Wednesday, May 23, 2012

How the CDC can help you shop for next winter

Summer is around the corner, so the local sporting goods store is clearing out their children's winter gear at 50% off. One of the things the kids will need for next winter is some snow pants. But with kids growing so fast, it's hard to figure out what's going to fit them next winter. So even though we might be saving 50% on last season's gear, there's no guarantee that what we're buying will still fit by next winter.

Now thanks to these charts provided by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), you can take some of the guesswork out of buying seasonal clothes ahead of time. And for a cheap RiceDaddy like me, that means I could buy the previous season's gear for half-off and still be sure that the gear will fit next year!

If you've ever looked through your kid's file at the pediatrician's office, you will notice that their height, weight and head circumference are all plotted on these same charts. Here's how it works:
  1. Find your child's height on the y-axis. In this example, the child is 42.5" (107.5cm) tall.
  2. Find your child's age on the x-axis. In this example, the child is 5 years, 4 months (metric equivalent unknown :).
  3. Find out where those coordinates meet, and find the closest percentile curve upon which your child's measurement lies. In this example, the child is on the 25th percentile (the line right below the heavy red line which represents the 50th percentile).
  4. Since the child in this example will be about six years old next winter, trace that age from the x-axis up to where it intersects with the percentile curve your child is on. On the 25th percentile in this case, it appears that the child will be about 44" (111.5cm) tall by this coming winter. That's a growth of about 1 1/2 inches.
Note that there are different charts to track length/height, weight, head circumference for boys, girls, birth to 36 months, and from 2 years to 20 years old. Be sure you are using the appropriate chart for your child.

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

CD Giveaway! Mista Cookie Jar's Ultramagnetic Universal Love Revolution

In honor of today's release of the sophomore album by Los Angeles kindie rock family band (and Rice Daddies fave) Mista Cookie Jar and the Chocolate Chips, we are happy to be giving away 5 autographed copies of the new CD to Rice Daddies readers.

If you're not familiar with the music of Mista Cookie Jar, a.k.a. C.J. Pizarro, he calls it "Urban-Island-Funky-Rock-N-Roll for the Inner Child." His first album, The Love Bubble, has been on repeat in our house for a long time, and it definitely makes children of all ages get up and dance.

Case in point: I just hit "play" on the video below for "Happy Place," off the new album, while writing this and my three-year-old daughter just ran over to the computer for the other room where she was playing with my iPhone.

CJ is one of the scant handful of Asian American kindie artists I've been able to find, and I'm so happy to be able to support him not only because he provides an Asian American face and voice for my kids but because, also, he's really good! It was honor to share the stage with him last November at Skylight Books in LA when he came out to perform at a reading for Rad Dad: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Fatherhood.

Enjoy the "Happy Place" video then scroll down for how to enter to win your own signed copy of Ultramagnetic Universal Love Revolution:




To enter to win one of five signed copies of Ultramagnetic Universal Love Revolution by Mista Cookie Jar and the Chocolate Chips, send an email with "Mista Cookie Jar" in the subject line to daddyinastrangeland@mac.com by this Friday, May 11, at midnight PDT. To purchase your own copy now on CD or download, go to cdbaby or iTunes.