Hedgeblog

Did you know...

nobody@vox.com(hedgehog) — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 18:40:42 -0600

First off, did you know that "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" is a grammatically correct sentence? I will defer to the experts, but it only makes sense to me if you write it "Buffalo buffalo that Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo."

Second, did you know that men undergo biological changes to prepare for parenthood just like women? This is especially true for men who spend time with their pregnant partner. So ladies, spend lots of time with your man during your pregnancy so his hormone levels will change to make him more paternal by becoming more maternal.

Finally, just wanted to say that I have really enjoyed taking care of my daughter the last two and half weeks. She is a dream baby and I have even greater respect for mothers.

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Samrick's here!

nobody@vox.com(hedgehog) — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 12:19:50 -0600

Lorelei Vienna Hines arrived yesterday morning at 6:59 a.m. She's was 7 lbs 2 oz and 20" long. And she's got my nose. Baby and mother are doing well. I'll post a little more in a few days when I have the time (and energy!). I'm sure Sam will have some things to say too when she's feeling up to it.

Happy Family

Big Yawn!

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Waiting for baby is like waiting for Godot!

nobody@vox.com(hedgehog) — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 17:08:44 -0600

Here baby, baby, baby! Well, that didn't work. Guess we're still waiting.

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"The one where wii buy a new car"

nobody@vox.com(hedgehog) — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 19:25:37 -0600

First, a warning to all my friends who are planning on having children. There are many things Big Baby doesn't tell you about being pregnant. One of them is how excruciating the last few weeks are. You're just bored senseless waiting for the baby to decide its time to come out. Come on Samrick!

Second, Sam and I solved our car seat problem by buying a car instead of the much cheaper option of just getting a smaller car set. We stuck with our beloved Toyota and got a 2005 Camry. We got a really good deal. If you're looking for a car in Missoula we definitely recommend Sunshine Motors. I should post a picture because it lasts longer, but I'm too lazy. Maybe tomorrow.

Third, as a reward for having my baby I got Sam a Wii. (Screw diamonds! We want to make Miis out of all our friends and then kick the crap out of them in Wii Boxing. I've started with Nils and I'll be working my way through my Friends List the rest of the week). I've been looking for a Wii for months and this morning I saw them in the Wal-Mart circular. There was a minimum of 7 per store, so I called them up and they had 2 left. I jumped in the car and drove across town and got the last one. Yeah me! Now we have two babies and since one of them is still in Sam's belly, we know who's my favorite.

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"My Stupid Car!"

nobody@vox.com(hedgehog) — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 21:18:45 -0600

Well, the car seat can't go in the middle. There is no LATCH mounting points for that position and the center seatbelt won't hold the car seat tight enough. Sam can still squeeze into the passenger seat when the car seat is in place on the passenger side of the car, but it certainly doesn't look comfortable. I'll be doing all the driving from now on. I think it is Karma getting its revenge for all the times I've made Sam drive because I didn't want to.

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"The One Where Eric Realizes He Needs a Bigger Car"

nobody@vox.com(hedgehog) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 11:44:50 -0600

My parents like to tell me how when my twin sister and I came home from the hospital a month early, we rode in a laundry basket in the back seat. They don't let you do that anymore, so Sam and I purchased a car seat. Last night, we decided to install it because we are having the hospital check our installation this afternoon. Good thing considering our experience.

There is a constant stream of studies showing that the vast majority of car seats are not installed properly. Samantha and I, being highly educated individuals, just couldn't understand why over 90% of car seats in Montana are improperly installed according the Montana Highway Patrol. We thought: "Are people really that dumb?" Well, the good news after our experience installing the car seat is that we no longer think people are that dumb. The bad news is that installing a car seat is HARD!

There were two major sources of our difficulty installing the car seat. First, the installation manual contained poorly written directions and generic illustrations. The authors of the installation manual could use a primer on technical writing and should make use of seat specific illustrations. Second, our car's owner's manual indicated that the best place for the car seat was directly behind either of the front seats. In order for the car seat to fit in either of these places, we would have to move the front seat as far forward as possible rendering the front seat inaccessible to a passenger. Given my large size and Samantha's above average height, neither of us can ride comfortably in the back seat either. In fact, it is essentially impossible for me. The effect would have been to make the car usable by only one parent if baby was on board. Since it is a well established that the safest position for the car seat is in the center of the rear seat, we installed it there instead. Even in the middle, it's a tight squeeze. I just hope its o.k. to install it there, which we'll find out later today. Otherwise, we're gonna need a bigger car!

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Coming to term with fatherhood

nobody@vox.com(hedgehog) — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 17:02:16 -0600

We visited the midwife again today. We are at 36 weeks, five days. That means on Friday, we will officially have brought our baby to term (37 weeks). Now, we just need to get Samrick to come out. Sam is hoping the baby arrives during Spring Break. She'll get to start her maternity leave early and I'll get some sleep before going back to class.

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The times they are a changing table.

nobody@vox.com(hedgehog) — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 21:30:10 -0700

Lolli enjoys the new changing table.

With Samrick's debut quickly approaching, my nesting instincts are starting to kick in. I want everything ready to go. Sam is also experiencing this desire to have everything ready, so we spent most of the day trying to finish up a few more pre-birth tasks. We ordered a car seat, put a camcorder on our baby registry, wrote thank you cards for the gifts we got at our baby shower last weekend, and put together the changing table we had to lug over from Spokane (Thanks, Mom :-).

Ordering the car seat and choosing the camcorder required shopping around in person to try out everything before we made a decision on it. The Baby Trend car seat we wanted was only available in store at Shopko, but they were out of stock. At least we got to try it out the floor model and we liked it, so we just ordered it from Target.com. That actually worked out well because we got to use a gift card that my sister gave us for Christmas that we didn't know what to do with since we had to use it at Target.com. Plus, we got 10% off because we are educators (or more accurately belong to the teachers union!).

Sam and I put the changing table together in about forty minutes. The worst part was it required a lot of serious hammering and we had to have driven our downstairs neighbors insane. Every time we thought we were done with the hammering, we had to do a little more. Seriously, we should send them a fruit basket or something to make up for it. At least now, Samrick will have a place to have her bottom cleaned. Plus the cats have a new place to sleep until April.

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West Coast, look out! Here comes baby!

nobody@vox.com(hedgehog) — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 22:10:58 -0700

This weekend, Samantha and I went to a baby shower in Spokane. We got TONS of baby clothes and some awesome chocolate cake. I also got to hold one of my wife's cousin's baby because I "needed the practice." I continue to be so surprised about how gendered our society still is when it comes to raising children. For most of the shower, I was the only male present. My brother-in-law did show up with my niece and nephew half-way through the shower, but he quickly went outside with the kids.

Being the only male there, and Samantha one of only two women there who did not have children, I learned a lot about the the extended families views on childrearing. Luckily, I am apparently a "very good husband," because I go with my wife to all of her checkups and am taking an active interest in the birth of my daughter. This was not the norm for most of Sam's cousins, despite the fact they are all around the same age as Samantha and I.

The shower actually started to dredge up all sorts of nerves since the mountain of pink outfits has really hit home how real this how thing is. I even had a dream where I was laying in bed in the Guest room at Sam's parents house and I saw a brilliant flash of light out the window in the direction of Seattle. I was pretty certain it was a nuclear bomb and I tried to get out of bed to see if Spokane was also being nuked and I couldn't move. Sam seemed to be holding me in the bed. Earlier that night, after some of the worst service I've had in a restaurant that I can remember, we were driving home and wondered out loud whether or not it was a good thing to be bringing a baby into the world given all the horrible things going on. I was really scared that we'd have a child and then see the world destroyed in nuclear Armageddon. Glad that my dreams could reassure me that all is well!

Fatherhood is going to be one strange trip.

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Baby: Annotated

nobody@vox.com(hedgehog) — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 14:08:42 -0700

Sonogram (Annotated).jpg

As we get closer to the arrival of Samrick, I plan on using my Vox page a little more to post my thoughts and reactions about fatherhood. Of course, you'll just want to read it for all the adorable baby (and cat) pictures I'll be posting. Here's a lovely picture of my daughter in the womb that I annotated so everyone knows that they are seeing.

In preparation for fatherhood, I have been reading several books. I've found the following three to be the most useful and/or interesting. The Baby Whisperer, although a little sexist in that it usually focuses on the Mom, is nice because it encourages you to treat your child like a human being. Rookie Dad is cool because it is written for men, so it actually has practical advice in it rather than the usual make Mom feel bad about herself stuff in most baby books. Samantha likes it too because she is very practical (how masculine of her!). Making Babies is not about parenthood at all, but rather the science of pregnancy. There are so many interesting details in there that you don't get in other books. Like the fact that during pregnancy a woman's brain shrinks! I enjoyed it a lot.

Making Babies : The Science of Pregnancy

Rookie Dad: Fun and Easy Exercises and Games for Dads and Babies in Their First Year

Secrets of the Baby Whisperer: How to Calm, Connect, and Communicate with Your Baby

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