bought the Japanese volumes 1 and 2. Its never too early to teach a kid a second language. It's important as it helps with giving them an affinity for learning another language, which is beneficial for high school, college and being bilingual is great on job applications. And Japanese is just as important as any other language in my opinion, because lots of major American companies work closely with Japan.
My other sister-in-law is due to give birth to my first niece soon, so I special ordered her a Kimono styled onsee and matching kimono style newborn shoes.
I didn't want my other nephew Mikey to feel left out when his sister-to-be gets a gift, so I bought him a CD/Song book. It's Japanese toddler songs with English translations. The CD helps mom and dad learn the songs along with him. He has a real affinity for music. (if you sing a song to him once or twice, he can sing it back to you in perfect melody, in baby talk.)
he also loves music (obsessively) if you start playing a song, he'll make you play it over and over and will get mad when you turn the music off. He also has an affinity for languages (as he likes to make up his own language. For example: Music is Miika, Light is Unda, Grandma is Kangi, Money is Manga... He knows the real words, he just chooses to say his own. LOL and he's only 1.5 years old.)
So I figured I had really great unique gifts.
Well, my bro, sis-in-law and John John finally made it into town, and I was talking to my sis-in-law about my other nephew and his making up of words. I said he's going to have a real easy time learning another language.
That's when my sis-in-law said, "yeah, well, John John needs to learn English before he learns any other language. You remember when I did that book thing, were I asked for children's books instead of cards? Well, my cousin bought him the "green eggs and ham" book, only its all in Spanish."
(side note: my sis-in-law knows a little Spanish. not fluently, but enough to communicate)
"Well, that's just too hard translating it into English cause there are some parts I'm not sure of, so I just put it away. I don't even take it out... If he wants to learn another language when he's older, that's great. But I'm focusing on him learning English first."
As she's saying this, I'm thinking about the "Little Pim - Japanese" Toddler DVDs I have sitting in a gift bag. expensive DVDs too mind you.
Well crap.
So I'm going to give DVD 1 to my nephew Mikey, and the other DVD to his (soon to be born) sister. And tomorrow I'll have to run out and see if I can secretly buy John John a new birthday gift. Only problem is, the only real place I can go shopping around here is Walmart, which means, forget the unique gift idea.
I'm going to see if I can buy a baby guitar or a baby drum set. I know no one would buy him a baby drum set (for obvious reasons. lol) So fingers crossed that Walmart has one in the toy section. I mean, what are the chances really of her saying "If he wants to learn another language when he's older, that's great, but right now I want to focus on him learning English."? I mean, really?
*GAH*
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