A new day! A new approach.

Hello.

Are any of my fans still out there?
I am here to apologize, not only for my recent hiatus in postings, but also for lack of structure with this site.
SO, let's just move on, shall we?

I want this site to be good for both of us. You the reader, and well, me, the writer.
The way I see this happening is that both of us should and CAN contribute.

If you would like to be a contributor, please email me at 5280dad at gmail dot com. I will gladly put you on the admin. list to start posting your ideas.

Now here is the other part to this. I envision this site being collaborative but also informative. I want to post info and educational information about daddy/baby gear that YOU have first hand knowledge using. BOB strollers, running strollers, bike canopys, backpacks to haul those kids while hiking....heck, even Man Bags.

So let's get this party started. I hope you enjoy the posts and please chime in if you like what you see....or don't like.

Thanks.
Dave Gannon - one of the many 5280 Dads out there.

2009 Tech Parenting

I am not too proud of this, but when you just need a few minutes to pack your bags and load up the car, Elmo online is the perfect distraction. You could've yelled FIRE and she wouldn't have moved.

Calling all Dads: How do you Parent? Win a $15 iTunes gift card.

As I was brainstorming about what I want to use this site for, something occurred to me - How do guys parent?

I see it in my every day life with my wife. We both parent differently. The styles are different yet they both work. Women have natural gifts in child rearing and men, well we come a long for the ride. I feel like my wife is so much more advanced than I am in the way we handle situations. She seems "obvious" about what she does and does it with ease.

Me, on the other hand, well, I stumble, and forget and struggle. I love it, don't get me wrong, but I would love to hear other Dad's approaches, struggles, frustrations, suggestions, and practices.

Let me know by commenting either anonymously or sign-in. I would appreciate honesty and please leave your name and state just so we can post these with some authority.

Thanks for your input and participation

Please leave your post/comments by Tuesday, Sept. 15th to be entered to win the $15 iTunes gift card. I will pick randomly from the entries and post the winner on Wednesday, Sept. 16th at 5PM Mnt.

Respecting and appreciating the garden

This is our first BIG tomato and Hadley was super proud of it. I swear I did not tell her to raise it up and say YAY! Every day she waddles out to the garden, shoeless sometimes, to see if there are any ripe 'matos. Every day she tries to pick some green ones but we explain to her that these are not done yet. She finally is getting it.

Last week I brought home a praying mantis from the deck of our building. He wasn't doing to well but I thought getting a taste of our leafy garden would snap him out of it. Hadley loved him. Mantis! Mantis! she called. Well the next day he was next to dead and the following morning his head was gone. That was actually a sad yet optimistic sign. I want to have the Mantids in our yard and the beheading just means there were some female mantids hanging around the tomato plants, although we have yet to spot any.

As for the tomatoes and the garden, the youngest Gannon is getting the hang of watching the fruit grown and reaping its rewards.

Happy when it rains

Hadley has started to love rain. She has never had anything against it, but when I found out she didn't like snow, I started to worry that my wife lied to me about who Hadley's dad really was. But if she can accept and dance and play in the rain, well then, I think there is hope for her come winter.

We have been listening to the Twilight Soundtrack ONLY EVERY DAY for the past three weeks - so Hadley has been dancing. D-A-N-C-I-N-G! She has this cute little move that we finally caught on tape that I will try to post later, that just rocks our world. But anyway, I digress.

We were out in the rain last week and she started doing this little dance - which I call "Man with the wooden leg" and doing her little arm curl hand gesture thing. WE ABOUT DIED! Cutest rain dance move ever!

Here is the pic of her enjoying the raindrops in her Nana-made sweater.

Peace.

My Rockin' Harpin' Daughter

Hadley on the Harmonica:

Baby Shaker - iPhone App pulled.

I love the iPhone. I love iPhone Apps. But someone needs to smack the developers of this Baby Shaker app upside the head. Use your knoggin, guys/gals.

Apple pulled the app from their online app store after groups such as the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome condemned Apple for approving the game's sale.

The Baby Shaker App displayed a black-and-white line drawing of a baby. The description on iTunes included the line, "See how long you can endure his or her adorable cries before you just have to find a way to quiet the baby down!"

Once the iPhone owner finishes shaking the device, the on-screen baby is depicted with large red X's over its eyes.

Read full story here.
http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_12205753

HAPPY 16TH MONTHS

Hadley, today you are 16 months old and you just keep getting cuter and cuter. This morning I had to leave you to go to work and it nearly killed me. You are advancing by leaps and bounds now. I love that you say "Bih Birh" for Big Bird, and "B B" for blueberries. The way you dance to "Ring around the Rosie" warms my heart and makes me want to have 10 more of you.....well, ok, ONE more! Keep up the great work. I love you. Daddy.

Hadley's cabin-now with rock walkway

My boss gave us this Little Tykes molded plastic cabin before Hadley was born. His kids had outgrown it and I thought, well, even is our baby doesn't want to camp out in the back yard in "that plastic box" that at least it filled the back corner under the big pine trees and added some interest for our other friend's kids. Well, no worries from here. Hadley LOVES it! She continually asks to go "outshh, outshhh" so she can run around the yard and play in her cabin. She loves opening the doors and then closing them. Peaking in and out and grabbing rocks and sticsk that are the floor. Tonight it took me some bribing of blueberries and an earfull of ear-wax unlodging shrieks to get her to go inside. We are counting down the days to when she asks if she and her "friends" can camp out in it overnight. Yeah right!

A "Model" Baby

Do you have a "model" baby? Or heck, you probably have a MODEL baby. Either way. Send me your photos of what you think are awesomely cute baby photos of YOUR kids. I will not take credit for them. Use them in any other way than share them with my readers. But this is a place to be PROUD of our babies.
Send photos to: 5280Dad@gmail.com

Hadley 13.5 months

This is our little sweetheart.
She is making leaps and bounds. She now is almost completely walking everywhere- i.e: no crawling, getting into everything....i mean EVERYTHING from bib draws, spice rack drawers, and trash cans. She has taken one major fall INTO the trash can and busted up her lip something good. She even knows now how to crawl UP stairs and can do the feet first/butt first DOWN stairs and off the couch.

I do not have a word count to date but it must be up over 30. She loves Ball, Titta ( for Tica, our female dachsie) and Titta for Gibson too. She can say Apple - yes, THAT apple, dog, O, owl, woof, more, hi, nana, gamma, papa, gampa, mama, daddah, and of course....shit.

i love you hadley.

Distraction: Books

Scenario: Baby has wet, dirty diaper

Problem: Arms and legs flailing about like a cat on a leash and high-pitched shrieking enough to clean out your eardrums.

Solution: Books. Toys. Mirror.

Hadley has never been one to LIKE to sit still. She would rather be playing on the floor, walking the walls, or pushing her purple hippo cart down the hallway. So, when it comes to getting a diaper change....she goes nuts. She even uses her eyes and cuteness to persuade me NOT to take her into her room, onto the changing table.

For the past three weeks, every since she has made serious headway in crawling, what I call wall-walking, sitting up on her own and standing from sitting, she has become impossible to change. I have tried everything at my disposal. From her little rattle toys to pointing at squirrels outside her window. Nothing works anymore. They used to, but not lately.

SO about a week ago, I decided another distraction...books! I grabbed another of her new favorites, COLORS, and BAM! it worked. Quiet, calm baby. She now just grabs the book and begins reading it....upsidedown, through the entire diaper change "ordeal."

So, when all else fails....try something new.

Favorite Baby Books

Yes, I am still here. Yes we are all fine. I am sorry for not posting in A LONG time.
A catch-up post is due but for now since my wife has just posted her favorite baby books, I thought I would do the same.
Please see her post for more recommendations.

As with Hadley, I have many favorite books to read to her each night.
I think partly my favorites are her favorites because I see how positively she reacts to these.
I love that for the past two months or so she has been turning the pages herself. She actually gets upset when she is not allowed to do this, so, she gets to turn every page, every time, and I support this.

I have to agree that Christy has chosen many of my favorites as well, the following four books are my primo favs.

Jumpy Jack and Googily



Blue Hat Green Hat



Doggies



Only One You

You found your hands

I decided that this blog also needs to be a journal of events in hadley's life. Milestones if you will. So if you are interested here we go.

Last week you found your hands. You stare at them as if they are unattached from your body and are an alien coming in to snatch your soul. You are fascinated by them. You are leary of them. You are hungry for them. 

You are also crossing your arms now. Think, "sup, holmes." It is so cute. You are thinking. You are pondering. You are only 5.5 months old

You want to speak. You DO speak but in your own language. We THINK you have said Dad ( sounds like "dah." Also we think you have said "oh boy" and "hi". We KNOW you have said "hi". You are finding your voice which is so cute. You shriek, cackle and hum. You are the cutest.

We love your leaps and bounds.

Snoozy

We went to our friend's engagement party just before the Botulism hit. Here is a cute pic of Hadley crashed out.

We are going home today....

After 2 weeks in the hospital. Botulism sucks, but Hadley kicked that toxins butt!

Sick baby after four-month shots

We had our four-months shots on Tuesday for baby Hadley. The first round went very well, a month ago. This round we were not so lucky. You hear the horror stories of shots gone bad. Then there is the whole "my baby got autism" from the shots she had. One day she was fine, the next....nothing.

I have heard from mothers that sometimes their baby's react fine to the shots, and others say it was a nightmare for the next day or so. We can only hope that this subsides soon.

We have been scared to death over talk about shots relating to Autism. Then yesterday, she was not herself. Now I don't want to scare my readers into thinking the worst. I think she just has a case of the "ouch, you poked me 5 times and I am upset and agitated, and will cry all night and not eat for two days."

Last night we were up until 2:00 am. The only thing that works is me walking in circles around our kitchen table singing some Poison or Madonna. I even pulled out the stops with some "White Christmas," but that didn't even soothe her. But finally she gave in and fell asleep. We got a good solid 4 hours of sleep after that.

As I mentioned in my last post, the aching arms are back in full force. But I should not complain, that poor little one is dealing with much worse feelings.

I hope she has a better day today. Will keep you posted.

And in the Wall Street Journal nonetheless

Dooce is featured on the section front of the Wall Street Journal... and online. Way to go Heather!

Moov toy for your 5-12 year old.

Is this cool or what? A new kids (ages 5-12) mobile toy - the Moov is made of big wood pieces and big plastic wheels. Apparently you can make it into four different "shapes."
It's a racer. It's a carver. It's a tricycle. It's a scooter. So simple that even a kid can easily transform it into the cool rig of his/her choice. Heck, I am sure they could do it better than an adult. Put this on your wishlis.

Oh my aching arms

When my wife was pregnant we went to a 5 week course on becoming parents. We dicussed everything from c-sections, the role a Dad takes in the delivery room, to breathing techniques.

But not ONCE did we talk about the pain your arms, elbows and wrists will experience once the baby has arrived. I mean, I am talking RIGHT after she was born and I was holding her in the hospital, my elbow started hurting. At first, I thought, oh, I must have bumped my elbow at home or in sleep-deprivation-state in the delivery room I must have bumped the food cart or the bed side guards.

But after about two months I went to the doctor when it had not gotten any better and he diagnosed "tennis elbow", or what I like to call HADLEY elbow. It is tendonitus. And now my write has a knot in it. I think it is a combination of working on the computer and holding the baby for hours at various times during the night, while your arms are clenched and at right angles.

We recently had couple over for brunch from our baby class. They have a two-month old. I brought up the soreness in my elbows and wrist and they both acknowledged they have the same thing only not as bad.

I do feel bad complaining about this given what my wife had to go through giving birth, etc. but it is a lingering painful problem that needs to be talked about and brought to light. If you have any suggestions for combating this, or lessens the pain, please comment. I have been consciously trying to relax my arms and wrists when I am holding my bundle of joy. It has helped but I am still taking some anti-inflamatory pill so ease the pain. The physical therapy starts soon.

Safer sipping for your baby

Do you know what BPA is? Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a chemical that mimics estrogen, found in baby bottles and water bottles. The chemical leach unhealthy amounts of the dose into our baby's milk/drink bottles. Here is a great article. These BPA-free bottles are easy to find if you know where to look and what to look for. 

Drugstore.com

Amazon.com

Try these two places for adult drinking bottles:
REI
Dicks Sporting Goods

Dads beware of harmful cleaning products.

Mom's cleaning products tied to kids' wheezing
(Reuters Health)
By Amy Norton
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children exposed to cleaning products and other household chemicals before or after birth may be at increased risk of breathing problems, results of a study published Wednesday hint.
British researchers found that young children whose mothers frequently used household chemicals during pregnancy were at greater risk of wheezing than their peers.
The more often their mothers used products like bleach, disinfectants, glass cleaner and insect sprays, the greater the children's odds of developing a wheezing problem by age 7.
The findings, published in the European Respiratory Journal, do not prove that household chemicals directly caused the children's lung problems.
The researchers tried to account for a number of variables in children's wheezing risk -- like mothers' smoking during pregnancy or household pets. But other "confounding" factors could be at play, according to lead researcher Dr. John Henderson of the University of Bristol.
"We can only state that there is an association between frequent use of this range of products, and the message should probably be 'use in moderation,'" he told Reuters Health.

The findings are based on 7,162 UK children who were followed from birth. During pregnancy, their mothers were asked how frequently they used various household chemicals, from "not at all" to "every day."
After their children were born, mothers were periodically asked about any wheezing symptoms the child had developed.
Overall, children's risk of wheezing climbed in tandem with mothers' use of household chemicals, the investigators found.
Although mothers were asked about cleaning product use during pregnancy, Henderson said his team suspects that children's exposure to such chemicals after birth, rather than prenatal exposure, may be the problem.
Mothers who used household chemicals frequently during pregnancy tended to do so over time as well. It's possible that breathing the products irritates young children's airways and causes inflammation, Henderson explained.
It's not clear, however, which home products might be the "culprit," the researcher noted.
"Until the effects are better understood, we cannot recommend substituting any particular product with safer alternatives," Henderson said.

And while "natural" cleaning products, like vinegar or lemon juice, might be safer, he noted, there is no research on whether they are better or worse for children's respiratory health.
SOURCE: European Respiratory Journal, March 2008.

Daddy needs a new pair of shoes

Vans just issued these limited addition Iron Maiden shoes. These bring me back to the 80's where I was the first in my school to don these bad boys made famous by Jeff Spicoli ( Sean Penn ) in the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High. I wore at least 6 pairs of Vans down to their bare rubber soles and now my back and feet are paying for it - no arch support. But I MUST have these.

They come in low-top "Trooper" and "Killers" versions as well as, High-Top Sk8r style.

Friends Marathon

Yes, we are watching Friends.
We started with Season Two, I own all seasons on DVD, and are now up to Season Five. This is one of our favorite seasons. I believe this picture is from Season 4. It is funny how outdated this show is, with the styles and sets. It does bring back some good memories though. Like the time back in Yankton where I sat and ate a full tub of vanilla ice cream and then ordered a Dominos Pizza and watched 8 episodes I had taped on VHS. Oh yeah. Fun stuff.

Why I am glad we had a girl

In light of the shootings in Illinois yesterday, my coworker and I were talking about the impact on parents these shootings have.
I am dismayed at why these boys are killing kids and teachers, at their own schools, for that matter. I did not raise or did not BRING my baby into this world just to have her go to a college and get shot. Nor did anyone else.

I think this falls into bad parenting and what social pressures are put on (mainly) boys.

Read: Chicago Tribune story

Read also: Portland (Maine) Press Herald

Parents, if IS your responsibility to raise your kids the best you can. But please do not just rely on teachers to do YOUR job.
I am new to this area ( parenting ) and there is NO one book on how to treat your kid or what NOT to say to them, but I do believe as parents we have the gift and job of enriching our child's lives, and being INVOLVED in their lives as much as possible.

I would love to hear other thoughts on this issue.

Babies and technology

Just like her dad, Hadley is already getting into gadgetry. Well, sort of. I WANT her to be, so I am trying out my old iPod on her to see if she takes to it. If this works out, she will have an iPhone (imbedded in her head) by age 4.

Rubik's Hadley

This is a fun photo program from dumpr.net

Sometimes we have gas

We have been watching the Dunstan DVDs where she identifies the different cries associated with what baby is experiencing. It is amazing how accurate she is. So after watching more of the video we were all sitting on the couch and Hadley was making the cutest faces being such a good girl so I ran and grabbed the video camera. As we were filming and oohing and ahhing, this is what happened:

Bottle feeding

I have taken over as part feeder/part authoritarian. My wife bought a breast pump last week and it has changed her life dramatically. She gets to sleep. I have a new found respect for her. I was thinking early on that this parenting thing isn't so bad. I get to sleep a good 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep. HA! Well that has changed since she started pumping. I get up now and do one feeding a night. We discussed this after the first night when I got up at 1:30 and was up til 3:30 trying to get Hadley back to sleep. So now I take the 4:30 or so (3:13am, 4:22am) feeding which works better since I usually get up at 5:45am anyway. The other night wasn't so easy. I awoke to the baby hunger crying at 4:22am. She fed easily but then would not go back to bed. I changed her, swaddled her, and then she zonked out in my arms. The MINUTE I put her down, she lost it. Acted as if I was sticking needles in her pinky toe. So we got up and walked around for another 45 minutes. Finally, at around 5:45 she went down and I was able to get two more hours of sleep....but that meant going into work 1.5 hours later.

What to write about

I am sitting here every day trying to decide what to post about. I think I should start from the beginning but then again the beginning won't really be the beginning in a few months when the posts are buried at the bottom of new posts - I promise.
So I have decided to just write. Write about whatever happens in the moment of parenthood. So bear with me while I gain my blogging posture and begin this new journey. Thanks for being patient.

Observance of baby being sick

When I get sick I moan, whimper and complain. I guess I want people to know I am sick so I feel better. It's selfish, I know. But, I have just realized that when babies are sick, they have no idea they are sick. They also do not really carry on the acts of being sick. Self pity, moaning and groaning. They may be fussy, but that is just because they do not feel good. They are not trying to get more attention though. It occurred to me a few days ago when Hadley was looking so cute on the couch when I was swaddling her. She was looking so cute and happy. Her eyes were wide open and observant - as observant as any 5 week old could be. I was just staring at her thinking "you aren't sick- you don't look sick" and then, she coughed and sneezed all the while still looking so dang cute and innocent.