Fisher Price Rain Forest Swing

The Rain Forest Swing by Fisher Price has been one of our better purchases. It has been a real help in getting the Littlest One to take naps. It swings from side to side or from front to back, and there is also a mobile suspended above. The best part is that the swing also includes some audio clips (lullabies, rain forest sounds, etc). 

Well the swing worked great for 3 months, then the sound broke. No music=no naps! I reached for my receipt only to remember that I threw it out a few weeks prior. Oh no! I'm stuck with a broken swing, I thought. 

I'll just call Fisher Price and see what happens. It can't hurt.  I called and they are sending a brand new top that I can install, to be mailed the very next day! Wow, I asked the kind lady how they could do this without a receipt. She just said that they stand behind their products and take their customers word on when they purchased the item. It's guaranteed for a year.

I'm thrilled. Fixed swing=more sleep for the Little Man (and me).

Would you buy this for your baby???

Everyone wants the best for their new baby.And being new parents you may be suckered into some useless gear under the guise of caring for your little one.

Here are a few laughable items for wee-one:


This is a wipe warmer. Also known as 'Rookie Mistake'. Your baby does not care if the wipes are cold any more than you care that 4 billion years ago Galaxy M52 collided with Galaxy 757.


In case you can't tell, this is a travel wipe warmer. Its pretty embarrassing if you fell for the wipe warmer (we did). Its inexcusable if you fall for this.


This is a $13 washcloth. These pee-pee-tee-pees, as they are called, might actually work, but I can buy a washcloth for 99 cents.

There you have it. What were some of your first time parenting blunders?

Whats in a name?

Naming our son took quite some time. It didn't happen for the first 5 days of his life. Its something he is going to be stuck with forever so you want to make sure the name is a winner.

Finally, after immense pressure from the hospital nurses and more importantly from the wife, I caved and signed off on his name.

Even though it was tough naming our son, it has been quite easy to nick-name him.

Here are a few of the more recent ones:

Frog-man
Peepers
Poopers
Boogs

Boogsies

Boogsie-Woogsie
Big Boy
Little Big Boy

Wiggle-Worm

Scooter-Pooter

Diapers $$$

If you can gauge the quality of a man by the clothes he wears, can you gauge the quality of the parent by the diapers his child wears?



What kind of diapers does your child rock? Ours used to rock Pampers. We paid extra so our son could pee on Big Bird's head. Now he gets to pee on generic animals courtesy of White Cloud diapers.

He pees out of these just like the Pampers or the Huggies, only these cost about 20% less. Sometimes I look back to the good old days, when Big Bird and Mickey Mouse were so dutifully looking after every movement of the bowels. Now when I slap on a new White Cloud, it's done with a twinge of guilt.

So far there is no noticeable difference except in price. Are Pampers and Huggies parents duped into believing these diapers are better or am I missing something?

I can't help but think the only difference is that the licensing fees needed to install Mickey and Big Bird are added to the price. Oh yeah, and also when was the last time you saw a White Cloud commercial? Those marketing costs have to be added to the price of the name brands too.

Diaper Dooty

The first diaper I ever changed was my son's and not until he was over a week old. And then I delegated any diaper with even a hint of poo to my lovely wife. That lasted another week and then my adventures began.

I built up this massive dread that morphed into unrelenting fear of changing a poopy diaper. But the unrelenting 'suggestions' from my wife that I learn this critical skill caused even greater dread. So I signed up for some lessons.

After several stints as a wing-man I was finally ready to fly solo. I survived the first one, and the next, and the next. They did not even smell that bad since the baby is breastfed. For the next 3 months I was papa-proud-of-himself.

Then it happened. The game got changed like a blow-out diaper. One morning I put the Baby on the changing table, unbuttoned the onesie, removed the diaper, took a breath, and 'Oh Man!' I thought it might be my last.

Two days earlier we introduced a little rice cereal into his milk. It was just a little, but man did it brew into a funky concoction. I've been rolling with the punches now for a few weeks and new fears are developing about solid foods. But this too shall pass. 

One thing you have to check out, if you don't have it already, is the diaper champ. It's an odorless diaper disposal trashcan. You just drop in the dirty deed, swivel the top, and the diaper is deposited into an air tight chamber, never to be smelled from again. Oh, and this baby runs on regular kitchen trash bags. (sort of like the Mr. Fusion of Delorean 2.0) Nobody wants plutonium-priced proprietary plastics anyways.

Back to the Future

Baby turns 4 months old today and it just hit me like 1.21 gigawatts: Having a baby really messes with your space-time continuum.

Apart from being up all night and having myriad Descartes moments where you can't tell whether you are awake or dreaming, time is passing by like a 88 mph Delorean. It's enough to give Doctor Emmet Brown a headache.

Do you know the feeling? It's strange that the days turn into months so fast when each day seems to take so long to pass. Sometimes you want to freeze-frame and just linger in the moment for a while, but it passes all too quickly. Other times you reach for the fast forward button but time will not let you pass. Not unlike the self-righteous-rolling-road-blocks who clog up the left lane, just sitting there, pretending not to notice you or your horn.

Being a new dad has brought time to the forefront and I value anew this most precious commodity. 4 months will turn into 4 years faster than a left hook from George McFly. So, its time to live in the moment and stop reaching for the remote.