General discussion - Mom and Dad Esq.

[nononono]

Originally posted by tmdiva
Oooh ooh ooh, I just remembered a really good one my ped recommended: Building Healthy Minds by Stanley Greenspan. In fact, maybe I should re-read it now that #2's here.

Speaking of #2, I am at a loss to come up with a board moniker for him. What goes with Magnus?

tm

Opus?

[nononono]

Originally posted by Penske_Account
There is no time to read once #2 comes. You have to wing it.




That's a board name? I thought that was his real name. I feel like an idiot now.

Just hand over #2 to #1 (don't worry, big siblings are always mature); the good rearing from your attention to detail the first time around will wear off on the new one.

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by tmdiva


Speaking of #2, I am at a loss to come up with a board moniker for him. What goes with Magnus?

tm

Siggurd? Or Thor?

[Penske_Account]

Originally posted by nononono
Just hand over #2 to #1 (don't worry, big siblings are always mature); the good rearing from your attention to detail the first time around will wear off on the new one.

How about #3?

[nononono]

Originally posted by Penske_Account
How about #3?

Beyond my level of expertise. Give to the wolves to raise?

[Cletus Miller]

Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
Siggurd? Or Thor?

I like Thorvald.

Or just look here, for the approved Danish names:

http://www.kirkeministeriet.dk/hyppige_spm/fornavne.htm

and pick out something--maybe Qvintus?

Anyone have any good ideas for a late fall trip with mom, dad (both working) and a 20-month old boy? Somewhere in North America, which is not Disney-related. Not particular concerned with weather, but want to try to have some variety of stuff for him to do.

[nononono]

Originally posted by Cletus Miller
I like Thorvald.

Or just look here, for the approved Danish names:

http://www.kirkeministeriet.dk/hyppige_spm/fornavne.htm

and pick out something--maybe Qvintus?

Anyone have any good ideas for a late fall trip with mom, dad (both working) and a 20-month old boy? Somewhere in North America, which is not Disney-related. Not particular concerned with weather, but want to try to have some variety of stuff for him to do.

Well, at 20 months, he probably will like running around one place as good as at any other. Though zoos are popular at that age (along with aquariums, etc.). So it's mainly what mom & pop want to do. Outdoorsy? Western VA and NC are beautiful that time of year (assuming October), not too cold, good, not too strenuous hiking (nice with a backpack for the kid). Or are you thinking more city style? Driving or flying?

[Cletus Miller]

Originally posted by nononono
Well, at 20 months, he probably will like running around one place as good as at any other. Though zoos are popular at that age (along with aquariums, etc.). So it's mainly what mom & pop want to do. Outdoorsy? Western VA and NC are beautiful that time of year (assuming October), not too cold, good, not too strenuous hiking (nice with a backpack for the kid). Or are you thinking more city style? Driving or flying?

City-ish, but resort-y is okay too. We're mostly eat and drink vacationers with a healthy dose of upper middle brow tourist-y activities. We're likely flying--He's a champ on the plane, so long as we plan the times right and we haven't really tested his tolerance for a long drive. He will pretty much put up with anything when we're around. We just need someplace where there are a couple of things he'd like so we don't feel bad dragging him around to places we won't let him run amok and we don't have any ideas. We're almost intentionally saving the active vacations for when he's a little older.

[Oliver_Wendell_Ramone]

Originally posted by Cletus Miller
City-ish, but resort-y is okay too. We're mostly eat and drink vacationers with a healthy dose of upper middle brow tourist-y activities. We're likely flying--He's a champ on the plane, so long as we plan the times right and we haven't really tested his tolerance for a long drive. He will pretty much put up with anything when we're around. We just need someplace where there are a couple of things he'd like so we don't feel bad dragging him around to places we won't let him run amok and we don't have any ideas. We're almost intentionally saving the active vacations for when he's a little older.

Monterey (and surrounding) could be cool. You've got beaches and aquarium for the kid, and it's a nice place for adults to spend time. Weather can be great that time of year, too, though it's hit-or-miss.

If you want more city-ish, I'd highly recommend Vancouver BC. Weather could suck late fall, though.

Of course, if you're right coast, neither might make sense.

[Cletus Miller]

Originally posted by Oliver_Wendell_Ramone
Monterey (and surrounding) could be cool. You've got beaches and aquarium for the kid, and it's a nice place for adults to spend time. Weather can be great that time of year, too, though it's hit-or-miss.

If you want more city-ish, I'd highly recommend Vancouver BC. Weather could suck late fall, though.

Of course, if you're right coast, neither might make sense.

Actually went to Monterey late spring. The little dude was a little young to fully appreciate it, but it was a good deal all around and an excellent suggestion.

Been to Vancouver, too, but before the little dude and actually had it on the list of possibles for this trip. Any thoughts on kid-friendly places to go/things to do beyond the aquarium, stanley park, the otehr outdoors stuff (esp. if the weather is shite)? And what's bad weather in early November in Vancouver (or the northern west coast in general)? Does the persistent winter rain start that early?

We're in Chicago, so almost anywhere works--with no plane switch anything up to about 4.5 hours flying time is reasonable for the little dude, especially if we can get on a big plane.

[Penske_Account]

Originally posted by Oliver_Wendell_Ramone
Monterey (and surrounding) could be cool. You've got beaches and aquarium for the kid, and it's a nice place for adults to spend time. Weather can be great that time of year, too, though it's hit-or-miss.

If you want more city-ish, I'd highly recommend Vancouver BC. Weather could suck late fall, though.

Of course, if you're right coast, neither might make sense.

Sheesh Ollie, your not doing much for your own state's tourism effourts. How about the Oregon coast? I have been there in mid-late fall, its beautiful. Really any time of year. Lots of good beer, wine. The beaches are empty and dog friendly. There's an aquarium AND a wax museum in Newport. What more could you want?

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally posted by SEC_Chick
My mother is a professor of early childhood development and Touchpoints is the book that she most highly recommends. Knowing how I turned out, however, I have not yet followed my mother's reading recommendation. I do own a copy of it though.

LOL. I've always given the following advice to new parents: Get your parenting advice from a book IF AND ONLY IF your parents and your SO's parents were both such worthless pieces of shit that you'd rather obtain guidance from total strangers with no track record whatsoever. Minor premise is that if you obtained a college degree and still have all of your fingers and toes, your parents did something right, because that shit does not happen by accident --- for as much as we all bitch about our parents, a real total absence of parenting results in festering wounds and compulsive masturbation. (Hi, Less!) No one capable of posting on this board can truthfully say they have zero to learn from either of their parents.

When I have a parenting problem, I don't open a book. I call my Mom. If what she says makes no fucking sense, I ask Dad instead. If I disagree with him, I'll go to the library. I haven't been to a library in four years.

Re: nursing. I concur that you shouldn't make any permanent decisions on it until you're past six weeks. The agony goes away after about four. If there's a thrush infection at any point, add two weeks to the total. For 90% of people it becomes as easy as falling off a log. Get a rec for a lactation consultant --- you can afford it, and it will reduce the misery in the first week.

[Penske_Account]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch


Re: nursing. I concur that you shouldn't make any permanent decisions on it until you're past six weeks. The agony goes away after about four. If there's a thrush infection at any point, add two weeks to the total. For 90% of people it becomes as easy as falling off a log. Get a rec for a lactation consultant --- you can afford it, and it will reduce the misery in the first week.

Nice try, but no one is forgetting the misogyny you recently exhibited on the issue of natural childbirth v. drug assisted deliveries. I would suggest starting over with a new sock. PM me if you want one of my inactive ones. And don't forget, the babyjesus still loves you, platonically (except in the confessional, anything goes there)

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally posted by robustpuppy
Are there any books you'd recommend for the home stretch? I've read most of the labor & childbirth sections of my pregnancy books - What to Expect, the Unofficial Guide, etc.; and I've also gotten through a lot of What to Expect the First Year.

What you need is the American Society of Pediatrics' "Caring for Your Baby and Young Child: Birth to Age 5. This is the nuts-and-bolts stuff.

You and I do not need any books about child development. You and I might want them, because we pride ourselves on taking control of a situation by anticipating it and preparing ourselves for it, usually by reading, which is the way nerds feel in control. But reference books can be a trap for people who naturally establish high expectations for themselves and, by extension, their children. Weight gain becomes a competition against the percentiles first as a joke --- usually by Dad. But it's no joke when your kid's in the bottom 10% and you're thinking this is the first thing you've ever undertaken at which you're slowly failing. It's not funny when you're sobbing in the middle of the night because your kid is crying and you can't figure out why, and you went to fucking Princeton, for God's sake. Okay, it is funny, but not to you, at least not right then.

If you really want a child development book, my wife recommends anything by William Sears, but only if you're inclined to like attachment parenting. If you're going to be returning to work and already know this, this will probably not be valuable to you as a guide.
Don't read "Babywise." Don't read "What to Expect." Seek out the best parent you know, and take him/her to coffee once a week. Maybe consider reading Operating Instructions. But mostly, it's the coffee.

It was advice I read on this board that kept me from going into shock when my kid had a febrile seizure two weeks ago. It was probably in one of the books on our bookshelf, but I wouldn't have known that. I needed to have once heard a story about a particular kid who had such a high fever that he had a seizure --- and it turned out totally fine, because kids are weird and funny and totally different from adults. And I got that here, not from Dr. Spock.

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally posted by Penske_Account
Nice try, but no one is forgetting the misogyny you recently exhibited on the issue of natural childbirth v. drug assisted deliveries. I would suggest starting over with a new sock. PM me if you want one of my inactive ones. And don't forget, the babyjesus still loves you, platonically (except in the confessional, anything goes there)

As usual, you're not . . . wait, can I have bilmore?