Daddy Types: February 2005 Archives

February 2005 Archives

February 28, 2005

Mercedes Sports Tourers: Good News & Bad News

The Mercedes I've been waiting to see is the R-Series, a large, sleek wagon--Ach, don't call it a wagon!--Grand Sports Touring crossover/hybrid concept whatever. It's been making the auto show rounds as the Vision R, and it goes on sale...
[read the full post...]

WSJ Weighs In On Dads-n-Strollers

Thanks to everyone who forwarded lasr week's Wall Street Journal story about new dad-friendly strollers and other gear. The article hits several Daddy Types favorites (the Bugaboo, obviously; the Xplory, and the Quinny Buzz) and even includes quotes from several...
[read the full post...]

It's Raining, Men: Kid-size Urinals

I was taking notes at a pretty quick pace in Amsterdam, figuring I'd just look stuff up online later. Except I couldn't find the Happy Pee Kiddy Boy Urinal anywhere. We saw it in Teuntje, a very cool kids store...
[read the full post...]

No Added Sugar Camo PJ's

No Added Sugar is a London-based kids clothing company with the usual array of slightly irreverent silkscreened T-shirts and bodysuits. These camo playsuits (if they call them pajamas, they have to meet some flame retardant and non-loose fitting-ness safety requirement,...
[read the full post...]

Prenatal High Chair [No, you read that right]

I'm sure it's pronounced Prey-nah-TALL. Pr�natal is actually a chain of moderately sized Dutch baby stores, more Right Start, than Buy Buy Baby. They have clothes (just as generic as US mall clothes), strollers, car seats and small stuff, but...
[read the full post...]

Daddy Types: Veeling is Heet

Caution! filling is hot: I'm going to keep posting about stuff we found in Holland until I numb the pain of finding the entire country stripped of its old-school, bubbly-crusted McDonald's apple pies. Fortunately, it's a small country, so we're...
[read the full post...]

February 25, 2005

Snap Judgments From Rotterdam

Stopped by a babystore and an easyinternet cafe en route from the conference to dinner. Here's my immediate reaction to the following: Quinny: overall, both Buzz and Zapp could benefit from a stern paring down. If Bugaboo's upholsterers ever did...
[read the full post...]

February 23, 2005

The Smart Buggy: Two-wheeled Stroller from Phil & Ted's

Actually, it's probably closer to a revolution in baby transportation. Or, for the less starry-eyed folks out there, it's a handcart/wheelie for babies. Designed to be used on public transportation like, say, the bus, an option which usually drops off...
[read the full post...]

Now Let's Talk About A Jack Spade Stroller

Congratulations to Andy and Kate Spade, who, after years of pushing baby gear on others, can now push it for themselves. Frances Beatrix Spade was born on Feb. 18. While they're obviously busy for the next couple of months, I...
[read the full post...]

Perfect Madness-watch: NY Observer

This opening paragraph is the most vivid in Ruth Davis Konigsberg's New York Observer review. It's also the only appearance or mention of a baby daddy.:When I first read Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety, a week after...
[read the full post...]

The Birthday Kid

It's the kid's first birthday. Although there's a party in the works for Spring, when the weather's a little nicer, we've had two pre-party dinners which just happened to include cake with candles. Last night was my white trash...
[read the full post...]

February 21, 2005

Debate Precedes Report on Nationwide Newborn Testing Policy

A federal advisory group is preparing to release a report that calls for nationwide standardized newborn testing for 29 extremely rare but potentially devastating diseases and conditions. Currentyl each state has its own set of tests that newborns automatically receive,...
[read the full post...]

Arlie Russell Hochschild's The Time Bind

I remembered skimming a NY Times Magazine article years ago, long before I ever thought about having a kid of my own someday, that revealed that many parents actually (secretly? unconsciously?) prefer and choose work over home. The rewards of...
[read the full post...]

Perfect Solution to Perfect Madness?

In her review of Judith Warner's book, Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety, Judith Shulevitz tells the crazies to take a time out. Maybe, she says, the new generation of parents--yes, parents, meaning mothers and fathers--will approach this...
[read the full post...]

February 19, 2005

Separated at Birth?

Anne Geddes'Matrix-like babies-in-flowerpots photo All the Dutch babies in the The Tummy Tub video...
[read the full post...]

Hollywood Parent Parody [?] in Italian Vogue

When I saw a Bugaboo on the cover of Italian Vogue at the newsstand a couple of weeks ago, I had to check it out. It took me a few pages to realize there was a reason I couldn't readily...
[read the full post...]

My Daughter, The Plushie

If, 25 years from now, I see the kid in an Agnes Varda documentary about an inordinate fixation on teddy bears--or in an MTV documentary about people dressing up as Care Bears--I'll know when it started. This week. From early...
[read the full post...]

February 18, 2005

Kandoo? Do Tell

I thought the Gawker post about Pampers' new Kandoo the pooing frog was incomprehensible until I visited the site. Then I realized how traumatic a flash animation of a happy frog wiping its butt must be for a carefree, child-free...
[read the full post...]

Microsoft Helping Orthodox Hackers' Parents Since Ten Days Ago

In "A parent's primer to computer slang," published two weeks ago by Microsoft, Orthodox Jewish parents can finally answer the question, "We thought AOL would help him. Where did we go wrong?":Non-alphanumeric characters may be combined to form letters. For...
[read the full post...]

New Passat In Europe; New Honda Truck for Non-Truck People

Dan Neil, the LA Times car critic, gives high praise to Honda's new Ridgeline truck, aka the truck for "cool dads": It's "so scary good, so smart and so instantly likable that it's going to send everybody back to pickup...
[read the full post...]

February 17, 2005

BabyDisco: Is It Ever Too Early To Lean How To Pole Dance?

A group of French artists and DJ's created BabyDisco, a realistically decorated, scaled-down disco for children only. 10-12 kids ages 4-6 would be allowed inside to party on their own for an hour. It was/is? installed in December at the...
[read the full post...]

Kidville Lands in 'Stroller City'

I have no category for this except Parent Company. Kidville has opened on the Upper East Side. The NY Times' verdict: finally, a place to park your stroller! The real story: finally, a place to park your wife and child....
[read the full post...]

Spas Out? Not Anymore. Now You Can Take The Kid

If you're a mom, that is. But then spas are really a chick thing anyway, right? All that "me time." Well, now spas are becoming a mom and baby thing. They're trying to accommodate new parents moms with specially designated...
[read the full post...]

February 16, 2005

Sodium Polyacrylate: It's Not Just For Diapers Anymore

Sodium polyacrylate is the the superabsorbent polymer (SAP) in disposable diapers, but it has a host of other uses as well (in addition to drying out the leak in my old Mercedes' footwell): Fuel-Dri Tank Dewatering System, available from Hammonds:...
[read the full post...]

On Tour With The Ralpheads

DT reader Suzanne point to this excellent DCist (it's like Gothamist, only with more sensible outfits) review of a Saturday morning Ralph's World show in Arlington, VA. The show was sold out, but, just like with Deadheads, the real party...
[read the full post...]

Not For All The Pee In China

Ever since I saw this image in the exhibition catalogue for Kid Size, I'd wondered if it was still common for Chinese kids to not wear diapers. [The show began in the late 90's, and a lot can change...
[read the full post...]

February 15, 2005

MacGyvering With Diapers, Round 2

Our baby has had some pretty embarassing problems with leakage. It's not something we talk about, because really, at her age, what could we do? Then I found Pampers Cruisers, and our lives have changed. Pampers really came to the...
[read the full post...]

February 14, 2005

Daisy Roots Chrome-Free Leather Shoes for Treehuggers

or FROM Treehuggers, actually. Treehuggers.com, where I saw these Daisy Roots kid shoes. They're made with a chrome-free, vegetable-based tanning process, which'll keep the vegans happy [oh, wait...] and keep your kid from absorbing so many heavy metals through his...
[read the full post...]

Formative Childhood Memories on Metafilter

Gee, no pressure. Where to start on this Ask Metafilter thread about people's formative childhood memories or experiences? It shouldn't be surprising but a lot of the comments people are making involve something their parents did, for better and for...
[read the full post...]

Here Come The ABC's from They MIght Be Giants

What's the difference between baby boomers and Gen X & co? The aging Mick Jagger leaves kids--and their successively younger model moms--in his wake, and wouldn't think of recording children's music. Meanwhile the archetypal alt culuture band They Might Be...
[read the full post...]

February 13, 2005

Praq: A Restaurant That's Kid-Friendly AND Trendy?

Where did the inspiration for Praq come from? Here's how Frank Tjepkema, the restaurant's designer sees it: "There are already a lot of places for children�like McDonald's�but nothing for parents," he says. Especially parents who go to trendy places, because...
[read the full post...]

February 11, 2005

Daddy Blog Group Hug at Metrodad

Metrodad writes about trying to find some like-minded, involved dads like himself, who don't trade in the family jewels for a Family Truckster. His first stop(s)--in the multitude of pregnancy classes--goes amusingly badly: "...for the most part, the only thing...
[read the full post...]

You Gotta Fight. For Your Right. To...Stay Up All Night Rocking A Baby To Sleep

This one comes via Rebeldad, who has highlighted some potential bureaucratic whittling away at the Family Medical Leave Act, the only federal law which provides dads with job protection if they take time off--unpaid time off, even [cue Euro and...
[read the full post...]

Meltdown: Can I Get A Second Opinion?

We join Eric and Jen in the middle of 3-week-old Hayes's (aka the HBomb) first official meltdown:The phone rang. It was a doctor or nurse or nurse practitioner or doctor nurse or something returning Jen's call. Jen explained the situation...
[read the full post...]

Find The Dummy In This Picture

According to Sarah's comment on the Seimi Dummy Stand, they're ALL called dummy stands. This example, from Monkey Business, is called a Baby Face Pacifier Holder, though, at least on TinyTantrums.com. Probably because the parents of the stunned-looking kid in...
[read the full post...]

Do You Need A Dummy Stand?

"Dummies seem to be always lost, so here�s a solution to keep them in one place!" While you scare yourself imagining how the Dutch might solve this this problem, let me tell you that in Finnish (i.e., British) English, a...
[read the full post...]

Now You Seimi Baby Collection? Now You Don't

The Seimi Baby Collection is the creation of Puu Studio, a Finnish woodworking and furniture maker, and it rocks. Not literally, I mean it's cool. I don't mean Helsinki-in-February cool, I mean-- Anyway... Peti, the Seimi crib [in grand Scandinavian...
[read the full post...]

Joel's not getting off THIS Babysitter.

Those Dutch. While Bugaboo's over there revolutionizing the stroller children's mobility market, the rest of the country's designers are apparently focused on the children's immobility market. This chair, ominously (or realistically, take your pick) called The Babysitter, was created by...
[read the full post...]

Namenerds.com: Surprisingly (?) Not Only Nerd Names

Namenerds.com certainly has a dauntingly long list of nerd names. Their particular definition of nerd name seems to be even narrower than "names of sci-fi TV show and movie characters," though. Their "name your baby nerd" list, largely culled from...
[read the full post...]

February 10, 2005

That Guy Wrote Children's Books?? Hilarious Richard Scarry Bio

Like many of my generation, I grew up on Richard Scarry's densely illustrated books. His humorously anthropomorphized animal world is a formative element of almost every kid's imagination. And now I find out the guy was a slackin' dropout and...
[read the full post...]

Ralph Rapson's Rapid Rocker, Re-Introduced

Besides the Eames RAR Rocker, of course, there were remarkably few rocking chair designs to come out of the mid-century golden age of American modernism. One rare example, the Rapid Rocker, was created for Knoll in 1945 by Ralph Rapson,...
[read the full post...]

Serious Baby Mama Drama & Other Discoveries From The Daddy Types Search Log

Here are a few notable search queries that brought people to Daddy Types this week: is bugaboo frog cheaper in the netherlands? [have you seen the euro these days, pal?] geek dad buying stroller [I'm sure I have no idea...
[read the full post...]

"She's just a girl who/ claims that I am the one"

A very polite gentleman just made me this exclusive offer in the comments section of an un-related post. [Note to corporate and publicist types: the email works better. -dt] It sounds so sweet, I thought I'd check with the...
[read the full post...]

Oh! Chair, Oh! Walker, Oh! Jungle Gym

We have a stack of Oh! Chairs, designed by Karim Rashid for Umbra, in our place in DC. When we needed some stacking chairs, I had the image of it in my mind--left over from an old NYT article about...
[read the full post...]

February 9, 2005

A Book To Make You Sound Like Your Au Pair

This is hi-larious. Mots D'Heures: Gousses, Rames : The D'Antin Manuscript is a 1967 book that purports to be a scholarly translation of a medieval manuscript, complete with arcane footnotes and analysis. What it is, in fact, is a French...
[read the full post...]

Heat-Indicating Spoons

The business ends of these colorful plastic spoons from Munchkin--like absolutely everything else you'll ever buy during the next ten years, they're available in pink and blue--turn white if the food in them is too hot for baby's wittle mout',...
[read the full post...]

February 8, 2005

All The Bands Mentioned In USA Today

Here are the bands mentioned in an article on mom bands. An asterisk (*) indicates the band will play at Mamapalooza 2005: Placenta Frump* Mrs. Robinson The Mydols* Housewives on Prozac* The Candy Band* Moms On The Edge MotherLode Trio...
[read the full post...]

All Hail The Baby Name Wizard Empire

Enough with the "We named her Trinity cuz The Matrix is so cool." already. Mother/software designer/writer Laura Wattenberg has just put out The Baby Name Wizard, which injects some welcome data-crunching, analytical rigor to the amorphous, emotional task of babynaming....
[read the full post...]

Could You Call It A Field Trip?

The Board of Education's proposal to start the 2005-6 school year on August 29th is seriously harshing the buzz of San Francisco parents who were planning to take their kids to Burning Man. School year's early start burns parents [sfgate,...
[read the full post...]

February 7, 2005

Trend Convergence: Gen X Dads Reporter on Rebel Dad Radio

You young punks don't know how easy you have it. Back in my day, we had to go to a newspaper website and read an article to find out about Gen X dads. All this fiddle faddle about podcasting--why, in...
[read the full post...]

This Still Doesn't Explain Paris Hilton. Or DOES It?

Or Bennington College. According to recent research in the UK, the wealthier the parents, the smarter the children. OK, that might be a tad inaccurate or simplistic. The study found that:A five-year-old whose parents earn more than �67,500* has reading...
[read the full post...]

February 5, 2005

My First Coffee Maker

Because nothing goes together better than small children and caffeine, Discovery Toys offers Pour Some More (or is that Pour Some More!!), a realistic toy coffee maker for children aged "from 4 years � Primary School." At least I think...
[read the full post...]

GPS Tracking: Not Just For Felons Anymore

It's time to update our stereotypes about individual GPS tracking. The image of a white-collar criminal with an ankle bracelet is just too narrow, too Nineties--and too non-profit--to capture today's convenient, feature-rich pervasive surveillance marketplace. Take, for example, the "GPS...
[read the full post...]

February 4, 2005

Now You're Taking Paxil For Two!

A preliminary study shows that newborns who were exposed to anti-depressants in the womb may show some symptoms of withdrawl. [Yes, "preliminary," "may," "some," nice ambiguity-spotting. Obviously, ask your doctor(s).] It makes total sense that when pregnant women take drugs...
[read the full post...]

February 3, 2005

Child Who Received Experimental Cord Blood Treatment Died

Hannah Stimmel, whose parents pursued a highly experimental cord blood bone marrow transplant for her after she was diagnosed with a rare disease called Nieman-Peck [via comments below] Niemann-Pick Syndrome, has died. Her story was told in an article in...
[read the full post...]

God Bless You And Your Sweet $300 Maple Crib

While I've been happy to talk up the no-nonsense Jenny Lind crib we got, it was still something we settled for. We really wanted a crib like you'd see in the dictionary: an old-school, industrial or institutional model that was...
[read the full post...]

February 2, 2005

War Daddy

War daddyhood is in the eye of the beholder, so definitions vary wildly. Recruiting experts, fans, and coaches all agree that they don't come along too often. When a war daddy does arrive, he must combine elite ability with extraordinary...
[read the full post...]

Win Giant Prizes In BabyChic101.com Contest

Let me get this straight: While there are contests with all sorts of glamorous prizes over on the fabulous side of the kidternet, at Daddy Types, we've got mohels with herpes? What's wrong with this picture? Don't worry about me;...
[read the full post...]

When Choosing A Mohel, "Caring" Isn't Enough

Three cases have been identified--including one twin who died--where baby boys in New York City contracted herpes shortly after being circumcised by Rabbi Yitzhok Fischer. "Under Jewish law, a mohel -- someone who performs circumcisions -- draws blood from the...
[read the full post...]

Angel Alert Tells You What You Should Already Know

Say you're at the beach, or in a crowded mall, airport, theme park, or stadium. If you turn your head for even a second, your child could suddenly be 30 feet away from you without your even realizing it. What...
[read the full post...]

A Suggested Dictionary of Pregnant Vomiting

Men, it is your job to read this first, if only to determine in advance the probability that it will cause a pregnant woman near you to start hurling. If that probability is high, then pass the link along and...
[read the full post...]

February 1, 2005

TSG's Bad Dad of The Week

Florida dad Douglas Dycus has been arrested and charged with felonious abuse for using a stun gun to break up a wrestling match between his two sons. The fight, you see, was delaying the whole family. The 14-year-old victim's name...
[read the full post...]

Celebrity Baby Takes One Nap/Day

Ben posted an analysis of Trixie--yes, of the MSNBC and NYT Trixies--Trixie's shifting nap patterns, which is pretty cool, even if it does mean he doesn't get to shower anymore. While I don't have any empirical data or sweet infographics,...
[read the full post...]

Knock, Knock: We're From Defective Yeti, And We're Here To Help

When I came back from Home Depot, this message from The Squirrelly's Dad was affixed to my front door with a large serrated-edge hunting knife:Hi. This is Matthew Baldwin of defective yeti, come to clear the air about a...
[read the full post...]

Baby on Board: Sophia, SSN 048-88-9320

From the TMI Department by way of boingboing comes Stick Family Robinson, a customized collection of stick figure stickers for your car that allows you to telegraph the makeup and personal information for your entire family to the entire world....
[read the full post...]

« January 2005 | Main Index | | March 2005 »