Here’s an interesting magazine spread I saw a few weeks ago. The article on the left instructs parents to lead by example when it comes to nutrition — more fruits, vegetables, and similar “foods” — and the ad on the right makes the claim that a glass of brown liquid is better…

Merry Christmas from the Begley family!

In an effort to save a bit of paper, fuel, and postage, and selfishly to capitalize on the posterity of a blog post to combat our disappearing memories (where ARE my keys?), we have opted to post our holiday update/letter here. Plus, as you’ll see below, it allows for a bit of extra features that a low-tech letter simply cannot handle (…yet). Enjoy!

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Winter.
2008 began with snow, snow, snow! We had a cold January but the snow made it delightful and (almost) enjoyable. The North End was beautiful covered with a foot of puffy, fluffy snow…that is until it turned to cold, hard, dirty, ice. We had many opportunities to dig our car out of a huge snow drift only to have it buried again the next day. Oh yes, and you haven’t really experienced parallel parking until you do so in the middle of winter in the North End (rock your car into an icy hole of a “parking spot” with negative inches of buffer between the cars in front and back much?) In February, to escape the cold and get our fix of what we remember Mexican food really tasting like, we traveled to Cancún, Mexico for 10 days where we met up with our friends Mike, Monica, Erik, and Thomas (more here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). It was amazingly beautiful and we had a great time building sand castles on the beach, exploring Isla Mujeres, and being with our friends. We all loved the vacation and Caleb in particular announced that he loves and wants to live at the beach. (Us too Caleb!)

Spring.
Spring started off with a trip to the emergency room for Caleb. We spent Easter in Connecticut with Nonna and Boppa and enjoyed a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Straughn during, unfortunately, the rainiest week of the season. Travel highlights were a train trip to Washington D.C. for Aunt Katherine’s graduation from George Washington University, and a car trip to Pennsylvania to attend a birthday party for Caleb’s second cousins, Giovanni and Vincenzo. Also this spring, Megan joined the Park Street Church Green Initiative, an effort to make the church more environmentally sustainable. Her “assignment” was to build a website for the initiative and she, along with her partner for the site’s development, Abigail, completed the site later in the year. Caleb also finally broke down our resolve and became the proud owner of a skateboard, confirming to all onlookers that he is indeed a California boy at heart.

Summer.
Busy, busy, busy… Peter, Caleb, and Nadine took their first camping trip together while Megan traveled for work. Despite the rain and mosquitoes, the “boys” (and Miss Nadine) had a wonderful time — in fact Caleb noted it as the best thing he did this summer. Near the end of June, Megan started a new job at the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC). She is working in Development designing their communications collateral and assisting with the Capital Campaign, the Maine Woods Initiative. She is really enjoying her new position, and as you will read about below, we’re all enjoying the benefits that come from working for AMC. This summer also took Peter back to California for his annual MBA reunion trip during which he and his classmates spent a long weekend camping in Sonoma and having fun in San Francisco, Walnut Creek, and a few spots in-between. In August, Caleb turned 3 and we spent a week in California to photograph a wedding in Santa Monica, empty out our Santa Maria-based storage unit, and visit friends in Santa Barbara. Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa Straughn for helping us get all that done! Over Labor Day Weekend, we traveled to AMC’s Highland Center in the White Mountains where on his own feet, Caleb summitted his first mountain, Mount Willard. Oh yes, and how can we forget all the feasts that took place in the North End throughout July and August (basically a two-month long party complete with marching bands, saints, more marching bands, street vendors, and more marching bands)!

Fall.
Fall found us taking several trips to New Hampshire to hike, enjoy the changing seasons, and escape the noise and chaos of Boston. Megan took a 2-day course to be certified in Wilderness First Aid and CPR at Pinkham Notch, while Peter and Caleb played, hiked and did a bit of exploring. In September, along with Peter’s sister Rebecca (who basically did everything), we planned a successful surprise 60th birthday party in Philadelphia for Nonna and Boppa which included friends and family from throughout the country. Also this fall, we moved out of our wee apartment in the North End to our new place in West Medford (roughly 10 miles northwest of Boston). We absolutely love having more space, a yard, parking, in-unit laundry, and all the wonderful things that are hard to come by in the North End. During the week, we take a 12-minute train ride to/from Boston — Megan and Peter to their jobs, and Caleb to preschool in the North End for his “work,” as he likes to call it. We were also able to squeeze in a trip this fall to see Grandma and Grandpa Straughn, GG (Megan’s grandmother Straughn), and friends in Minnesota. November 10th was Megan and Peter’s 6th wedding anniversary and we spent 2 nights in New York City ALONE (thank you Nonna and Boppa for taking care of Caleb and Nadine, and thank you Nora for letting us stay in your awesome apartment!). It was a much-needed and wonderful getaway. We spent Thanksgiving with Nonna and Boppa at AMC’s Highland Center in the White Mountains (New Hampshire again!) and enjoyed fresh snowfall and a lot of late fall/early winter hiking.

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Finally, we’ve made it to December and we are starting to see the first snowflakes of winter (enough, in fact, to make a snow hut…). We kicked off the season with a live Christmas tree (aka: uncut; the cut trees were very upsetting to Caleb – us too, now that we think about it) and a gingerbread house decorating party with some of Caleb’s classmates from school. The kids had so much fun! We look forward to the adventures that 2009 holds (Florida and Costa Rica, here we come!) and wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday season!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

~ Peter, Megan, Caleb and Nadine

Megan and I were recently exposed to the above video and both found it quite powerful. Coincidentally, we were strongly considering a material giftless Christmas this year before we saw the video, but are now set on following through. We have given donations or Heifer International gifts in past years, but never 100% exclusively to all recipients. To each other and to Caleb, we typically give something special or homemade, or material but with a strong connection to the recipient. We’ve already given Caleb an early present (a sweet Erector Set, which he has really taken to) and are dabbling with ways to make a donation less of an abstract concept to a three year-old.

This year we are considering our old favorites (Heifer International as well as the Humane Society), but may also throw Megan’s organization and some volunteering opportunities into the mix.

I am particularly interested in hearing what non-Christians think of the video. It is extremely well done (music, editing, content, use of text and movement, etc.) and I am curious how broadly the message might be received.

Those of you who know me well know that I tend to have fairly strong feelings about money, investing, debt, and all other finance-related subjects. Misconceptions abound but I think on the whole, “financially conservative” would be a fair label that encompasses my approach (at least from my perspective…).

So, naturally, the topics of money, Caleb, and financial responsibility have come up many times between Megan and I since Caleb came into our lives — indeed, even as far back as during the pre-ultrasound days. Thankfully, and perhaps miraculously (per the track record of most couples), Megan and I are basically on the same page about how to introduce money and responsibility into Caleb’s life. We’ve discussed many times the various options from an allowance, money for chores, no money at all (he would only get what he earns), money for specific needs, and many other options.

I don’t think we have yet firmly determined what option or combination of options we prefer to try with Caleb, but we have come to an agreement that financial intelligence, responsibility and education are extremely important. And, for better or worse, the sooner the better…

Without going on too much of a rant, it amazes me how little financial education most kids receive. Why is it that saving is a foreign concept to most 20-year olds, and most people consider it healthy to use a credit card as a convenient mechanism for, “buy it now, pay for it later?” What about investing? Saving for retirement? The notion of compound interest? Opportunity cost? Return on investment? Risk levels and what investment options are accordingly appropriate? Bonds? And on, and on, and on…

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been actively involving Caleb in our regular daily “commerce” whether that involves purchasing food at a grocery store, or consolidating loose change. There are still many subjects that are far too detailed to broach at the moment (for instance, how many people really know the true definition of money? Hint: It’s not just the currency you might put in your wallet…), but there are also a fair number that can and should be taught, practiced, stressed, and explored at his age (just shy of 3 years old).

The first is the concept of buying things. If you think about “goods” from the perspective of a 2-year old, why wouldn’t the refrigerator magically always be stocked with food? Absent exposure to the reality of shopping for food, paying for it, and restocking the shelves of the refrigerator, a 2-year old has little reason to believe otherwise. Accordingly, the exercise of shopping (selecting a store, picking out goods, and then exchanging “money” for those goods) is an excellent first step. Things do not just appear — we have to find resources, select them, and exchange something of value to take them into our posession.

Caleb is regularly by my side picking out groceries and paying for them (I more or less always let him hand over the cash or a credit card [yes, we use credit cards, and heavily, but never carry a balance. If the interest is there, sometime I'll broach the subject of arbitrage, credit, healthy leveraging of "float," and how credit cards and other short-term debt instruments are actually phenomenal tools for those with their eyes open and finances in order.]). When we are missing something at home, apple juice, for instance, Caleb will declare that we need to go to the store and buy some more. Excellent — lesson 1 accomplished.

But now we have to deal with the more abstract concepts: what is money, where does it come from, how do we obtain it, what happens when it runs out, and what is its value? Sweet. Those are some pretty meaty concepts for a 2-year old (and again, at least from my perspective, evidently most 20-year olds).

The other night Caleb started talking about sharing with his friends “Mommy and Daddy’s money.” While this is a fairly innocent extension of the concept of sharing possessions with friends, I saw it as an excellent opportunity to start imbuing on Caleb the differences between “money” and toys, and why sharing the former is a bit more multi-layered than sharing the latter.

He and I had a short conversation about how Mommy and Daddy’s money was not for him to share and that it came into our possession as a result of the two of us working and earning wages and that we use it to pay for our house, our food, and a few other concrete items. He seemed to be staying with me so I told him that if he wanted to share money with his friends that he would have to earn his own, and to do so he would have to do a job of some kind. (Here’s where methodology, intent, teaching styles and so many other factors get muddled. Just bear with me — I know this is not the perfect approach though I will say that based on how Caleb internalizes things, I think it is absolutely the right approach for him.)

He seemed to quickly grasp the concept that if he wanted his own money he would have to earn it through some type of job. He did at one point suggest that he could borrow our money and I quickly squashed that idea with a very firm, “Mommy and Daddy do not borrow money Caleb, we only buy things if we have enough money and always try and save as much money as possible.” (Truthfully, we do borrow for specific items but are again very conservative about debt. We’ll only borrow for things like an education or a home, and always with the goal of obtaining the best rate and paying off the debt as quickly as possible. And technically, using a credit card, even when you never carry a balance, is also “borrowing” but again that gets into arbitrage, float, etc.)

So, the concept of earning money was broached and Caleb was ready to grab it by the horns. Megan and I let it sit for a day and discussed privately what kind of jobs we could give him and how much was reasonable for him to earn as a result. We agreed that we pretty firmly did not want to compensate him monetarily for “chores” or those tasks which he should reasonably be expected to complete as a normal responsibility (e.g. cleaning his room, putting things away that he uses in the house, etc.). But realistically, how many tasks are there that are not chore-based that you can give a 2-year old?

After discussing options for a while, we settled on giving him the job of feeding our dog Nadine. Megan noted that he is already pretty good at it (doesn’t make a mess, more or less gives her the right amount of food, can open and close the bag himself, etc.). Moreover, it is a task that can only be done twice a day, must always be completed, and needs to be done with relative care. Plus, he loves Nadine so it is a good choice regardless.

As an aside, one of the things I like most about it is that he can ONLY do the job twice a day, so his earnings are limited. When I was 5, my parents decided to pay me to pick up sticks in our yard. The pay rate was based on the number of sticks I picked up and not tied to any other metric. So I did what any other enterprising 5-year old would do. I gathered all of the biggest sticks I could find, plopped myself on our front porch, and quickly broke them down into hundreds of small twigs. Needless to say I made some pretty good money in those 10 minutes. …and my Dad, his wallet considerably lighter, was stuck picking up the sticks I left remaining in the yard…

While I want to encourage the same out-of-of-the-box thinking in Caleb, I want it to come healthfully and through a desire to be more strategic about his finances. At this point, as he is just now starting to dabble with the responsibility, I don’t want to move him along too quickly. And in watching him spend his earnings, I think the caution is entirely warranted…

After two days of feeding Nadine, Caleb amassed 40¢! We decided to pay him a dime each time, choosing the rate to ensure that he would make enough in a short enough time to actually be able to spend it (and thus further cement the concept of earning and spending, and hopefully thereafter, saving) but not so much that he would feel as if the task was easy (e.g. “I’ll just feed Nadine one time and now I can buy whatever I want”).

I put the 4 dimes he had earned into a zip-lock bag and took him to the neighborhood store. I told him that it was his money and he could buy whatever he wanted with it (we’ll eventually need to set boundaries, but for the moment, I tried to make the experience fun and not overly complex so as to maintain his interest level). Unfortunately, there is not much one can purchase at a store for 40¢, and most of it is laden with high fructose corn syrup and obscenely name-contorted chemicals. Nonetheless, after scouring the store for something healthful in the sub $1.00 range, I took a deep breath, put my strict rules about sugar to the side, and guided him to the bins of lollipops, mints, and peanut butter/chocolate treats (15¢, 10¢, and 10¢ per unit each, respectively).

To his credit, when we first arrived in the store Caleb went straight for a bottle of water, but unfortunately would have had to feed Nadine another 10 times to be able to buy one. That said, it was a great opportunity to teach him that even though he had money, his purchasing power was limited. So after explaining that concept and scanning the shelves some more, I resigned myself to showing him the candy bins in the front, as mentioned above. We discussed asking the clerk how much everything cost, which Caleb handled like a champ. After asking how much a lollipop cost, he said “WOOOOW!” when offered the reply of 15¢.

Caleb and I discussed things for a few moments playing out what combination of treats he could buy with 40¢, and upon my guidance, he settled for one of each to the tune of 35¢. He handed over his earnings and received 5¢ back (which prompted another “WOOOOOW!”). Beaming, he carried his goods and change back home and went straight to Megan to proudly relay the experience.

As expected, and against my very uptight and normally firm notions about sugar (especially sugar in the evening), he wolfed down all three of his sweets. As was his right — he earned it.

I am sure I come across as many things through this blog but a computer geek and an economics/finance junkie are probably not at the top of the list. Well… I stumbled across an incredibly creative website this afternoon while reading one of my favorite economics blogs. (Click on the image to the right to see the various images I created.)

The site, Wordle, creates an image based on a block of text you provide. The resulting image can be manipulated some with rough controls that allow you to alter the color palette, general arrangement of the words, as well as the typeface used. The text you submit is parsed using a number of criteria and then individual words are pulled out and arranged according to some logical order, and given weight based on frequency of use.

In looking at the images I created (see them all by clicking on the above image), I clearly have a recurring emphasis. Caleb’s name is consistently prominent as are a few select other words. Rather than blather on about what I see in each image, take a look for yourself.

I was writing an email this morning and Caleb came over to me to announce that he made a “nest.” I assumed that he was talking about a drawing — he had been drawing skateboards for a bit — and got up to go and check out his artwork. Boy was I wrong. He made his nest out of a pack of Happy Birthday candles. (Caleb, your imagination and creativity amaze me!)

Here’s a closeup of the nest he made.

And now a photo of Caleb proudly sitting next to his creation! He added two birds to the nest before I took the shot (the two rectangles).

This is not my normal fare for this blog, but I couldn’t resist… Check out this snippet from an article in the New York Times today:

As banks grow tighter with their dollars in a period of uncertainty, families are running up against credit limits, forcing many to live within their incomes.

Who would have thought that apparently living within one’s income was such a novel concept?

Caleb, if there is any one tidbit I would hope to distill the topic of personal finance down into, it would be to live within your means (and implicitly, I hope, to intelligently save the remainder).

On the left: Daddy’s Backpack. On the right: Caleb’s Backpack. After a lot of searching, I bought the latter earlier this afternoon as my main Christmas gift to Caleb. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that Caleb and I like to roam around Boston, or wherever else we are, having “adventures.” Mention to him that tomorrow is “Daddy Day” and ask him what he wants to do, and he’ll respond emphatically, “Have an adventure!”

Since we always load my red backpack (which he and I picked out together some months ago) with supplies before we head out the door for our adventures, he has built a strong connection to the backpack and having fun with me. If we are having a lazy afternoon, sometimes he’ll drag the backpack over to me and ask if I want to go outside and have an adventure. It is very cute and makes me very happy.

So, when thinking about what gift I could give him for Christmas, I decided it was time to get him his own backpack. I’ve been noodling on the idea for many weeks and tried a woman’s hydration pack on him during our trip to Vermont last month. The pack was the perfect overall size — the base of the pack rested perfectly at his hips, and it was narrow enough overall to appear to distribute weight well. Wanting to get him a functional pack, rather than simply one he’d “play” with, I became determined to find one that would fit and have everything he might want.

The one I settled on is from REI (just like my red one) and is specifically designed for kids. I am sure it is meant for a child a bit older than Caleb, but it is hard to discount that he is tall enough for the pack to fit him perfectly. I tried it on him in the store and loaded it up with a one-pound weight, and then later with a five-pound weight. He handled the latter like a champ, and since he’d probably never have more than a pound or two (some raisins, a few carrot sticks, a toy car, his sunglasses, maybe a sandwich, and possibly a smidgen of water) in the pack until he is bigger, I decided that we had finally found our pack.

As a plus it has a hydration bladder that rests inside the main compartment, though I think we’ll only fill it up with a small amount of water given the amount of weight it added when we tried it out at full capacity tonight.

At any rate, I really like to hem and haw over the gifts I give, even if it means that I don’t get someone something because I haven’t found or devised the right “thing.” I am very happy with the backpack and plan to stuff it with a few other special gifts as well that I know Caleb will appreciate.

When you have a moment, check out our friend Lisa’s blog Finding Kajal. Lisa lives across the street from us (indeed, our apartments are so close, we could use a soup-can phone to chat) and was one of the first people to welcome us to the neighborhood. She has been a big part of Caleb’s life since we moved to the North End, and has also been just as big a part of my, Megan’s and certainly Nadine’s lives as well.

Rather than preface what her blog is about, I’ll simply encourage you (emphatically) to check it out for yourself. With that, I leave you with a snippet from her first post to gnaw on:

“A favorite classic author of mine (whose name escapes me which shows how scary jetlag can be) wrote that family is not always those whose blood we share but those for whom we would shed blood. Some of us are lucky to have both… great family we were born with… and those friends in life we come across or children we come to call our own. In my case, I am definitely one of the lucky ones.”

Whew! It seems as if Caleb and I haven’t had a real Daddy Day in months. Indeed, we’ve been out of town so much lately, I think today is the first day we have had to just hang out in some time. Coupled with the fact that our computer resources are slim (my ancient laptop finally decided to stop working), our posts have simply lagged. Here’s a quick shot of what we’ve been up to since our early October trip to New York:

• A few trips to Connecticut to visit Nonna and Bappa (what Caleb calls my mother and father, respectively), including a very sad trip to attend my grandfather’s funeral (in New York, about an hour from my parents), another return trip to the cemetery with his youngest daughter a week later, and a quick trip the day after Thanksgiving;
• Semi-hosting Grandma and GrandpaGrandpa (what Caleb calls Megan’s mother and father, respectively) during their trip to Boston this Thanksgiving;
• A stop in Albany, NY (our Connecticut trip to attend my grandfather’s funeral came just a few days before a planned trip to Montréal and Vermont — our stop in Albany bridged the two); and,
• A few days in Montréal, Canada, and a few days in Stowe and Burlington, Vermont (for Megan and my 5-year wedding anniversary — Caleb had a blast!)

…like I said…Whew! All of the trips were car trips, so kudos to Caleb for handling the long rides like a champ. I am not sure what we will do for the Christmas holidays, but for now we don’t have anything major planned until February. So, perhaps we can capitalize on the non-travel time and make a few posts…