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Baby Swing / Cradle
Our friends and family were incredibly generous at Susie’s baby shower. We received an unbelievable amount of gifts and clothing that we continue to use on a daily basis, even while Hudson is nine months old.
My plan, is to share my thoughts and insights into which of these items turned out to be absolute live without pieces and which we wouldn’t recommend for other families in the future.
I thought I’d kick things off withThe Fisher Price Love U Zoo Cradle and Swing. This particular item was a shower gift from my Aunt and cousins and was actually one of the very first gifts that we received because it was shipped to the house before the shower.
This is truly one of those items that we could not have lived without at certain phases during Hudsons life to this point.
We don’t consider Hudson to have been a difficult infant. Many parents experience a child that is absolutely inconsolable for hours and hours at a time, but Hudson always had a way to be soothed. Holding an infant and rocking with infant, while those tasks don’t sound all that difficult, become exhausting when required for hours and hours on end.
This swing, with its various speed settings, and multiple swing angle options, made for the perfect resting place for Hudson to fall asleep. Since Hudson was a preemie, he was a little small for the swing at first and we substituted with a bouncer, which I will review on a different date.
Around his actual due date he settled in with the swing beautifully. It was great, it was like having a set it and forget it machine to care for your baby. We could strap him in and do housework, prepare meals, vacuum the floors, whatever and he would simply look on and eventually fall sleep.
As he got a little older, the toy tray came into play. This accessory is great because it not only allows you to add toys on a flat surface, but it comes with a few toys of its own which he can’t grab and fling to the far corners of the room.
This item would definitely be a repurchase if we were to go to the beginning and do this whole thing again.
From a size perspective, Hudson still fits in the swing. But, one of the other measurements as to whether or not your child can use this toy is their ability to get out of it. Hudson can no longer be left alone unsupervised with this toy because, as wriggly as he is, I’ve caught him having gotten most of the way out of the seat several times.
It’s had a great run and it looks great in our living room, but sadly I feel our time with this toy/tool has almost come to an end. From a workmanship standpoint, I believe that a single purchase of the swing will last a family planning to have as many kids as they like. For us, as we’ve always said, it’s one and done.
Read MoreOur boy, the Model
I’m not exactly sure how this whole process started. Susie came to me one day and just said “he’s in … our son is going to be a model!”.
She showed me the portfolio of pictures that had been chosen and sent in with her preliminary application and the email that indicated Hudson had been selected for an in person information session.
We were told that the information session would be held with a number of the candidates they were considering bringing on as young talent and that some, if not many, of the kids would be sent home without a contract based on who they thought to get the most work.
Since Susie is back at work and has full days Monday to Friday 9 to 5, it was up to me to take Hudson to this session. It was a little surreal. We walked into a room with about 30 people representing about 20 kids andl take our seats around the outside edges of the room. First, our formal information kits were collected which included our signed application as well as a short photo portfolio of pictures for our children.
Next those information kits were taken to another room by other agents to be reviewed while we attended the information session. At the end of the session, which lasted 45 minutes, the main agent once again came into the room with two piles. She told us the first pile would be the children that, for whatever reason, they would not be offering modeling contracts to.
This announcement stirred up quite a bit of commotion in the room as parents prepared to hear the destiny of their children. As we waited to see who made it and who didn’t make it, some the parents began to chitchat. The mother on my right mentioned how this experience was so exciting, while the father on my left explained how he felt this felt just like being in gym class and hoping to be picked on the cool team.
Unfortunately, both the mother and the father were handed back the application kits for their children. In fact, I would guess that about half of the second-round picks all got cut that day.
At the end of the meeting, Hudson was offered a contract to be represented as a model by Kamera Kids, a division of Sutherland Models.
Here is the shot that they kept for his file:
T-Zone 30 Day Challenge … The Results
So, we’ve come to the end of the T-Zone 30 day challenge.
Here is the final video for the challenge:
As you will remember, Susie and I had a bit of a disagreement about whether or not whole body vibration wouldn’t make any difference whatsoever when added to your daily routine. She was firmly in the believers camp while I was extremely skeptical as to whether the technology would make any difference whatsoever.
The only way to determine who was right and who was wrong was to have a challenge. Susie was to do a full workout on the machine every day for 30 days while My role, as skeptic, was to simply stand on the machine every day for 10 minutes.
We made no changes whatsoever to our otherwise eating and exercise regimes. That said, Susie works out regularly, 4 to 5 times per week for at least 60 minutes. I, on the other hand, don’t work out at all.
When it comes to eating, Susie has a regimented diet that she follows whereas I don’t follow any sort of diet at this time.
If you’ve been keeping up with this story, you will remember that, after two weeks, I was down 5 inches across the areas that we measured, but Susie was only down 4 inches and she was a little upset at my progress being better than hers.
Well, the final results are in. At the end of four weeks, I continue to be down 5 inches across those same areas. Susie, on the other hand, has continued to see success, netting a total of just over 9 inches lost in the key areas that we measured.
My best guess, is that the vibration technology works really well to tone and tighten the muscles in the single area that I was activating by standing on the machine with the pelvic tilt. It looks like, I got all of the benefits of standing on the machine in the first two weeks. I would guess that my muscles got used to those contractions and relaxations and I would have needed to change something in order to continue seeing results. Although, I must admit, they’re definitely does feel like there has been additional benefits in areas that we did not measure. For example, my pants fit looser. Not just in the waist, but throughout the seat and in the legs.
Susie’s experience has been different than mine. She saw the 4 inch results after two weeks but then saw an acceleration in her results, netting in the total of over 9 inches by the end of the challenge. That makes a lot of sense to me given that she was causing quite a bit of muscle confusion by doing all kinds of different exercises and varying her routine day by day.
At this point there are two things that need to happen. First, I need to formally and publicly admit that my wife was right and I was wrong in that whole body vibration technology does make a difference.
Second, now that I’ve seen what kind of difference this technology makes, I need to take advantage of it properly rather than just simply standing on the machine.
N
Read MoreEarly Impressions
I’ve been on a 4 month parental leave for only two days and there are a few patterns that I’ve noticed already.
First of all, the days seem to go by much faster at home than while at work. I’m not sure if it’s Hudson distracting me or if I’m just filling my day up, but the past few days have just flown by.
The daytime is awesome for getting around and shopping. There is not a soul on the highway or in stores. It amazes me that anything is even open. I had a grocery store completely to myself late this morning.
The downside to this convenience is that it becomes extraordinarily easy to spend money. I really need to adjust to not having the luxury of an income, particularly given that it takes weeks or months for EI to kick in. Fortunately, between my wife going back to work and my having war-chested a little going in, I’m still feeling good about finances.
And, finally, I’ve realized that there is most certainly something to this “mommy-brain” that I’ve been hearing so much about. I always figured that it had to be something to do with hormones, but now I realize it’s more about distraction. Having to be concerned with all of the little things that go along with a baby is more than a little overwhelming. I’ve never had to double back for stuff more frequently than the past two days. I actually left all of my purchases behind at a Shoppers Drug Mart and made it out of the parking lot before realizing what I had done.
N
Read MoreParental Leave 2012
As some of you will know, my wife has decided to return to work after being home with our son, Hudson, for 8 months.
That left me in a very unique situation, namely being able to take the last 4 months of the parental leave. Not many men do these types of leave, however I’ve hear nothing but support from everyone, encouraging me to making the decision to stay home.
I’ve decided that I would like to try to write a blog entry for each day while I’m on duty with Hudson. This is where I will capture our adventures, trials, and tribulations.
I woke up this morning to be informed that today was “swimming lessons”. I literally jumped right in to being a home-dad by leaping into the pool. It turns out that I don’t remember the words to some of the requisite kids songs.
I mumbled my way through “happy and you know it” and “twinkle twinkle” while playing some water games to get the kids used to the water. We also learned a little first aid for infants so the class was really quite valuable.
On the long walk home, I fielded a call from Allen Childs (President, Nissan) and one of his marketing managers to talk about home much I love my Nissan Leaf.
The afternoon will see a well deserved nap for the little boy and dad looking into what kinds of house work can be done.
N
Read MoreT-Zone Update #2
Here we are at the half way point in the T-Zone challenge.
Today was the first time to actually take measurements since before getting on the T-Zone VT-15 for the first time. I can’t even believe it, but there are already results to share.
I want to specify that we have purposefully not changed our diet for the duration of the challenge. Also, we haven’t changed our respective overall physical regimes. Susie is continuing her schedule of spinning and personal training while I am otherwise relatively sedentary.
There is no real benefit to my weight on the scale through this process (i.e. I’m actually up 1.5 lbs after 2 weeks), but there is a noticeable difference to how well my pants fit. I know better than to share details about my lady’s weight, no matter how proud of her I am!
The other measurements that we are comparing throughout the challenge are: Waist, Hips, and Thigh. After 14 days, I am down five combined inches and Susie is down four combined inches. Of course, she isn’t pleased that her number isn’t as large as mine. I’m pretty sure that, since her body is used to a high level of almost daily activity, my higher change from the start reflects simply my complete lack of activity from before the challenge.
Take a look at the latest video … We are chatting with Roland about our results and trying some new camera techniques!
Read MoreT-Zone Update #1
Here we are seven days into the T-Zone Challenge. Here is video #2:
At this point, I have to admit that my body has most certainly registered standing on the T-Zone machine. After the first afternoon on the machine I was exhausted. On the second day I was actually sore as if I had done a gym workout. By today, I think that my body has already gotten used to this level of activity.
We were told that 10 minutes on the T-Zone machine provides the same effectiveness as an hour at the gym. I really don’t feel like just standing on the machine is actually providing that kind of value, but Susie is definitely working much harder than me. She feels that doing squats, planks, and even arm exercises are seemingly more effective on the machine than off.
I can’t wait to see the quantitative results update next week!
Read MoreOne More Push-Up per Day
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As part of my training routine for the Tough Mudder, I’ve decided to embark on a side-challenge.
Every day, I will do one more pushup than the prior day. Out of curiosity, I figured that I should see how many push-ups I could do at the beginning. Sadly, that number was well under 10. OK, that number was 6 … and the last was really shaky!
Completing this challenge will mean that on the day before the Tough Mudder event I will need to do 200 push-ups.
I don’t think it reasonable to expect myself to do 200 consecutive push-ups so I will plan to complete the daily push-ups goal within each 24 hour period. So, if on that last day before the Mudder I need to do 20 sets of 10, that is just fine.
I will be pretty impressed with myself at the end of this challenge.
Read MoreThe T-Zone Challenge
Over the past few years my wife, Susie, and I have had an ongoing debate about the value of vibration technology to a workout regime. She actually went so far as to buy a schedule of personal training appointments at a studio that featured the Power Plate technology. After a fairly significant investment, I convinced her to stop going because she wasn’t seeing any difference in her results than she had seen simply following her own gym routine.
The debate was reopened recently when we ran into a good friend of ours, Roland, who is now working for T-Zone Whole Body Vibration. He explained how T-Zone actually uses a different sort of technology than Power Plate, in that the machine actually oscillates rather than simply vibrating up and down. This machine’s motion actually mimics a more natural human movement, such as walking, so that your body reacts with a quick series of muscle contractions that it is used to having in the first place.
We heard Roland’s explanation of how the technology works and, of course, Susie was suddenly back on board with vibration technology. I reminded her about how she wasted money on the Power Plate training sessions and I shared the story of her previous experience with Roland. I also, respectfully, described my feelings about vibration technology on the whole.
Roland had a unique suggestion. He happened to have a machine available and suggested a challenge. He would put the T-Zone VT-15 in our living room for 30 days. Susie could use the machine for the full suggested workout and I could simply stand on the machine for 10 minutes per day (He joking suggested that I could stand on it while eating a cheeseburger every day … I’m planning to take that a bit literally for a little fun!). At the end of the 30 days, we would be able to compare a number of measurements that we would take before and after the challenge and prove definitively whether Susie’s faith in the technology was sound, or if my skepticism was rightly placed.
Susie is an avid gym rat who works out regularly. Between spinning, personal training, swimming, and running, she works out at least 4-5 times per week. I am more of a weekend warrior who considers himself to be an athlete based on years of participating in sports.
We decided that this would make a fun project for the blog so we’ve planned for a series of posts and accompanying videos of our experiences. As of today, we have taken our preliminary measurements and gotten a tutorial from Roland about how to use the machine. Susie has defined what her workout routine looks like and I have learned the proper technique for standing on the machine. (i.e. clench your butt cheeks and tilt your hips forward)
Check out the first of our series of videos below, but please forgive our son who has just discovered his voice. Actually, this is a very realistic look into our lives with the baby and dogs making cameos and multiple iPhones and blackberries going off constantly. Kudos to Roland for keeping a straight and professional demeanour despite all of the distractions going on!
Read MoreKlipsch X10i Earbuds
I invested in the Klipsch X10i earbud a little over 6 months ago. I say “invested” because these babies go for over $400 after you include tax.
It was a tough decision because of the price and I was really nervous about buying something that expensive without being able to check it out first.
I would generally assume that anyone that would spend that kind of money on earbuds to be a major audiophile who has a need for acoustic perfection. I do not fit that description at all!
My purchase decision was based mostly on the shape of the earbuds themselves. The Klipsch X10i is the only earbud on the market that comfortably sits inside of my motorcycle helmet.
Now that I have used these buds for a long enough period of time, I don’t know how I ever lived without them! From a sound perspective, they are far and away the best that I have ever heard, leaving both the standard and upgraded buds that are available from Apple in the dust. They also leave my 3 year old Shure buds behind when it comes to depth of bass.
The most impressive thing about these buds is the incredible range of individual instruments that I can now pick out. It’s like listening to music again for the first time with almost my entire collection!
There are other inherent benefits to the shape as well. First, the choice to make the rubber tips oval instead of round makes for a significantly more comfortable fit for long term use and noise elimination. Second, the lay flat design doesn’t just fit a helmet, it allows for relatively comfortable use with the ear buried in a pillow. That means I can lie on my side to watch a movie on my iPhone as I’m falling asleep!
Overall, if you have the means, I highly recommend this product.
Read More