June 29, 2008
Back From Chicago
Last weekend was my little sister’s wedding, so the family and I headed back to Chicago for the ceremony. Joanna and Wyatt flew back this past Monday, and I stayed in the midwest until Friday for business.
Wyatt, as usual, was a little angel on the airplane. When he was around my family (who he doesn’t know very well), he did take a few days to warm up to them, but by Sunday was doing well. He did have a lot of fun with his cousin Jack, who’s now about 2 1/2 years old… Jack (and his parents, of course), are moving back to San Diego from Texas, so that should be a lot of fun.
Soon to be best of friends!
The family outside the church after the wedding.
Wyatt gets Pizzeria Uno– the best pizza in the world– at 10 1/2 months? What a lucky kid!
He was very interested!
May 15, 2008
Mother’s Day
I’m a bit late on the post, but given that it was my wife’s first “real” Mother’s Day, I knew I needed to put a winner together.
She had asked me to download the Sheryl Crow “Lullaby for Wyatt” song a few weeks ago, and when I downloaded it to my work PC, she was understandably wondering how she’d even be able to listen to it. At that point, I decided that I’d create a special Mother’s Day gift from Wyatt, containing that song and all the lullabies that she sings to him at night.
There was just one problem: putting the song and 10 lullabies on a CD really only takes up about 25 minutes! So I went on a week-long search for appropriate motherhood/baby songs that would just absolutely tug at heart strings to break up the lullaby monotony.
I ended up with the below song list. I’m not an emotional guy, but even I was tearing up a bit listening to a few of these. For other new fathers out there, I hope you can get some legs out of this idea.
1. Sheryl Crow - Detours
Lullaby for Wyatt
2. Mae Robertson - Dream
I See the Moon
3. Amy Grant - Greatest Hits
Baby, Baby
4. Carly Simon - Into White
You Are My Sunshine
5. Céline Dion - Miracle
Beautiful Boy
6. Shannon Moore - Night Night Songs
Itsy Bitsy Spider
7. Vienna Teng - Waking Hour
Lullabye for a Stormy Night
8. Susie Tallman & Merrie Amsterburg - Lullaby Themes for Sleepy Dreams
Hush Little Baby
9. Carla Lynne Hall - My First Child CD Single
My First Child
10. Lisa Loeb - Catch the Moon
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
11. Joni Mitchell - Ladies of the Canyon
The Circle Game
12. Cathie Ryan, Robin Spielberg & Susan McKeown - Mother
Baby’s Lullabye
13. Sarah McLachlan - Wintersong
Silent Night
14. Ingrid DuMosch - Fun Bedtime for Alyssa
God Bless the Moon
15. LeAnn Rimes - You Light Up My Life
Amazing Grace
16. Melissa Errico - Lullabies & Wildflowers
Rockabye Baby
17. Alison Krauss - Heartland: An Appalachian Anthology
Slumber My Darling
18. Barenaked Ladies - Stunt
When You Dream
I particularly like #7, a song sung by a mother to her child, who is scared of a late-night thunderstorm. #9 is also very moving. And #18, though slightly out of place (the only song not sung by a female lead), is really a fun song, wondering what’s going through the mind of a day-old baby when they dream, since they have no real life experience to dream about. Very cool.
And, of course, no CD would be complete without a label! (I created a classy front and back label for the CD case, but this is the “fun” one that goes on the CD itself.)
May 5, 2008
Cute Little Devil, Huh?
Wyatt is not short on personality. He’s quite a fun little kid, but he’s also inherited a strong will from Joanna and I.
Tonight, somehow he decided that sleeping just wasn’t in the cards. The normal routine is dinner, a little playtime, a bath and then sleep. Tonight we had a nice dinner out (and he got some nice minestrone soup), bathtime went well, and then sleeptime just didn’t happen. He wouldn’t settle down. Eventually we just had to set him in his crib and let him get to sleep on his own.
Well, after a bit of crying, he finally settled down. And I went in to check on him. This is the sleeping baby I found…
Daddy’s been known to fall asleep in positions like that, but that was mostly in college, and alcohol was involved. Wyatt must have just been a bit overtired!
March 3, 2008
A Horrifying Realization
Last weekend, my wife and her parents were out looking at new rentals, since we’re bursting at the seams of our apartment. My mother-in-law is a realtor, so she had access to all the listings available in the MLS system. We ended up finding an absolutely beautiful condo for rent, close to my work. Even better, the lady who owns it isn’t looking to move out until late April or early May, which works perfectly for us, as we’re locked into our apartment lease until the end of April. Even better, our apartment company is looking to raise our rent, and we currently rent our appliances, so while our total rent will go up in the new place, it’s going to be a much better deal for us, and a much nicer place.
We finished up our rental search, and my wife wanted to take her parents to a new church we were looking at. It’s one of those mega-churches, similar to the church we attended in Georgia, where they offer things like child care, etc. Given that we’d never been there, we weren’t about to hand Wyatt over to a caretaker, so my wife and her mother went into the main auditorium, while Wyatt, my father-in-law, and I stayed out in the foyer (where they had speakers/monitors showing what occurred).
That’s when it started to get interesting.
I’m a hands-on father, so I don’t run away from taking care of the messier portions (although I’ll gladly pawn it off on others when I can!) of child-rearing. Thus, when I saw Wyatt get “the look” on his face, and heard him start making grunting noises, I realized #2 was coming. I knew it was either my father-in-law or I that would have to take care of it, and diaper duty isn’t Grandpa’s job*. So it was me.
I took Wyatt into the bathroom, got the changing table all set up, and got ready to get to work. The changing table was obviously uncomfortable, and they had speakers in the bathroom area (they were still playing music) and Wyatt was not at all happy. He’s screaming, and I’m rifling through the diaper bag looking for a diaper. I can’t find any. Zip. Zilch. Nada. I nearly tried prayer!
Knowing that I had to get the job done, I ended up getting him cleaned up (thankfully we had plenty of wipes), wrapped a burp cloth around him, got him clothed, and went back to find my father-in-law. I let him know “We’ve got a problem”. We were about to leave and check the car for more diapers (or even to head to the store), when we thought of the nursery area. We found our way down there, they gave us a couple diapers to get through the crisis, and we ended up with little more than something to complain to the wives about when they emerged at the end of the service.
But that’s one crisis I could have done without!
* I guess there are some advantages to being a Grandpa… You get lots of this:
And I’m the one who gets to clean this up!
February 26, 2008
It’s On Now!
In the beginning, like most babies, Wyatt was immobile. Over time, he went through the milestones of rolling over for the first time. Then doing it regularly, then squirming along like an inchworm.
But it’s on now!
Yep, he’s crawling. Time to baby-proof the house!
It’s been a busy month. I’ve been in the Midwest and in Denver during the course of the month, but I did manage to have a nice picnic with the family on the weekend following Valentine’s Day.
The weather was slightly better here than the Midwest, where it was 7. And that was Fahrenheit!
February 10, 2008
6 Months (and 2 days) Already?!
Wow, it seems crazy to know that Wyatt’s now 6 months old. It’s even crazier to look at pictures of him as a newborn and pictures of him now, and still to believe it’s the same person!
C’mon… How does someone go from this:
To this?
February 6, 2008
A Million-Dollar Idea?
No. It’s not a million-dollar idea. But it’s a good idea, if I say so myself! And, because I’m that kind of guy, I’m only posting about this idea because I can’t figure out any way to make money off of it!
As a new parent, and having watched many other parents, I know that romantic dinners with your spouse seem to disappear once the kids arrive. I recently made reservations for my wife and I for Valentine’s Day, and it’ll be her, myself, and Wyatt out for the evening. Luckily, Wyatt is still young enough that he’s reasonably well-behaved (and immobile) at restaurants, so we shouldn’t have much trouble. But it’s a pretty nice restaurant, and if he was anywhere between 18 months and 4 years, I’m guessing we’d probably get our asses thrown out of the place.
But there’s a problem. Luckily for us, we have family in the area, so if we really wanted a night away, there are people we trust to leave in charge of Wyatt. And grandparents are known for volunteering for that sort of thing. But not long ago, we were living in Georgia, and there were only a very few people we knew well enough to leave as a babysitter. Trying to get a babysitter, at what we have learned is a relatively large cost ($5-10 per hour, which can add up quickly), would make it nearly impossible for us to go out for a “nice” dinner on a whim. And society has become more like we were in Georgia, with young couples moving away from family to follow jobs, than it is for us now, where young couples live in close proximity to family.
So how can “nice” restaurants, the ones who cater more to romantic dinners than your loud obnoxious family-friendly everyday eateries, cater to these young affluent parents? I think the answer is simple: have a room and a small staff devoted to taking care of kids!
Imagine, you want to take your wife to a nice steakhouse, but you know that your two-year-old won’t sit still for the 90-120 minutes that it will require to have a fine dining experience. You could leave your child with a babysitter, but then you constantly worry about what’s happening at home, and you have the thought in the back of your mind that even if you “got a call”, it might be 15-60 minutes before you could make it home. More often than not, you’re probably going to forego the dining experience in favor of something more convenient and accessible to a family with children. If you do choose the dinner, you know it will be a stressful experience where you spend more time worrying about whether your babysitter is watching R-rated movies while your child cries in a corner than tasting succulent medium-rare filet. And worst-case, you can bring your kids with you, which will probably ensure you spend your whole meal embarrassed by their behavior while the tables adjacent to you mutter nasty things about your lineage under their breaths.
But what if the restaurant had a “kids room”, staffed with one or more people who are good at entertaining children. Throw some toys, some books, and maybe a few TV’s in the room, and the kids will be more than occupied. Feed them some chicken tenders and let them play with other kids, and they’ll be excited to go out for a nice dinner. And if you worry about what they’re up to, you can go over to the room and check on them, because they’re barely out of arm’s reach the whole time!
The restaurant gets increased business from patrons who otherwise might not visit. The other patrons of the restaurant get a noise-free environment where they’re not subjected to the screaming kids. You get a great meal with your spouse, without having to worry about what some babysitter is doing in your home. It’s win-win-win!
As I said, I can’t necessarily call this a million-dollar idea, because I can’t figure out a way that I can make a million dollars from it. But I’m sure that the aggregate profit that could be realized by high-end restaurants due the increased business they attract could be well in excess of that million dollars. While I may never get credit if this idea is realized, I’ll rest easy knowing that I can enjoy the results: stress-free dining when my kid(s) aren’t around (but other parents are), and stress-free dining when I bring my kid(s) with (because I know they’re being cared for and entertained right around the corner).
January 31, 2008
Better News!
Parenting, I’ve found, is not easy. Especially when it comes to getting an infant to sleep. The wife and I had Wyatt sleeping in our bed with us, but he was constantly keeping my wife awake at night, every hour on the hour, for feeding. It wasn’t impacting me all that much, but my wife was starting to go nuts.
Well, we’ve changed two things. First, we started feeding Wyatt real food (applesauce, pears, bananas) at night, and giving him a full belly goes a long way to helping him sleep. Second, we decided to go for the “tough love” approach, and decided he’s old enough to put him in his crib at night regardless of the crying. Well, it’s worked. We started this just a few days ago, and he now sleeps almost the entire night (with maybe one feeding about 4-5 AM if he gets hungry). The wife is still paranoid about him, so she hasn’t quite started sleeping well, but she’s getting there.
So we’ve got a happy, healthy baby, and now he even sleeps well! I get to feed him, which is a way to bond that I didn’t have when he was exclusively on the milk. And now that we’re getting a little bit more time each evening for my wife and I to reconnect, we can finally be a married couple again.
January 12, 2008
Someone’s A VERY Lucky Man
He’s pretty popular…
And that’s just the start of it!
Yep… He’s just loving it… Can’t say I blame him!
December 6, 2007
Guinness Has Moved On To A Better Place
No, he’s not dead, but we had to give him away. Guinness, over the last several years, has showed some aggressiveness to small children that bothered us. He never did anything outright to go after Wyatt, but he typically ignored Wyatt and had growled at him a few times when he couldn’t ignore him. Some people have told us that a dog tends to understand when there’s a new member of “the pack” and will treat them accordingly, but Guinness would bite Joanna and I, so being part of the pack didn’t mean much to him.
So over Thanksgiving, we gave Guinness a trial run with a new family, who are good friends of Joanna’s aunt. And a few days later, we talked to them and they told us “We’re keeping your dog, he fits perfectly in our family!”
For a long time, I’ve felt that our lifestyle isn’t quite right for Guinness. He’s a high-energy dog, who needs attention and the ability to run. In a 2-bedroom, 800 square foot apartment, with a baby taking all of our time, we couldn’t really offer that. His new family can. They have two kids in the teenage years (note, this is an age that Guinness doesn’t get aggressive with), another few dogs, room in their yard for him to run, and generally a much more active lifestyle.
How do I know it was a good decision? Last weekend, my wife and I went to go check on him in the new house. Well, the two boys were playing ping-pong, and Guinness was running from one end of the table to the other chasing the ball. He hadn’t seen us in two weeks, and we walked in to say hello, and he didn’t even give us the time of day. When he came by, I grabbed him and he was nice for a moment, but then wanted to get back to the game.
When I say he’s in a “better place”, he really is in a better place. It sucks not to have him around here, but I really think it’s a better situation for him, a better situation for us, and really a great situation for his new family, who already love him. They’ve already given him the nickname “Turbo”, which is definitely fitting, and he’s already become a member of the family.
So below are quite possibly the last few pictures of Guinness that will make it to this blog… We’ll miss this little psychopath…
November 30, 2007
Wyatt’s Reading List
Yesterday I picked up a copy of The Dangerous Book For Boys, a book full of the sorts of things that Wyatt’s mother will get very upset if he does in a few years [but that he's going to do anyway].
But I’m a bit worried. He’s already reading The Economist, so this book might be a little bit below his level 
(Click picture to load larger & more funny version)
November 11, 2007
Breastfeeding And Evolution
Intelligence is not the most understood of human attributes, and is quite certainly one of the most contentious, especially when the field of genetics become involved.
Breastfeeding has been shown in some studies to be correlated with higher intelligence. But a recent study, reports The Economist, suggests that there is a genetic component as well. But here is where the story gets strange:
Dr Caspi and Dr Moffitt, however, were not so sure. They suspected the involvement of a gene called FADS2. This regulates the metabolism of a group of molecules called long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids. These are important for the growth of nerve cells and are abundant in human milk but generally absent from formulas. FADS2 comes in two varieties, known as C and G, and the researchers wondered if these two varieties interacted differently with breast milk.
…
What Dr Caspi and Dr Moffitt found was that the increase in intelligence associated with breastfeeding only happened to people who had inherited at least one copy of the C version of FADS2. (Most genes are present as two copies, one inherited from the mother and one from the father.) The effect did not depend on the social classes or IQs of the parents, nor on the birthweight of the child in question (low birthweight has been linked to lower IQ). And the difference in IQ was preserved into adulthood.
Only about 10% of the population is double-G, but what is curious about this result is that the G version of the gene has survived at all. If intelligence is valuable, the C version might be expected to have become universal. Indeed, this is the nub of the nurturists’ argument. Natural selection should have pushed intelligence genes as far as they will go, so all variation should be environmental. That it is not suggests there is some unknown countervailing advantage—at least in reproductive terms—to being less than averagely bright.
This is incorrect. That the gene has not disappeared does not show that there is an advantage evolutionary to being dull, only that being dull isn’t a disadvantage to mating. Evolution is not necessarily based on what is optimal, only what is “good enough” to find a mate. I’d say that looks and pheromones are probably much more important traits than pure intelligence. After all, Britney Spears was able to reproduce twice, and nobody will say it was her brainpower that got her knocked up!
November 3, 2007
The Little Boilermaker
Well, Purdue didn’t win today, but unlike the OSU and Michigan games, we actually made a game of it. And I can always blame the officiating, which was horrific.
But when I think about the ugliness of the men in stripes, I can look at the below sight and feel a whole lot better
He must be a Selwyn Lymon fan 
Of course, many thanks need to go to frequent commenter and former Purdue roommate Nick M, who sent Wyatt the jersey (along with a copy of “Radicals For Capitalism” for me).
October 23, 2007
Reliving Old Times, With A New Face
About 5 1/2 years ago, on a bench atop a cliff above the Pacific Ocean, outside the absolutely beautiful Ritz Carlton resort in Half Moon Bay, CA, I proposed to Joanna.
We went back there this past weekend, and the bench was still there. Of course, we’ve added someone since those days!
Good times… My apologies for the horrible camera, the old one broke and the camera on our videocamera is not as good as we had hoped… The picture doesn’t quite do the scene justice. If you’re ever in the area, I highly recommend it.
A few more:
And, of course, the star of the show:
October 9, 2007
Wyatt In September
As many of you probably noticed, I don’t exactly have much time for blogging any more. Babies appear to take a lot of time and effort, and somehow I’ve noticed that taking the time to think about, compose, proofread, and post blog entries falls by the wayside. Especially if I’m trying to write something intelligent or insightful, which is hard enough for me as it is!
So instead, I give you baby pictures! As of yesterday (2 months), Wyatt is 9 lb 9 oz, 22 inches long, and healthy. He’s spending more and more time alert, smiling, and making non-crying noises, which is nice. He quite often has that furrowed brow, “I’m trying to understand what I’m seeing” look on his face, which either means he’s naturally inquisitive, or he’s constipated…
Anyway, away we go!
Wyatt, Chilling in his pack & play:
He may have big feet (for a baby), but they still seem pretty darn tiny!
Wyatt may be sleeping at the beach, but Mom & Dad certainly enjoy it!
Grandpa thinks he’s sleeping right now… Wyatt sure is devious!
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Wyatt looks so cute “reading” that menu….lol
Comment by Lucy Stern — June 29, 2008 @ 10:36 pm