Fascinating Facts: Old Pregnancy Tests and LEGO Bricks – Ep. 397

Shanna

Hi, welcome to Big Fat Positive with Shanna and Laura. On this week's episode, we have our weekly check-ins. We have our special segment, Stump the Mom, where we learn some shocking things about pregnancy tests and kids' toys, and we wrap it up with our weekly BFPs and BFNs. Let's get started. Hello, everyone. Welcome to episode 397. Hi, Laura.

Laura

Hi, Shanna. I'm well. I'm ready to do my check-in.

Shanna

Oh, good, because that's what I was going to ask you to do as usual.

Laura

Great.

Shanna

Yeah, what's going on in your world?

Laura

So the kids are back in school this week, which is a very nice change, I have to say. Well, Augie, he had Monday and Tuesday off, but he went back Wednesday. So by the end of the week, both of them were back in school. Nice. We've had a little bit of time to get back into a normal schedule, and the kids did not like that. The kids did not want to go back to a regular schedule, but they did. The transition is hard back from these breaks. super hard, Augie, for the first time since he's been to his new school has really started saying things like, I don't want to go to school. I don't have any friends. And, you know, like all this stuff that really is pulling at my heartstrings. And when I pick him up at the end of the day, he's fine. So like I'm not too worried about it, you know, like I'm not like really fretting so much about it. But it does, you know, it's just like

Shanna

Ooh, that's a nice routine. It is, yeah. Is that extra 60 minutes structured? Are there instructors? They help with homework, give snacks? Like, what are you paying for? And I ask that because at my school, I just let my kids hang out. after dismissal, and they are allowed to do that. It's called limited supervision. They basically just like play outside with their friends, you know, and then I come pick them up when I can. It has to be before 4.30. So I'm curious if this is more structured.

Laura

This is a little bit more structured. So it's less structured than the true afterschool program, which does do homework help and all this other stuff. This is mostly outdoor play, but it does have supervision and specific instructors. And it's the only option we have because if Aki were to be picked up late, he would have to be sitting on a bench until three o'clock. You know, like you can't run around and play. So this is how they do it. So yeah, it's been great. That's awesome. It's cool that your school does that, though, especially for the older kids. You know, like as they get older, you know, they're fine. They're at school. Oh, yeah. They're in the gates. As long as they're not running off somewhere, they're fine. Yeah.

Shanna

Yeah, definitely. And because my girls have each other, too, like I've always felt OK about it. But let me tell you, when they say limited supervision, they mean a limited. I come in sometimes, I'm like, there's like two supervisors or security people and like 200 kids.

Laura

Oh my gosh. Oh wow, that's a lot. Okay, yeah. No, this is much more structured than that. Nice.

Shanna

Good.

Laura

So that's been good. And then one quick check-in that I wanted to drop into this week was that I took Sebastian to a new kind of doctor Oh. And I realized that I probably should have done it with Augie already, and I wanted to sort of drop it into my check-in as a PSA. Oh, OK. So for the past few months, as I've been just chatting with Sebastian about who knows what, he would say stuff like, why is that blowy? Or sometimes the TV is blurry and I was like, oh, sometimes the TV is blurry. That seems like a red flag. Yeah. He's gotten his eyes checked. I just pediatrician at the yearly checkups, but he's never been to an actual optometrist. And I wasn't even sure how to go about taking a kid to get their eyes checked because I was like, does he need an ophthalmologist? Does he need a pediatric optometrist? What do you even do?

Shanna

I can just picture little Sebastian in that huge chair with that big eye thing in front of his face, like looking through. Oh my gosh.

Laura

It was so cute. He did the little like, you look and you see a hot air balloon in the distance and you know, it estimates your prescription. And then he did like the thing where he sits in the chair and the doctor looks with his light into his eyes and it was just, oh my gosh, it was just so cute. I'm going to send you a couple of pictures.

Shanna

All right, let's see here. OMG, look at this handsome little dude in this big chair. He looks like he's being a great patient. He's very focused on the doctor. Like he's really listening. Oh, he's covering his left eye and looking at an eye chart and getting his eye looked out by the doctor with some light. Okay, this looks like an Excellent patient.

Laura

You know what? Every time I take him to the doctor, I'm reminded that he is such a good patient. The ENT who did his ear tubes comments on it every single time. He's like, wow, what a great patient. I don't know what it is. It's just personality or something. He just sits there and like answers the question. It's so cute. Wow.

Shanna

That's amazing. Okay, so does this little cutie need cutie glasses or what? Because that's what I'm rooting for here.

Laura

I know. It would be very cute if he needed glasses at the moment. No. However, we're going to come back in six months and see what happens. I guess the doctor said that like all babies start out at like a plus three or something like that. prescription and then it normalizes by a certain age like five. Yeah, I know. I didn't know it either. Well, we knew that newborns can only see a really short distance, right?

Shanna

Yeah, but I thought that cleared up a lot quicker than five.

Laura

No, apparently not. And so he was like, yeah, so all kids have some nearsightedness for the most part, at least that's the default. But what we want to do is keep an eye on it, make sure it's moving in the right direction, and then make a decision. He's like, one of his eyes is stronger than the other, but not enough to do patching yet. He's like, let's just check on it in six months. But he did say, I'm so glad you brought him in because before age eight is a really important time. to get kids into the optometrist because a lot of kids do, I know, right? This is why I'm saying this in the podcast because he said that a lot of kids do have this issue where one eye is much stronger than the other and it's really hard to pick up without proper testing, right? And if you start treating it before age eight, it's really pretty easy to fix in general. That's what the guy said.

Shanna

Okay, don't mind me while I open my phone here. Find an optometrist. Okay, check. I feel like maybe this is something that pediatricians should tell parents at their checkups.

Laura

Well, I think pediatricians are trained to do the basic screening, and they do catch a lot of this. But there's no harm if you can afford it. My insurance that pays for my contacts visits once a year will also pay for his visit once a year. And his return visit, even though it's a second visit in a year, it isn't that expensive. So yeah, it was a really good wake-up call for me. And yeah, I wanted to just spread the word. And it was fun, it was very non-invasive, you know?

Shanna

Yeah, I appreciate that. As someone who had horrible eyesight as a kid, mine didn't kick in until about third grade. I know how much things can be impacted with bad vision as a kid. So anything you can do to be on top of it and get ahead of it, I appreciate. And I'm definitely gonna take CeCe in, because she's still under that window. And I did take Elle once, because she was also complaining of blurry vision, but I think that was in second grade or something. And she got the all clear, but definitely going to do that for CECE. So thank you. You're welcome.

Laura

Also, I just looked this up because I had this vague memory of being told about a program where you could get free eye exams when your kid was a baby. And I never took advantage of it, embarrassingly. But it's called Infant C. That's infant S-E-E. And apparently, if your child is six to 12 months, they can get a free eye exam from any optometrist that is enrolled in the program. Apparently, it's any optometrist who is in the AOA, which I'm assuming is the American Optometry Association. So it should be widely available, but you can go to infantse.org to find a provider in your area. So if you have a little baby, do that.

Shanna

How cool. I'm assuming that's everywhere in the US, not just California. It seems like it.

Laura

Yeah.

Shanna

It seems national. Awesome.

Laura

That's a great resource, Laura. That's what we're here for, right? Doing the research and helping out our listeners. That's right. But yeah, that is my PSA-laden check-in for the week. Shanna, do you have a check-in for us? Do you have news for us or do you have a public service announcement?

Shanna

I don't have news. I don't have a public service announcement. I'm just sitting over here with major jealousy because while your kids went back to school, mine still haven't. They're still on winter break. Oh, that's right. They don't go back till Tuesday, okay? They even have like the Monday off.

Laura

That is cruel. That is like the cruelest cherry on top.

Shanna

Yes, yes. You know that Christmas song? It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. And there's one line in it that's like, and mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again. Right? My kids picked up on this line and were like, is that true, mom and dad? Is that true? And Steve and I looked at each other and were like, no, honey, that's not true. That's not true. But you know, it's like that push and pull of being a parent, right? Because I love having them home. I love, but also it is nice to have them in school during the day. But it was so funny that I got point blank asked that by my kids.

Laura

Bing Crosby might as well just be like, and by the way, Santa isn't real.

Shanna

Like, what the hell? I know, right? Why is he revealing all our secrets? Come on, Bing. You know, I never thought in my life I'd have beef with Bing, but here we are. Shanna, this is a check-in, not a never-have-I-ever segment. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Okay, back on track. Anyway, so for this week, things in our house have actually turned great. Cece is totally over her illness. Oh, thank goodness. Yes, I'm so happy. And as you know, the last couple of weeks, Elle's been going to a winter camp called Stephen Kate's. here in LA and CECE was able to join a couple of those, right? Well, for this week, they had a very special version of this winter camp, which they called a field trip camp. And all it is is I take my kids to a park where they meet up with the director and the counselors and stuff and all the other kids.

Laura

That sounds fun and also very nerve wracking. In what regard? Well, in that I have generalized anxiety. You know what I mean? Like in that like they don't know anyone at the camp and who are these counselors and where are they going and who's going to be supervising basically in that I'm a control freak.

Shanna

Yes. And I totally understand that, that anxiety. I think it was quelled by the fact that they did two weeks at the regular like onsite camp with the program and loved it. I mean, L just could not wait to go back every single day. So we had a good experience. Also, we had found out about it through our jobs, right? They are the like premier contracted subsidized child care company that works with my job that I used to have and Steve's job. So it felt a little more like a known entity because of that. Yeah, totally. And also because my kids are older, I don't think I would be sending like, you know, my five year, I think you even have to be like seven, maybe to do the whole thing in general. So. Yeah, that makes sense. And they have each other.

Laura

You know what I mean? Yes. Cici is just seven. And I can see that being a little young, but you know, she she qualifies. But you might be more nervous if she didn't have her almost 10 year old sister right there with her. You know?

Shanna

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. But yeah, so the itineraries were really fun for them. They got to go one day to the Science Center, then Chuck E. Cheese for lunch, and then like a park to play at the end of the day. Another day was like they went to Griffith Park in the morning. They went to, I don't know, Dave's Hot Wings for lunch and then the Observatory and then Dave and Busters or something like that. I mean, it was like pretty fun stuff that they got to do. That is super fun. Did you have to send money for Dave and Busters? No, no, nothing. I didn't have to send lunch. I didn't have to send snacks, money, nothing. It was all covered. Amazing. Yeah. So this is always, okay, maybe I do have a little PSA. If you are an employee of a company, look to see if they have any childcare benefits or subsidies because that's how we got connected with this camp.

Laura

Good to know.

Shanna

I'm not employed like that, but if I were, I would look. Yeah. The only hitch in the plan was that on Tuesday, I did not sign the girls up for the camp because Elle was supposed to get a cavity filled. And at the last minute, the dentist was like, I'm sick. I need to cancel your appointment. So we had Tuesday all to ourselves. I tried to get them into the camp at the last minute and it was a no go. It was already full. So the girls were so disappointed that they had to miss out on a day of this field trip camp. Shanna, wonderful that there I am. I was like, we're gonna do mommy field trip camp. And it was my mission to create that vibe, but for the three of us. It's no longer Stephen Kate's camp. It's mommy and mommy's camp. That's right, but you are a part of it. Thank goodness. Cause I knew that Augie hadn't gone back to school just yet. So I like texted you in the morning.

Laura

Yes, you had said something about maybe going to a library and I was like, well, the Glendale library is actually really nice. And you were game to come down here. So I was like, awesome. It's easy for us. We're going to walk. We ended up not walking because I spent like an hour looking for a freaking book that I never found to return. Thankfully, the Glendale Library is very generous about its window for return. So we were still able to check books out even though that one was way overdue. Do you still have to find that book though? Oh, get on it. But we came down and met you guys and I felt very, what's the word for this? When you like, you know, when you give an endorsement to something and then you worry that you've oversold it, You know what I mean like I was like oh yes the Glendale library is great. The central library is awesome.

Shanna

Oh yeah. And chuffed you should have been because that library is beautiful. The children's area is incredible. And it was just, I don't know, I was trying to find something free or cheap for the morning time and it just fit the bill perfectly. And then we went over to In-N-Out for lunch. That was the second thing on the itinerary. Yes, where many drinks were spilled, but much fun was had.

Laura

I know. The other reason I was very pleased that you wanted to go to the library was like, it was super fun, but it's not like so fun that Sebastian was going to be absolutely devastated that he missed it. You know what I mean? Like he was sad when we were like, oh, we ended up seeing L and C.C. today. He was definitely sad. But, you know, we go to the library a fair amount and we live so close to it. It's not like he can never go. But if we had gone somewhere like, you know, Universal Studios. or something, it would have been like, I wouldn't have been able to go is what I think would have happened. I would have been like, I just cannot have like that much fun without him, like especially on a day when he was so upset that he had to go to school and Augie did it. Oh yeah. Yeah, so. Yeah, it worked out. No, that would have not been good.

Shanna

Yeah, so you guys went off and did that and I took the girls to Skyzone, which is an indoor trampoline park. here because that's something they were supposed to do at Stephen Cates was go to, I don't know, off the wall or something like that. And I know how much they love that kind of place. And I was like, you know what? Mama can take you there. Mama's a good camp director. So we did that for a couple hours and came home at the end of the day exhausted, but just like very regulated. That's the surprising thing about this entire week is you would think that these long days of the activities and going out into the city would exhaust my children. And it, I guess it did a bit, but it regulated them. It was so odd. Like they had so much stimulation and so much interaction that they came home and were just pleasant. And I don't know.

Laura

Yeah. I find that happens with us too. And me too. That's the things like I was thinking about that day last summer when I was like, let's just do mommy camp. And I was like, let's go to the Hollywood Bowl and listen to them rehearse Jurassic Park. And then let's go to Kids Empire and meet Ellen Cici and Shanna. And then we're going to go over to their house and, you know, hang out even more. And then we're going to get home super late. And I thought I would be like wiped. But again, it was like filling all of our cups. And I think part of the fun of it was that I intentionally took the day off, like off off. I was like, no work is getting done today. I have no other agenda but to do this. And I was able to focus on it and not feel like I was multitasking and getting behind on stuff. So I didn't feel so frantic at the end of the day.

Shanna

Oh, you hit the nail on the head. That's exactly what happened with me this day. I mentally took the day off of anything else for me. It was just about this. And there is such joy and relief and peace in just focusing on what's going on. I don't know how or why we've developed into these people who are like, must do everything all at once. And if I'm doing this, I'm worried about that I'm missing out on this and it's just a lot of chaos and stress and to get rid of that and then just physically do things in the world all day, it just felt amazing. I'm so glad you got to do that. It's like a little mini vacation. Kind of, yeah. And it's inspired me to approach days off occasionally in this way. Now that I know that my girls can handle it, they like being out in the world for long stretches of time, that it makes us all feel good, I feel inspired to do this kind of thing more.

Laura

But it's not true. Well, so just getting older, you don't have to like bring a whole fucking diaper bag with you everywhere you go. You know what I mean? You don't have to have like a change of clothes for each kid and five billion snacks and, you know, just like every contingency you could imagine and scheduled around naps, you know, now we can just pick up and. Go. I feel like you see all this stuff, you know, people being like, oh, everyone's telling me just you wait till your kids are older. They're going to be harder. Things are going to be more difficult. You're going to miss the baby. And I feel like we are here to tell you like there are a lot of upsides to them getting older. Yeah.

Shanna

This is one of them. Absolutely. The one thing you should bring with you, though, is just a shit ton of paper towels in case your kid spills literally every beverage that you get them. No, I'm just kidding. We figured it out. We managed. We managed. But yeah, so that was my fun filled, interesting week. And yeah, that's it for my check-in. Shall we move on to the special segment then? Oh, yes.

Laura

We are back in our special segment for this week is Stump the Mom where Shanna and I quiz each other with some trivia questions and play a little game to see who can best each other in the match of the mom minds. The mom thunderdome. So, Shanna, I think it's time to get started. Do you have your first question for me?

Shanna

I do. Okay. Here we go. What was the approximate cost of having a baby in a U.S. hospital in the 1950s? This includes room, board, and care for mother and baby for about five to seven days. Okay. Well, five to seven days. Oh, you need some answer choices.

Laura

I do. Yeah. I mean, I could throw a number out.

Shanna

OK. A, $100 to $200. B, $500 to $600. Or C, $800 to $900. Hmm.

Laura

Let's see. Well, there's been a lot of inflation, and this is before medical costs were completely through the roof. Considering your C-section explanation of benefits was $99,000, let's work backwards.

Shanna

I am sure. Are you sure? Okay, good, because that is correct. Yeah, I came across some receipts that people have shared of their grandmothers when they gave birth. back in the 50s, and it is stunning. Here, I'm gonna send you a couple, along with a pamphlet from a hospital that lists all of their maternity rates around this time.

Laura

Okay, you've sent it my way. Let's see. This first one is an itemized bill, laboratory, room and board, telephone, anesthesia. Oh, let's see. Anesthesia cost $25. Oh my gosh. Wow.

Shanna

But still a really good deal considering nowadays the price of giving birth in a hospital and staying in a couple nights is anywhere from like 20,000 to like my case right 99,000 or even more depending on the complications and stuff. But as you mentioned, not only is this before the times of inflated prices, it's also before the times of ultrasounds, heart monitors a lot of the technological equipment that is used now, which is also expensive.

Laura

You also sent me a pamphlet that shows maternity rates at a hospital in 1947. And it shows, first of all, I love that it shows you what things are going to cost. Like, I never got this. I got told how much I was going to pay after someone like whose their entire job is to figure out how much people are going to pay. But like nothing itemized. And it shows Ward starting at $10.50. Semi private starting at $12. Private room starting at $13.50. And there's an X next to it. The other person would be like, yeah, this is what I want. Uh-huh. Yes, ladies. And you could get a deluxe private for $16, which let's see, let's put it into the inflation calculator. $16 would be almost $200 a night. So, OK, fair enough. But still, way cheaper. Like, that's like a nice, you know, that's like a hotel rate as opposed to Lord knows what we're paying now.

Shanna

No, I wonder what made it deluxe. Oh, and here it mentions that caring for the baby in the nursery is $2 per day. That's some affordable childcare right there. Which includes formula, it looks like. Look at that, what a smoke and deal. Oh, here's one interesting thing too. It says that the obstetrical service cost is $17.50. And then there's a note that says, Caesarean operation increases the above charge by $15. So it's just $15 more. to have the C-section.

Laura

Not $99,000?

Shanna

Not $99,000, oh my gosh. And by the way, I did not pay personally $99,000. Thankfully, my insurance covered most of it, so that is good. But yeah, that's my first stumped mom. Do you have one for me? Oh yeah, okay.

Laura

Here's a question for you, Shanna. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. What new AI-powered toy has caused controversy amongst diehard fans?

Shanna

Oh boy.

Laura

Is it A, the Teddy Ruxpin Storytelling Bear has been relaunched this time powered by ChatGPT.

Shanna

Oh boy, okay, these are all various levels of annoying and I love them. Teddy Ruxbin, what a blast from the past. I always wanted one so bad. I don't think I ever got one.

Laura

For our younger listeners, would you like to describe what a Teddy Ruxbin was?

Shanna

From what I remember, it was a teddy bear, kind of an animatronic teddy bear, maybe about 18 inches tall, and it had like a cassette tape deck in its back, I think, and you would put a tape in and play and it would like, you know, look like it was talking or telling you stories and stuff like that. That reminds me that Steve got a teddy rock spin from a buy nothing neighbor like two years ago and it's just sitting in our garage. We haven't even taken it out of the bag.

Laura

Oh, yeah. You got to figure that out.

Shanna

Yeah. We got to figure that out stat. Okay. Or Legos talking to each other or Lincoln log app. I feel like Lincoln Log is out of the game. I don't think they're doing stuff like developing apps anymore. I think they're comfortable in their Abraham Lincoln Log cabin lane. So I don't think it's that one. And Teddy Rockspin, I feel like that's a good decoy because I could definitely see that happening and I love it. But I think it's Legos because what a weird thing to like have Legos talk to each other. And that's just like the perfect thing AI would try to do. So I'm going to go Lego. You are correct.

Laura

Those are good decoys though. Thank you. Actually, I mean, I can see the Teddy Ruxpin bear happening. Yeah. This question may be invalid in like six months because they may announce that this is happening. But for now, that is not true. And yes, Lincoln Logs did not create an app, but LEGO did in fact introduce something they're calling smart play and the way it works is there's one little brick. It's a two by six like traditional brick and it has this itty bitty little tiny microprocessor in it or chip or something. I don't know. I don't do hardware. I do software.

Shanna

Well, yeah, it sounds interesting and I'm curious to see what it's like when you get 50 new sets of these. So you let us know.

Laura

I better start saving up now. Yeah. All right. Well, we're both one for one. Shanna, do you have another question for me? Yeah.

Shanna

Okay. This one is also a little look back in time. Which phrase was commonly used? in the 1930s to 1950s to refer to a positive pregnancy test. A, the tadpole crashed. B, the rabbit died. C, the potato is planted.

Laura

I'm not sure if you'll be shocked to know that I know this. I thought you might. I thought you might. Obscure medical history kind of a jam. I do enjoy a weird piece of medical history. The answer is the rabbit died. Yes. And I think I know why.

Shanna

Part of me was like, I think Laura might know this. But then I was like, if Laura knew this, why the hell hasn't she told me? And why haven't we talked about it on the show? Because this is, in my mind, absolutely bananas.

Laura

You know what? I think this is one of those like blind spots where it's just something I knew. So I just assume everyone else knows it. And so I haven't brought it up. I mean, I'm sorry if I haven't brought it up before. It is wild. It is a really fun. I mean, also like maybe I was like, maybe we shouldn't talk about rabbits dying. That makes people sad, right?

Shanna

It does. But people need to know this. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. Listeners, if you don't know this, here we go. Back in like the 1930s to 1950s,

Laura

This was like a way of saying that someone was pregnant. I'm just imagining if pregnancy tests never got developed, but the internet did, right? Like we got to this point where we're at the world right now, but we never got like a P on the stick pregnancy test. And people flocked to the internet in anonymous forums to post their dissected rabbit ovaries to ask people like, do you see some growth? Like.

Shanna

No, yes, we do. We do. It's OK. It's OK. But I mean, here's the thing. Not everybody was getting pregnancy tests back then. Anyway, right? Usually it's like, Did I miss my period? Am I looking pregnant? I think people just figured it out at some point, right? As opposed to happy to go and get a test because it's not like there was early care, ultrasounds, any of that kind of stuff then. So there wasn't as much urgency to know early if a person was pregnant.

Laura

I do know that I think you were the one who talked about this like years ago on the podcast is that there used to be all kinds of pregnancy test methods throughout history like peeing on wheat, like women would pee on wheat to see if it grew. And if it grew, it might mean you're pregnant because I don't know what the mechanism was there. But it's interesting, the history of pregnancy tests.

Shanna

Yeah, it looks like the first home kits didn't come out until the 1970s. I'm sure they were doing that type of testing in doctors' offices and labs a little before that. But for a while, they were doing these rapid tests.

Laura

You know, the other thing is that some people continue to bleed as though it's a period, right? Like throughout their pregnancy, we all know about cryptic pregnancy. So I can see why people would want a pregnancy test, even if it requires multiple days' weight and a lot of effort. Well, I have to say, I am glad we live in a era of bulk tests you can buy online so you can test as many times as you want, because that was my jam when I was trying to conceive.

Shanna

Yes. Yes. Yes. Very glad for that. I think I bought a pack of 100 once. It's like burning through up.

Laura

Oh, man.

Shanna

Okay. Do you have another Stump The Mom question for me?

Laura

I do. So I'm going to stick with the Lego theme because I love having a theme for my Stump The Mom. Question number two. Which one of these Lego sets is worth over $14,000 on the secondhand market. Is it A, a reproduction of Ole Kirk Christiansen, the founder of Lego's house that is somewhere in Denmark, I guess? I'm going to tell you how many pieces and how many mini figures there are to help you figure it out. So that one has 910 pieces and zero mini figures. Okay. Mm-hmm. Is it a model of a blue UNICEF van that only has 54 pieces and one minifig? Mm-hmm. Or is it, see, the Ultimate Collector Series Death Star that has 4,016 pieces and 27 minifigs?

Shanna

Whoa. So one of these is worth $14,000 but not distributed through Lego, like distributed through the black market or what are you talking about?

Laura

There's a resale market, you know. Oh. Many sets are limited run or are no longer made. I think they call them retired. And so people buy them on the secondhand market.

Shanna

Got it. It strikes me that this has got to be some sort of collectible item. It's got to be rare. It's got to be unique.

Laura

I'm going to send you some pictures to help you figure it out, OK? Oh, OK. Of the three sets so you can compare. OK. I've sent you pictures of each item in order so you can make a decision.

Shanna

Okay, let's see. All right, old Kirk's house, very charming, a nice big red roof, looks very, I don't know, Scandinavian, but a pretty basic set, and definitely no min-figs or whatever you call them. Okay, this is... This UNICEF truck looks tiny. It's hard to tell the scale of it. It almost looks like something that would have come with a Lego kit I played with as a kid. Interesting. Or, oh my god, this Star Wars kit is just over the top. This thing is humongous. It looks like the size of a bathroom mirror. Round, huge, tons and tons of these little figurines and pieces. I think that's a decoy. I'm marking that one off the list. You know, the old Kirk Christiansen house is tempting because it's like, oh, it's like the lore and the history and maybe they only made a few. But this tiny ass little truck is really speaking to me.

Laura

Unfortunately, it was Ole Kirk's house.

Shanna

That's so interesting. If I ever find time in my days, I will head on over there and check that out.

Laura

All right. Well, I managed to fool you on that one, so I've pulled ahead, but you do have one more question for me, so it's anyone's game still.

Shanna

Indeed it is. All right. In a similar vein, but also looking back into history a bit, what popular children's toy was originally invented for adults and later repurposed for kids? Okay. A. Slinky. B. Play-Doh. C. Lego.

Laura

This is a really good question because I feel like I should have looked more into the history of Lego while doing my research. So I would know that I could at least I could at least eliminate that. But I am going to eliminate it just because during my research, I did find some like kids sets like the original sets from like the 1950s that were like had kids on them. So I'm just going to say that's out, although I might be upset about eliminating that right off the bat. Slinky and Play-Doh. I do have this memory of us talking about slinkies and how during the Vietnam War, they were encouraging soldiers to use them as makeshift intent. and stuff, but they were still originally kids toys. And I remember there was a whole story about Slinky being designed as a kids toy that like anyone could afford. So I feel like I'm going to have to eliminate that as well.

Shanna

You are? Correct. Good job. Thank you. Yeah. Play-Doh was first manufactured in Cincinnati, Ohio as a wallpaper cleaner. Oh, interesting. Right? I was like, what? Obviously, it wasn't called Play-Doh. It was this goopy, sticky, doughy stuff to clean soot and coal off of people's wallpaper because the heating at the time was like coal heating inside of homes and it released a lot of this like sooty stuff. You don't want to like wipe down wallpaper with you know, wet, anything really, right? Because then you get the wallpaper wet. So you get this stuff that kind of you rub it along the wallpaper and it just takes the soot off.

Laura

Well, I can confirm that Play-Doh picks up every little crumb of anything around. Like if you ever drop a piece of Play-Doh on the floor it's so gross. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Okay, so when did it become a kid's toy? Because my kids will try to steal any of my cleaning implements, you know, mops, brooms. They just love trying to get in the way of me getting some cleaning done. I love to have them help me. But you know what it is, like I have the hand back and they're like, can I do it? And you're like, yeah. Yeah, yeah, you can. OK, like now it's going to take another hour. But yes, you can. Like I want you to learn how to do it. Exactly. But I could see if I was using some putty to clean the wall, they would be on my ass and be like, mommy, mommy, what's that? What's that kind of thing with that? So yeah.

Shanna

Well, you're kind of along the right track. Well, first of all, cold heating started to fade out inside of homes. And so there wasn't as much need for this wallpaper cleaning putty anymore. But then there was a school teacher who had some of this extra putty around her classroom and realized that her kids really loved playing with it. And this sparked an idea in the mind of The inventor's nephew, his name is Joe McVicker. He was like, ooh, we can repurpose this product, rebrand it, and make it a kid's toy and still make lots of money on our product. So that's what happened around the 1950s.

Laura

Wow. And the rest is history. I mean, everyone loves Play-Doh. My kids still love Play-Doh. I got them some new refresh Play-Doh for Christmas.

Shanna

It's so good. Now they just need to invent something to pick up all of the hard bits and pieces of Play-Doh that get left behind after your kid shoved Play-Doh through a guy with holes for hair and it all comes out and then they get little noodle hair, hard bits. Okay, that was a rant. Sorry about that. It does get amazingly hard.

Laura

Rock hard.

Shanna

Yeah. Stepping on an old piece of Play-Doh is akin to stepping on a Lego in my mind. Yeah.

Laura

Generally sharper, too. Yeah.

Shanna

Yeah, lots of sharp edges. Well, good job, friend. You've got three out of three. You've already beat me, so I guess we don't even need to do your question.

Laura

But we should still do it after the break, don't you think? Oh, yes, of course.

Shanna

We're back and Laura has one more stumped the mom trivia question for me. Laura, let me have it. Okay.

Laura

So in the last question, I asked you about Lego capitalism, the astronomical resale value of certain Lego sets. But enough capitalism for now. Let's talk about Lego communism. Oh, okay. Let's say all the LEGO pieces ever made were evenly divided between all the people alive. If we evenly divided all those LEGO pieces, how many LEGOs would each person have? Oh boy. Five to ten, fifty to two hundred, or eight hundred to a thousand. All the people alive in the world right now? In the world right now, every single one of them. What is that? You know, I'm not even sure what it is at the moment. Let's see. According to the internet, the current world population is over 8 billion.

Shanna

8 billion? I mean, I'm already a gog that there are 8 billion Lego pieces in the world. Let's see. You know it's just there cannot possibly be 800 to a thousand per person I just can't even do the math on that in the moment but it seems too big I don't know I'm gonna go with the smallest one because it just I don't know cuz I want it to be that what is it with the answer.

Laura

Well, no one knows the exact answer, right? Because it's kind of hard to estimate exactly how many Lego pieces have been made. But the best estimate we have right now is that there have been over 1.1 trillion pieces, that's with a T, trillion pieces that have been produced. Geez. And that comes out to about 140 pieces per person on the entire planet. Wow, you could make two UNICEF trucks with that. Exactly. Everyone can have their own UNICEF truck. In theory, except for we are definitely hogging more than our fair share, Shanna. We have way more than 140 pieces per person in this house. We're definitely closer to having 1,000 pieces per person in this house. Maybe probably more, way more than that. You've seen our bins. Yeah. Sorry for anyone out there who doesn't have Legos. It's our fault. You don't have your Lego share. But yeah, it is pretty wild. Yeah, that is so many.

Shanna

Yeah, many times. How many billions is in a trillion?

Laura

A thousand, right? A trillion, a thousand billion.

Shanna

OK, we could do it a thousand times. Let's get to it. Let's get to it. I need a New Year's resolution. Let's do it.

Laura

Well, just come over. I'm sure we have at least one billion in our playroom, so. All right, that's a good start.

Shanna

Well, this has been very fun. Laura, congratulations on your win. Thank you. Thank you. Well-deserved, 100% gold star, A plus. I know you love hearing those accolades. I'm proud of you.

Laura

Thank you. Thank you. And you know what? I stacked the deck because I know that you guys are not as much of a Lego house as we are. So I maybe did not pick your strongest category.

Shanna

Good point. Well, next time, I'm going to have to make all my questions about Hello Kitty.

Laura

Do it. I dare you.

Shanna

Challenge accepted. All right. Well, that's it for stomp the mom. Should we move on to our BFPs and BFNs? Yes, we should.

Laura

My BFP is a stocking stuffer that Santa put into the boys' stocking at Christmas. I always like to encourage Santa to get them a bath toy to try to make bath time interesting again, you know? Yeah. You know, they're interest wanes and we have to come up with new and exciting ways to get them into the bath. And I had been fully influenced by TikTok shop ads for this product that I impulse ordered one day and thought, oh, I don't know. Like, am I overdoing it? Like, is this too much? And I'm so glad I did because it was such a big hit. And that is a bath bomb potion toy. Ooh, that sounds fun. So I sent you a listing. You can get it a bunch of places. If you just search like bath bomb potion, you can probably find it. It's very reliably found on TikTok shop as well. If you are a person who shops on TikTok shop, but you can get the gist. Let's see.

Shanna

Oh, tub works kids bath bomb potion kit. All right. Oh, OK. So it looks like a six pack that comes with six. What are these called? Beakers, flasks. Yeah, beakers, flasks. Yeah. Yeah, like sciencey glass containers. And it looks like maybe you put a bath bomb in it and then watch it like fizz over the top like a post. This looks cool.

Laura

They come preloaded with the bath bomb stuff, which is nice. And they're these little like, they're a little ball at the bottom and, you know, like a long tube at the top type of flask. And yeah, you just add water to it. And the fun part about it is it's kind of slow. So like when the water hits the top of it, that part fizzes up and makes a bath bomb situation. And you have to make sure you open the entire top. It has like a little paper seal, you know, like wax paper seal. And I thankfully saw a TikTok that was like, make sure you open up the whole top because otherwise shoots all. the ceiling. But it shoots out. It's super fun. It lasts a long time. And it's also cool because you have these flasks at the end. And my kids always like to pretend they're making like potions and doing science experiments in the bath anyway. So it's the gift that keeps on giving.

Shanna

Oh, that sounds super fun. I'm going to have to get some for the kiddos because our bath toy situation is bleak these days. Yeah, I know.

Laura

They really go bad very quickly or like get boring very quickly. So yeah, yeah, it's always good to refresh. So yeah, that is my BFP. Shanna, how about you? Do you have a BFP or a BFN?

Shanna

I also have a BFP. My BFP is that we went to a little activity at our local library, not the big fancy Glendale library or little modest library in our neighborhood because I've been looking for things to do with the kids that don't cost a lot of money. And I remembered that our libraries offer neat programs, activities, classes, et cetera. So I was like, I wonder what they have going on. And it just so happened that what was going on that day was read two dogs at your library. And I was like, I can barely think of an activity that's more in alignment with my children. I mean, if it were read to cats, that would be probably even better. Cats don't like to sit still and get read, too. No, no they don't. But this dog, Saffron, sure did. So we went down to the library and Steve came. His mom came. It was a little family affair.

Laura

What an adorable way to get your kids to practice reading out loud too. Yeah, because I feel like every time I ask Augie to read something to me, you know, he's he's working on his reading. It's not nearly as fluid as he says, but you know what I mean? Like he's getting there. You know, it's like pulling teeth. I don't want to you read it. But if there was a dog listening, like then he might just do it.

Shanna

Yeah. There's the thing too where if the child reads to an adult, there might be this nervousness of like, oh, I don't want to mispronounce something or I'm worried they might judge me or correct me. But, you know, who's not going to do that? Saffron. Saffron don't care, you know? So it's very safe. It's a very safe way for them to practice reading out loud. So fun, I love that. Yeah. Too bad Radley doesn't have the vibes of a library dog.

Laura

Yeah, Radley's not so much a library dog. He's not a library dog, but we love him anyway. Yeah, he's more like a monster truck rally dog, you know?

Shanna

100%. Anyway, that's my BFP and I think that's it for our show. I think it is. Listeners, if you have any thoughts, comments, feedback on anything we talked about today, if you have any stumped the moms that you want to share with us, you know we would love to hear them. Laura, where can everyone find us?

Laura

We're on all the social medias at BFP podcast. We also have a website, Big Fat Positive podcast.com. And if you want to send us an email, send it to contact at Big Fat Positive podcast.com. Finally, if you want to join the coolest and most supportive group of people on the whole internet, just search Facebook for BFP community. It's a private group. So you got a request to join and make sure you answer those two membership questions. So we know you're not a robot, but once you do that, you'll be sent straight through to all the amazing conversations we're having in there.

Shanna

Our show is produced by Laura Birek, Shanna Micko, and Steve Yager. Thanks for listening, everyone. Have a big, fat, positive week. Bye. Bye.