Thirteen Now

Tonight was Jane's 13th birthday party. We had it at the new Laser Tag that opened a few months ago. Jane has played there a few times with her friends and likes it, but the arena is a little different and it is so noisy there. With the city losing so much of the entertainment, this Laser Tag is always too crowded with players and is noisy. Jane will be a teenager....13 years old.....a terrible teen...........ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Hehe I shouldn't worry. She is sweet and will never be like terrible Jim.
I wonder what is ahead for Jane in her teenage years. Being her father has been so easy these past 12 years because Jane is perfectly behaved, kind, sensitive etc. But I know all teens do present new problems of parents ranging from small to large. the kids in Jane's school are well behaved and all of her classmates wonderful, problem free kids...for now. But "boys" are not yet in the equation, and we both know that males are trouble. Hehe Anyway, wish me good luck and hope that Jane will not change too much.
A question? Should an entrant of a contest here have top be a legal resident in order to be declared the winner? Well, that's what Toy's R Us is pondering. You see, Toys R Us Inc. has come under fire for denying a Chinese American infant a $25,000 savings bond prize in a contest for the New Year's first baby because the company said the girl's mother is not a legal U.S. resident. The decision, which came less than a month after it opened its first mainland China store, in Shanghai, has infuriated some Chinese American advocates.
Yuki Lin was born at the stroke of midnight at New York Downtown Hospital, according to hospital officials. She won a random drawing held to break a tie with two other babies entered in the contest, Toys "R" Us spokeswoman Kathleen Waugh said. The company had previously said the prize would go to the first American baby born in 2007.
Although promotional materials called for "all expectant New Year's mothers" to apply for the contest, Waugh said eligibility rules required babies' mothers to be legal residents. Many sweepstakes have such requirements, Waugh said. Although Yuki was born an American citizen, Waugh said the contest administrator was told that Yuki's mother "was not a legal resident of the United States." Attempts to reach Yuki's parents, Yan Zhu Liu and Han Lin, 22, for comment were unsuccessful early Saturday. Their immigration status was not clear.
The prize went instead to runner-up Jayden Swain, born 19 seconds after midnight at Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, Ga. The third baby in the running was born in Bay Shore, N.Y., to a couple from El Salvador. Haha You can bet that the parents of that baby was one of the 40 million Central Americans who immigrated illegally too!
Some Chinese American advocates say the company's decision smacks of second-class citizenship. "People are just pretty much outraged," said John Wang, president of the New York based Asian American Business Development Center. Janet Keller, a grandmother of the winning baby, said revisiting the contest would be unfair. "She was disqualified - that should be it," Keller said. "Don't go changing your mind now."
It all is just yet another example of how many illegal immigrants are pouring into the U.S now as George Bush "defends" the U.S in a far away non threatening Iraq. Maybe next year Toys R UYs should have a contest for the first LEGAL resident baby born in the U.S. ..no...on second thought, there aren't enough of those to make it interesting.