Pirate Linus

By "coincidence" Linus and I had our pirate shirts on last week and that called for a photo to memorialize the event. We couldn't quite get Linus and me to be ready for the picture at the same time. Here are the outtakes, but still the best pictures we have.

Linus wasn't ready for that first picture.

Linus entertains a friend

Two weeks ago Linus entertained his friend Derek.

Derek was three months old and Linus is 8 and a half months old, so entertaining consisted of Linus gently trying to figure out who and what Derek was, and Derek noticing motion.

After playtime comes naps for both.

They had a good day, and their mommies got to chat.

You and me and the baby makes...

Wonderful, wonderful compromises.

(via A Softer World)

Finding an appropriate babysitter

Where can I get one of those goats?

(via Wondermark)

Best (Worst) Baby Halloween costume ever

I am sure that you have seen this picture since it has appeared everywhere this season.


What a cute lobster baby ready in the pot. This is the best costume, although the baby seems annoyed. Besides, Linus wants to eat lobster not be lobster:

I always thought it was a tradition to dress infants up in the cutest costumes designed to make them look like something else edible. Some favorites of mine through the years have been the pea pod costume and the jalapeno pepper costumes that are so popular. Now that I have a baby to do this with, he is a little too old for the blob costumes, at eight months he is going to want to still be able to crawl around in whatever we put him in. Probably the zebra costume that mom found on sale for him.

Didn't know winter babies had a plight

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal describes new studies on the plight of the winter babies. Apparently children born in winter have a greater chance of learning difficulties, health issues and less advancement in education and economic livelihood. I had never heard of this and having my own birthday in January and a new son with a birthday in January it peaked my interest. The article states the problem as such:

"Children born in the winter months already have a few strikes against them. Study after study has shown that they test poorly, don't get as far in school, earn less, are less healthy, and don't live as long as children born at other times of year. Researchers have spent years documenting the effect and trying to understand it."

The new study (.pdf link) looks at the problem in a new way. Look at the mothers and not the babies.


It is surprising that no one thought to look at the family background and specifically the mothers of the children in the studies. It turns out that winter babies tend to be born to mothers that are unmarried, teenage and less educated. Thus, given the many studies that show that the outcome for a child is strongly correlated with parental education, socio-economic status, marital status, and parental age, it is not surprising that winter babies have a tougher time of it.

In Linus' case (and my own) his mother is married, not teenage and has a college degree, so the "plight" may not apply (never mind the danger of applying statistics to individual outcomes). I suppose that given the statistics we are discussing that makes him ever so slightly unusual compared to the rest of his January birthday cohort.

The next step in the study will be to determine why mothers of babies born in winter have these characteristics. The study suggests a decrease in fertility related to hot months for usually poor families without air conditioning and increased fertility in the cooler spring results in a disproportionate number of winter babies to women with fewer means. Commentors on the article point out that babies born in January are conceived in Spring which is spring break and prom time for teenagers. Just remember that plausible explanations are not always the correct explanations.

Linus loves his playroom

We have a room on the first floor that we have been using as an "office" though the correct term would be room of junk, since a computer, some bookshelves, and the pile of bills do not make an office. We had always intended to make this room a playroom for Linus, because it was on the first floor and near everything especially the kitchen, which would make keeping an ear and occasionally eye on him easier, and we could safe the room more than others so that he could be in there without us watching him every minute for a little while.

The playroom idea was strongly suggested to us by friends with kids and tons of toys but no separate space to put them in. Thus their whole house is the playroom. I have also seen other examples of playrooms with the lucky child user unable to put his feet down without stepping on a beloved toy, but safely floored with a cushy mat for more intense play. That's a playroom that is a necessity.

After Linus' sudden increase in mobility we realized that we needed that room stat. There were hints that Linus was going to start crawling soon on vacation so when we arrived home for the home and chores part of the vacation we started the final clearing of the room. We went and found a soft carpet with extra cushion for crawling on. We blocked all the outlets and we have one safety gate and are waiting for some consignment sales to cover the other door. Now more rooms are junk rooms but Linus' seems to like his playroom.



Linus loves his playroom.



The full playroom, enhanced by Linus' presence.

The pictures above also show Linus' enhanced mobility because he crawled to those toys to play with them and he sits up more and will hold himself up with his hands to play om his stomach.

Of course, he likes it best when we are in there with him, which defeats the goal of giving him a safe place to play by himself, but we made it comfortable enough for us to lie down there on the floor and play with him.