Tag: kids

Snow Day

The kids are super excited for the snow today. They’re calling for 4-8 inches. These kids have really never had a good snow. They were either too young or not yet born for Snowmaggeddon and we’ve been setting records in the DC area over the last couple years for our lack of snow.

Unfortunately, The Wife and I both have work we have to do, even though OPM closed the federal government. And I have to get a bike ride in for Freezing Saddles.

Also, for the record, it is nearly 9AM and The Wife is still in bed. I’ve already been to the gym, made coffee, done some work, and fed the kids breakfast.

My kid is way cuter than that

I found out today that Parents.com is having a contest to get your cute kid on the cover of their magazine. No offense to little Trevor, Cover Model 2008, but my little clownfish is a bazillion times cuter. We have no plans this weekend beyond her first baseball game (Orioles at Nationals on Sunday). So I’m planning to take some really cute pictures. What I need from you, readers (All of you who are still paying attention after the lack of updates these recent months), is suggestions on cutening up my daughter. She’s already off-the-charts cute, but I need more. I need photos of her that will literally make your eyeballs melt with cuteness. Like a puppy raised to the kitten power. I want to make Anne Geddes’ babies look like little gargoyles. How do I do that? Any suggestions are welcome. She’s a very smiley baby, so that isn’t an issue. What makes a cute baby photo?

Not just for chicks, this thing is going to save me

Despite the implication from the website that it’s for women only, our Moby Wrap is maybe going to save my November. This is my seventh National Novel Writing Month, and I’ve only failed to finish once. But I was afraid I was doomed to failure this year. It’s one thing for the wife to roll her eyes and go about her business while I write, but it’s quite another for me to say, “Sweetheart, will you take care of the kid for a little longer while I write my yearly novel?” They’re home together all day, and I know the wife looks forward to being able to move around on her own for a bit when I get back. But with the Moby, I can write AND watch my daughter. In fact, I’m doing it right now while the wife is out running an errand. I’m sitting here, typing away, while the kid is sleeping happily in her Moby. It has taken a little getting used to – it slightly hard to sit and type while wearing it. But it sure beats listening to the kid scream, or dumping all parenting responsibilities on the wife. And everyone says wearing your baby is great bonding, although I’m not sure how useful it is if she’s just asleep the whole time. Note to Moby Wrap – put a guy on your front page! It’s already hard enough to overcome parent/gender stereotypes without you pitching in to reinforce them. These things are great for fathers, too. And not just because women think that guys wearing their children are sexy (Trust me, I’ve walked through Dupont and Adams Morgan wearing her, and I’ve never gotten so much attention from women in my life). Wearing your children is great for you, too. It keeps your hands free AND puts the kid to sleep. That means you can drink a beer and watch the game and still be a good dad. And if your wife is like mine, the more you watch the kid, the more she cooks and cleans. Everyone wins!

Her favorite pastime


Originally uploaded by thetejon

I hate the “I’m sorry I haven’t updated my blog” posts, but I’d like to point out that I actually do have a really good excuse (Pictured at left).

Anyway, my excuse loves to look at herself in the mirror while she’s being changed. I’m not sure what she thinks she’s looking at, because I don’t think she really has that self-awareness. But any time she’s awake, not eating, and not screaming, I’m happy, so at this point I don’t care. People keep telling me that the six week mark is where it all turns around and gets easier. We’re almost at three weeks. I have to say that, while I love my daughter and still can’t believe she’s real, the first few weeks of parenting are hard. I wasn’t really prepared for this. It’s cool, though. At least I have a photo subject that doesn’t (can’t) run away.

I think I’m awake


Originally uploaded by thetejon

On the bright side, the kid met her great grandmother yesterday. She even behaved herself.

On the other hand, we are going to have to teach her that staying up until 2AM is moderately tolerable on the weekend, but highly frowned upon when Mommy has to take her to the doctor at 8AM the next day and Daddy has to go to work.

The baby is officially late

The official due date has come and gone, and the house is still baby-free. That’s okay, because it’s perfectly normal for first-time mothers to be late. However, it’s not okay, because the wife would really like to be done with this whole pregnancy thing. And I’d really like to meet our kid. We’re not quite at the “spicy food and pineapple” stage, or any of the other crazy techniques to entice the kid to come out. For all you parents out there – did you do anything to get the kid to come out? I’d especially like to hear things that 1) worked and 2) are fun for me. Like, if you went out to a really nice dinner, maybe? Or I really like the suggestion that pregnant women should clean the floor on their hands and knees because it’s a good position to relieve pain from carrying the baby.

Birthing classes and onesies

We’ve gone through two pretty big baby milestones in the last few days. The most recent was our Bradley Method class that we just got back from. It was kind of long (Two hours, and she ran over about 15 minutes Two hours and fifteen minutes), but it sounds like it will be good stuff to know. There are 8 other couples in the class. Two of the mothers didn’t make it to the first class, which seems pretty weird, but I’m sure they had their reasons. But birthing class doesn’t really make this seem real to me. I mean, obviously it’s real – the wife is showing, and I’ve felt the baby kicking, I’ve seen it hopping around on the sonogram. But it still seems like something that’s forever in the future. But the other milestone really brings home the reality of the baby. The wife has started buying some baby clothes (She’s getting a little addicted to Ebay and Freecycle, I think), and seeing these little onesies make the baby seem much more real to me than anything else. So, if you’re a dad-to-be, and you’re having a hard time getting your head around this, I recommend getting some baby clothes and just imagine putting them on your own kid. It’s definitely working for me.

Study to be taken with a grain of salt

Via Gizmodo, a new study suggests that cellphone use while pregnant will cause behavioral problems in children. I don’t buy this. Partly it’s because the article is pretty light on facts. But it doesn’t even address the possibility that maybe mothers who spend their lives glued to the cellphone are not giving their kids enough attention, which leads to the behavioral problems. Cellphone use may be the symptom of the cause, but not the cause itself. Maybe the study addresses this point and refutes it, but the article doesn’t get into that. And I’m inclined not to believe any of the “OMG excessive use of X leads to horrible result Y!” studies that always focus on some technology that’s become common in the last five to ten years and seem to explain away some horrible plague upon our society. Every generation has new technologies, and every generation has new problems. There isn’t necessarily a cause and effect relationship here. Anyway, maybe the study gets into all that, but we’ll never know. Unless you’re one of those weird people who actually research this sort of thing instead of just bitching about it.