smonk you: the best freaking daddy blog ever

Here's the deal...we entered Miloh in a "Cutest Baby Contest" in the Star Tribune...it's for the cutest baby who lives in MN or WI. It's pretty much one of those popularity contests, although the judges have 55% weight in the competition. But I'd still love to rock that 45% and I'd love it if you can help. Voting for the round he's in starts Friday the 30th at 10am CST and you can vote once an hour...and how fun would it be to do that? I'm guessing super freaking fun. You need to register on the site before you vote, but that's pretty easy. Then beginning at 10AM CST on the 30th go here , log in if you aren't already. Then vote. There are a few rounds of voting, so I may ask for your help again soon. Thanks all. And I want you to know I'm not saying he's cuter than your baby, that would be ridiculous...

Now you can stick your hand up a Fraggle's ass...how sweet is that. This weekend I saw these awesome hand puppets from Manhattan Toy (I think they are brand spanking new.) Not much I can or need to say about them except they look sweet (better in person than they are in the pics.) Images link to the Amazon pages. They also sell these at Creative Kid Stuff.

One of the things I learned from Staci about the Montessori way is you should observe the child. And I've been doing that...not because of the Montessori thing really but because I'm kind of fascinated by baby's brains. Here's a few of the things I've noticed, I'm sure all kids do these things but I'm having fun watching them happen. He's starting to put things in his mouth. He's been grasping for a little bit and now he decided he's bored with that. So when he grabs something he starts to bring it to his mouth. The thing is that his hand eye coordination is not exactly where it will eventualy be...he's about 1 or 2 inches off. It's kind of cute. Depending on the thing it goes to his eye or cheek. Then, if it's the right thing, he'll get it into his mouth. He can get this Manhattan Toy teether in is mouth every time. But it's the Manhattan Toy Skwish that screws him up a bit...too much going on. He loves the mirror...I...

I've been seeing a few mommy and daddy bloggers doing vlogs. I'm not a huge fan of being on the lens side of a camera, let alone a video camera. But I sucked it up and I'm posting a vlog. Enjoy. A little warning I was handholding my 7D and it's a bit shakey and let's say the focus is soft for artistic reasons.

I could probably keep this as a recurring post title. I think it all the time. On my way to get cash from the ATM. When I'm hanging downstairs while he's sleeping upstairs and I hear him on the monitor. When I go to feed him in the middle of the night and he yawns and stretches backward in my hands. When I'm making coffee. When I see Staci in the morning. When I think about what we're doing on the weekend. On my walk to my favorite Vietnamese restaurant. When I hear Indian music and subsequently want Indian food for dinner. When I'm a few blocks away from home on my scooter. Pretty much all the time it hits me that I have this awesome boy. It also hits me how incredibly tiny he is and how he's starting to get a personality. And I think about what he's going to be like when he's older. I can't wait to see what kind of person he becomes, but I don't want to rush things...however I am so curious. I also think about when he's 12 and 13 and ...

Gear Thursday is back this week with a giveaway from a great company called Paper Culture and I'm giving away $25 coupon codes to two different winners. I found Paper Culture on my search for some really well designed birth announcements. Being a designer I probably should have designed them myself but the chaos of a new baby made that impossible. When I saw their announcements I was psyched...we ordered the one below. We were super happy we went with them over some of the other places we've found. A few reasons for that...their designs are great and pretty much the style I would have designed, they are printed on really nice stock (a matte 130lb thick paper), the cards have rounded corners which makes them look nicer and real people lay out your cards. That last one was kind of important to me. You plug in your info and a designer lays it out and sends you a proof in a couple days. You can OK it, make a change or decide not to go with it...there is no obligation. Everyon...

Part 3 of my GTTOD series, part one is here , and part two here . This is the one where I get on my soapbox and ask for a favor...the favor will come later...it will be in obnoxious all caps and in a horribly bright color. But first let me tell you why I'm writing. This is really about my mode of transportation to work now that it's getting nicer out. I'll be on my scooter a couple days a week...also I'll be biking around my hood more. Which brings me to an article that inspired me to write this post. I saw a tweet from RoadID that linked to and article about a cyclist who was killed by a driver. I don't know the details of what happened, so I can't speak to it at all...but it's a tragic death. But it does make me think a bit more as I get out on the road. That's because I see so many people not paying attention to what they are doing when they drive. You tend to notice it a bit while driving but I think you get a different point of view when on...

Here's my second installment of the GTTOD series. The first post can be found here . This is a bit of a two part post. Part One – Travel: A little over a month ago I took my first post-Miloh work trip. I was psyched for the trip because it was to Toronto, a city I have a bit of a crush on, and because we were working on some cool stuff. I was a bit apprehensive because I was leaving Miloh at 5 weeks old. I also felt a bit of guilt to leave Staci all alone with him and with a semi-high maintenance dog. So I sent a tweet out to a bunch of mommy bloggers asking what I should do to help Staci out. I got some great ideas. Here's a short list of the suggestions: Get a cleaning person to help her out so she doesn't need to think about it. Order her favorite dinner and have it delivered to her  Stock up on her fave foods Get her a gift Put the dog in a kennel So here was my plan. I was going to order Chinese food from the place near here that delivers (the place I now ...

About a week ago I was chatting with a friend about being a working dad. I was saying how it's not easy but we're not really supposed to talk about that...he agreed. So I decided that I'd take this week to write some posts about being a GTTOD or Go To The Office Dad. I should start by saying I know it's tough being a Stay At Home Mom, and if you check out this great post from Heir to Blair you can see her thoughts on being a Working Mom. Then if you check out some of the comments you can see a lot of the crap she got for stating how it's not a walk in the park. Staci now wears the Working Mom badge...it's not easy for her to be away from Miloh, but luckily in a year and a half he'll be in her school so it will make her 9-5 easier. I know that's a long time away. Next there are the guys...there are Stay At Home Dads. Dads are in that role for various reason but since our economy has gone to shit the demographic is growing. I can't give that per...

Back in July when Miloh was still a pre-kid I did a post about some of the things we planned on doing once it (now he) was born. Since I'm working on some bigger posts for next week but don't want to look lazy I thought I would check in on those things to see what we are doing and what we're not. Cloth diapers, what we said: for me it's environmental reasons for Staci it's that and it helps for potty training. (FYI I hate the word potty.) Cloth diapers, what we're doing: we've been using regular diapers for now because his butt is freaking tiny and his poo is disgusting. Once he grows a bit and the poo is solid we plan on going cloth. Maybe at about 6 months. A floor bed, what we said: floor bed instead of cribs are popular in the Montessori community and we plan on following some Montessori stuff since Staci is a teacher. A floor bed, what we are doing: he's in his floor bed. We put him in there when he was a couple weeks old. He digs it but...

One: Staci went back to work today...I know it won't be easy for her. A bit ago I did a post about finding a day care provider. We actually backed out of that in-home day care and instead will have a family friend watch Miloh at our house. Miloh already knows her and this will makes things much easier for us. Two: I swear to the Cocoa Puff bird that Miloh say's 'Hi.' He really does. I know he's not saying it like we say it...he doesn't know what it means but he says it. What makes it better is he's said it after I said hi. I also felt like I heard him say 'Kenny' once but I was super sleepy at the time. Three: I tried to get a 'hi' on video but I got nothing...well I got some smiles. So that the few minutes of him not saying 'hi' adds to the hours of video of him not rolling over (he's done it at least 3 times but refuses to do it on camera except for the first one . Four: Little dude screams like crazy when he's hu...

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Let's pretend I'm taking the week off because of Passover.