February 12, 2007

Star Wars + Space Ships + Robots + Legos = someone get this for Hayes stat. (Ok, dad… I said Hayes and meant… uh.. me)

More Pix. From Gizmodo

June 14, 2006

Here comes the ABCs by They Might Be Giants is Hayes’ favorite DVD. Actually, other than Speed Racer, which we deemed to violent (sorry, Speed, your time will come), it’s the only DVD Hayes has watched.

I know that pediatricians recommend that children under two don’t watch TV. I also know that for most of us, that recommendation is not heeded as, you know, we need the extra time to do things like take a shower. Anyway, I would also argue that Hayes has actually learned from the songs/dvd.

For instance, Hayes can do the alphabet from A to C. That’s pretty cool. He also beats the puppets to the punchline when they use words he can repeat — like “no.” They’ll be talking, Hayes will suddenly say “no” then one of the puppets immediately says “no.” So, that’s cool, too. And, there’s even a song about conifers. Every child needs to hear a song about conifers ad nauseum. It’s learning, people.

I, on the other hand, need to hear something different every once in a while. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big TMBG fan from the early days… ok, Jen is, I kinda caught on round about Flood. Anyway, as cool as they are and the video is, I can only hear “E eats Everything” so many times before it wakes me up at the night on perpetual repeat in my head.

But, he’s learning, right? So, it’s not all bad. And TMBG’s Here Come The ABC’s is one of the best of ‘em. If you need that distraction and are willing to let a little TV into your youngester’s world that isn’t Barney or Boobah, this is a good one. And it’s cool. Cool is… uh.. cool.

October 12, 2005

With fall upon us, I thought it was time for another review of a very fall-like product. So, here it is: Macy’s (and by Macy’s I mean only available at Macy’s) new Baby Greendog collection of clothes for the under 1 year crowd. Yup, it’s what Hayes is wearing to the left. You can read all about it on their website here.

All you really need to know from their website, though, is that the clothes are super soft, mix and match and blah da blah. All good marketing jargon that usually falls well short of the truth. In this case however, if anything, it doesn’t give the clothes enough credit. These are by far the nicest, highest quality clothes Hayes has. Period.

Keep in mind we live in an area proliferated by high-end baby boutiques that sell baby shoes that cost more than our Subaru. In other words, I’ve had ample chance to see super expensive clothing, and it ain’t as nice. It just isn’t. Those expensive boutiques seem to only offer the wear it once to make baby look cute but, don’t you dare wash it kind. On the other hand, we’ve washed this outfit and, suprisingly, it still looks as good as new.

So here’s the short and skinny of it: if you need something to “dress up” the baby, but that can also be worn day-to-day without running the risk of ruining it, the Baby Greendog line fits the bill. Sure, it’s a bit more expensive than a trip to TJ Max, but, in this case, you get what you pay for.

May 14, 2005

As I said in an earlier post, we were ordering the Amby Bed for Hayes. Well, it came at about 7:30 last night… UPS deliver almost past our bedtime in the city. So I quickly put it togther — it was a snap both litterally and figuratively and we tentatively placed H in it.

Some people said they had early problems getting their baby to like it. Not us, Hayes smiled as it slowly bounced and rocked. He then had a normal nights sleep in it. By normal, I mean he got up three times during the night… actually more like 2, since the first was shortly after he fell asleep and he ate a ton of food.

My intial thoughts are mostly good. It doesn’t creak or groan like the Fisher Price Ocean Wonders Aquarium Swing (the closest thing I have to compare it to) and overall seems well built. On the other hand, it has the aesthetics of a school gym tether ball pole, which is unfortunate, as good looking products are important to me. That aside (and admittedly, it’s trivial), it’s proving to be a good battery free and safer replacement to the Fisher Price Aqua Swing that has been his bed, since he refuses to sleep in his crib. I look forwarrd to reporting on it further down the road.