Kenaz One Year Old BBQ Birthday Party

Saturday we had a Kenaz’s 1 year old birthday party. We decided have it outside our apartment building in a nice sitting area. We invited a lot of people and they all told us they had a good time. Kenaz caught cold a day before and he had a little bit fever on his birthday. He did not have a lot of smiles but next day he loves to play his new toys and ride his wagon.

So the party went like this…

We had a simple arrival activity for getting kids on fake tattoo. I went to a whole sale market to buy cool dragon and spider tattoos for boys and flowers and butterfly for girls. Then we served Jesse’s delicious BBQ hotdogs and corns. We had devil’s eggs, spicy tuna cucumber from Martha Stewart receipt, chips and salsa, salad, and my dumpling-skin-lasagna.

[/Jesse] The Hotdogs were totally burned. The corn was OK though. We bought a BBQ set. I made a “chimney” out of a large tin formula can, with a smaller coffee can placed inside. While setting it up, about 8 security guards and janitors gathered around to investigate how the foreigner makes a BBQ (they never did it before). Unfortunately, our BBQ set is basically a cheap shallow pan without a cover. So anything in it gets burned really quick. I think the Chinese concept of BBQ (and to Chinese people, I think that concept revolves around buying shishkabab meat on the street) is to cook very small pieces of meat. Anyway, EVERYONE loved Haga’s lasagna. Chinese people, who normally say they will never like Western food, thought it was great. [/]

Our main event for kids was smashing the piñata. Instead of blind hold, kids started hitting it randomly. But our hand-made piñatas was very strong. Kids just loved to hit it. Kids did not expect what would happen (no kids from California or Mexico)…, they all went to crazy for candies. When we did the second piñata, now everyone knows what inside. Some of Chinese grandmas went to really crazy for their grandchild….

We had a birthday cake. Jesse and Kenaz blow a candle. I went to a warehouse to buy cheese cakes for hotels for 1/4 of price in hotel. It was delicious and good buy. I made soft chewy oatmeal chocochip and chocolate chocochip cookies. I actually made them from scratch instead of using Betty & Cracker.

We had these hippie/reggae kick balls [they are usually called hacky-sacks –Jesse], stickers (thank you, grandma) and various small kid’s things for favor.

Akiva had a really good time. During the party he never called me he was with his friends running around all the time. I never know where he was.

[/Jesse] Several people noted that Akiva can really drink beer. Little Japanese girls were coming up and telling Haga that Akiva was drinking. Our Chinese friend told me “Hey…Akiva can really drink!” I didn’t see him drinking, but he did bring me an opened beer can with about 1/4th of the beer missing. My little boy is growing up to be an secret alcoholic. He must get this from this from his Japanese grandmother. [/]

I had a good time too. I was running around during the party too. But I got to make piñatas. I now appreciate Kerry Morales, my former manager. She always throws the best parties for kids every summer. By then I didn’t have kids so I wasn’t paying much attention. Now I try to remember what she did.

[/Jesse] Kenaz all of a sudden is showing much more awareness about toys and people. And he is becoming much more of a complainer. He yells and hits when we take away his toys. I can tell Akiva and Kenaz will get into fights in the future. He looks really cute though on his wagon. Also, we have discovered that Akiva likes breakdancing to cheap Chinese disco music-playing toys. Its fun to watch [/]

Kenaz BD Party at Play Group

A play group for Japanese speaking moms and babies threw a birthday potluck party for Kenaz. We had all kind of good food, sushi rice balls, beef stroganoff, Korean seafood pancakes, meatballs, fried soft cheese, and cake. Thank you for Kinoshita-san to make a wonderful birthday sign!

China Toy

I read blogs and news-sites and I get paranoid. I guess this happens to a lot of people. To get myself out of this state, sometimes I go for a bike ride through Suzhou's small streets while listening to music helps (note: on my playlist is Oingo Boingo’s “Nothing to Fear”). However, I cannot just ignore my fears. I need to evaluate risks.

One big issue lately is about lead paint on toys.

Akiva and Kenaz have toys which most probably have lead paint in/on them. I cannot be certain of the toys bought in US and Japan (but made in China). But I can be reasonably certain that the less-expensive toys bought here have lead.

[A side point]If anyone wants to get Kenza a gift for his One-Year Birthday on September 29th, he would appreciate a lead-paint testing kit from Home Depot. I don't know what Haga will want for her Birthday on September 20th. [/]

Lead has been documented to have the following effects: (from the National Safety Council website - http://www.nsc.org/library/facts/lead.htm)

Young children under the age of six are especially vulnerable to lead's harmful health effects, because their brains and central nervous system are still being formed. For them, even very low levels of exposure can result in reduced IQ, learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, behavioral problems, stunted growth, impaired hearing, and kidney damage. At high levels of exposure, a child may become mentally retarded, fall into a coma, and even die from lead poisoning. Within the last ten years, children have died from lead poisoning in New Hampshire and in Alabama. Lead poisoning has also been associated with juvenile delinquency and criminal behavior.

Akiva does not listen to me, cannot sit still, and sometimes acts like a little bastard…I’m wondering if this is because he has been exposed to too much lead.

But really, this scares me. We have a certain not small amount of cheap toys here. Akiva has a toy bus called the Pleasance Bus, which has a built in phones set, peg-through-hole game, scarry electronic disco song tune. We also have a fake electric guitar (we received it free with a container of baby formula) which plays random, out of tune nursery songs, bad Chinese disco, the Chinese national anthem, a Donald Duck quaking sound, and vehicle / transportation sounds. Both of these toys are sold for less than $2.50 at the store and most probably have lead paint.

[Another side-point] From reading the blogs, I hear a lot of people in the US are really pissed off about the lead in their toys and are now saying they will never buy toys made in China. Good for them. Furthermore, some people are also blaming globalization and some blame the government etc. I am a little surprised that I do not hear so many people calling to permanently boycott Mattel / Fisher-Price. After all, those are the companies which provided the toys. Those are the companies which betrayed their customers’ trust. Those are the companies which had a complete and total quality control failure, thus endangering the lives of children. A failure caused by not caring really...how difficult is it to go to your supplier's factory once a week and ask them where that lead paint came from? I don’t see how this issue should have anything to do with China. [/]

It seems that Chinese people really don’t even know that lead paint is bad. They have no idea about this. So now I got to ask…do Chinese people drive so bad because they were all exposed to lead painted toys when they were young?

I cannot find statistics on how much lead can typically be leached off of paint on toys. All the literature I have seen talks about lead coming from paint or car – exhaust, and then seeping into dirt, which then gets ingested. I’m really worried about this. We know what lead can do. But I do not really know where to get toys without lead. I do not have a solid understanding of this. I talked to a chemist today. He told me that lead tends to be water-soluble. Saliva is an acid, and is therefore more likely to leach-out lead.

I need to make a decision on whether or not we should throw out all of the toys…at least the toys we acquired in China. Akiva does not suck on his toys anymore, but Kenaz puts anything and everything in his mouth.

I have other questions though; why is it that most people in the world are not retarded? (I will not put in comments about the 51% of Americans who voted for Bush here... I will not!) Lead-paint was not outlawed in the United States until 1970, and it was not banned from gasoline until 1978. Our environment has been contaminated with lead for the past 8000 years. More relevant is the fact that ts quite likely all of my childhood toys…and all of my parents childhood toys… and all toys ever used / being used by Chinese children…all were covered in lead paint. Given this information, why should I get crazy about this now? Why is everyone getting scared about something that most people on Earth grew up with? Is this something that is going to hurt my family, or is this like worrying about that evil illegal alien child molester / kidnapper hiding in the bushes?

If any readers / loved-ones reading this have an opinion on this subject, please chime in.

Wireless Internet

Akiva likes to see grandma and grandpa on webcam. He also likes to play games on line. Thank you for the computer our friend Tony gave us.

Akiva’s favorite websites:
-Kids Music Site(Chinese)
He can listen to Chinese and English kids songs with flash animation.

-Thomas and friends