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Showing posts from September, 2011

Kid on a Leash

Has anyone seen these kid leash products around? Sometimes I see them at the zoo, farmers market, or other crowded areas. If a company can make a product that will make a parent feel a little bit safer, there will always be people out there to buy it. When I see one, it reminds me of that scene in Rise of the Planet of the Apes when a leashed Caesar sees a dog on a leash and turns to Will and signs, "Am I a pet?" The idea of the product is that it will keep the child safe and nearby. It is designed to subside the fear that a child will run off or get abducted. I think that if someone is out to abduct a child during the few seconds when a parent is looking away, a leash is a very small deterrent, and likely, not effective. All the abductor would need is a nice pair of scissors or simply their fingers. The latch cannot be that hard to work. If anything, having a leash might give a parent a false sense of security causing them to pay less attention to the child. In that case it

Magic of Reality for iPad

While in the hospital with Chris and Tsunami for the past couple of days, I have been reading and looking through the iPad version of Richard Dawkins's new children's book, " The Magic of Reality ". Its literary content is the same as the paper version, which is a great read for anyone aged about twelve through adult. The extra features of the iPad version, though, make this version a very fun book. When flipping the pages in the "The Magic of Reality", the page animations are like none that I have seen yet in an iPad children's book. The way that some of the graphics move at a different speed than the text as you swipe gives it a certain feel of depth. Some of the graphics are subtly animated, though just enough to provide a little extra flare without being annoying. Some of the chapters have mini games to help illustrate the information found throughout the book. For example, chapter one has a game which demonstrates selective breeding of species. In t

Family of Four

Today has been a very busy day. I took Jupiter to his gymnastics class today. I thought it would be a nice chance for Jupiter to get a healthy dose of his normal routine and for me to get away from the hospital for a couple hours. When we actually got to gymnastics, he just wanted to leave to go see his new little brother. I can tell Jupiter is very excited about his brother at this point. He just wants everybody to come home and for things to get back to normal. I can sympathize. Being in the hospital is nice because of all the help we get from nurses, but being home will be good. We get to go home tomorrow. Jupiter has been excited about riding in the car with Tsunami ever since we put the baby seat in Chris's Prius during one of the false alarms from earlier. Every time we get in her car he asks us, as if he needs reassurance of the reality, "Baby ride back here with me?" Needless to say, he will like having a travel companion.

Tsunami Warning for Lincoln Nebraska

Tsunami Dawkins Augustine was born at 13:05 on September 26, 2011 at Bryan Hospital in Lincoln, NE. He weighed 8 lbs 5 ounces and measured 20 inches. Mother and baby are doing great!

Baby Ear Piercing

Many parents like to pierce their child's ears at a very young age. Some seem to think that infancy is the best time to do this, and they have their reasons. In all matters, I think that cosmetic body modification of any kind is a choice for the child to make when he or she is old enough to make that decision and care for the modification. Call me crazy, but it seems to me that children are individuals too. I would gladly let my sons (or daughters if I ever have any) get ears pierced if they desired to do so and had reached a maturity level where they could take care of it responsibly. I feel making this decision for a child is a forced identity. I would like to go over a few common arguments for infant and young child ear piercing. One reason often given for doing it at a young age is that it may be less painful, and may fear the pain more as they grow up. First, having had my ears and other areas pierced several times, an ear piercing amounts to little more than a pinch and then

Ewoks in Sequoia National Park

Anthony Herrera is a dad and a graphic designer. He is also a Star Wars geek. When he took his kids to Sequoia National Park he told his daughter that it was where Ewoks live. Unfortunately they did not come across any while they were there. But to his daughter's surprise when looking at the photos later on it seems some of them were watching them . I had to explain that they are extremely shy and hardly ever let anyone see them. After we got home, and after I had a little time alone with the photos, I told her I thought I saw something strange in a few pictures. We viewed them on the TV to get a larger image. You can imagine how surprised and excited she was when we discovered that we didn't see any Ewoks, but they saw us, and had certainly taken an interest in her and her little brother.

ADHD and Sleep

It would be no surprise to me to find that ADHD is way over diagnosed. I was on Ritalin as a kid and even as an adult. While I cannot say with certainty that I was misdiagnosed, I could see that many kids were. Now being married to a pharmacist, I can see that many more kids still are. According to The Inquisitr , there is a recent study that was published in the American Journal of Family Therapy that suggests a link between sleep patterns and ADHD like behavior. They studied 704 parents and some of the findings suggest that kids who have no set bedtime were eight more times as likely to hit, punch, and kick their parents. These kids were also likely to get disciplinary notes from schools and have low self-confidence. Kids who shared a bed with parents or siblings were also seven more times as likely to result in these behaviors. I have always thought that it would be better to spend more time looking at adjusting behaviors before going on meds for any reason. This goes for any healt

Schweddy Balls

How great would it be for me to go to the ice cream isle of the grocery store and have my son say, "I want Schweddy Balls Daddy!"? I think pretty great. However, if the group known as One Million Moms has its way , that can never happen. I am outraged! According to their complaint: Ben & Jerry's announced their newest ice cream flavor which sounds anything but appealing. Schweddy Balls is the best they could come up with. The vulgar new flavor has turned something as innocent as ice cream into something repulsive. Not exactly what you want a child asking for at the supermarket. As I already stated, that is exactly the kind of thing that would make my day. It is exactly what I would want my child asking for in the supermarket. Think of the priceless looks I would be able to enjoy as other shoppers stare at me as if I must be the most horrible awesome parent ever! In the past, Ben & Jerry's has released controversial ice creams, like a special edition of Chubby

Pumpkin Season

The following is also posted at examiner.com . I occasionally write articles for Examiner under the title of Lincoln Early Childhood Parenting Examiner. If you are interested in more articles under that theme, I recommend subscribing to my content there. Pumpkin season is here and there are plenty of places to get pumpkins for pies, decorations, carving, and whatever else you might like to do with a pumpkin. The expedient option of finding one in a grocery or discount store bin exists. This involves all the fun of selecting one from a variety at the top of a bin in the main isle of the store while you are out tackling that always growing shopping list. Some families might find it more fun, however, to go out to a farm and select their pumpkins out of a patch. There are a couple of great places to go for this activity which include many other family fun activities as well. Roca Scary Farm In Roca, NE there is a  Berry Farm  which turns into a "Scary Farm" as Halloween nears.

Good Dog, Carl

Jupiter has a book called " Good Dog, Carl " by Alexandra Day. It is a classic book that many kids enjoy, and Jupiter is no different here. Apparently Carl has become quite popular too. He has a website and a whole series of books . This book has very few words. It has a sentence on the first page and another on the last page, but in between there are some pretty great illustrations. The pictures tell the story of a baby and a dog having fun at the house while mom goes to the store. They get into all sorts of shenanigans and turn the house into a big mess. The baby even goes for a swim in the fish aquarium. After all the fun is over, Carl bathes baby and cleans up the house. When mom comes home, assuming that Carl sat next to the crib watching the baby all day, she says, "Good dog, Carl." When I first went through this book with Jupiter, I thought that this was a very irresponsible mother. However, upon further reflection, I realized that maybe I am projecting the

Apple Farm

Today started out pretty rainy, so Jupiter and I abandoned our plans to go to Nebraska City. As the day went on, though, the rain was subsiding and it looked like we might be able to go wander around the orchard after all. So we did. Nebraska City has a city wide Apple Jack Festival every year in September. It features patents, craft shows, art shows, air shows, car shows, a carnival, and much more. However, Jupiter was not interested in anything but the apple orchard at Arbor Day Farm . I could not blame him, it is fun to pick and eat apples right from the orchard. When we got there, Jupiter saw his friend Elsa and started following her on the trails (which are another fun thing to do at the farm). But we were there for apple picking, so we soon left the trail and went to pick some Red Delicious, Golden Delicious and a few different apples that we were not technically supposed to pick yet. We tried many of them out too. They were all pretty tasty. After filling our bag with apples, w

Rockabye Baby!

In preparing for the newborn who will be here within the next couple of weeks, I have rediscovered a collection of music that any rock music loving parent of a newborn should have. Rockabye Baby! takes some of your favorite rock classic rock music hits from various artists and turns them into lullabies. When I first discovered these awesome albums when Jupiter was brand new, I was so excited to introduce him to artists like Nine Inch Nails , Radiohead , Bob Marley , Pink Floyd , The Smashing Pumpkins , and much more . He still seems to enjoy it. In fact, I happen to like listening to instrumental music quite a bit and listen to it even when he is asleep, so I recommend it to non-parents as well.

Ice Cream Van

We seem to hear the ice cream van that drives through our neighborhood pretty often. By the time we actually get out there, money in hand, it is usually gone or too far away. After living in this neighborhood for over a year though, we finally caught up with it. Jupiter seems mesmerized by his choice of a Batman Pop.

Testosterone and Fatherhood

A recent study lead by a group at the Psychology Department of Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NF, Canada has been making the rounds in the media lately. This study finds evidence that fathers, especially involved fathers, have lower testosterone levels than their single counterparts. Much speculation has been made of this on parenting and at-home dad blogs and forums that I frequent. The New York Times brought attention to the study by casting it in stereotypical negative light in the very first sentence: This is probably not the news most fathers want to hear. Why would the author of the article assume that? Well, this Harvard professor of evolutionary biology, Peter Ellison, has one idea: “I think American males have been brainwashed” to believe lower testosterone means that “maybe you’re a wimp, that it’s because you’re not really a man. “My hope would be that this kind of research has an impact on the American male. It would make them realize that we’re mean

Indoor Sandbox

The other day, Chris and I were discussing the fact that Jupiter should have a sandbox. I figured he has plenty of dirt to play in outside, but the consistency of sand can be a little bit more fun and not quite as much of a cleanup hassle. Then I came across the idea of indoor sandboxes . I thought that an indoor sandbox might be just the thing, but the ones I was seeing were small and over 20 bucks! Rather than buy one of those little things, I remembered that we had an shallow tote that we were not using in the basement. I also thought that a bag of sand from the hardware store was probably a lot cheaper. Jupiter and I walked over to the nearest hardware store today, and the smallest bag of sand they carried was under $4.00 for 70 pounds. My shoulders are regretting carrying a 70 pound anything the three blocks back to our house, but we did put the unused tote to good use.

Introduction

Hello. My name is Kirk. This is my new blog. I am starting this blog to post things about parenting in general, things about my family specifically, and local things for parents to do. At least that is my aim at this point. I have a website which will lead you to anywhere else that I can be found on the web as well as some other miscellaneous things. The address to that site is http://kirkaug.com . I recently did an interview with yes and yes about my role as a stay at-home parent . If you are looking for some insight on what kind of parenting I do, I encourage you to read that. I try to take the less authoritarian route in my parenting attitude. I like to encourage discovery and learning through independent interest. I am a human with a passion for the idea that humanity can find peace as a whole through discussion with a goal of mutual understanding. When our objective differences collide, I think we should work them out. I feel that universal truths (religions, politics, etc.) are