The Krazy Kyles

Tonight the magic milk has failed us. The nightly routine has been changing Peter's diaper, putting on lotion, installing pajamas and finally drowning his sleepy sorrows in slurps of warm milk.

Sadly, "sleepy sorrows" scored a snorkel. Rather than drowning, it seems we have refueled him. Mommy gently laid "sleeping" Peter into bed as planned. Seconds later, daddy and mommy (now drained of her drowsy elixir) found Peter standing in his crib yelling a merry hello to the darkness.

Hmm, this requires Creativity. While daddy tried valiantly, Peter's defenses were no match for mommy and the rocking chair.

Hurray Mommy!

We decided to try a short camping adventure with Peter for the first time (if you don't count the backyard in Vancouver). We picked a real good time. We arrived Sunday night about 8pm. It was calm in the valley. When we got to the top of Tiger Canyon it was blowing about 20 miles an hour. I setup the tent, we piled in and tried to sleep through the howling, banging uproar. Around midnight the wind increased and by morning it was more like 40 miles an hour. Laura had to sit in the tent while I took it down around her so it wouldn't blow away. During one gust she might have gotten some air. Later that morning the wind picked up in the valley and dropped several large branches in the park behind our house. One of them was holding shreads of a kite that got stuck up there 4 years ago. My buddies at the power company were really busy for the holiday cleaning up after the wind. Camping with Baby Tips: Check the weather before you leave! A foam changing pad makes a great sleeping pad, and very convenient for midnight diapers. Put the baby to sleep near Mommy and Daddy's head (easy access for feeding and changing). Put the baby in fleece pajamas, if he kicks off his blankets, his toes won't freeze off. Keep the diaper bag in the tent.

Peter recently turned 5 months old. Here are some pictures of him playing in the freshly fallen leaves. He is becoming more and more fun to play with every day. His lack of mobility however is a real blessing to his parents! I'm sure the mischief he will get into will be boundless.

Being a good engineer, I discovered a need for innovation in our baby equipment.

The first innovation is pretty minor, but useful and I thought it looked nicer with three pictures across the top. The multifunctional changing pad is great as a sleeping pad for Peter when we are camping. We set him on his pad just in front of our heads, that way he is convenient to change in the middle of the night. I don't even have to exit my sleeping bag and he is already on the pad.

Your basic stroller is a piece of junk! It bounces and jerks over every crack on the sidewalk and is useless for anything slightly rough. Grass, dirt paths, gravel road, rough asphault forget it. Hard to push and it shakes poor Peter so much I'm afriad he's going to get hurt. After a bit of sizing things up, I discovered that the Infant Car Seat fits quite nicely into the stroller. The shoulder straps from the jogging stroller snugly clip into the seatbelt slots on the side of the car seat and a piece of cord runs around the back of the carseat and through the frame to hold the proper angle.

The pacifier and syringe combo were rigged up as a supplemental feeding system aka "giving poor mommy a break". This way daddy can feed Peter once a day (5am) and mommy can sleep in. We discovered this to be better than a bottle because it didn't give Peter any bad habits that make it hard to feed in the traditional manner. The way it works is a small hole is poked in the end of a pacifier. The pacifier is turned inside out as much as possible. The feeding tube is pushed through the hole slightly and super glued in place on the back side (front side when it's inside out). It is then turned right side out and the tube trimmed flush. The baby is forced to suck down the plunger down on his own. If you need to speed up a feeding, slight pressure may be added to the plunger. If the syringe is old, the plunger may have a tendancy to travel down at an angle and require extra pressure.