Gender Generalization - Right or Wrong ?

Right, so LOs are turning 2 next Saturday. Wooohooo !!!
Having a simple (but not small, as my Cypriot husband's family is quite big....) family lunch at my in-laws. Tried figuring out a good venue for the party, or maybe even doing it at home but in the end opted for the in-law option because it would be much easier for everyone, especially the LOs great-grandmother, as they all live on the same road !!!

Anyway, this post is not so much about the party planning but more about their presents.
Up until recently, I have been buying rather gender-neutral toys for both of them and sometimes even clothes so that they can share most things. Why not, it is not that they even mind....besides, I am not much for the pink for girl and blue for boy mentality.

Now when they are 2, their individuality and characters are becoming more developed and DD is becoming increasingly girlie and DS increasingly boyish. When we go to local playgroups, DD loves spending her time in the play kitchen "cooking" and DS will be at either the workbench playing with the tools,nuts and bolts, or he'd be playing with cars. I find this rather amazing, as at home they play with the same toys, I treat them exactly the same, they have the same friends etc. but somehow they are so different and they do excatly what they are supposed to do as a girl and as a boy.

Anyway, so coming to buying their birthday presents, I am facing a "dilemma" because although DD loves toy-kitchens and DS loves work-benches I didn't want to buy them exactly those two things (but I did BTW, as I believe this is what they would actually love getting) because I don't believe in or agree with gender generalizations.

I then received a call from my BIL, telling me that he bought a football kit for DS and wanted to buy dolly or something for DD. This made me angry.
I went on to have a whole conversation with DH, who also thinks football kits are for boys and not girls, about it. He thinks girls should be "girls" and boys should be "boys" and thinks that by me allowing my son to wear pink or even a skirt, or play with so called girl's toys if he wished, meant that I wanted him to be gay ! What ?!

OK, I did buy a stereo-typical girl's toy-kitchen for DD and work-bench for DS but not because of their gender but because this is what they choose to and enjoy playing with. If , let say DS wanted a pink toy-kitchen then I would have bought him the kitchen, not the work-bench. Is that wrong ?!

I so wish that I could tell everyone no presents on their birthday because I know what it will be .... cars and trains for DS and soft toys/dolls for DD (I really hope she won't get a Barbie !!!) but I guess that would be kind of mean as DS does like playing with cars/trains and DD with soft toys/dolls. I just don't want them to become "trained" to be or like certain things because they think the are suppose to...

Argghhh !!! How can we teach our children to do what they would like to do and not just what they are "suppose" to do when at such a young age, they already get pigeon holed in what is gender-specifically right or wrong for them !

Have you got any thoughts/comments on this ? Do you buy strictly boys toys for your boys and girls toys for your girls ? Maybe you think this is the way it should be ?

Funky Little Darlings

I love finding new exciting interior items, coming from an interior design background myself. It doesn't happen too often but it does happen... like when I came across a company called Funky Little Darlings, who specializes in high-end wall-coverings and prints.

Just had a chat with Mandy Colliss, the creative Director, to find out more about them.

Tell me a bit about yourselves ?
David and I are both designers and have worked in the toys and games industry for most of our careers, most notably Hasbro - a leading toys & games company based in the US. I am a graphic designer by profession and David is a 3D designer with a specialism in structural packaging design. We met in 1999 while we were both working at Hasbro's London office. We both love design and Interior Design is our absolute passion.

I design most of our concepts, visualize rooms, create concept drawings (illustrations and rooms layouts). David does a lot of the fine detail drawing and artwork design as well as creating 3 dimensional furniture designs for bespoke commissions.

Why did you start FLD ?
Our daughter Daisy was the catalyst for starting Funky Little Darlings. We saw there were very few 'design-led' interior products available especially for children and although she loved watching things like 'Thomas the Tank engine', we didn't want her room to be slavish to a particular 'licensed' products. Our aim is to design beautiful, inspirational and stimulating products to create rooms children will always remember.

We started our business designing large scale, contemporary murals but this has naturally evolved to encompass designing for interiors in a much broader way. We have a developed a range of products as well as designing bespoke furniture and wallcoverings.

What has been the main challenge since starting FLD ?
Oh there have been many.... the best one was David happily quitting his full time job to join me and having the 'credit crunch' announced the next day! As a small company, the amount of time needed to run things is astonishing - it really is 24 hours, seven days a week! It has been a tough couple of years developing new products, finding the best quality and most reliable suppliers, finding the time to get things done, as well as establishing ourselves but the rewards are knowing that we make beautiful things other people love. Running your own business isn't easy, but the more you put into it, the more you get out of it.

Tell me more about your collections. What are the thoughts and inspirations behind them ?
Our designs are inspired by our surroundings, usually from nature but also urban and industrial influences play an important part. Wherever we start an idea from we always take it to an 'other world' level: our imagination is the key. Although our work is contemporary we don't design for a particular period and blend elements that are both traditional and modern as well as being pan-cultural.

Having spent so much of our careers designing for children, we have a real insight into what they do and don't like. Our designs contain a subtle narrative blend of highly detailed and coloured elements - we love colour, scale and drama and our designs feature lots of this.


Do you have any products that you are working on at the moment ?
On the way are more Wall Stickers, Wallpapers and Bed Linen and Soft Furnishings. We can't wait to get these all finalised. We are also considering expanding our website to sell contemporary children's furniture (which will also compliment our interior design business). We would also love to collaborate with other designers on all manner of children's (or grown up) products.

To view Funky Little Darlings collections at Monsters and Munchkins, click here.

Advent Fair and Art Exhibition

Christmas is almost here and it is time to start thinking about getting some christmas gifts for our family and friends.... I personally, find it quite stressful doing this so I always try to start early to avoid unnecessary panic.

If you around London, The Advent fair and art exhibition in Wandsworth common on the 28th November, is a great place to start. You should go and check it out and if you are, come by to say hi to us :-) .

House-hunting in Gloucestershire

Like so many other people living in the city, I long to be living somewhere more peaceful and less stressful. I have been wanted to move out of London for years but somehow never managed to actually do it. There was always so many reasons to stay .... first of all, my work was here , then when I started my own company, I got pregnant and I wanted to be close to my doctor and then when LOs were born, I simply didn't have time to worry about it ... until now, when the LOs are almost 2 years old. Now I have so many reasons to want to leave London. More space (which is critical, as I work from home), better schools, less pollution, better quality of life for the kids etc.

We have been to Gloucestershire and surrounding areas several times in the past few months in hope of finding that "perfect" house but each time we left disappointed....and yesterday was no exception.

There was always something... either it was too expensive, or the house was not right, or when the house was right, the area was not great. We did find this wonderful farm that I would absolutely love to be living on ... but then I found out that it is more than 3 hours drive/train journey in to London. It is a bit too far, as I do need to go to London every now and then for meetings etc.

I am confident we will find something soon but in the meanwhile, it is so time consuming and tiring.... but to pay someone to do the search for us is not an option as I want the satisfaction of finding our dream home by myself !

Ps. These house-hunting trips have been so very interesting. We've met so many interesting people out there.... people we would never have met otherwise. Met old toy collectors that own a a toy museum, CID who specializes in train fatalities (he mainly collects body-parts from the crime scene !!!), crystal healer that keeps Alpacas as a hobby, Farmer that makes wallpapers that cost more than £500 a roll... the list goes on.

Winter Wonderland 09 - Gibson Hall

One of our favourite events this year is Winter Wonderland, in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support and Chase (Hospice for Children).

The event is on the 22nd November 2009 @ 3-6pm.

Location: Gibson Hall, 13 Bishops Gate, London EC2N 3BA.

There will be a fashion show, carol singing, shopping (of course), food and drinks.

To find out more and to book tickets click here.

Ps. If you are thinking of going, then you should hurry up to book your tickets as it gets sold out pretty quickly.

Also, if you mention my blog then you will receive a special gift at our stand :-).

See you there ! x

Making a Dinosaur

Got a "Make a Dinosaur Kit" from the Natural History Museum when we went there a few days ago, along with some Dinosaur books.

The exhibition was very interesting but unfortunately, the LOs missed quite a lot of it as I couldn't really lift them up (the downside of having twins ... they have to stay in their pram pretty much the entire time we go out, cause that's the only way I can make sure one doesn't run off and get hurt or break something) to look inside each of the display cabinets but they enjoyed what they saw, in particular the "live" ones on display. The life-size T-rex (I think it was a T-rex) scared them, the little sleeping one a the exit made them giggle and some they tried to feed ... so overall a rather exciting exhibition I would say.

Anyway, so back to Dinosaur making. The kit came with (supposedly) everything you need. paper, glue, paint, template for all the "bits".

Sat little one's in their high-chairs and we were off. They seemed excited. All went well ... for about 5 mins. DS, who was in charge of ripping the paper to more manageable size, decided it would be more fun to throw everything on the floor rather than putting it into the designated box and DD, who was in charge of mixing the glue decided to put her hands in it and then onto herself..... and I, who was in charge of blowing the balloons to make the head and body, realized that I was scared of balloons (hence the small body, in relation to the head... I just couldn't bring myself to make it any bigger).

Anyway, eventually I managed to attach all the provided parts where they were supposed to go and we could start some papier macheing. This bit was relatively painless (especially because DS had already given up and was watch The Snowman instead. So I only had DD to deal with.) and fun but we did run out of glue fairly quickly and I had to improvise with some fabric glue I had in the cupboard. Head and leg fell off but I managed to stick it all back on with some masking tape before completing this stage.... BY MYSELF, as DD had also given up by now.

Once dried (left it overnight) we went on to paint it with the supplied paint (which ran out half way through and I had to use other paint!). We all enjoyed this part with no real drama and had some lunch while little Dino dried. Then LOs decided to make Little Dino pretty and got their arts and crafts box out and started sticking stuff on it.... with a little help from me of course.

So what do you think of Little Dino ? Maybe you can name her/him for us ?

Ps. In respons to Kitschycoo's blog, I did enjoy this one. Probably because it didn't matter if they made a mess.... papier mache is meant to be messy and we only had one colour paint at one time so didn't really matter how they painted Little Dino, it couldn't really go wrong and then finally the decoration part, it is supposed to be random so they couldn't really do that the wrong way either.... besides I had the glue and they only stuck things that they chose on, so mess was very limited.

Westfield Shopping Centre

For once, we managed to get the LOs ready to go to swimming class early today... only to discover that class was canceled ! So typical, the only time we managed to get there not only on time but actually early !

So what to do ? All of a sudden we had an empty slot in our schedule.... its cold, a bit wet, its early in the day.... Oh I know, let's go and check out Westfield Shopping Mall, which is just around the corner ! Never been a fan of big shopping malls (apart from Ala Moana Shopping Mall in Honolulu, that one I love...) but seemed like the "perfect" thing to do today. So off we went. Should I be excited ?

Oh yes, it actually turned out pretty good. First of all, the car-park was huge. Even I could find a spot where I could comfortably park (ahem, I am not very good at parking...), which means less stress already. With no pram with us, we were sort of dreading the walk around the mall but to our relief, they had these funky trolleys/cars for hire for a couple of pounds (they even have double ones but happened to be all out when we arrived) . DS was especially thrilled !

Not being much of a shopper, I ended up dragging DH and LOs around all the kiddie-stores (for research purposes....mainly) and .... I didn't find much. It was all rather nice but predictable.
LOs being rather bored with my "research" fairly soon, got very excited when we found the playground and a fantastic playground (for a mall) it was !

So, if you are bored one day and feel like doing some shopping, head to Westfield. You can do your thing and then after, you can get a treat for the LOs and let them play too.... to make you feel less guilty for dragging them along shopping.

Book Trashing Must Stop !

What is wrong with my kids ???!! Or rather, what did I do wrong ??
I recently went to my friends house with my LOs for a play-date and I discovered that book-trashing is not "normal" ... I always thought that it is something that ALL toddlers did , until I watched my friends DD read her books like a book should be read. Wow... so it is possible for toddlers not to trash EVERYTHING (especially books) in sight, I thought and decided I should try and suggest this new idea to my LOs....without much success.



Your immediate responds may be that I shouldn't leave books around for them, so they can't trash them but they love reading, which is a good thing, so i really don't want to deprive them of that...
I used to have a special shelf for their special books that they couldn't get to but with them being taller and stronger, even those aren't safe anymore !

I do try to teach them to be gentle and careful with their books but they just don't seem to get it ! They seem to think that flaps are for tearing and cool textured pages are for ripping.
Yes, I have tried board books too but they seem to really enjoy the challenge of tearing these hard-wearing and supposedly toddler safe pages.

Tell me that my LOs aren't the only ones that do this... please, or are they ? How did you teach yours better book-ethics ? Or maybe you never had that problem ?

The Snowman - The Stage Show

A very dear friend of mine bought me a copy of The Snowman when we went to a contemporary dance performance together recently. She got one for her daughter, who is just a few weeks older than my LOs, and one for the LOs. She was convinced they were all ready for a bit of theatre/dance. Her DD watches the whole swan-lake production on tv without getting restless and bored ! My DS manages to sit still (he is a boy after all...) in front of the square box for quite a while but DD's attention span is close to zero. I wasn't convinced the LOs were "ready" for this yet ..... but how wrong I was !

Since I first showed it to them about a week ago, they have been completely obsessed by it. I mean properly obsessed ! They ask (signing snow-man or penguine to me) for it the moment they wake up and can sit and watch it all day long, over and over again. Yes, even DD !!!

I don't normally allow them to watch TV very much but then they have never been as persistent in watching anything as this EVER !
I know it is not good for them to watch TV all day but it is so hard to resist putting it on, as I know they really enjoy it. Especially when they get up and start dancing. It is absolutely hilarious watching the two of them attempting to jump, spin and turn.

What is your opinion about TV-watching ? Is it good ? Bad ? How much is too much ? What is your child's favourite program ?

Watch a snippet here. It is a lovely show, although I must admit that I am getting a bit bored of it now.... having watched it about a hundred times since last week !

Halloween

Location: Cliff Barns, Norfolk

Date: 30th Oct-1 Nov

Dress code: casual during the day, scary during the night (ie. after kids bedtime).




Apparently, this Halloween people dressed up more than ever before. According to some daily newspapers, the total sales of Halloween costumes in UK rose by almost 30% compared to previous year.

Maybe the recession made people want to dress up and party, do something unusual to cheer themselves up ? Anyway, that was the reason why I decided (apart from it being DHs b-day of course) to throw a party and properly dress up in fancy dress the first time ever !

It was quite an ordeal to sort out and organise but well worth the hassle (queued for almost an hour to get in to Angels in Shaftesbury avenue to get my outfits).

It was an amazing weekend ! The venue was beautiful and very well managed. Open fires, fantastic kitchen and stylish, yet comfortable decor..... a bit of a shame about the weather cause they also had a lovely courtyard with jacuzzi and sauna but we had so much fun indoors so was fine anyway. Fab venue for a party, sleeps up to 20 people but can cater for up to 120 people... apparently.

Ps. Check out the baby monitor.... cool party accessory, isn't it ?! Well, had to make sure I got to kids first if they woke up, before they stumbled into the party, which would have seriously freaked them out !
I had never used a baby monitor before as my home is all open plan so no need for them and found it slightly strange to be listening out for my kids through a "device". Not only did I find it strange but I actually "obsessed" about it, as I was constantly making sure it was still working and within range.... Thank god I am now home and can return it to my neighbour ! Would never get anything done between checking my e-mails, facebook, twitter AND the baby monitor !