Family stories.
Discussion on general topics.
Apparently it is illegal to be driving in the fast lane at speed limit if you’re not passing in Washington, and the troopers are now giving out tickets for this.
http://www.komonews.com/news/20656789.html
What prompted for recent ticketing is to reduce road rage, and slow drivers have caused accidents recently. Might want to be careful the next time you’re driving in the fast lane at 60 with 10 cars tailgating behind ya. You might be getting a ticket for being a slow poke!
After a nice 4.5 weeks on vacation bonding with Odelia and doing chores, I returned to work today. I’m sure Karen will be missing the pancakes that I’ve been making her for breakfast…
Karen and I watched the Happiest Baby On The Block last week.
In the DVD, Dr. Karp mentions that babies may have come a trimester early and hence cannot support its own head and need constant attention. Then he goes on to connect his own exercises with an experience of the baby while in the womb.
Dr. Karp starts the demonstration by manages to wrap the baby up really tightly like a cocoon, or a straight-jacket. It didn’t seem to have much effect because the baby cried much harder than before. Then he turns the baby on its side position, hisses in his ears so loudly to the baby is stunned, similar to the effect of a tazer, then proceed to shake the baby’s head like washing a bowl of rice. With the shaking, the baby is so distraunt with the movements that the baby cannot actively cry, and eventually tires and gives up Lastly, he introduces a break-through product and technique, called “using the pacifier”.
At the end of the day, some parents may wish to treat their baby’s head like a bowl of rice, but I prefer to use the loving methods, such as Crouching Tiger or the Waltz method. That way I can bond with my daughter, and get a workout in the process. 
Initially, we had gotten a small pack of Pampers Baby Wipes (image is a bigger version of what we got)…
And the wipes were so soft and moist I loved them. However, being money conscience, we decided to get a box of Huggies wipe from Costco with coupon, which was very cheap. After all, how different could they be?
Apparently a lot. The Huggies wipes were gritty and harsh, and when I utilitized them on Odelia’s bums, I cannot help but feel like I doing some sanding instead of wiping. Then I talked to Chris and he suggested that Costco wipes were also soft, so we tried some.
They were definitely softer and better than Huggies, but we took out some left-over Pampers from our travel packed and did a comparison. It was clear that the Kirkland brand was not as moist, and because of that, I noticed it wasn’t picking up as much of the dried deli mustard as it should.
So at the end of the day, we will also be sticking with Pampers, who just keep making great products. If the Costco wipes were Tissue papers, then Huggies wipes would be paper towels, and the Pampers wipes would be silk.
Verdict
Huggies: Average
Costco: Good
Pampers: Great <== Editor’s Choice
When you have a child, the number of diaper choices can be overwhelming. I recall standing in Target drowned in the sea of diaper racks. Pampers or Huggies? Swaddlers or Baby Dry? Gentle Care or Snug N Dry? Generic brand? We tried consulting a few friends about this, and Olivia recommended Pampers Swaddlers after trying a few others and not liking them as much. Christine, who did tons of research on the internet, got the typical internet result of comment overload where one swears by Pampers, another swears by Huggies. One person would find the generic brands just as good but cheaper, but others warn about sticking with real brands or be prepared to swim in a lake of crap. In the end, we decided to enlighten the world with yet another unscientific experiment by purchasing smaller packs of Huggies and Pampers diapers. The three types that we ended up testing were Pampers Swaddlers, Huggies Gentle Care, and Huggies Snug N Dry.
Pampers Swaddlers (Left), Huggies Gentle Care (Middle), Huggies Snug N Dry (Right)
Because Odelia was almost 8 lbs when she was born, we did not get a chance to use anything but the Pampers Swaddlers for the newborn size. It’s interesting that the Hospital Edition contains a yellow line that turns green when fused with pee, indicating a #1 has occured. When we left the hospital, we continued using the Home Edition of the Pampers Swaddlers that Justine bought us, which is the same except the pee line. These diapers were good, fitting snugly and held the thick fudge that came preinstalled in newborns. Once the fudge was gone, it held the watery deli mustard equally well.
Pampers Swaddlers, Size 1
When we ran out of newborn size, we decided to start using Size 1 as Odelia is already at the lower end of the weight spectrum for size 1s. The Size 1 Swaddlers seem thinner than the Newborn, but it may be due to the surface size of the diaper. The extra net-like inner lining was nice, and it was the softest of the three diapers we tried. We did experience one accident, but I attribute that to human error.
Huggies Gentle Care, Size 1
When we ran out of Size 1 Swaddlers, so we immediately started on Size 1 Huggies Gentle Care. These diapers seem slightly smaller but more padded, and the design with Pooh and Friends is more lovely than the Sesame Street of the Swaddlers, which wins browny points with Karen. However, within 24 hours, we experienced a pee leakage that escaped the diapers, through the new clothes I had just painstakingly picked out for her, and onto the blanket of our poor bed. An examination after installing another new diaper indicated a breach, an opening around the legs, on the new diaper. This may be because the Huggies material was harder, so it was easier to bend an opening around the legs, because we never had this problem with the Pampers Swaddlers.
Huggies Snug N’ Dry, Size 1
At this point we also opened some Huggies Snug N Dry, and immediately noticed the thinner padding, rougher material, and poorer construction. If the Swaddlers were made in Japan, the Gentle Care would be made in Taiwan and Snug N Dry would be made in China. The edges were stuck to the liners and the whole thing felt like a piece of wrinkled napkin with a toilet paper lining. It seemed to fit more snugly, but after a crap fest, there still seemed to be smearing of sewage around the edges which was too close for comfort.
At the end of the day, we will be sticking with what works and can be trusted, which is Pampers Swaddlers. It is clearly the Editor’s Choice.
I had some extra time between feedings, dug into my media vault and found this old infomercial that I thought was interesting…
Our family and in-laws love to play mahjong, but Karen and I didn’t have a mahjong set ourselves until recently. A relative brought back a set for us from Taiwan, and when we saw the package, something told us it wasn’t a professional set.
It’s called “Gold Brings Luck” Mahjong set, and comes with an extra large wind die (see middle bottom):
When we started playing with it, I immediately felt something different, but I couldn’t pinpoint it. It wasn’t until I looked closely that I noticed that the pieces were not of the same sizes! Notice the piece on the right is slightly bigger than the piece on the left.
Also, it didn’t come with was a set of rulers for straightening out the pieces, so I had to look for a home-made solution…
Home Depot paint sticks! Interestingly it also provides xylophone-esque music when the tiles hit them during shuffling, which is an additional plus! However, as much as I love the music that comes along with these home-made sticks, I would happily replace them with real ones.
The writer’s strike had pushed us toward exploring new shows, and the One Tree Hill season 5 premier, which seemed like a new series, got us hooked. Who knows, maybe we’ll even name our child Lucas. 🙂
Every year it is good to set some new year’s resolutions. The key to making good resolutions is creating attainable, measurable goals, so here’s my crack at that list for the year of 2008:
There. Hopefully I can stay true to these goals for the year of 2008. Happy new year!
Karen had been wishing for some snow in Seattle for quite some time now, and tonight it all came true… too true. By the time I wanted to leave work, the anxiously departing cars were bumper to bumper all the way to P2 of the garage. The Seattle Traffic site provided good information about travel times:
Travel time to Seattle 66 minutes
Travel time to Bothell 48 minutes
Travel time to Everett 93 minutes
There was only one minor detail missing:
Travel time to freeway: 100 minutes
I went back to my office, only to see a shuttle make its way across the driveway (span of 30 yards) in about one hour. By then, I decided the best way to get home was… the number 11 bus. My trusty feet.
Just to give you an idea of the situation:
No, none of those cars were moving. On the way I encountered some miniature snowmen…
In the end, it took 45 minutes to walk home, but all I can say is… home sweet home!