NewPlew

I’ve started to add video to the site - look out, world!

From thingamababy:

TV-B-Gone by Cornfield Electronics is a universal TV remote with only one button: OFF. The unit is composed of a small plastic box with a button, infrared eye and key chain. Point the eye at a TV set, press the button and within seconds the TV turns off…

My 3-year-old daughter had her annual dental check-up this week. She sailed through like a champ with Mom holding her hand and Dad touching her sandal-covered foot and everyone smiling.

One thing annoyed me about the visit though. In a waiting room filled with people and stocked with plenty of magazines and excellent toddler toys, there was a flat screen TV centrally mounted on a wall showing cartoons and commercials.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends pediatricians “discourage television viewing for children younger than 2 years, and encourage more interactive activities that will promote proper brain development, such as talking, playing, singing and reading together.”

At 3, my daughter is blissfully uninterested in TV. She was also the only one in a dozen toddlers her age at a birthday party yesterday who could sign her birthday card. When other kids are watching TV, we’re learning and being active. Why mess with success?

Then I remembered, I won a TV-B-Gone at a Z Recommends contest a while back, but never used it. So I grabbed it from my car’s glove compartment, sat down in the waiting room, pointed the box, and *click* the TV turned off.

Nobody noticed. It was kind of anti-climatic. I wouldn’t have dared cause a ruckus if kids were watching the television, but this was an excellent example of TV intruding unnecessarily on our public life. The TV was background noise. People accepted its presence even when its presence served no purpose.

You should def. keep reading.

Time flies! Thalia is already 15 days old, can you believe it? This was a big week for our little girl - she lost her umbilical cord and had her first doctor’s visit! I was surprised at how calm she was at the doctor - no crying at all. Of course, no needles were involved either. She weighed in at just over 10 lbs and measured 22 in - she’s grown so much already!

It was a big week for me as well. My first father’s day with my daughter. It was so fun taking her to grandpa’s for burgers and time with the family. I never really understood how important father’s day was until I woke up that morning and couldn’t shake the feeling that it was Christmas and I had just received the greatest gift a man could ever get. It’s enough to reduce even the toughest guy to tears of joy and gratitude.

I can’t believe how proud she makes me feel, how happy I am when she’s in my arms rocking away, drinking down yet another bottle. I’ve never felt more at peace.

Another development this week - the proliferation of nicknames. Between the two of us, Jo and I have probably called Thalia at least 20 different things in the past few days. Just off the top of my head:

• Stinker butt
• Stinker pie
• Stinker girl (see a pattern?)
• Punkin butt
• Punkin face
• June bug
• Jooney
• Stinker bug
• Tolley girl
• Tolley bear
• Monster butt

Yes, these were all said with the utmost affection. I’m particularly fond of “June bug” and “Tolley bear”.

One of the nicknames has garnered it’s own song:

Stinker Pie (to the tune of Warrant’s Cherry Pie)

She’s my stinker pie
mountain of dirty diapers
10 miles high
smells so bad makes a grown man cry
sweet stinker pie

Stinkin’ up the front porch
stinkin’ up the lawn
stinkin’ up ya diaper
(when daddy’s not home)
Stinkin’ to the left
Stinkin’ to the right
If ya stinkin’ up ya diaper
daddy’s runnin’ outta sight

…Et Cetera

Jo says I have issues. Thalia will probably agree when she’s older and reads weird stuff like this, but I’ll remind her that the mind goes a little haywire when baby’s colic-y and you’re running on little to no sleep.

Thalia met her Grandma this week, too. After a few weeks of struggling with pneumonia, she had finally recovered enough for us to visit - it was great to see her holding her first grand daughter in her arms. Granny will have plenty of time with Thalia in the future - she’ll stay there during the day while Jo and I are at work.

Great Grandma got a visit from Thalia as well - we stopped by after our whirlwind tour of Jo and my workplaces to introduce Thalia to our office families. GG Joyce was in the best health she’s been in for years, and was able to hold the baby on her own. I nearly cried, it’s a huge accomplishment for a tough lady who’s been thru a few heart-attacks, the death of her husband, and a stroke all in the past 5 years. She’s such an inspiration.

The one thing we didn’t do this week? We didn’t take Thalia to her second cousin’s birthday party. dumb-dumb daddy didn’t read the date correctly and thought it was this Saturday instead of last Saturday. D’oh! We were really lookin’ forward to it, too!