After four kids have I come to the sci­en­tific con­clu­sion that exer­saucers are the cause of mas­sive poop explo­sions. It’s because over the years I’ve been a pawn in an ongo­ing exper­i­ment on the power of exer­saucers. Just like with the older rabble-rousers here when they were babies, D-man has suc­cumbed to the power of his exer­saucer & is now start­ing to save his poop explo­sions for the exersaucer.

The phrase “POOP HAPPENS” doesn’t begin to cover the expe­ri­ence. Maybe a bet­ter phrase would be “When the POOP hits the back and the legs and the clothes and Mom too because she for­gets & she picks you up before real­iz­ing you are cov­ered in POOP EVERY TIME!” You’d think by kid num­ber four I’d have fig­ured this out. It reminds me of what Ein­stein once said “The def­i­n­i­tion of insan­ity is doing the same thing over and over again and expect­ing dif­fer­ent results.”

I’m going to claim that sleep depri­va­tion has lead to these moments of tem­po­rary insan­ity when I think that cute smil­ing face and bab­bling is about want­ing to cud­dle & not cover me in poop. YES, THAT’S RIGHT POOP!! Sleep depri­va­tion lead­ing to tem­po­rary insan­ity and the allure of the rays of sun­shine that shoot from their smil­ing faces can be the only expla­na­tion for falling for it every time. D-man has fig­ured this out like a pro, using his sun­shine to blind me in a haze of adorable­ness only to “gift” me with his present of poo.

What’s worse is that he laughs when I pick him up. He laughs with a big hearty laugh. It’s like he knows how gross it is & is amused at my hor­ror. Again a smart lit­tle man to know that money is in the fart & poop jokes. I’d just pre­fer it not be me that he uses as part of his comic routine.

Tech­no­rati Tags: babies, exer­saucers, poop

I was doing some back read­ing of arti­cles I book­marked last week & in my cue was a New York Times arti­cle, For First­borns, Sec­ond­hand Fits the Bill. I had book­marked it to read because I am look­ing for arti­cles to give my stu­dents when school starts back up. I’m try­ing to find some that deal with how changes in the econ­omy can cause other social changes.

In this arti­cle the focus is a sup­posed increase in fru­gal choices when shop­ping for kids. I know the NY Times has a pretty skewed audi­ence, trend­ing toward a higher income & higher edu­ca­tional level. I get there are dif­fer­ences in cul­tural under­stand­ings about money & neces­sity based on socio-economic class. But PULEEZE if this is what money & edu­ca­tion gets us then we are totally screwed on lessons of sen­si­ble eco­nom­ics. For exam­ple as the arti­cle points out that par­ents who have it “together” have real­ized this stun­ning fact:

No longer is it nec­es­sary to buy a thousand-dollar chang­ing table in order to prove your parental savvy and breadth of love; if any­thing, the oppo­site is true.

I’m not sure any­one in my classes will be able to relate, no mat­ter their age or if they have kids. I know I can’t. Because really a grand?

Is this really a news­flash? I don’t know about any­one else, but I don’t think it was EVER nec­es­sary to buy a $1,000 chang­ing table. Not unless your kid is going to cre­ate lit­eral dia­monds on it, which I’m pretty sure is impos­si­ble. Rain­bows maybe, but dia­monds nope. No dia­monds then no grand is going to be dropped so I can wipe a tush.

Tech­no­rati Tags: babies, chil­dren, fam­ily, fru­gal, media, NY Times, par­ent­ing

D-man’s almost 4 months old and if he wants to be part of this fam­ily I expect him pull his weight around here. There are bills to be paid. If these babies, ala Evian’s youtube commercial, can elec­tric booga­loo on roller stakes then I’m think­ing he should get to work. 

Momma needs a new pair of shoes lit­tle D-man. I wanna see you break down what I gave ya’.

Tech­no­rati Tags: babies, chil­dren, com­mer­cials, evian roller babies