Great advice, doc

So earlier this week, William had his 15 month well baby checkup. Everything looked good, 50% percentile all around (we call him “Mr. Average.” That way he’ll have a starting point with his therapist in 20 years). During the exam, the doctor asked my wife, “How’s his urine stream?” “Um, I don’t know,” answered my wife. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him pee.“* “Ok,” said the doc. “Just let him walk around without a diaper for a bit to see if you can observe him going. Look for a steady stream.”

Now, I must pause for a moment here to explain something. My wife is a teacher, so I have the kids most of the time. While she’s an expert on their PM routine (while I’m at work), I’m very familiar with their daytime schedule. Bill usually has a poop between 10:00 AM and 11:00 AM. My wife wasn’t aware of that, as she’s only been on summer break for a short time. Now, on with the story.

I was in the livingroom when I heard “OH MY GOD” from the playroom. It was immediately followed by, “BRING ME SOME WIPES!” Let’s say my wife was following Dr.’s advice. Let’s say it was about 10:15 AM. Let’s say that William had a significant “evacuation” sans diaper. Oops. His legs, this feet, the floor…you get the picture. The worst part for me was pretending that it wasn’t funny.

Note: Try this again after he has emptied himself. Not before.

*That’s right, we’ve never seen him pee. We’ve been lucky to avoid the whole Old Faithful impression. However, I do have a cool trick that you parents of baby boys can try. Keep a stack of paper Dixie cups on your changing table. Stuff some Kleenex into one of them. Now, when Jr. starts spraying all over the place when you’ve got him on his back, quickly invert the cup over his little wiener, letting the tissue soak up the urine. When he’s done, just throw it away! You’re welcome.

Gracie’s first accent

Ok, so technically her first accent is North American. I guess the title should be “Gracie’s first foreign accent.” But I digress.

She was eating her breakfast this morning while Charlie and Lola was on TV (for the record, Charlie and Lola is on the shot list of shows I’ll let her watch, along with Sesame Street and Between the Lions). If you haven’t seen it before, Charlie and Lola is a wicked cute show about two little English kids with sweet, innocent stories. Anyway, this morning Lola was refusing to go to bed. Between bites of pancake, Grace said, “Lola said, ‘I’m not sleepy and I won’t go to bed‘”…in an English accent!

I nearly fell out of my chair. “What did she say?” I asked her. She repeated the sentence, again in her best English accent. It was a riot. I guess kids really do pay attention to what’s going on around them.

Activity of the Week: Let’s draw

Reader Jen sent in the inaugural Activity of the Week. Aside from being my friend, Jen is one of those creative types, and I can’t help but think that this activity may have had something to do with it.

She says that her mom would write a series of numbers on paper for her, and challenge her to turn them into people, animals, monsters, etc. Sounds like a good idea that could occupy Jr. in the car with the Travel Magnadoodle, at a boring adult party or even on a rainy day in the house. Thanks, Jen!

Send your favorite activity to me at daddydaze [at] gmail dot com, and I’ll feature one per week here at Daddy Daze. You can browse the full collection of reader-submitted activities here.

Our first date in 3 years

Tonight, my wife and I will be going out, without any kids, for the first time in three years. No, I’m not exaggerating. More than three years, actually. Three years and two months. We’ll see Pixar’s Cars, because we’re both huge Pixar fans.

Why? Well, I don’t really trust anyone that I haven’t exchanged bodily fluids with to babysit the kids. So, no restaurants, no movies, no museums, no nothing unless A.) The kids are in tow or B.) the kids are 18 and living in Boston (they’re going to Boston, because, if they go to New York and become Yankee fans, I’ll have to disown them). Even tonight, the movie I selected starts at 9:45 (which means we’ll both be asleep in the theater about 20 minutes into it).

However, my wife has convinced me to make a concession and tonight we’re going out. Ugh.

Update: Cars was fantastic. Best animation in a Pixar film yet. Check it out (and stay for the closing credits).

When potty training backfires

I can’t think of anything good to write about today, so I’m putting up a “classic post” from the old version of Daddy Daze. Also, I haven’t found an easy way to transfer the old archives to their new home here on Typepad, so I’ll occasionally post an older bit like this one just so I’ll have it. Here we go.

So I went to the grocery store with Grace today. We’re walking around when suddenly I feel nature’s call. It’s Number 2, and it’s urgent. I have to make a pit stop, there’s no way around it.

We step into the handicapped stall, just because it’s the largest, so Gracie will have room to move around. Then the adventure began. It went like this:

Grace: We’re in the bathroom
Me: Yes, Honey

She immediately notices the echo, and starts to yell

Grace: Dee! Doo! Dee! Dee!
Me: You like that echo, honey?
Grace: Yeah. . . Ooh! Daddy’s go poo poo on the potty!!
Me: Yes, honey
Grace, getting frantic: DADDY’S GO POO POO ON THE POTTY!
Me: Yes, honey. Shh.

At this point, there’s laughter elsewhere in the bathroom. Grace is unphased.

Grace: Ooh! Gracie hears more poo poo!
Me: Grace, honey…
Grace: Hear it, daddy?
Me: Yes, honey

I try to distract her with the stuffed animal she insisted come along for the ride to the store. Soon enough she’s bouncing him up and down and singing to herself. I relax for a minute, though I dread standing up for what new hell it will bring. At last, I rise from my throne.

Grace: Daddy did poo poo in the potty, yaaaayyy!
Me: Thank you, honey
Grace: You want a sticker?
Me: No thank you, honey. You ready to get out of here?
Grace: Yeah.

That’s it. William is wearing diapers forever.

Peapod is the greatest thing ever

About a year ago, I saw an ad for Peapod on TV. Basically, it’s a service that delivers groceries to your house. You fill out your order online and presto! It arrives at the door. I immediately went to the Peapod website, only to find out that it wasn’t available in my area. That was about a year ago. Two days ago, we got an email notification telling us that Peapod had finally come to our neck of the woods. Last night, we placed our first order. Tonight, it arrived. This is the GREATEST THING EVER.

For seven dollars (that’s right, seven dollars)* the folks at Peapod will pack your entire grocery order onto their truck and bring it to your house. Heck, they even walk it right into your kitchen. I have to admit, I felt kind of guilty as the guy was bringing all our bags in (he refused my offer to help), but now that he’s gone I’m over the moon with the whole thing. When your’e at their site, you can save your order as a "List." The next time you go "shopping," just select that list and you’re done. No need to fill it out again and again. You can tweak a given list at anytime, and create as many lists as you want (like "Everyday," "Thanksgiving," "Summer Guests," "Birthday Party," and so on).

They take manufacturer’s coupons, make use of in-store coupons and supply their own. As someone who loathes shopping with a three year old and/or a 1 year old, this is the greatest thing ever. Plus, we still came in under our weekly grocery budget.I love Peapod.

*Plus minimun $50 order. Fifty dollars?!? We’re feeding four people!

A good idea that almost worked

Last night I had to run to the grocery store to pick up some wrapping paper and milk (it’s amazing how quickly four people can go through a gallon of milk). I decided to take Grace, and was having her get her shoes on, when my wife was struck with a bolt of inspiration. "Here, Grace," she said, "I’ll write you a list."

She grabbed a piece of paper and wrote "Milk" and "Paper," drawing a picture next to each word. Grace was excited about the idea, and then I had the brilliant (in retrospect, semi-brilliant) idea to let her bring her little play shopping cart. Grace was beside herself with glee. We got to Stop & Shop and I carried the little cart through the parking lot. We got into the store and I set her up with list and cart. Game on.

First of all, she looked so mind-boggingly cute I thought I might implode right there in produce. We were getting lots of the "Dear God look at that freakishly cute kid" glances, which I relished. So much so, in fact, that I failed to prevent a few collisions. Luckily, we pretty much got away with it.

She followed me along pretty well and we got the milk and paper. By now the cart was kind of heavy for her and pushing it became a little less fun. In the end I took over, as we was protesting her servitude with a little civil disobedience ("It’s too heeeeaavyyyyy").

Lessons for next time: Give her light items, keep it brief and keep my eyes on the kid.

Taking photos of the kids

People sometimes tell me that I take nice photos of my kids. I just smile and say thank you, but I’ll let you, dear readers, in on my secret. Everything I learned came from this book, How to Photograph Your Baby by Nick Kelch. It’s a fantastic book that every camera-wielding parent should own.

I don’t want to give away the ending, but Nick drives home three main points in his book. First, turn off that darn flash. So many photos are ruined by that intense blast of white. Instead, find a nice open window, a doorway…anything where natural light is pouring in. Turn your subject to the side to get those nice, soft shadows on his face.

Next, get good and close. As he says (and I’m paraphrasing here), if you want a picture of a flower, fill the frame with flower. If you want a picture of a baby, fill the frame with baby. We’ve all seen (and taken, I would bet) the photo of our 36" tall children from our 78" eye level while standing five feet away. A great way to document the living room, but not your little one.

Finally, Nick says, click that shutter button like it’s your morphine drip (again, I paraphrase). When I was young, each frame on a roll of film was treated like a rare gem. With digital cameras, you can click and click until you get the shot you want. Snap a frame, check it out, make adjustments, snap another. If you click off 30 or 40 in a sitting, you’ll certainly get one keeper, maybe more.

I’m not doing the book justice, of course, so I highly recommend you check it out. It’s approachable, easy to understand and  will elicit great results from you, the reader. For example, I produced some photos that I really like (here, here, here, here and here) by following Nick’s advice.

Incidentally, can you guess which photo from the montage above I ended up keeping? The answer is here.

Send me your favorite activities

Summer is here! School is out, the weather is nice and the kids are ready to go. But these three magical months don’t come with a Built-In Fun Guarantee. We, as parents, still have to put a little effort into it. I’m talking about all the fun little projects and activities we use to keep jr. entertained and happy now that he’s home from school (toddlers, too!). This is where you come in.

Each week, I’m going to feature an "Activity of the Week" here on Daddy Daze, and I want you to participate! Send your favorite activity to me at daddydaze [at] gmail dot com, and in a few weeks I’ll start to bust them out (giving you credit and a little link love, of course). Sound like fun?

I’m not limiting entries to arts-and-crafts type ideas, anything is fair game, and for any age group. Eventually, there will be a nice resource of activities available here at Daddy Daze that you can return to and browse whenever you feel you’ve hit a lull. I’ll go first.

Taking a cue from both my recent trip to Florida with Grace and this idea over at Kiddley, I’ve made a small "activity bag" Grace. When we went on the plane, I packed a bag with a few novel toys that I intended to give her gradually throughout the flight. She loved it, and kept going back to it while at my parent’s house. It was such a hit (and convenient for me) that I’ve kept it going since. In it I’ve placed several things that met certain criteria: 1.) She must be able to use them by herself 2.) They make little to no mess 3.) They don’t have a definite "end" (for example, listening to music has a definite end. Playing with an Etch-a-Skecth does not). Here’s what I’ve got:

1. Box of crayons
2. Mini spiral notebooks
3. 2 mini books of removable stickers. Remove/replace the stickers again and again
4. Mini Etch-a-Skecth (This toy was, and still is, a huge hit. I never would have guessed).
5. Cinderella lip balm
6. Cheap wind up toys you can find anywhere
7. Finger puppets

The contents are completely up to you, of course. You can even switch up what’s in there from time to time to keep it interesting. Now, just toss it into the car so you have it ready whenever you want it.

Email subscriptions available!

Just can’t wait to get the latest from Daddy Daze? Sign up for a subscription, and you’ll receive notification of each new post via email. You’ll find the sign up box in the left hand column, just below the photos. Woo hoo!