Milanimals

The story room for my little one.

Before Milan was born, my wife asked me to come up with ideas to decorate his room. We shopped around and we found out 90% of the decoration stickers are animals related. I like animals, I think they are cleverly designed and created, they are beautiful. But I just can’t justify buying couple pieces of stickers for $30-80. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a cheap dad, it is not about the price (For parents who seek for quick and clean solution, this price is not bad at all, the cost for cans of good quality primer and color paint for baby room can be more expensive), it is about the value and purpose. When I look at the safari themed one, it is true that they add more trees and rocks to make it look like a wild life story, but it doesn’t tell much and the little lion still seems lost to me. For me , the purpose of graphics is not just limited to visual stimuli only, it can also be used to present simple but powerful messages for educational purpose.

Elevations

So I decide to create my own set, I call it Milanimals, a set of room decoration stickers which illustrates the concept of problem solving and teamwork to my little one. In Milan’s room, those animals work as a team, helping each other to climb over 7 feet door frame, bounce through the drawer and fly over the crib and reach the ark at the end. So now, it is not a typical room with typical lion smiling at him for nothing, it is a story room with a group of animals showing him basic concepts which may benefit to him in the future.

When there is mountain of problems blocking your way, just finding a solution to pass through it is not good enough. See it as a challenge, use a fun way to master it.

Teamwork is fun, it always fun to be the one who take the glory, but that glory won’t exist without the team, so respect people who work with you or work for you.

When you ran out of solutions and options, don’t get stuck. Be creative and use your imagination for breakthrough. Even if you fell/fail, you can always find another path to your destination.

The Ark

Me: “Hey, Milan, where is the ark?”

Milan: “em….as I know, all the pairs are supposed to get into the ark…but there is no ark sticker on the wall, not even a ship or a boat!! So…. where is the ark?”

Me: “…………….Good question, I don’t think you can see the ark, because we are standing right inside the ark now! Welcome on board and please go to the windows and check if it stop snowing or not.”

Hidden Messages

Besides the main concept of problem solving and teamwork, I also embed 20+ hidden messages in your room. You are still young for those messages but you will discover them one by one as you grow up. Your grandfather never answer my question directly, instead, he usually throws more questions back to me. He said I will never think hard if he told me everything. He is right, it makes me become a strong thinker. So I decide not to tell you about the messages because they are not the right or wrong answers anyway, they are just my experience/philosophy which I want to share with you, you should have your own set when you grow up. I think by the time you discover and understand all the messages, the stickers might got peeled off already. It’s fine, that’s why I am writing this and I believe you will visit this page one day, may be earlier than I expected.

Both external factors and internal weakness can be the elephants which slow down your development, or resist you to push yourself to the next levels. Go check how heavy the elephant is and find the right way to lift them up like a little turtle.

So, egg first or chicken first? Is it that hard? Or you should get closer to figure out what’s inside the egg first? Watch out!! It could be an alligator or an alien. A careless assumption will eat you alive.

You think yourself look shy and cute here? I think so too, this is one of my favorite picture. After you grow up, you can still be cute but don’t be a shy duck. The skin of the shy duck is crispy, it is delicious for someone. You need to be tough like the wild one, with inches thick skin so you can feel free to speak up, express, pop up questions and give suggestions to others. Don’t forget all the best moment always starts from asking “Shall we dance?”

It’s 2:06 am now, heard you crying while I am typing. I think we both need to sleep now…..It’s 11:58 pm a night after, here is the live experiment, I have a rough day because I didn't get enough sleep last night. I don’t drink coffee if I need to work over night. Instead, I believe my mental strength is far stronger than those bitter water. I can work over nights and nights back in the school days without taking any caffeine, but the truth is my brain is usually 79% less creative compare the happy brain with 8 hours sleeping. Most of my ideas pop up in the morning, but not in the night time. So please wisely manage your time to sleep because our human body is designed to sleep and recharge in the dark night.

Everyone should have a dream, how about you, Milan? What is your dream? Where is your dream? How far are you from your dream? Your dream can be so big and way high over your head, it’s ok, I like it, that’s why we call it a dream. Just make sure you got the map, and you need to make the first step.

Doraemon, he is my inspiration, he is the one who taught me about imagination. The cat beside him is real, your auntie’s little Brüno, you met him in Jersey already.

So the bird on the right fly higher or the one on the left? It’s the left one. You don’t think so? Try it, I am standing right beside you, look at me, am I tall? And look at that little CN tower over there, do you think your dad is taller than the CN tower? You will always find different point of views if you use different perspectives. Also, don’t get high easily with the bunnies, it’s short term. See far for the magic rabbit, it’s long term. Don’t limit your vision to focus on levels, it’s about distance, it’s all about future.

Only child are always tagged as selfish, spoiled and lonely. But remember this, you are not the only one. If you learn how to be considerate and when to give, you can prove that you don’t live with other’s negative tags, instead, you are the one who distribute positive tags to others.

Don’t judge people based on their appearance. On the other hand, don’t feel bad when people make fun on yours, we just have different preferences.

Don’t judge people based on their skin color, want to bet which snoopy bank has more coins?

You are what you eat. Please consider your health.

Believe your pair of hands, you can use them to play good music to make people happy. Or, simply clap your hands to show appreciation can also make other happy as well.

Don’t judge people based on their profile, go meet good friends who contain positive substance which you can talk and you can enjoy with, 可口可樂.

I love shoes. But what I want to tell you here is not about fashion, it’s about a quote from my ex co-worker’s book “If you truly intend to put yourself in your customer’s shoes, you must be willing to remove your own shoes first.” I see this apply to anyone whom you care about. But don’t try on Cinderella’s, you will got hurt.

Yes, here are your feet, the left one is 5 months and the right one is 4 months. Can’t tell much about the difference, right? But let me tell you, it took us almost 1 hour to finish the first mold. The second one? 5 min. Learn from mistakes(yours and others) because they are part of the process.

Let’s look at the big picture, people usually don’t care how bright you are, instead, they care about how bright the room is. Your talent or idea might have potential to shine like a star, but you still need to work with another light to light up the opportunities.

Milan, it’s from my heart, thanks for giving me energy and chance to stretch my brain again. Enjoy the story room and I hope you can find something useful here for your future.