Sunday, February 22, 2009

My baby doesn't blink!

Turns out that babies blink at a slower rate than adults do. I noticed Linus doesn't really blink, though he does close his eyes every minute or so, when they are open at all. A short note in the New York Times references a study that found that babies blink on average of less than two times a minute while adults blink 10-15 times per minute. For babies, that is 30 seconds between blinks, no wonder it looks like he never blinks.

Everybody has their own parenting style

Leave it to the Savage Chickens to annotate the various available parenting styles. Which do you espouse?


Should I be getting this type of advice from another source perhaps?

Saturday, February 21, 2009

The child who performs the antics - Welcome Linus!

Three weeks ago (on January 30th), Lynn and I welcomed Linus Richard Koehler into our lives. His arrival was highly anticipated (and three weeks early) and we are so glad to meet him.

Readers are welcome to guess the origin of Linus' name. Is he named for...

A.) A relative
B.) Linus Torvalds, a programmer, the creator of the Linux kernel
C.) Pope Linus, the second Pope of the Catholic Church.
D.) Linus Pauling, a chemist, winner of two Nobel Prizes (chemistry and peace)
E.) Linus Yale, Jr., an American mechanical engineer and founder of the Yale Lock Manufacturing company.
F.) Linus (mythology), any of three sons of Apollo
G.) Linus van Pelt, a character in the comic strip Peanuts
H.) Linus Caldwell, a character from the films Ocean's Eleven, Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen, played by Matt Damon

I will give you a hint. I am a chemical engineering and my parents once got this person's autograph for me at a convention where he discussed the merits of Vitamin C. Any one of these august personages would be a good role model for Linus, but for whom is he named?

To keep up to date on Linus' childhood antics you can follow along here at Childhood Antics. Childhood Antics will focus on all things Linus, kids and parenting. Did you ever notice that when you get a new car it seems that when you are out driving, everyone else on the road has that car too. I don't think it is more cars, but a change in focus and attention. I suppose it is the same with babies, once you have one you start noticing all of the baby and parenting topics out on theinternet that you might not have noticed before. The birth of Cory Doctorow's daughter and Mark Frauenfelder home life posts have seemingly increased the number of Boing Boing posts related to children, I have also noticed an increase in kids stuff at Neatorama. I will keep the kid stuff to Childhood Antics and the science, science fiction, general commentary, and honest hypocrisy to the Honest Hypocrite. Enjoy!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Raising your child like you were

From Wondermark. (click picture below for larger)


I suppose if you want you kid to turn out just like you, you will want to raise them just like you were raised. Of course then you prepare them for your adulthood, which is now, instead of for their adulthood which is the future.

It is like those science fiction stories where they clone Shakespeare or Mozart but they need to duplicate the circumstances of their upbringing to reproduce their genius.

Raising a tough kid

I am sure that Neatorama's guide to raising a tough kid is an approach that will land you in trouble with child protective services or in jail. Perhaps they are being tongue in cheek. Some ideas I have commented on previously (the smoking pregnant woman concerned about noise pollution's effect on her unborn baby for instance).

This art piece is entitled Mama Tried and is by Jack Daws.

Does it keep the baby in or us out? From the tilt of the barbed wire I would say keep us out, but the cage inside is electrified so maybe that is keep baby in. Any comments on interpretation?

This stroller and bassinet would suit a Klingon, Kapla!(created by Chinese artist Shi Jinsong)


I guess juxtaposing dangerous design elements on objects that are intended for children or babies is a popular art trope these days. How shocking!

The recent increased kid and baby focus at BoingBoing and Neatorama has provided much fodder for Childhood Antics.

(via Neatorama, some via Invizible Red)

Monday, February 9, 2009

A "Nursing" Bra

Though not practical for nursing this punning bra gets the joke across. Real nursing bras are more functional and less decorated.


It is a creation for the breast cancer fundrasing activities of the Quilters of South Carolina. There are many more creations ( Link and Link2 ).

(via Neatorama, via EXTEMECRAFT, via Quilters of South Carolina)