Face it, I'm Addicted to E-Bay
 

Is it better than Scholastic? My spouse is a teacher and gets deals like 100 books for $1 (or some such nomial amount, maybe $5) that she buys to use in her class (though they have all since grown legs; the books that is, as far as I know the students already had legs).

From my own experience E-bay is nothing more than a den of thieves best avoided. The comparison to crack cocaine is apt, as I fell like I'm walking down a dark alley every time I browse there.

Activity center
 

Oh, genius - thank you!!

An aside - one of the grandmas sent an "activity center" - one of those (non-rolling) things that you stick the kid in the middle of and let him play with the stuff surrounding his swivel seat - which arrived last night.

Trepidation Baby is apparently already about to outgrow it - the legs are at the highest setting. He's a pretty big kid, but he's hardly gargantuan for 6 months, so I'm not sure if this is weird or not. Also, TB seems unenthusiastic about it. He thinks the bright thingies around the seat are cool for about 2 minutes, and then he is annoyed that he can't crawl around as he is accustomed to do and hollers to be removed so he can yank on the fringe on the rug and tear up the newspaper.

Is it just that 6 months is a little late to be starting with an activity center? Or will it just take a little while for him to figure out how to play with it?

Trepidation mom - who's not entirely thrilled that her living room has finally been invaded by a big, brightly colored noisy plastic thingy.

Activity center
 

My eldest boy LOVED his "activity center" (which we, his parents, referred to as his "office"). He would stay in that thing for an awfully long time. His preferred one (he actually had two -- don't ask...) was the kind that had a flat, hard-plastic disc, in the center of which was a cylinder, around which the "palatte" (don't know how else to describe it) where he would sit rotated. That way, he could walk around a little, but only in a small circle (the disc). He liked standing up. Maybe it helped with walking -- he walked at 9 months -- but probably not. His father walked early too, which (I hear) is the key predictive factor for when a youngster will start ambulating (i.e., when your parents started walking).

Anyway, I can't remember how old he was when he stopped using it, but it was definitely over six months.

By the time other kid arrivals occurred, we had lost some of the pieces of the seat, and the other kids didn't seem overly interested in the office anyway. (How could you expect anything less? They are, after all, chips off the old blockette).

Activity center
 

We found that 4 months was the perfect time to start with the SuperSaucer. I think he was done with it by about 8 months. It was great for giving us uninterrupted mealtimes. If your guy's been crawling around exploring already, he might find it confining.

tm

Face it, I'm Addicted to E-Bay
 

Teachers get great deals, but there are many books in the big wide world other than scholastic.

I've had great results on ebay - yes, one out of every ten or so purchases can be mis-described or oversold, but most are just what they're sold as and in fine shape. Of course, buying used books is one thing, and I wouldn't go buying used underwear on ebay ...

(psst, try it, you'll like it...)

Activity center
 

I thought the proper name for that thing was the "neglect-o-matic"? Or "that thing that lets Mommy go and take a pee". I loved that thing. Vietbabe used her's for so long she was able to climb in and out of it. I used to stick her in it while showering. I'd wedge it into the doorframe of the bathroom and suds away. Prior to the neglect-o-matic, I'd have to shower while she napped but that was a downer because: (1) I lost 15 minutes of my own nap time; and (2) I'd always think I'd hear sounds of her waking and crying so could never really enjoy the shower.

Activity center
 

Ditto this. The Lexling used his from about 4.5mos to maybe 6-6.5mos, but after that, he didn't really enjoy it anymore. It was worth having it for just a few months, though since he really enjoyed the change of scenery. It was free, too, which helped.

Activity center
 

We've done two kids without a Saucer. At birth they are carried and slinged everywhere. At one month, they can go into a bouncy seat, which takes up far less space than the Saucer. At two months, it's the battery powered swing. At 5.5 months, they go into the Johnny Jump-Up, and there they remain until they can crawl, and then we are well and truly fucked because they've got legs like Bo Jackson from all the jumping.

Caveat: my godson was Saucerized and he's slightly smarter than my unsaucered ones. I attribute this to his two Ivy-to-Ph.D. parents rather than to the plastic rings and balls he looked at for two months of his life. If my wife had married better my kids would have fighting chance, but no.

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You must be a nurture fan. If your wife had married better, you'd be fucking her anyway, eh?

Activity center
 

We had both saucer and swing, and the periods of use didn't overlap that much. The saucer didn't start until 4 months and was done by 9; the swing started very early and was done by 5 when he started grabbing the bars to stop himself. We also used them for different things: the saucer for keeping him occupied during cooking/meals, the swing for when he just would not go to sleep and stay that way (I think I have confessed to this group before that we actually left him in it all night once or twice when we were truly desperate).

Well, the saucer certainly doesn't seem to have hindered Magnus's intellectual development any. I must say that his particular personality (long attention span, good at entertaining himself) made the saucer work particularly well for us, and all kids are different. If you're thinking of buying one, see if you can try one out first, either at a store or at a friend's. We tried Magnus in a friend's at four months while visiting family for Christmas, and he loved it so much we purchased one immediately upon our return home.

Because of the brief period of use, saucers are perfect things to get at resale or from friends. The seats are usually removable and washable, and the toy parts often are too.

tm

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Was the swing on high power? (I think someone on here called it "the puree setting"). That's too funny. Vietbabe hated that electronic swing. My sister's second loved to sleep in the "bucket" that goes into the infant car seat. She'd carry the bucket into the nursery and leave her strapped in it and she'd sleep in it all night. My grandmother would FREAK when she saw my Sister do that but it worked. I tried that once for a nap (brought the bucket into the nursery and left her in it for her nap) and she woke up all sweaty and really pissed. The only really bad idea I had was once when I decided Vietbabe was too tired for her swim class and turned around and took her home and put her in for a nap, still wearing her "swimmy diaper." Bad move. Those things don't "breathe" and after a 3 hour nap she had a diaper rash that bled. I felt like the worst parent ever.

By the way, Vietbabe has had a few doozy tantrums of late and twice now I have been unable to strap her into the car seat at all (those kids will not bend no matter how much you want them to). She just locked her legs and that was it. An hour later, we're still sitting in the car in the hardware store parking lot, with me trying to get her into the car seat. And she's only 21 lbs. What the heck do you do in those situations????

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Two options:

1) Loosen the straps to the end, and try to get them on her at that point. She may calm down once she's "in." enough for you to cinch the straps back down. It may also be easier if you take off her jacket.

2) Take a short walk, letting/making her walk. Just up and down the parking lot row, for example. This seems to work well with the baltspawn.

I would try option 1 first, because if you can get her in the car, she's less likely to try it again (since it didn't work). We've also found lately that the kids are more likely to get in without a fight if they get themselves in (climb up the seat from the footwell and climb in the seat).

If neither if these options work, you just have to outlast her. Good luck.

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If you slip her a xanax berfore going out, she'll be much more docile. Slip yourself one, and you won't care as much how she behaves.

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We've had the same issue with Secret_Agent_Girl for several weeks now. Sometimes she just hates to get into the car seat, because she either: (a) wants to just sit on the back seat, or (b) wants to get in front and drive.

My daughter is about 30 pounds of sinew -- darn near six-pack abs -- and its tough to deal with the car seat issue because you have to get them in but don't want to hurt them. I've found that tickling the stomach will cause the legs to unlock. (Variant 2.0 -- the "Tummy-Meat Monster" appears). I can generally hold her in the seat once her butt hits the bottom, but if you can't do that yourself with one hand (while the other works the straps), I don't have a good solution other than continued wrestling. (My wife's technique.)

Does Vietbabe use a pacifier in the car? If so, you can either give it to her to calm her down (which I'm sure you've thought of) -- or, (as we do) barter for cooperation by promising the pacifier and stuffed animal right as soon as she's buckled in.

S_A_M

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Agreed.