The Modernist Nursery

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The NY Times Magazine printed a pretty good article yesterday about modern design for children - The Modernist Nursery by Elizabeth Weil. It focuses on Melissa Pfeiffer (founder of Modernseed) and her family, as well as designers David Netto and Michael Ryan. The article didn't really offer any revelations (other than there are going to be a bunch of new cribs coming out), but it's nice to see the subject matter getting some attention. The only thing I had a problem with was in this passage:

Contemporary design for kids is really contemporary design for adultswho have procreated. In choosing juvenile products that are less babylike, you could even say that adults not only shift focus away from the youngster as dependent child but also from themselves as parents, playing out the fantasy that Mom, Dad, plus Junior are just cool cats sharing a pad. This illusion is not necessarily bad...

Hey, like it or not the whole family has to live with our children's stuff, and it's great for juvenile products to be babylike, just not ugly. As far as I'm concerned there isn't any reason why "babylike" and "contemporary design" have to be mutually exclusive. It might not always be easy (or affordable) to meld the two, but with stores like Modernseed and designers like David Netto it's getting easier every day. I'm a parent who loves his "dependent child," a dependent child who is also a cool cat sharing our pad. I don't have time to play out fantasies.

A picture of baby. Made from other pictures of baby.

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EwmosaiccoverToday's the first day of the Christmas shopping season, and I think I've found a pretty cool - and cheap - gift idea. The other day I found this program called AndreaMosaic. It's a small freeware application (Windows only I'm afraid) that takes your digital photos and rearranges them to create a mosaic version of any image you want (like the Entertaiment Weekly cover of Julia Roberts above). There are some more examples here.

I have been playing around with it with pictures of Madame and it works really well. The more images you have the better the mosaic comes out - and obviously the bigger the final image the better it will look. You could even bring one of the files to Kinkos or something and get them to make a huge print. Your friends might not want a 4x6 foot mosaic photo of your baby, but I'm betting the wife will love it.

Download AndreaMosaicSetup.exe

Encouraging modern play.

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KaleidoscopehouseMy little girl is way too young, but if she was older Ithink she might be getting this for Christmas – the Kaleidoscope House by Bozart. Designed by Peter Wheelright (chairman of architecture at Parson’s School of Design) and artist Laurie Simmons, it’s both incredibly modern and very play-able. The transparent colored walls slide away so that your little one can put all kinds of toy families and furniture inside, and then close the wall and imagine the fabulous setting. Plus lots of the accessories (furniture, people, pets, artwork etc.) are designed by big-name designers like Jasper Morrisson and Karim Rashid. It may not be quite as hardcore-modern as the Villa Sibi dollhouse I saw on Daddytypes, but it looks way more fun.

It’s not cheap, but also it’s probably not something you’ll be selling at a garage sale in a few years either. $250 for the house or a furnished version on sale for $360 at Unicahome.

The stuff has gotta come with us.

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It's Tuesday and we’regearing up to take Madame on her first road trip. Tomorrow we’ll be driving (hopefully) 4-5 hours to LA to spend Thanksgiving with her Aunt and Uncle and other friends. I’m actually not too worried about the car ride itself, she’s pretty good in the car and we’ll take breaks if when we need to. But unlike the road trips of old, I’m starting to realize the amount of stuff I’ve got to bring to support one 4 month-old for the weekend is serious. Clothes, formula, bottles, diapers, pack n play, baby Bjorn, bouncy seat – it’s all adding up. How many diapers does she go through in a weekend anyway? Do I bring the swing? Should I bring stuff so she can take a bath? Am I getting crazy with all of this? Yes (but I’d still love to have the swing if it will fit).

Anyway, this has reminded me of a service I saw posted a while ago on Baby Chic 101 (I can’t find the actual post) about a service called “Babies Travel Lite.” For a fee they will purchase and deliver to your destination all the things you need for baby, from feeding and diaper stuff to bath items and medicine. The prices aren’t outrageous, and with a little planning ahead the “convenience charge” can be as low as $10. Obviously we’re not traveling outside of civilization this weekend (there are plenty of places to buy baby wipes in the valley), but if we were flying I could see being tempted. “Here’s your room key sir, and your Huggies and Similac are already in your room. Enjoy your stay.”

Sweet.

Fort Hesperia.

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I cameacross this article last night about some kids from California. Apparently a couple of industrious 12 year old brothers cleaned out an empty lot near their house, took the discarded wood and (with their parents’ permission) built a fort in their backyard. Now it seems the city of Hesperia (where they live) is demanding that they tear it down due to "a safety issue.”

When I was a kid, even younger than 12, I spent endless hours with my friend trying to build a fort in his backyard. It basically amounted to us nailing a bunch of scrap wood to some random trees, but it was fun. If we ever got anything even remotely resembling a fort built it would have destroyed me to have to tear it down. I realize that things are different now – kids have to wear bike helmets, can’t sit in the front seat of the car etc. – all for their own safety, but can’t a couple of kids have a fort anymore? And what will my baby do in a few years that her kids won’t be allowed to do? All of this kind of bums me out.

Mall Santa.

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Madame and I took a quick trip to the mall yesterday morning, and I noticed something kind of strange. The mall we went to already had a Santa Claus taking pictures with kids. I'm used to seeing Christmas stuff well before Thanksgiving at places like the drugstore, but a mall Santa? If they are working now, when do these guys apply for jobs? July?  Apparently, because I was only able to find one job posting online for a Santa, so I guess most of the gigs are taken. Or maybe they use Santas Around the Globe to help them find work.

Anyway, it seems way too early to take your kid to see Santa, but the more I thought about it, it might not be such a bad idea. Take the baby now and avoid the lines - it's not like she can tell Santa what she wants, or that she's even aware what's going on. And I'll have the pictures ready to send to the Grandmas.

Dirty socks.

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Baby’ssocks should be relatively clean right? It’s not like she’s walking anywhere. Recent examination of her socks as they were going into the laundry revealed three sources of soiling:

  • Poop – Stretching your legs the second your dad takes off the dirty diaper might seem like a good idea, but not to your socks.
  • Shrimp marinade – Sometimes dad is skewering shrimp for the grill as you hang in front of him in the Baby Bjorn. At least he’s not skewering feet too.
  • Blue jean dye – Showing everyone how you can stand is definitely cool, and the best place to practice is on dad’s lap. His blue jeans used to rub off on the car seat, now it’s socks.

 

Sling bookshelf.

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SlingbookshelfAfter amonth or two on backorder, the bookshelf we ordered for Madame arrived the other day and I’m pretty happy about it. It’s the Sling Bookshelf from One Step Ahead. At only about two and a half feet tall, it’s a kid-sized bookshelf that displays the books facing outward (kind of like a magazine rack). The idea is it makes it easier for kids to choose books they want to read (or you read to them), without having to worry about messing up a regular bookshelf. I’m imagining the future task of “please put your books away” will be a lot easier for her to accomplish – and won’t discourage her from taking books out to read. I’ve seen a few others (Pottery Barn Kids specifically), but the simple look and cheaper price made this one my pick.

$59.95 from One Step Ahead

Prepping for Thanksgiving.

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I’m a dad wholikes to cook, and the older I get Thanksgiving is becoming more and more one of my favorite holidays. Even though I’m not hosting this year, I’m still planning on cooking a few things. Here’s a rundown of some of what we’ll be having:

  • Turkey– I heard the other day that 95% of all Americans have Turkey on Thanksgiving. If you’re having issues, here’s the Butterball Turkey-Talk Line (1-800-BUTTERBALL).
  • Roasted Butternut Squash Soup – A big success last year, it’s even better if you make it the day before.
  • Mashed Potatoes – I made this garlic version last year which came out well, probably because it uses 3 sticks of butter and 1½ cups of heavy cream.
  • Green Bean Casserole – A holiday classic I still love.
  • Grilled Asparagus – No recipe here. Just skewer the asparagus into little rafts, season with salt, pepper, olive oil and grill.
  • Shrimp Toast – An appetizer I’ll prepare a few days beforehand and freeze before cooking.
  • Vietnamese Grilled Beef and Basil Rolls – An appetizer from the Barbecue Bible and one of my wife’s favorites.
  • Similac Advance Infant Formula with Iron – Strictly for Madame.

Fourth month developments.

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Slow and steady wins the human race apparently. At almost four months I’ve got ababy that is (thankfully) a normal, healthy kid; and at first glance she isn’t much different than she was a few months ago. But looking back at the past month I realize she’s been knocking down developmental milestones like bulldozer. Here are her latest tricks:

  • Blowing spit bubbles
  • “The motorboat” (making that buzzing sound with her lips)
  • Laughing (only if I do something that’s particularly hilarious)
  • Sucking on her hand
  • Constantly trying to sit up (which usually results in tipping herself over)
  • Standing on her legs and supporting her weight (with balance support)
  • And in the past couple of days – grabbing stuff with her hands.

I’m also learning that you’ve got to take the good with the bad, and like I read in Daddy Types a while back, she’s regressing in some stuff too. For instance this past week she started waking up about an hour after she falls asleep at night. She kind of freaks out, cries for a minute or two, and then goes back to sleep. And she’s also getting up about an hour or two earlier than she used to in the morning, which really isn’t my best time of day.

Anyway it’s amazing, not because now she’s doing all of these things – she’s supposed to be doing these things – but it’s amazing how completely psyched I am that she’s now realized that she can grab stuff and put it in her mouth (especially considering that her doing this is just going to make my job that much harder). Grabbing at stuff is a long way from a Rhodes scholarship, but when you’re 16 weeks old it seems like a pretty big deal.

Visualizer hypnotizer.

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ItunesvisualizerYesterday Iwas hanging out with Madame in the office/playroom – I was organizing a play list in iTunes and she was hanging out on the play mat – when she got fussy. This is understandable, because it’s close to bottle time and that play mat thing will only hold her attention for so long. So I pick her up and put her on my lap to try to hold her off for another 10 minutes, which only lasts about 20 seconds before she begins a full-on cry. In desperation I hit the visualizer button on iTunes and bam! It was like I hit the mute button on my baby.

A common feature on a lot of media players, the iTunes visualizer is the trippy lines and shapes generated in sync with the music. I doubt the people at Apple intended this, but my baby was completely mesmerized. She even started making her quiet baby talk sounds at it. Obviously this isn’t something we’re going to do a lot together (will this turn my kid into a zombie?), but I suppose it’s another thing I can put into my bag of tricks to get the baby to calm down in a pinch. I wonder if the iPod Photo will output the visualizer to a TV?

Bed Bath & Baby

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At thesuggestion of some readers, I stopped by Buy Buy Baby early Saturday afternoon while I was in NYC last weekend. The only baby “superstore” I had ever been to was Babies R Us, so when I walked in I thought it was going to be similar, except that the layout was more like a Bed Bath & Beyond or a Linens N Things or something. The wall of Elmo puppets (floor to ceiling) was impressive, but not that over the top. Downstairs though things got way more hardcore.

Downstairs is where the real baby gear is, and it was full of people. There were pregnant couples filling out registries, parents shopping with their Gap Kids toddlers, and couples looking for the perfect stroller. I really never had seen anything like the stroller shopping. At Babies R Us people look at the different strollers, maybe take one or two down and roll it around, and choose. At Buy Buy Baby it was like people were shopping for a car. Every couple had a sales person from the store going through all the features of each stroller, seemingly taking as much time as the customer wanted. I don’t know if the sales people work on commission or not, but it was some good customer service (and at over $700 for a Bugaboo Frog, it’s nice to be paid attention to). I didn’t end up getting anything, but it was worth the visit.


ps. I have to credit “Bed Bath & Baby” to my host and good friend Dan.

Father and Son... World Series

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I got the November 1st Sports Illustrated for the Red Soxchampionship coverage (Google cache), and in it there were two great pieces about dads and baseball. One was about Joe and Jack Buck (father/son announcers for the St. Louis Cardinals) and the other was about a father and son who were lifelong Red Sox fans. The links require subscription, but I think are worth it (or check it out if you can find a copy at the doctor's or something).

Father and Son... St. Louis
Father and Son... Boston

Bugaboo breakdown.

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Bugaboo_orangeI’m backfrom NYC; tired and worn out. As it turns out I pretty much kept my body on Pacific time, which kind of worked out well but I really don’t bounce back from a late night quite like I used to. Anyway, it was a great time (like it always is). 

I didn’t end up doing much dad-related stuff (I did visit buy buy Baby which I think I’ll write about it later this week) but I did walk around a lot. Besides noticing every baby that went by (an unexpected result of being a new dad without his family), I was also keeping a mental note of stroller activity. It seems by far the most popular stroller on NYC sidewalks is the Maclaren. I couldn’t say which was the most popular, but there were lots of them. More interesting for me were the Bugaboo Frogs, which was cool because I’ve never seen one in my city (other than my own). Here’s the breakdown.

Number of Bugaboos seen: 5
First Bugaboo sighting: about 5 minutes after arriving in Manhattan.
Favorite color: I’ve got a red one, but the orange looked pretty dope.
Best Bugaboo accessory: The bag clip, which I never wanted, but they actually look kind of useful.
Favorite Bugaboo modification: None. Hey, where are the Bugaboo mods? Aren’t dads supposed to be handy? Don’t dads like cup holders? I’m waiting for an inspired dad to make a cup holder for their Bugaboo, and then let me know how he did it.

Shop for strollers and other products from Bugaboo at Amazon.com

Birth announcing.

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In an on-going effort to fight all baby-related stuff that is sickeninglycutesy (and generally ugly) , I wanted Madame’s birth announcement to be as fresh and modern as she is. I tried all kinds of Google searches, and finally found a great company, 2peasinapod.com. The company is (as far as I can tell) basically one person, a mom/graphic designer who had a similar notion about the cards that she was sending out to her family and friends. Everyone liked her designs so much she started a business.

Once you’ve chosen your design and uploaded the picture you've chosen of your little one, she personally sends back to you a custom proof. We had a few changes that we wanted to make and she was very accommodating, as well as incredibly prompt. The designs are clean and minimal; focusing on the image you give her to work with while still being warm and colorful. The only downside (besides the fact that they aren’t the cheapest announcements) is the announcement designs are for square cards and envelopes, requiring extra postage. But hey, you get what you pay for – a great looking personalized card and lots of personal attention.

Baby's first light show.

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MagictheaterThe onething we have in the baby’s room that always gets questions is the Philips Magic Theater. I found it in Wired Magazine a few months before the baby was born, and it looked so cool I got one. It’s basically this funny looking projector that projects different patterns through slowly rotating slides. There are a variety of slides for different developmental stages, and even some blank ones for you to make yourself. The small green feet underneath it allow you to project the light anywhere in the room – on a wall or ceiling. It also plays music, and unlike every other electronic baby thing I have, the music sounds like a real music box and not the typical annoying bleeps. I can’t tell if Madame really likes it yet or not (her attention span isn’t exactly long), but if you are looking for something to soothe your baby at bedtime, you might want to check it out.

 $49.99 at Target.com or on sale for $34.97 at Babycenter.com

Stop emailing photos of your kid.

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In my world digital cameras are about as prevalent as film cameras, and love it or not, they make it very easy to share photos. We don’t have much family in the city where we live, so posting pictures of the baby on a website is something that everyone in my family wanted. My grandma (who is over 80 and online every day) emails me when I haven’t uploaded recent pictures of Madame. I’ve got to keep it up to date, but I don’t want to spend a lot of time dealing with it.

What I’m using now to share her photos is a moblog set up on Text America. A free service, Text America allows you to set up a quick and painless website, where you can upload, post and share images. The service is really for moblogging – taking pictures of your life with your camera-phone and emailing them from your phone to share on the web instantly – and that’s pretty much all I used it for before I was a dad. Originally I was going to make a unique website just for her photos, but the Text America site is just way too easy. Now I take pictures of the baby (with my phone or my digital camera), save them on my computer, and then email the pictures that I like to the moblog. Put a caption in the subject line of the email and your image is up on the internet as fast as the email is sent – all for free. Plus you can customize the moblog you pick with a little tweaking (I replaced an image and made a graphic for the title and it came out pretty good). There is advertising on the pages, but nothing too obtrusive at all. It’s way better than sending email attachments of photos, and for free you can’t beat it.

Buying into bulk.

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When I lived in an apartment in a city, the idea of buying stuff in bulk sounded cool (look – 250 rolls of toilette paper!) but was completely impractical. Then when I moved to a house in “suburbia” I could indulge all those paper towel and frozen food fantasies, but it was more about fun than saving money. Now I’m a dad, there are a few things that I’ve found shopping at Costco indispensable for.

Gas – Gas costs around $2.30 per gallon at normal stations where I live these days (I know, ouch), and I can get it at Costco for $2.17.
Diapers – I tried a bunch of different brands and they are all pretty much the same, so we go with the Huggies in the huge box.
Baby Wipes – Again, all pretty much the same, so I get the big box of their “Kirkland” brand.
Formula – Big can of Similac for $25.
Bottled Water – I can remember watching Seinfeld back in the early 90’s and thinking how funny it was to pull a bottle out of your refrigerator if you wanted a drink of water. Now I live in the desert and I generally don’t leave the house without one.

There is one thing though that I hate about Costco. I hate having to show my card to the busy-body at the door before I’m allowed to enter. I can’t buy anything without it anyway, so what does it hurt to let people in who aren’t “members” yet? Other than that, I have to say that now it's worth the membership.