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.