Favorite Board Books

Reading is a habit we want to instill in our son. So we've been reading every night to Wyatt. Here are six of my favorite kids books:

Going to Bed Book by Sandra Byonton - This is a fun book for going to bed. It sets the stage for going to sleep with all of the animals doing a pre-bed routine. We also have this in Spanish. It's goofy because we struggle with some of the pronunciation. Our little one forgives us.

Hand Hand Fingers Thumb by Al Perkins - I like this book because of the rhythmic way it's written. "Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb, One hand, One hand Drumming on a drum." It's an amusing read.

Time for Bed by Mem Fox - All of these animals are putting their young one's to bed. It's cute and has a nice rhyme scheme.

Chica Chica Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. - If "Hand Hand" was rhytmicly good, Chica Chica is great. It's so enjoyable to read and act it out. Our LO usually laughs at this even at his young age. Probably more because I'm being goofy.

Cozy Classics: Pride and Prejudice by Jack Wang - Jack Wang and his wife have a number of books they have created with felt characters. They are really well done visually. The text is almost too simple with single words instead of sentences. It's great for classics fans, and I'm sure the board book tastes just as good to our little guy.

Trucks by Byron Barton - It covers all the things trucks do for an infant. We also have Boats!


Any favorites of yours I should add to keep up the variety?

The Stranger Analogy for new foods

My Spanish sister, Eva, shared a story she used with her kids when trying to teach them to try new foods. Here it is, with a slight change or two.

Imagine you are in your house waiting for your grandparents to arrive. You hear the doorbell and get up to answer it.

When you get to the door, instead of grandma and grandpa, you see a strange old man with an old fashioned hat and a mustache. He's familiar to your parents, but you don't know him.

He says, "I'm here", walks in, sits on your couch, and asks for a glass of water.

Out of hospitality, you get him a drink of water, but you think "I really wish grandpa were here instead of this strange man". At least I know grandma and grandpa.

One week later, the exact same thing happens. The old man comes in place of grandpa. He asks for a glass of water. This time you are still annoyed, but you expect his request, get him a glass of water.

In spite of yourself, you notice something you like. His hat is kind of neat. You still don't care for the man, but you like his hat.

Another week goes by. The stranger shows up again, with his neat hat. You get the glass of water and admire the hat. You even notice that his hat matches the color of his mustache. His style is starting to grow on you.

By the fourth week, you invite the man in, get him a glass of water, admire his hat and mustache. You decide to strike up a conversation. Ultimately, you discover that you really like this old man. You still love your grandparents, but you discover you have a new friend in this old guy.

Eva told her kids this story as they would try new foods. As they ate, she would say "Do you like it or not?" and "What specifically do you like or dislike? The texture, flavor? Does it remind you of something?"

Her kids are not yet teenagers, yet they eat like adults. They don't care for "kids" food and want to eat what their parents do.

My son is only 6 months, so we aren't quite there.

Top Ten Favorite Baby Items

I've been thinking of what are the items we use the most since having Wyatt. Here's my list:

1. The Diaper Genie. We actually fill it with office style trash bags instead of their bagging system, but having an air tight container for the diapers is priceless. A big plus: the hands-free lid has saved us from near-disasters and works better than most regular trash bins.

2. Boon Grass and Stem drying rack. We wash a ton of bottles, every day, all the time. This drying rack is a life saver. It's a space-saver that's also nice to look at.

3. Boppy. Despite being designed as a pillow for mom (how most of our friends use it), we haven't really used it that way. We've used it almost exclusively for propping our little one up while he sits on the floor. He hangs out on this every morning and every afternoon.

4. The Graco Car Seat. I like this system and found it fairly easy to set up. It clicks in and out easily and if you don't have a base, it's easy to strap in. What I really love is the next thing, which is tied to it:

5. The Graco stroller to to with the car seat. It folds up easily and clicks right in. This makes it easy to get W into his stoller if we need to get going. We didn't initially get this and have found it worth the investment. Tip: When dining out, this makes a much cleaner option than the gross upside-down high chair.

6. Infant Optics Portable Video Baby Monitor. Of course, we use this daily. Strangely, we really enjoy watching our LO sleep. He's pretty cute.

7. The Infantino Twist and Fold Activity Gym. He loves to play on this. The mirror is not even worth putting up, but he grabs for the rings and likes to bat at the monkey and giraffe. You can limit the number of items on the mobile and ad more as your baby grows, which is a nice option for those of us working on Montessori.

8. The Pack and Play with the Bassinet. The first few weeks, it was great to have this in our room. He naps in the base of this occasionally. This has been a really helpful addition to our house. 

9. We use the Medela bottles. Having extra nipples and collars is invaluable because we get to spend more time with our LO and batch wash a bunch all at once.

10. The baby teether ball. As W starts teething, he has been enjoying this more and more. It's easy for him to hold and keep his hands as he grows.

Spring Training

One great thing about getting interested in anything as an adult is that feeling of discovery. A double benefit of getting interested in baseball at my age is that feeling of being a kid a again.

I had that feeling just this past week when I found out that purely by accident I'm going to a spring training game in Arizona. San Francisco vs Colorado Rockies! It turns out that my wife has a conference in Scottsdale starting the day after the game.

I had this cool mixture of emotions: excitement, anticipation, elation. I'm going to my first Giants game and better yet, I'll be meeting a few friends there.

I'll report more from Salt Lick field.

 

Eight Men Out

Last year, I chronicled my favorite baseball movies.

I overlooked one movie when I made my top ten baseball movies list: Eight Men Out.

The story chronicles the notorious 1919 Chicago White Sox who accepted bribes to throw the World Series. The movie stars John Cusack as Buck Weaver, the player who went to the initial meeting with the gamblers, but never took any money and played to win.

The movie is well made. The plot is interesting and it dramatizes real events of the series. The acting is well done.

Does it make my top 10 baseball movie list?

No.

I decided on several criteria for a movie. One of them was: sense of life. For a baseball movie to make my top ten list, it had to have a positive sense of life.

This movie was about one of the dark scandals in the history of baseball. Calling this a top baseball movie would undermine what I enjoy about the sport. Just as the Black Sox scandal taints the White Sox organization for me; the topic of the movie taints the movie itself for me.

Is it a good movie? Yes. Is it a favorite baseball movie? No.

Choosing A Baseball Team

I decided that if I'm going to follow baseball, I need a favorite baseball team.

It's at this point that most people would say: gee you live in Colorado, so you should root for the Rockies.

The problem is that I didn't grow up with them, and I just got interested in baseball this summer. It's hard to jump on with the home town boys when they are so new, don't seem to really care about winning, and whose mascot resembles an annoying TV dinosaur. (Sorry Dinger, but you know it's true.)

I will say the most convinced argument for picking the home team was made by a friend of mine. Here it goes:

Since my wife and I are expecting our first child, it's important not to put him in the position of being the kid who likes some odd, out of town team. Further, as you'll get the chance to go to more games if you pick a the home team, it'll be a great bonding experience. And someday, even if it's 50 years from now, the Rockies may return to the World Series, and we will get to enjoy that glory moment as long suffering fans.

I wasn't convinced.

After a lot of thought and consideration, I came up with the following criteria for selecting my team, based on my own preferences.

1. History. The team had to be a long standing team with some history. The Rockies were too new of a team. I enjoy reading history generally so that was an important point for my team.

2. Geography. I know I rejected geographic destiny as the method of selecting a team, but it also doesn't make sense to choose a team that is in a place I'd hate to visit or too hard to get to. (Sorry Tokyo Carp)

3. Their fans. Lets face it, the fans of some teams can be downright obnoxious. I wanted a team whose fans I could see myself hanging out with. 

Ultimately, I decided on three teams and a wild card as finalists. 

1. San Francisco Giants. An old team that made the big migration west. 

2. Chicago Cubs, another old team with history. 

3. Seattle Mariners, which isn't that old of a team, but certainly is older than the Rockies. Plus they have the advantage of being in Seattle, a great city to visit. Plus my sister lives there. 

4. The wild card is the St. Louis Cardinals. I'm not a big fan of the city, but what a great team with great history.

After much consideration, I've decided that the only way to decide is to go to a home game in each of their stadiums. I realize this may be a bit expensive, travel wise, and may take a few years to accomplish. I don't see baseball going away any time soon.

Top 10 Baseball Movies

This summer we went on a baseball movie bender. We watched 20+ baseball movies plus Ken Burns's Baseball documentary. Based on the group we watched, here are my Top 10.

1. For the Love of the Game. Starring Kevin Costner as an aging pitcher, the movie portrays his baseball career and his relationship with costar Kelly Preston. I loved this movie because it had a great plot and used baseball as part of the drama.

2. Bull Durham. Honestly, I don't really love Kevin Costner that much. This is a great baseball movie though. It stars Costner as an aging catcher brought in to coach a young pitcher, Tim Robbins. The love triangle with Susan Sarandon is subtle and interesting. The movie is filled with humor and I love the scene where the whole team is at the mound.

3. 42. This is a great drama showing the end of segregated baseball. The courage shown by Robinson and Dodger's owner Branch Rickey is well portrayed.  One of the things I love about baseball is that it is meritocratic. The color of your skin doesn't matter; your nationality doesn't matter; how you play the game does. 42 shows part of the process of making MLB that way.

4. The Rookie. The main character is a former major league player turned high school baseball coach. His kids bet him that if they make the playoffs, he will try out for the big leagues again. This was an emotional story and it turns out to be true.

5. 61*. Mickey Mantel and Roger Maris strive to break Ruth's record. Billy Crystal directs this fun movie, bringing these characters to life.

6. Moneyball. Based on the story of Billy Beane's Oakland A's, and the book written by Michael Lewis. It shows the influence of data analysis and alternative thinking by the A's. The movie wasn't as well dramatized as others on the list, but it's still a fun watch.

7. The Natural. I don't think any list of baseball movies could be complete without this movie. The production is excellent. Robert Redford is amazing. The only issue I have is the pace. I found the movie dragged and was a little confused by some of the plot points. Maybe I need to read the book and then watch the movie again.

8. Pride of the Yankees. A bio-pic of a great guy: Lou Gehrig. Strangely this movie lacked a little in baseball drama. It was more about Gehrig's life and struggles.

9. Major League. This is a silly comedy. You can't get around it. But it has two main virtues: it dramatizes the struggle of an underdog team, and it uses the game to dramatize plot points better than most other movies.

10. Trouble with the Curve. This is almost the anti-Moneyball movie. It discounts "big data" for an "ear for the game". That said, it's a fun story with interesting characters. Plus: Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams!

You'll notice that I left off Field of Dreams from my top 10. I disliked this movie. I've watched it three times over the years and have never liked it. I'll share my reasons in another post.