Leggo My Preggo
 

I have never seen the pregnancy spots -- but I have seen the parking spots designated for those with infants near the door at the grocery store.

Verrrrrry interesting.

Leggo My Preggo
 

That movie taught me that the demoralizing aspects of living under a totalitarian state can be counteracted by thinking about kitten whiskers and crisp apple strudels.

It got me through the Reagan administration.

Subway Seats
 

Some pregnant women have nice asses. You can't tell which ones unless you check out pregnant women's asses as a blanket rule.

Leggo My Preggo
 

that had to be getting less effective by '86 or '87 though, right? bet you're glad you got West Wing now.

Leggo My Preggo
 

After the Whiffenpoofs performed in an episode, the West Wing has probably become unwatchable for Atticus.

Just a quick note to cheer the new and soon-to-be-new parents:

More stitches today, and a possible concussion.

That's five ER trips in two months. (Not all one kid.)

And the boys are even worse . . .

Bilmore's med insurance
 

First, my sympathies - trips to emergency are traumatic for everyone.
Second, WHAT were the kids doing to achieve all these trips in such a short time??
Native son took one ambulance ride at 6 weeks old and that scared me enough to put him in a bubble the rest of his life.

Bilmore, time to dish the dirt.

Sounds like hockey season in the great white north.

Don't worry, the season's almost over. (And then it's time for horseback riding....).

I sympathize.

Bilmore's med insurance
 

Hmmm . . .

(You're not social services, right?)

Last five:

1. Snowboarding - collision with rail (broken arm, stitches)
2. Wrestling with friend - collision with concrete wall corner (stitches).
3. Snowboarding - collision with other snowboarder (stitches).
4. Brothers wrestling on stairs (broken arm.)
5. Found old barbed wire fence in the woods (stitches).

Trips to the ER are no longer traumatic. One son in particular can now look at his wounds and accurately estimate the number of stitches needed, how many pokes with the novocaine needle, etc. We now know to bring books, homework, etc. with us. When a son recently spent a weekend at a family friend's new cabin, we gave them a housewarming present of a big first aid kit. They laughed. And then, they got the chance to use it that weekend.

Aren't a few of them in casts? How can a kid in a cast be reckless enough to need stitches? Have you heard from CPS yet?

On the parking lot issue--
The only pregger spots I ever saw were at Babies R Us. After the kids were born I looked for spaces near the cart corral, so I could get rid of the cart without leaving the baby alone in the car.

Slow on the uptake
 

Should have read farther.

I've always told my MIL (the hockey fanatic) that hockey's too physical and violent, and that I don't want my kids constantly injured.

I'm losing my credibility on that.

Two had matching casts for a bit. Didn't slow 'em down at all. One broke his cast twice in various sport activities.

I have active kids, I think.

Take them Kayaking much?

(sorry, someone had to say it)

Bilmore's med insurance
 

My sympathies again. Native Son is also an 'active child'. In fact, that's what his grandma calls him 'thee' active child. Fortunately, except for the virus at 6 weeks, he's also very lucky (knock, knock). He LIKES the dangerous/defensive positions (goalie, catcher) where he gets charged into.

P.S. Native Son's ER visit was for the same virus that killed my sister's first child at 8 weeks and put my mother in the hospital for a week. I never want to see the inside of an ambulance again.

New Shoes
 

The Brazenette started walking a few weeks ago.

Today, we went for new shoes. She got some very cute white baby shoes, with little pink and purple flowers.

Can someone please explain why these shoes had the unfortunate effect of making her scream her pretty little head off, as if she were being beaten with them, rather than having them placed upon her dainty little feet?

New Shoes
 

There's a school of thought that says that development of walking skills is better without shoes in the early stages. To the extent you can avoid them (i.e., when in moderately hygenic conditions), do. After all, shoes are a pretty recent invention, evolution-wise. She's probably freaking out that she can't feel her soles anymore.

For all crawling through early walking stages, the Grinches recommend Robeez. They're real leather, machine washable, adaptable to both crawling and walking, and extremely durable. They're soft-soled, which helps kids learn to balance. Plus, they're Canadian!

New Shoes
 

She has 5 pairs of Robeez. I love them.

But she's really walking, not just tottering around, and conventional wisdom says now is the time for shoes.

I think she'll still be mostly barefoot.

New Shoes
 

Well, maybe it has something to do with the fact you are making her wear shoes with pink and purple flowers on them. Oh, the horror. The baltspawns' feminist grandmother would never approve. And since she buys most of the baltspawns' clothes, we go with that. Of course, she's my problem, not yours, so YMMV.

The baltspawn did not like their shoes at first either. It took a couple of days to get used to them at all, and a couple of months before they began to connect putting on shoes with going outside and therefore a good thing.

One piece of advice: tempting though it may be, stay away from shoes with Velcro closures at this age. You may get away with them for this pair, but by the time she's the next size up, she will have figured out how to undo the Velcro and fling the shoes off. Then at some point they stop messing with them and its okay again. But stores really shouldn't sell size fives and five 1/2s in Velcro at all.

New Shoes
 

This seems easy. At this age, we say what we feel; we have not yet been beaten into supressing our emotions.

Shoes suck. They constrain your feet, limit their mobility, and get sweaty and gross. They block you from feeling warm and comfortable things like rugs and blankets and sofas. Don't we all kick off our shoes and let the dogs breath when we get home?

This is one of the first of many occassions when you will be forced to make her come to grips with a world of constraints, limits, and pain. A world where people wear things like ties, bras, high-heels, chastity belts and other instruments of torture. And, in time, you will want her to wear just about all of these things (well, maybe not ties).

New Shoes
 

This explains nicely why I enjoyed buying all of my kids their first shoes.

TV for tots
 

So, I've started letting the Lexling watch Teletubbies for 1/2 hr in the morning and I feel as if I may be leading him down the path of the couch potato - he's only 4mos old (tomorrow!), but he LOVES the tv (lots of lights and sounds). Am I a wicked bad mommy?

-TL

TV for tots
 

Only because it's teletubbies.

TV for tots
 

Oh, come on - they are pretty cute and they're a hell of a lot better than that annoying Caillou - it will be a dark dark day before he gets to watch that.

-T("Eh-Oh!")L

TV for tots
 

This is a regular issue in our house; my wife is convinced all TV is evil and that one of the worst things in the world is letting our kids get in the habit of vegging in front of it. I believe we all need a bit of down-time, and as long as it is kept under control, TV is a perfectly acceptable form of down time. (And as long as Kim Possible is tuned in, but that's a different issue...)

Kids are different. One of our kids has no interest in the television, another would watch for half the day if permitted. We on occassion hope that the one with no interest will calm down enough to sit still for a half hour in front of the tube. So I'd watch the kid, see if they're showing signs of dependency or lethargy, and then keep them away from the tube by engaging them.

You're not a bad mother. But try some Little Bear, sometime. It's much better for the same age group.

TV and Shoesies
 

Texlex: Vietbabe also showed an interest in TV at 4 months. I don't see what the big deal is at that young age. I swear by the entire Baby Einstein collection w/ elaborate and colorful toys the little one can stare at. I guess to avoid the TV curse, you could purchase them at a mighty price and set them up like a three ring circus in your living room. But Lexling probably douldn't care if they're 3d or not at that age. For the wee wee ones, besides the Einstein series, I like Teletubbies and its cousin, Boohbah . I think they also like the high-pitched Elmo's voice.

Brazen: Sorry the Brazenette has not shown an early interest in the wonderful world of shoes. I think Vietbabe has the same ones you are describing. They're popular for kids' first shoes. As a less structured alternative -- yes, the Robeez are great. I also used Padders alot, except beware the cloth portion at the toe gets worn quickly. For another less structured option - if you are near a Chinatown, they have teeny cloth shoes with a strap across them, usually embroidered. Or you can try something like these cuties and others on the website.

The Brazenette might be ok if the shoes were more "fun" and might like "squeaky shoes" which squeak when she walks. In China, they are used so when you don't hear squeaking, that means the little one has moved too far away. Kids love em. Here are some squeaky shoes and some more

And finally, my own favorites, oddly enough found on the JC Penney (NTTAWWT) website:

Miniature black Chuckie T's to match my own:
http://www.zappos.com/images/.331/65124-t.jpg http://www.zappos.com/images/004/7130004/65103-d.jpg

Retrocool mini-moc's:

http://a666.g.akamaitech.net/7/666/1...b8082dcf0R.jpg


Vietmom
(Clearly a shoe freak)

TV for tots
 

Agree re: Caillou - that voice makes me want to scream.
And Teletubbies - I could just hear the developers of that one

'It's a TV within a TV for babies!!! Think of the product loyalty we can build from such a young age!!'

My favorites to watch with Native Son were Bear in the Big Blue House (pip and pop were our favorites), and Winnie the Pooh.

Woman Gives Birth to Two Sets of Identical Twins
 

(Yikes!!! - TL)

Mar 18, 8:23 am ET By C. Bryson Hull

HOUSTON (Reuters) - After struggling through three years of fertility treatments, Jeffery and Sheryl McGowen were blessed with identical twins. Twice.

Sheryl McGowen gave birth to two sets of identical twins via Caesarean section at the Women's Hospital of Texas in Houston on Monday.

The first twins born are named Jacob and Jacoby, and the second two were named Justin and Jason. The four brothers, who were about 10 weeks early, weigh between 3 pounds, 4 ounces and 2 pounds, 5 ounces.

"I'm still waking up every morning and touching those little wristbands just to check if it's still real," said Jeffery McGowen, a deputy with the Harris County Sheriff's Office.

All four were still on ventilators on Wednesday, but were otherwise healthy and expected to come off the breathing machines on Friday, their father said. Their mother, 35, is doing well, he said.

The odds of two pairs of identical being born during the same pregnancy are about one out of 11 million, the McGowens' doctors told them.

They babies are technically two sets of identical twins because they came from two eggs that divided. Each set of twins looks different from the other set.

The McGowens underwent years of fertility drug treatments, which doctors have credited with an upsurge of multiple births in recent years, before finally trying in vitro fertilization.

Doctors implanted two eggs, which is normal to increase the chances of success. But both eggs were fertilized.

"We started off with twins. Two weeks later we had an ultrasound, and they told us one of the eggs had split," Jeffery McGowen, 34, said.

In November, a doctor specializing in high-risk pregnancies took another look and told the McGowens they were going to have two sets of twins.

"I was shocked, amazed and I really didn't know what to say at that time," Jeffery McGowen told Reuters.

The McGowens kept the news secret until Christmas Day, when they shared it with their families.

Finances are going to be tight, McGowen said.

"We're going from a two-income family to one income, and now we have six instead of two," he said. "But I have faith we'll be provided for."

Link

Woman Gives Birth to Two Sets of Identical Twins
 

Perhaps even more astounding than the long odds of this ever happening is that they were unable to display any more imagination than adding a "y" to one twin's name to come up with the other. Why not abdicate that responsibility entirely and just number them like George Forman?

Woman Gives Birth to Two Sets of Identical Twins
 

Four new babies? They're probably too damn tired to do any more than that.

TV for tots
 

Television is fine, as long as it's properly controlled. Enter Tivo!

Apparently, it can also make you a better husband, wife, mother, father and insomniac. NYT (reg. req'd).

TV for tots
 

Do wifey let them see reruns of your show?

TV for tots
 

Tell the truth, Atticus--you're the guy with 7 tivos, right?

TV for tots
 

Huh -- I guess I'm the only one who doesn't find Caillou completely annoying...

Isn't it eerie how babies are mesmerized by Teletubbies? Both my kids were absolutely hypnotized by it. I read somewhere that to create the teletubbies, they performed studies to see which colors and shapes and sounds most attracted infants' attention, and that's why the TT look and sound the way they do. It's sort of creepy, I think -- but I'm the first one to pop in the "Dipsy" tape when we're coming home and need the baby to be out from underfoot while we unpack/get settled.

TV for tots
 

Studies have shown that the "look" of the TT's most closely resembles, in the kids' eyes, how we appear to them - soft, round gooey things that provide TV and comfort food.

I hear that changes at around 18 or 19. At that time, the TV in the tummy changes to a car.

TV for tots
 

I didn't find it completely annoying when watched with the sound turned off. We kind of enjoyed the gentle pictures. But it's hard to keep an active child's attention when there's no sound.

Yes. That's my point about TT. The whole concept is like being slapped in the face 'hey, we're manipulating you bwahahahahahah'.

Not important to anyone here but me...
 

Today is the Brazenette's first birthday.

Cake and party hats all around!

Not important to anyone here but me...
 

Au contraire, 1st birthday is a huge deal. Of course you're supposed to post numbers (ht/wt) so all the other parents can do the required one-upsmanship comparison to their child's numbers.
Take lots of pictures.

NWN

Not important to anyone here but me...
 

Happy Birthday to her!

In honor of the Brazenette, today I chose Raisinettes as my afternoon guilty pleasure. (Really. I could have gone with a Hershey's with Almonds, or an Oh, Henry!)

Not important to anyone here but me...
 

Is she wearing the cake, the party hat or both?

and which one would she rather be eating?

aV