My wife was showering and my son opened the shower door and said, "Mommy, do you know the yap pap pa song?" Yup, my son is going around peddling the Ranma 1/2 theme song like a Jehovah Witness.
Ugh, 5yo fell over today at school. Tripped and tore up his hand on the asphalt. They put a bandaid on.
So I figured it was a minor graze or scrape.
But he's been complaining and crying about not wanting to take off the bandaid even though it's falling off after a day of use on his palm.
So I finally take it off at bedtime and see not a scrape or graze, but a big flap of skin has been mostly torn off and closed back. Little one says they didn't wash it or clean it before putting a bandaid on.
There's a noticable amount of grit and dirt in the seams, and presumably under the flap of skin, but it's already started healing and resealing, so I can't open it back up and clean it properly.
Anyway, I took out my sterile gauze, some iodine, a new bandaid and held his arm down while he screamed so much he vomited while I did my best to clean around the edges of a dirty wound that was 10 hours old, because, yeah, it looks nasty. No wonder he was saying it stings and hurts. Not red and angry like there's an infection, but it would hurt and if there's any irritants in the wound it will be supersensitive and definitely need to be watched for further signs of infection.
Bit disappointed in the standard of care from the school though. Like, I know, I know kids will get hurt all the time, but closing up a torn skin flap with a bandaid without cleaning the dirt out.. that's not just me, right? It feels a bit substandard, but maybe my own sense of proportion here is off.
Well damn, the egg failed to attach correctly, so it’s back to the drawing board. We do have a viable blastocyst in storage, we might have a breather and then try again soon
FishmanPut your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain.Registered Userregular
edited June 2021
Yeah, that happens. It took us a couple tries. Apparently the average number of rounds before successful viable IVF in NZ is somewhere between 2 and 3, and that's normal.
That's unbelievably cool. Your new name is cool guy. Let's have sex.
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Lost Salientblink twiceif you'd like me to mercy kill youRegistered Userregular
Helloo kid thread
My cousin in DC is having a baby at the end of the month
I need to win baby shower gifting
What is the best most useful big gift for baby-having people
OR alternatively does anyone have any small business brands for cute smaller baby gifts that I could shop from?
(I'm already getting them a bunch of board books from a local kids' bookshop and a great kid-friendly LGBTQIA+ bookshop in Australia - not that babies give a flying fuck about books - so that's fine)
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
My cousin in DC is having a baby at the end of the month
I need to win baby shower gifting
What is the best most useful big gift for baby-having people
OR alternatively does anyone have any small business brands for cute smaller baby gifts that I could shop from?
(I'm already getting them a bunch of board books from a local kids' bookshop and a great kid-friendly LGBTQIA+ bookshop in Australia - not that babies give a flying fuck about books - so that's fine)
For big gifts it's best to coordinate with the parents. A stroller or bed is a fantastic (and expensive) gift, but the parents probably did a lot of research on what they think works best for their sprout and home.
For smaller gifts I think you can never go wrong with plushies and toys that are close to the interests of the parents. Like: my friends gave my kid a Cthulhu and a dragon plushie and I thought that was very thoughtful. I'm keeping those plushies after my kid outgrows them. Other great gifts were a bit more hit/miss, like one uncle gave a spherovelo and my parents made a rocking dinosaur. Both very nice gifts and they looked cool, but the kid never really played with either one and generally took up a lot of space. I think for a lot of bigger gifts it is more sensible to wait until the kid is old enough to express an interest in certain things/colors.
Actual toys are very hit or miss as a gift. Might be the nicest thing and the little one might not show a bit of interest. So yeah, too expensive and it might just dissapoint everyone in the end when it just sits in the corner.
One of the best things with a lot of use we actually got was a box of discarded wooden building blocks from a family a block away.
My cousin in DC is having a baby at the end of the month
I need to win baby shower gifting
What is the best most useful big gift for baby-having people
OR alternatively does anyone have any small business brands for cute smaller baby gifts that I could shop from?
(I'm already getting them a bunch of board books from a local kids' bookshop and a great kid-friendly LGBTQIA+ bookshop in Australia - not that babies give a flying fuck about books - so that's fine)
The gifts that we were actually most appreciative of was actually just a bunch of small food storage items (but these weren’t really helpful until we started solids.
In terms of books, unsurprisingly, books you like will not be books that they like, but babies do like books! Just in terms of baby development they take a couple of months to see in colour, so I would recommend black and white board books. Theia for whatever reason loved the book Hello Birds.
In terms of luxury items they might not buy but are nice and are affordablish, an automatic rocker is pretty nice, but I would check since that is a space thing.
Oh another thing that could be useful that we wish we did was buy sets of colour coded cleaning cloths. So like a set of cleaning cloths for the highchair, a set for the bathroom, a set for the change table (if you are reusable wipes) and like a general cleaning set, so that when they are washed they are like super easy to sort out.
Alternatively, if it is something they are comfortable with, buy them a cleaning service for a while.
My cousin in DC is having a baby at the end of the month
I need to win baby shower gifting
What is the best most useful big gift for baby-having people
OR alternatively does anyone have any small business brands for cute smaller baby gifts that I could shop from?
(I'm already getting them a bunch of board books from a local kids' bookshop and a great kid-friendly LGBTQIA+ bookshop in Australia - not that babies give a flying fuck about books - so that's fine)
Please tell me you’re ordering them from Rabble Books… pretty much all the books we’ve bought for T came from there!
Anyway - anything big, ask them what they want. They probably already have specific brands and models of big ticket items in mind, or at least a way of doing things that some big ticket items suit better than others.
Like for example, some families don’t want to use swings or bouncers. Others do. Some might want a bassinet then cot, others might go straight to cot, and still others might go bassinet into cosleeping into big bed.
For small stuff, I’m not familiar with anything in the US but in terms of books - newborns can actually appreciate specific books. Anything with predominantly white and black patterns. T was OBSESSED with one such book, but I can’t remember what it was called.
And yeah, diapers are always a welcome option. We used cloth diapers from 4 weeks on, but still used disposables from time to time and overnight. We used every single gifted disposable we got given. And we were given LOADS.
You obviously don’t want too many of that kind of book because they’ll outgrow them, but in terms of keeping a small baby engaged and interested in something so that they turn to face it, that kind of book is great.
EDIT: Blake found the book - Look Look by Peter Linenthal
Well damn, the egg failed to attach correctly, so it’s back to the drawing board. We do have a viable blastocyst in storage, we might have a breather and then try again soon
lonelyahavaCall me Ahava ~~She/Her~~Move to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
The big thing that made a difference for us was a Bissel Green Machine vacuum thing. Just the little one. But it sucks up wet messes and stains with relative ease and made us far less stressed about baby and toddler messes.
Don't do this. Babies change size at different rates, so it's an easy way to lumber them with a huge amount of bulk they can't use yet or a load of nappies they need to offload as they are too small.
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
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Kane Red RobeMaster of MagicArcanusRegistered Userregular
Don't do this. Babies change size at different rates, so it's an easy way to lumber them with a huge amount of bulk they can't use yet or a load of nappies they need to offload as they are too small.
Conversely we found it pretty painless to take the boxes of diapers Lore had outgrown to Target/WalMart/Costco to exchange them for the next size up. Just make sure to give them the receipt.
If you want something more fun than diapers though one of the things we used a lot with Lore where spending the extra cash was worth it was a strap on baby carrier. The good ones are really pricey but sit so much more comfortably. We took her on a ton of walks when she was little and the carrier we splurged on meant my back didn't hate me afterwards.
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
Don't do this. Babies change size at different rates, so it's an easy way to lumber them with a huge amount of bulk they can't use yet or a load of nappies they need to offload as they are too small.
Blake TDo you have enemies then?Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered Userregular
Carriers I wouldn’t recommend because they are also super baby/person dependant. I thought I’d like a strappy one with buckles so it could be specific, but I never got it to sit right and ended up using just a half buckle. Carriers are a thing where I think it is better to try on yourself and figure it out.
The standout baby shower gift we got was a laundry basket filled with burp cloths, bibs, and consumables like butt cream and wipes.
Everybody thinks they have enough laundry baskets until they have a baby.
life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
Carriers I wouldn’t recommend because they are also super baby/person dependant. I thought I’d like a strappy one with buckles so it could be specific, but I never got it to sit right and ended up using just a half buckle. Carriers are a thing where I think it is better to try on yourself and figure it out.
With this being said, and true for structured carriers especially, if your friend is interested in baby wearing there are a huge variety of cloth wraps that are beautiful and sometimes expensive and if you know they're interested it could be a nice gift. We preferred cloth wraps to anything structured with our kids and we had at least three different ones in regular rotation (lighter and heavier fabrics, different colors and patterns, that kind of thing).
This combo right here ended up being the standout baby shower gift for us, but we didn’t realize until the baby was home.
After cleaning up a diaper you just dip that spatula thing into the tub of aquaphor, spread a bit around the butt, close the diaper off and wipe the spatula off.
The Aquaphor makes cleaning poopy diapers INCREDIBLY easier since it creates a barrier on their skin that makes the poop stick to the skin less. Has super helped prevent diaper rash, too. I don’t know how parents dealt with this stuff before aquaphor came along.
Initially I thought “who needs this stick? I can just use my hand to apply cream and wash it” but it makes everything SO MUCH FASTER.
Don't do this. Babies change size at different rates, so it's an easy way to lumber them with a huge amount of bulk they can't use yet or a load of nappies they need to offload as they are too small.
Also applies to clothes a bit. Newborn clothes are super cute, but outgrown very quickly. Or in the case of big babies, never worn at all. Our babies were both huge and never fit newborn size clothes, and barely spent any time in newborn size disposable diapers.
Looking back to what we got from the baby shower for kid #1, the packs of little cloths someone got us have been amongst the most useful things we were given. Alternatively, some clothes for the baby to grow into would be a good bet.
Oh wait, or giftcards for groceries or food delivery for use the first week they are home with the baby would be very useful.
:so_raven:
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Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
Don't do this. Babies change size at different rates, so it's an easy way to lumber them with a huge amount of bulk they can't use yet or a load of nappies they need to offload as they are too small.
Also applies to clothes a bit. Newborn clothes are super cute, but outgrown very quickly. Or in the case of big babies, never worn at all. Our babies were both huge and never fit newborn size clothes, and barely spent any time in newborn size disposable diapers.
Looking back to what we got from the baby shower for kid #1, the packs of little cloths someone got us have been amongst the most useful things we were given. Alternatively, some clothes for the baby to grow into would be a good bet.
Oh wait, or giftcards for groceries or food delivery for use the first week they are home with the baby would be very useful.
Yeah a good 50% of clothes we received went to the charity shop unworn
Mojo_Jojo on
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
Carriers I wouldn’t recommend because they are also super baby/person dependant. I thought I’d like a strappy one with buckles so it could be specific, but I never got it to sit right and ended up using just a half buckle. Carriers are a thing where I think it is better to try on yourself and figure it out.
With this being said, and true for structured carriers especially, if your friend is interested in baby wearing there are a huge variety of cloth wraps that are beautiful and sometimes expensive and if you know they're interested it could be a nice gift. We preferred cloth wraps to anything structured with our kids and we had at least three different ones in regular rotation (lighter and heavier fabrics, different colors and patterns, that kind of thing).
Yeah I really wanted to get into wraps but managed to talk myself out of them for now! Some of them out there are GORGEOUS and I stalk the Girasol website at least once a month just to stare at them.
We bought ring slings and a full buckle carrier before T was born, based on research alone. And I did use the ring slings a LOT when T was tiny, but then not so much once we discovered the half buckle carriers. We both found them more comfortable to wear for longer periods of time, easier to put on, and could be easily adjusted between us if needed.
I still always have a ring sling in the car just in case, but yeah it was one of those things where we didn’t really know what suited us until T actually arrived and we actually started wearing her. Plus, she did NOT like being in the full buckle that we got.
The variety is insane. Full buckles, half buckles, meh dai, onbuhimo, ring slings, stretchy wraps, woven wraps… there’s essentially something for everyone! But you do get what you pay for, either in terms of the quality of the product or how safe it is for baby. There’s a LOT of cheaper stuff that looks cool but actually isn’t safe, whether from the risks of dropping/suffocation or a developmental issue.
lonelyahavaCall me Ahava ~~She/Her~~Move to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
i wanted to get into baby wearing so hard.
borrowed a stretchy wrap from a friend before buying this GORGEOUS woven wrap that I was lusting after.
Thank god I did.
Ellie HATED, with a violent screaming passion, hated being worn. there was no magic sleepy dust, no perfect connection between mother and child. There was just tears and screams and vomit. so much.
so thankfully we found that out before I spent the $500 on the 8meter long woven wrap.
eventually, she tolerated a ring sling. but only for at most 20 minutes, and only with her father. too long of prolonged contact with me induced hysteria and despair.
borrowed a stretchy wrap from a friend before buying this GORGEOUS woven wrap that I was lusting after.
Thank god I did.
Ellie HATED, with a violent screaming passion, hated being worn. there was no magic sleepy dust, no perfect connection between mother and child. There was just tears and screams and vomit. so much.
so thankfully we found that out before I spent the $500 on the 8meter long woven wrap.
eventually, she tolerated a ring sling. but only for at most 20 minutes, and only with her father. too long of prolonged contact with me induced hysteria and despair.
so good for the ego.
Drew was the same. It took us hours to figure out the wrap. Then we got him in it and deeply regretted our life choices. Then we put him in a more structured one, and he tolerated it grudgingly, for short periods before losing his rag. Eventually we gave up on it and accepted he was going to either be carried about or rolling around in his stroller.
We have so many carriers. My wife made a home made version of the mobi wrap for infants, and has some thick colourful wraps from some German brand. I wasn’t comfortable with wraps but we have a becco Gemini, an ergo baby, a Tula, and a toddler size lillebaby, which I think was the best of the structured carriers.
Oh and we had a ring sling and my wife had some other carrier she kept at work as a backup for unexpected daycare pickups.
Except for the lillebaby and one of the wraps we got them all used.
Our second kid we haven’t done anywhere near as much baby wearing, and I think it’s because we no longer live in a dense urban environment in a tiny condo, but are in a bit more suburban a place in a house.
:so_raven:
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FishmanPut your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain.Registered Userregular
I wore a wrap for a while with Kees when he was little when I walked the dog in the morning. It worked well until he started getting bigger, so we moved to a stroller and stuck to the less off-road paths.
I tried a few times with Javi, but the wrap had stretched out under Kees and didn't support his head well, so we pretty much just moved to tandem configuration on the stroller and called it a day.
The wrap was still a decent way to settle down into a slouch and play videogames though.
Some larger places have baby wearing groups and baby wearing libraries that you can borrow from to try things out. I found my local one after I bought the ones I ended up using (k'tan and ergo baby). Not for everybody, but they can give ideas and help.
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
Well now I feel like a schmuck but we had a really great experience wearing both of our kids, when they were infants it was really a life saver. We had a Mobi and that was our primary wrap and it took me a little bit to get used to it but I ended up liking it better than any of the structured carriers because you could make it fit you perfectly and it worked for multiple people without having to fiddle with buckles or adjust strap lengths.
We discovered yesterday that our fourth grader has been fucking around during math class for at least a month and as a result honestly doesn't know how to do long division by hand, which is a problem because she has a test on that very thing tomorrow. I was holding my breath that we'd get through the Year of Virtual School without a catastrophe but sadly that's not to be. My wife immediately started trying to fix it somehow (she honestly considered learning the method herself overnight and trying to teach our daughter today) and I had to talk her down to a. we'll ask our daughter's teacher what can be done and b. my daughter might just need to fail the test. She's been skating along on the strength of being gifted and quick on her feet but you can't skate past long division and this might have to be her first Big Consequences moment. It sucks and I hate it and my wife's very upset and I'm mad at the entire situation (how does a kid tune out a month of class and her teacher never noticed, none of this is fair to anyone involved, my kid's had a long-term lie going and that's not great, etc) and I'm very glad that no matter what happens we've only got a week and a half of this crap left.
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KakodaimonosCode fondlerHelping the 1% get richerRegistered Userregular
My wife hates spiders. Every time there's a spider around, she'll leave and make me move it outside before she'll come back. The other day, the oldest son was downstairs playing in our gym room and came upstairs saying, "Look at this." So I walk over to him and start looking and he says, "No, look at the back of my neck." So as I'm looking trying to see what's going on, he says "Oh, here it is" and right then as my wife is walking over to look, a small spider runs out of his shirt, up his neck and across his face. My wife shrieks and takes a couple of steps back and I just chuckle while our son says, "Surprise!".
While I do admire his commitment to the surprise, I did have a little chat about why picking up insects isn't a great idea unless he's sure what they are and how to handle the insects so they don't get hurt.
Some larger places have baby wearing groups and baby wearing libraries that you can borrow from to try things out. I found my local one after I bought the ones I ended up using (k'tan and ergo baby). Not for everybody, but they can give ideas and help.
Yeah, this is how my wife first got into the baby wearing stuff. We really liked have multiple carriers, because then we could each have one we liked and leave the straps adjusted in a way that was comfortable for us and not have to readjust.
This is the toddler sized one we got, and apparently I could still put the 5 year old in it since it goes up to 60 lbs! I think I'd probably die. :biggrin:
Well now I feel like a schmuck but we had a really great experience wearing both of our kids, when they were infants it was really a life saver. We had a Mobi and that was our primary wrap and it took me a little bit to get used to it but I ended up liking it better than any of the structured carriers because you could make it fit you perfectly and it worked for multiple people without having to fiddle with buckles or adjust strap lengths.
We discovered yesterday that our fourth grader has been fucking around during math class for at least a month and as a result honestly doesn't know how to do long division by hand, which is a problem because she has a test on that very thing tomorrow. I was holding my breath that we'd get through the Year of Virtual School without a catastrophe but sadly that's not to be. My wife immediately started trying to fix it somehow (she honestly considered learning the method herself overnight and trying to teach our daughter today) and I had to talk her down to a. we'll ask our daughter's teacher what can be done and b. my daughter might just need to fail the test. She's been skating along on the strength of being gifted and quick on her feet but you can't skate past long division and this might have to be her first Big Consequences moment. It sucks and I hate it and my wife's very upset and I'm mad at the entire situation (how does a kid tune out a month of class and her teacher never noticed, none of this is fair to anyone involved, my kid's had a long-term lie going and that's not great, etc) and I'm very glad that no matter what happens we've only got a week and a half of this crap left.
I don't know if it helps, but I missed learning long division at school owing to being overseas during that block, but I also was talented at math and it never mattered in the long run. I went another 8 years without ever needing it again, perfectly capable of doing division and math without long notation and eventually learning in my teenage years by which stage it was more quadratic equations, algebra, and calculus that tests cared about.
Well now I feel like a schmuck but we had a really great experience wearing both of our kids, when they were infants it was really a life saver. We had a Mobi and that was our primary wrap and it took me a little bit to get used to it but I ended up liking it better than any of the structured carriers because you could make it fit you perfectly and it worked for multiple people without having to fiddle with buckles or adjust strap lengths.
We discovered yesterday that our fourth grader has been fucking around during math class for at least a month and as a result honestly doesn't know how to do long division by hand, which is a problem because she has a test on that very thing tomorrow. I was holding my breath that we'd get through the Year of Virtual School without a catastrophe but sadly that's not to be. My wife immediately started trying to fix it somehow (she honestly considered learning the method herself overnight and trying to teach our daughter today) and I had to talk her down to a. we'll ask our daughter's teacher what can be done and b. my daughter might just need to fail the test. She's been skating along on the strength of being gifted and quick on her feet but you can't skate past long division and this might have to be her first Big Consequences moment. It sucks and I hate it and my wife's very upset and I'm mad at the entire situation (how does a kid tune out a month of class and her teacher never noticed, none of this is fair to anyone involved, my kid's had a long-term lie going and that's not great, etc) and I'm very glad that no matter what happens we've only got a week and a half of this crap left.
I don't know if it helps, but I missed learning long division at school owing to being overseas during that block, but I also was talented at math and it never mattered in the long run. I went another 8 years without ever needing it again, perfectly capable of doing division and math without long notation and eventually learning in my teenage years by which stage it was more quadratic equations, algebra, and calculus that tests cared about.
Thanks, we're absolutely keeping it in perspective. The lying to us and completely blowing off class is the problematic part of the situation, being able to do long division by hand is completely pointless and I honestly don't care if she ever learns to do it.
With that being said, her teacher did some extra work with her after school today and she has some review exercises and I think she'll scrape by the test tomorrow. The frustrating thing, as always, is that because she's bright she can bob and weave past a lot of problems and I'm not looking forward to the day that she really hits a wall because of bad study habits, I'd honestly rather it come sooner than later.
@Peen this feels like a great opportunity for the "yeah you're gifted but do you really just want to fuck around and get bye or try to give a damn and excel?" talk
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Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better
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My cousin in DC is having a baby at the end of the month
I need to win baby shower gifting
What is the best most useful big gift for baby-having people
OR alternatively does anyone have any small business brands for cute smaller baby gifts that I could shop from?
(I'm already getting them a bunch of board books from a local kids' bookshop and a great kid-friendly LGBTQIA+ bookshop in Australia - not that babies give a flying fuck about books - so that's fine)
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
For big gifts it's best to coordinate with the parents. A stroller or bed is a fantastic (and expensive) gift, but the parents probably did a lot of research on what they think works best for their sprout and home.
For smaller gifts I think you can never go wrong with plushies and toys that are close to the interests of the parents. Like: my friends gave my kid a Cthulhu and a dragon plushie and I thought that was very thoughtful. I'm keeping those plushies after my kid outgrows them.
One of the best things with a lot of use we actually got was a box of discarded wooden building blocks from a family a block away.
Or just burp cloths or muslin blankets
The gifts that we were actually most appreciative of was actually just a bunch of small food storage items (but these weren’t really helpful until we started solids.
In terms of books, unsurprisingly, books you like will not be books that they like, but babies do like books! Just in terms of baby development they take a couple of months to see in colour, so I would recommend black and white board books. Theia for whatever reason loved the book Hello Birds.
In terms of luxury items they might not buy but are nice and are affordablish, an automatic rocker is pretty nice, but I would check since that is a space thing.
Oh another thing that could be useful that we wish we did was buy sets of colour coded cleaning cloths. So like a set of cleaning cloths for the highchair, a set for the bathroom, a set for the change table (if you are reusable wipes) and like a general cleaning set, so that when they are washed they are like super easy to sort out.
Alternatively, if it is something they are comfortable with, buy them a cleaning service for a while.
Satans..... hints.....
Please tell me you’re ordering them from Rabble Books… pretty much all the books we’ve bought for T came from there!
Anyway - anything big, ask them what they want. They probably already have specific brands and models of big ticket items in mind, or at least a way of doing things that some big ticket items suit better than others.
Like for example, some families don’t want to use swings or bouncers. Others do. Some might want a bassinet then cot, others might go straight to cot, and still others might go bassinet into cosleeping into big bed.
For small stuff, I’m not familiar with anything in the US but in terms of books - newborns can actually appreciate specific books. Anything with predominantly white and black patterns. T was OBSESSED with one such book, but I can’t remember what it was called.
And yeah, diapers are always a welcome option. We used cloth diapers from 4 weeks on, but still used disposables from time to time and overnight. We used every single gifted disposable we got given. And we were given LOADS.
You obviously don’t want too many of that kind of book because they’ll outgrow them, but in terms of keeping a small baby engaged and interested in something so that they turn to face it, that kind of book is great.
EDIT: Blake found the book - Look Look by Peter Linenthal
Democrats Abroad! || Vote From Abroad
Don't do this. Babies change size at different rates, so it's an easy way to lumber them with a huge amount of bulk they can't use yet or a load of nappies they need to offload as they are too small.
Conversely we found it pretty painless to take the boxes of diapers Lore had outgrown to Target/WalMart/Costco to exchange them for the next size up. Just make sure to give them the receipt.
If you want something more fun than diapers though one of the things we used a lot with Lore where spending the extra cash was worth it was a strap on baby carrier. The good ones are really pricey but sit so much more comfortably. We took her on a ton of walks when she was little and the carrier we splurged on meant my back didn't hate me afterwards.
Gift cards for diapers tho.
Satans..... hints.....
Everybody thinks they have enough laundry baskets until they have a baby.
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
With this being said, and true for structured carriers especially, if your friend is interested in baby wearing there are a huge variety of cloth wraps that are beautiful and sometimes expensive and if you know they're interested it could be a nice gift. We preferred cloth wraps to anything structured with our kids and we had at least three different ones in regular rotation (lighter and heavier fabrics, different colors and patterns, that kind of thing).
This combo right here ended up being the standout baby shower gift for us, but we didn’t realize until the baby was home.
After cleaning up a diaper you just dip that spatula thing into the tub of aquaphor, spread a bit around the butt, close the diaper off and wipe the spatula off.
The Aquaphor makes cleaning poopy diapers INCREDIBLY easier since it creates a barrier on their skin that makes the poop stick to the skin less. Has super helped prevent diaper rash, too. I don’t know how parents dealt with this stuff before aquaphor came along.
Initially I thought “who needs this stick? I can just use my hand to apply cream and wash it” but it makes everything SO MUCH FASTER.
Also applies to clothes a bit. Newborn clothes are super cute, but outgrown very quickly. Or in the case of big babies, never worn at all. Our babies were both huge and never fit newborn size clothes, and barely spent any time in newborn size disposable diapers.
Looking back to what we got from the baby shower for kid #1, the packs of little cloths someone got us have been amongst the most useful things we were given. Alternatively, some clothes for the baby to grow into would be a good bet.
Oh wait, or giftcards for groceries or food delivery for use the first week they are home with the baby would be very useful.
Yeah a good 50% of clothes we received went to the charity shop unworn
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Singing, dancing, impromptu mimed brick-breaking....
Yeah I really wanted to get into wraps but managed to talk myself out of them for now! Some of them out there are GORGEOUS and I stalk the Girasol website at least once a month just to stare at them.
We bought ring slings and a full buckle carrier before T was born, based on research alone. And I did use the ring slings a LOT when T was tiny, but then not so much once we discovered the half buckle carriers. We both found them more comfortable to wear for longer periods of time, easier to put on, and could be easily adjusted between us if needed.
I still always have a ring sling in the car just in case, but yeah it was one of those things where we didn’t really know what suited us until T actually arrived and we actually started wearing her. Plus, she did NOT like being in the full buckle that we got.
The variety is insane. Full buckles, half buckles, meh dai, onbuhimo, ring slings, stretchy wraps, woven wraps… there’s essentially something for everyone! But you do get what you pay for, either in terms of the quality of the product or how safe it is for baby. There’s a LOT of cheaper stuff that looks cool but actually isn’t safe, whether from the risks of dropping/suffocation or a developmental issue.
borrowed a stretchy wrap from a friend before buying this GORGEOUS woven wrap that I was lusting after.
Thank god I did.
Ellie HATED, with a violent screaming passion, hated being worn. there was no magic sleepy dust, no perfect connection between mother and child. There was just tears and screams and vomit. so much.
so thankfully we found that out before I spent the $500 on the 8meter long woven wrap.
eventually, she tolerated a ring sling. but only for at most 20 minutes, and only with her father. too long of prolonged contact with me induced hysteria and despair.
so good for the ego.
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Drew was the same. It took us hours to figure out the wrap. Then we got him in it and deeply regretted our life choices. Then we put him in a more structured one, and he tolerated it grudgingly, for short periods before losing his rag. Eventually we gave up on it and accepted he was going to either be carried about or rolling around in his stroller.
Approach wraps with caution.
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Oh and we had a ring sling and my wife had some other carrier she kept at work as a backup for unexpected daycare pickups.
Except for the lillebaby and one of the wraps we got them all used.
Our second kid we haven’t done anywhere near as much baby wearing, and I think it’s because we no longer live in a dense urban environment in a tiny condo, but are in a bit more suburban a place in a house.
I tried a few times with Javi, but the wrap had stretched out under Kees and didn't support his head well, so we pretty much just moved to tandem configuration on the stroller and called it a day.
The wrap was still a decent way to settle down into a slouch and play videogames though.
We discovered yesterday that our fourth grader has been fucking around during math class for at least a month and as a result honestly doesn't know how to do long division by hand, which is a problem because she has a test on that very thing tomorrow. I was holding my breath that we'd get through the Year of Virtual School without a catastrophe but sadly that's not to be. My wife immediately started trying to fix it somehow (she honestly considered learning the method herself overnight and trying to teach our daughter today) and I had to talk her down to a. we'll ask our daughter's teacher what can be done and b. my daughter might just need to fail the test. She's been skating along on the strength of being gifted and quick on her feet but you can't skate past long division and this might have to be her first Big Consequences moment. It sucks and I hate it and my wife's very upset and I'm mad at the entire situation (how does a kid tune out a month of class and her teacher never noticed, none of this is fair to anyone involved, my kid's had a long-term lie going and that's not great, etc) and I'm very glad that no matter what happens we've only got a week and a half of this crap left.
While I do admire his commitment to the surprise, I did have a little chat about why picking up insects isn't a great idea unless he's sure what they are and how to handle the insects so they don't get hurt.
Yeah, this is how my wife first got into the baby wearing stuff. We really liked have multiple carriers, because then we could each have one we liked and leave the straps adjusted in a way that was comfortable for us and not have to readjust.
This is the toddler sized one we got, and apparently I could still put the 5 year old in it since it goes up to 60 lbs! I think I'd probably die. :biggrin:
https://www.lillebaby.com/collections/carry-on/products/carryon-airflow
I don't know if it helps, but I missed learning long division at school owing to being overseas during that block, but I also was talented at math and it never mattered in the long run. I went another 8 years without ever needing it again, perfectly capable of doing division and math without long notation and eventually learning in my teenage years by which stage it was more quadratic equations, algebra, and calculus that tests cared about.
Thanks, we're absolutely keeping it in perspective. The lying to us and completely blowing off class is the problematic part of the situation, being able to do long division by hand is completely pointless and I honestly don't care if she ever learns to do it.
With that being said, her teacher did some extra work with her after school today and she has some review exercises and I think she'll scrape by the test tomorrow. The frustrating thing, as always, is that because she's bright she can bob and weave past a lot of problems and I'm not looking forward to the day that she really hits a wall because of bad study habits, I'd honestly rather it come sooner than later.