DadTalk

Falling for My Kids II

Last month I wrote a post about how my kids like to fall from a shelving unit onto our bed. I was able to catch them mid-fall with my Canon EOS-20, but my digital SLR does not have a video recorder function.

I’ve tried converting footage from our analog video camera to digital, but the converter I bought a few years ago doesn’t seem to work.

I finally solved our dilemma by getting a new camera for my wife on Mother’s Day. Don’t worry, she’s as happy about getting the Canon A470 as I am.

So now, the whole world can enjoy the spectacle of our rambunctious kids falling from the shelves in our bedroom.

Trial Run at Being Stay-at-Home Dad

What a crazy week. Last Thursday, we drove out to Connecticut with the kids. After a two-day stay, we were driving back. Yup, we traveled four days for a two-visit, redefining the word “Passover.”

But flying wasn’t really an option. It’s easy to do the math when you compare $1,000 in airline tickets and $250 on rental cars versus $300 in gas and $150 in hotels.

My kids are turning into fantastic travelers, by the way. Plus, we were fortunate that we could literally watch trees leaf out during our drive.

After working for two days back in Illinois, my wife flew out to Arizona to visit with my mom and for some other business. So here I am, one day into being a stay-at-home dad. I’ve done this a couple times before, but if feels different for some reason this time.

I’m a much better parent, it seems, when the taint of work is not intruding on my thought processes and mood. It is very refreshing to approach a day with the kids  not feeling exhausted physically and mentally. I like it.

Passover Time Off

Sorry about the lack of posts. I drove the family to Connecticut and back over the last week. I hope to return to a more normal posting schedule soon.

Belated Pictures From Galena Trip

Yeah, I’ve been dragging my heels a bit here at DadTalk. Primarily, work has been keeping me preoccupied. I thought you might enjoy these pictures from our trip to Galena, Illinois, though.

The first photo is of my kids sitting on a swing behind the hotel. We had to brush chip it off so they could sit down.

Happy New Year!

Here's to a great New Year. We all deserve one.

Part II Our Holiday Adventure

Click Here for Part I

One of the biggest negatives to traveling with Lael is her tendency to nap. If she sleeps for more than an hour, putting her to bed can be a real battle. And so it was. For several  hours we wrestled to get her to sleep. Anne, Lael and I must have switched beds half a dozen times.

I don’t want to get into a blow-by-blow, but let’s just say Lael was “willful” during this whole nightmare. In other words, Lael was tired, but refused to go to sleep because she didn’t want to “miss out on any fun.”

Around 11 p.m., Seth, who couldn’t fall asleep because of all the ruckus, sat up screaming that his right ear hurt him. It was clear that now he was in horrible pain.

So I took Lael downstairs to the little dining area. For the next hour, I tried to get her to stop screaming.  I distracted her by pointing out the freezing rain coming down in the parking lot.

Finally, Lael was drowsy enough for me to take her back to the room. As I stood up, I turned toward the stairs to see my fully-dressed wife and son ready to go outside.

“Wow,” I thought, “they really want to go sledding!”

“Um, where are you going?” I asked.

“To a drug store. Or Wal-Mart. Seth has swimmer’s ear.”

“Um, you don’t want to go out in that weather.”

“What else can I do? We didn’t bring any medicine.”

“Um, okay.”

Anne and Seth went out to the minivan. Five minutes later, they were back in the hotel.

“I can’t drive in that,” my wife said.

To be honest, I was relieved, even knowing that it would now be up to me. The weather was bad.

So, I threw jeans over my pajamas and shrugged into my winter jacket. It took 12 minutes to get the half-inch thick ice off the car windows. Thank goodness I finally bought an ice scraper.

Part I Our Holiday Adventure

I was so pleased with myself. I checked the weather map late Friday night and saw the storm edging closer to Iowa.

“Hon, do you think we should leave a day early?”

“I think we could do it,” Anne answered.

“Okay, in the morning I’ll see if I can extend the hotel reservation a day earlier.”

After finishing the laundry by 6 a.m. Saturday, I called our hotel in Galena, Illinois, which is near the Iowa-Wisconsin border.

“We have one room left. The same room you are staying in.”

Yes! It meant skipping a whole bunch of errands – such as picking up snacks for the drive – but I had a suspicion it would be worth the effort.

We set a goal of leaving the apartment by noon. We hurriedly packed, and made it with five minutes to spare.

Belated Merry Christmas

I had fully intended to write a Merry Christmas post, but I decided to start my vacation a day early because of an incoming storm. Turns out I made the right choice: we just missed driving in white-out conditions to Galena. I hope to post more about our adventure soon, time allowing.

I hope everyone had a great holiday season. On to holiday hangovers!

Recalls Should I Continue Recall Lists?

A few months ago, I began reporting on recalls posted by The Consumer Product Safety Commission. I’ve come back with two major lessons from doing this:

First, the CPSC does an abysmal job. Not only has it missed the bulk of problems inside the American toy industry, it doesn’t even do a good job of following up on state and independent agencies that find dangerous toys.

The CPSC is simply incapable of policing the toy industry. Worse, because the agency almost completely relies on importers and manufacturers to self-report dangerous products, it is fundamentally flawed in structure. Even if legislation to increase the agency’s resources and authority passes, it may be years if ever before the agency becomes effective.

Second, and perhaps even more disheartening, is the abject failure of many consumers to care. Sure, most of my readers care greatly, but as a percentage of the population, only 25 percent say they’re concerned, reports The Wall Street Journal. Thirty-one percent of consumers are not worried about dangerous toys Not sure what happened to the rest of the consumers, but having no opinion at all doesn’t bode well.

“There are some customers who, to be honest, couldn’t care less,” said Erik Kolb, an analyst Standard & Poor’s Equity Research Services.

And while toy sales are not hopping this season, it seems the real reason has more to do with lack of cash and “must-have” toys rather than safety concerns.

In recent months, many groups have started to publish their own recall lists and databases. These sites are larger and far better funded – think $0 – than myself. So as the holiday season edges toward a close, I’m debating whether to continue covering every toy recall I can find.

I’ll be contemplating my decision as I head off for a few days of rest next week. If you have a strong opinion on the matter, please speak up. I’ll let you know what I decide after the holidays.

Thanks.

How Looming Economic Woes Will Trickle Down to American Families

Debates are raging across the blogosphere about whether there should be a bailout for the housing crises. In American politics, it’s already been decided there needs to be one; the debate is how big and for whom.

Here’s what we’ve seen so far:

• A Bush plan to freeze mortgage interest rates for a very limited number of homeowners. It will be amazing if this plan helps more than 100,000 Americans out of the roughly 2 million facing mortgage resets. (Failure out of the starting gate.)
• A Federal Reserve plan designed to allow banks wider access to credit via international credit auctions. The Term Auction Facility, as this plan is being called, allows cash-strapped banks to borrow money at a slightly better rate than they currently can. (A small solution for a HUGE problem.)
• A super Structured Investment Vehicle Fund that allows banks to sell their highest-quality junk before writing off their worst quality junk. (Starting to look like a failure.)
• The Fed has lowered the lending rate several times. (This has failed to help the credit markets, but has done much to devalue the dollar and our homes via inflation even further. Total failure.)

So dear parent, I bet you are wondering what all this means to you. Nothing. And everything.