Crossover Marketing Really Does Work

As the girls begin to get "older" (i.e., 16 months), they are become more and more familiar with that centerpiece of American family life -- the television.

Whereas before the girls might stop and look up at the T.V. screen only if a particularly catchy song started playing, now the girls will spend a few minutes watching T.V. if something catches their eyes.

And the girls are living proof that crossover marketing really does work.

Case in point. This is currently the girls' favorite book:

The girls will read this book umpteen times a day, and they love to point to the little Bernstein Bear in the book and call him "Duh-bee" (whatever that means, that's what they call him).

So yesterday, the girls are in our bedroom, playing with the TV remote, and they change the channel to --- the Bernstein Bears Cartoon Show.

I had no idea there was a Bernstein Bears Cartoon Show to go along with the books. For that matter, I have no idea whether the books came first, of if the television show came first.

All I know is that my girls somehow figured out that there is this cartoon on T.V. that resembles their favorite book.

They walked real close to the T.V., and started shouting, "Duh-bee! Duh-bee!" at the Bernstein Bears dancing across the screen.

If this keeps up, I'm thinking I'll have to buy the girls a new Bernstein Bears book:

I wonder if the book has a subtitle, "Too Much TV (Unless you're watching our show)"?

Happy Thanksgiving - New Videos

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Many of you have asked me when I'm going to post some new videos. Consider them posted. Click HERE to view them.

If you need the password, email David.

Fearless and PRETENDS to Be Fearless

Caroline is fearless.

At the playground near our house, she will climb up the steps of the play structure all by herself. She will go down the "big" slide all by herself. God help you if you try to hold her or help her -- she will slap your hand away and scream at the top of your lungs to "LET ME DO IT MYSELF!"

This fearlessness is both exciting and terrifying. Exciting because our little girl is developing her own personality and a sense of confidence that any parent would be thrilled to see.

Terrifying because she IS fearless. Nothing phases her. She will practically jump off the top of the slide, then land on her butt and slide down, laughing all the way.

At the Mall, Caroline will walk off to explore something new without a second look behind her to see if we are following her. This means we constantly need to keep our eye on her, to make sure she is nearby. It is tiring work.

Katherine, on the other hand, PRETENDS to be fearless. In actuality, she is much more cautious than her sister.

Katherine will always look back to make sure one of us is nearby. And when she climbs stairs, Katherine will not hesitate to accept a helping hand from Mommy or Daddy.

This photo really illustrates this point:

Doesn't everyone have one of these "freakin' out over the big character" photos?

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This photo was taken at the Cal-UCLA football game earlier this month.

First, notice who is in the photo: Daddy and Katherine.

Next, notice what Katherine is doing. She is screaming bloody murder because the Bruin mascot behind her is scaring the HECK out of her.

What you don't see is what happened before the photo.

Katherine was PRETENDING to be fearless. She saw the Bruin mascots, and kept trying to get to them so that she could touch them.

However, as soon as she actually was put close enough to them to touch them, she realized she wasn't as fearless as she thought, and she screamed and cried until I took her away from them. (At which point, of course, she tried to get over to them AGAIN).

Second, notice who isn't in the photo -- Mommy and Caroline.

That's because Caroline had run off somewhere and Mommy was chasing her down. Like I said, FEARLESS.

Happy Halloween!

The girls enjoyed their second Halloween, their first where they actually had a clue of what was going on.

Last year, they were pushed around in a stroller by Mommy and Daddy.

This year, the girls were more mobile, and they had a good time trick or treating at three different locations.

First, they went to their daycare, where they walked around the office building where the daycare is located, and got treats from the various businesses in the building.

Caroline and Katherine with their friend from daycare.

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The Lim Family Halloween

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Then, they went with Terri back to her workplace, where they trick or treated some more!

The girls with Terri's workmates.

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Finally, later in the night, they walked around our friend's neighborhood (our neighborhood is too hilly) to about ten houses. Caroline especially enjoyed running up the pathways to each house, and would laugh and squeal as she made her way to the front door of each house.

The girls figured out how to hold their buckets in front of them and wait for people to drop candy in them. However, about 20% of the time, they would then try to sit down and play with whatever was placed in the bucket!

Because they are not yet eating candy, we brought the candy home, and gave the girls toys to play with. They spent the rest of the night in their costumes playing. They were having so much fun, they didn't want to take their costumes off.

Katherine as a duck.

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The only exception to that is that you will not see any photos of Caroline with her duck hood on. She simply refused to wear it.

Happy Halloween!