Over the last year I’ve made many purchases and received many gifts. Some have been incredibly useful or just plain fun while others have made my life a living hell or, at the very least, been a waste of money. Well, I am now introducing a new blog feature called It Rocks! or It Sucks! wherein I will review products I love or hate. I hope it will be a fun way to share my experiences with all material things, both good and bad, related to babies or homemaking. Hopefully some of you will discover a great new product or else avoid being the money wasting sucker that I’ve been. For tonight’s debut I’m issuing a double feature, one from each category so without further ado, I introduce:

The Skip Hop Moby Bath Spout Cover:

O, Moby Bath Spout Cover! I wanted to love you. I really did. At first I balked at your retail price of $14.99 but when I saw your whimsical little smiling sky blue body in the store I just couldn’t resist. I figured you would protect my little one from bonking his wee head and that we’d have many good years together once Luke started bathing in the big tub at 8 months. Little did I know that our first night together would be the last. With high hopes I adjusted your little rubber band “flippers” to their tightest setting before placing you over our bath spout. Then, in horror I watched as you slowly slid completely off of our bath spout and plopped into Luke’s warm bath water. I tried over and over again to adjust your rubber band but to no avail. We were completely incompatible as our bath spout does not have a shower pull with which to secure you. Luke found you interesting for a brief period and chewed on your whale tail for a day or two before tossing you aside for some other cooler, and no doubt less expensive, toy. I still keep you around just in case our next place has a shower pull. Perhaps we shall meet again one day but because of your expensive price tag and the fact that your packaging does not warn that you may be incompatible with some spouts, Skip Hop Moby Bath Spout Cover,

YOU SUCK!

And now on to:

The Safety 1st Soft Spout Cover

Ah, yes! At 2.99, Safety 1st Soft Spout cover, you are everything I was looking for in a bath spout cover. Cheap, cute and functional. When I saw you on the shelf at Babies R Us, I was hesitant to take you home. I’ve been burned before by adorable bath spout covers and I didn’t want to fall for your charming good looks. However, at that price I didn’t have a whole lot invested so I took a chance. You turned out to be one of the best purchases I ever made! First of all, your little smiling froggy face makes me happy and always gets Luke’s attention in the bath.  Secondly, you’re easily inflatable and fit snugly over my shower-pull-less bath spout. Lastly, you’ve made me more at ease with bathing Luke in the tub because you completely cover the hard sharp-cornered bath spout. I guess it’s love at last!

You Rock!

This past weekend Luke caught his first glimpse of the ocean. He loved it. He wasn’t the least bit afraid of the rolling surf and couldn’t wait to jump in as he laughed and smiled at the foamy waves. Glad to see those swimming lessons are paying off! It was a great weekend for enjoying some sun and sand as we seem to be in the middle of a heat wave with temps high into the 90s. We chose Revere Beach, the country’s oldest public beach, as our destination both because of its close proximity to Boston as well as it being the location of the New England Sand Sculpting Festival. It was super crowded so we had to park far away from the action but the walk along the boardwalk wasn’t too bad. We saw some impressive sand castles before dipping our toes in the Atlantic and then heading back home.

Warm sand

Cool castle

Dad and Luke in front of the winning sculpture

Now THIS is more like it!

Knee deep

Love that smile

Splash!

We had to drag him away

Song o’ the Day: Lou Reed Ocean

It’s only a matter of time before we submit something to this website. Until then, it’s great to just sit back and laugh. Check it out for yourself: Shit My Kids Ruined.

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Well, ladies and gentlemen, the interwebs are abuzz which must mean that some controversy is abrewin’. This time it’s baby related so I’m tossing in my two cents. A local mom recently brought to my attention an article which appeared in the July 4th edition of the New York Times Magazine, titled All Joy and No Fun: Why Parents Hate Parenting. It’s a well written article and doesn’t come to the conclusions you might think so take a few minutes to check it out. In it, the writer discusses several recent studies which suggest that couples with children are not as happy as their childless peers. My reaction to the research findings? Bollocks! (For a more eloquent and downright lovely response to the New York Times article, see the one from Babble.com co-founder Rufus Griscom).

Call me crazy, but even with my liberal arts education and degree in social sciences, I don’t buy the notion that you can quantify such a thing as happiness. First of all, there are too many variables. I don’t know about you, but if someone asked me if I was happy I’d likely give them a different answer from one minute to the next (Did I just have a good meal? Did I just get a great deal on Huggies? Or did some prick just cut me off in traffic? See, it depends.) Second, the research findings just don’t jive with what I’ve seen in my day-to-day life. I know plenty of miserable people – single and in relationships – that don’t have kids. And I also know people who have kids that are undoubtedly happy. Third, who says all these “unhappy” people wouldn’t still be unhappy if they didn’t have children and happy people wouldn’t still be if they did? I’m not suggesting everyone ought to have kids. Quite the contrary. If you have even an inkling that you don’t want to be a parent, for the love of God, please DO NOT HAVE CHILDREN! It’s too huge of a commitment. But anyone thinking of having kids would be silly to be frightened off by these studies. God knows having children won’t make you happy if you’re already unhappy. But it does NOT make you unhappy.

Of course, I can’t deny that there isn’t some nugget of truth buried under the headlines. Raising children is VERY hard work and being unencumbered by children can truly allow one to indulge in all sorts of yummy pleasures that parents often have to pass up. But when I start feeling sorry for myself I think “Get a grip, you’re 33 not 23.” I’ve had plenty of fun so far and there will be more time for myself later. For the sake of argument here, let’s say I’ll live to be 1oo (I’m praying for good genes and advancements in medicine, OK). If I spend 20 years raising my kids that’s just 1/5th of my life. That means I get 4/5ths of my life to sleep in, travel, eat out, drink myself silly, etc., etc. So what if I can’t go out to dinner every night or drink as much as I use to or spend all my money on new outfits and Camembert cheese. All those things are great but even those pleasures get old quickly when you indulge in them ALL THE TIME. WHICH I DID. RIGHT BEFORE HAVING THE BABY. Trust me, I know what I’m missing. It’s just that I think there’s more to life than indulging every selfish whim.

And please, let’s be honest here. If you have the luxury of being able to sit around and ponder whether you’re “happy” or “unhappy” or -God I hate this word – “fulfilled” then you can pretty much count yourself among the lucky ones because a large section of the human population is too busy being concerned with daily survival to sit around feeling sorry for themselves. People ought to spend less time whinging about what they’re lacking and more time thinking about what they’re grateful for. These “happiness” studies don’t make me question whether I made the right decision to have children. When I lay my head down at night I’m happy. It doesn’t matter how little sleep I got the night before or how many loads of laundry I did that day or how many times I had to fuss at the baby to stop doing some really dangerous or annoying thing or whatever. I’m happy because I’m sharing my life with two wonderful people – a supportive partner who makes me laugh and a perfectly beautiful baby boy – and we all have good health, food in our stomachs and a roof over our heads. Everything else is icing on the cake!

Yet another favorite outing we recently took during Chi-Yun’s week long vacation was a short jaunt out to Arlington’s Reservoir Beach which was so much cooler than I thought it would be. How this little gem has escaped my attention for the last 11 years that I’ve lived in the Boston area is beyond me. Waaaaaay better than Walden Pond. It’s nearby, has plenty of shade and the clean, pebble-free sandy beach includes a filtered and chlorinated swimming area, bathhouse, vending machines and playground. Very family friendly. In fact, if any of you moms out there are feeling a little shy about revealing your postpartum body, fear not! The crowd was mostly moms (some dads) and grandmas with their kids so you can just relax and enjoy the atmosphere without a bunch of tanned and toned teenagers dashing your self-esteem. They do charge a small fee but if you go on a weekday it’s cheaper and not at all crowded. Plan to stay at least an hour or so to get your money’s worth.

Get your swimsuits on!

Playing in the sand

Our water bug heads for the deep end!

Splashing around

Mmm, rock!

Pink Lady

Luke’s pal Gabe lounging in the sand

Luke devouring most of my SpongeBob popsicle

Song o’ the Day: Beach Boys Surfin’ U.S.A.

This week Chi-Yun took some much needed time off from work. While I definitely took advantage of the opportunity for some alone time (mmm, spa day!), we still managed to spend a lot of time together as a family. One of our favorite outings was a trip to the Boston Children’s Museum. Luke had a blast and so did Chi and I. By the time it was over Luke was exhausted and passed out in the car for a long nap. I admit I pushed him a little bit but for the price they charge for admission I wanted to make sure we got our money’s worth! The museum is actually pretty awesome. There’s plenty of cool stuff for the older kids – hell, there was stuff I thought was really cool – but the best part is that they have a large area specifically for babies and young toddlers. I really think Luke got a lot out of the trip so it was well worth it! Here’s “a few” pictures from the day to illustrate a) how much there is to do at the museum and b)how incredibly cute my baby is:

Ah, yes. The milk bottle. Can’t miss it.

Luke quickly made himself at home at the train station. The first of many wheels to play with!

Luke really enjoyed the obstacle course. If these foam things weren’t so damn expensive I’d cover my house in them.

After all that running around, Luke decided to chill out at the fish tank. Gotta love the shark T-shirt.

Then it’s off to the races! Cool car but I’m sure it won’t surprise anyone to hear that Luke only cared about the fake tires on the side.

Luke decided to make a mess with the “paper noodles” but at least this is one mess I don’t have to clean up.

Luke did a little cleaning up himself over in the kitchen.

Yikes. I hope he grows out of his poke-out-the-eyes phase before we have another baby.

And he finds more wheels,

And more stairs!

You can kind of tell he’s beginning to fade at this point but I was determined to take more pictures. We stumbled upon a small “city streets” exhibit so we walked around town for a bit. Here, Luke stops to play with the jackhammer.

Then he takes a seat at the barber shop. I’m still traumatized by our last attempt at haircutting so we don’t linger too long.

Luke munches on some fake corn at the “grocery store” before we head home. I think it took about 15 seconds for him to pass out in the back seat. We drove around for an hour and a half that afternoon so Mr. Sleepy could get some zzzzz.

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As promised, I’m posting a recent video of Luke finding his sea legs! He took his 1st steps weeks ago but then seemed to be bored by the idea until he hung out with his pal Sylvie who showed him how much fun walking can be. He’s still a little wobbly but now he absolutely loves walking around the house.

Untitled from Nancy F. on Vimeo.

Song o’ the Day: King Khan & BBQ Show’s Waddlin’ Around

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