Gamer mom/dad thread

That baby girl I asked about last summer/fall in this thread is almost here! Today is the big day! I re-read all of your advice because I'm more focused and ready to go whereas back then I had a half year cushion.

She's our second baby but first girl.  We couldn't decide on a name until today either. Overall, this pregnancy was much different than the first in terms of our preparation, and I don't imagine it being any less different after pregnancy haha I'm ready for this girl trouble.

 
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kdiddy1989 said:
That baby girl I asked about last summer/fall in this thread is almost here! Today is the big day! I re-read all of your advice because I'm more focused and ready to go whereas back then I had a half year cushion.

She's our second baby but first girl. We couldn't decide on a name until today either. Overall, this pregnancy was much different than the first in terms of our preparation, and I don't imagine it being any less different after pregnancy haha I'm ready for this girl trouble.
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Good luck homie! I hear that it's a lot easier and quicker to pop out the second one compared to the first one. What name did you pick?

 
kdiddy1989 said:
That baby girl I asked about last summer/fall in this thread is almost here! Today is the big day! I re-read all of your advice because I'm more focused and ready to go whereas back then I had a half year cushion.

She's our second baby but first girl. We couldn't decide on a name until today either. Overall, this pregnancy was much different than the first in terms of our preparation, and I don't imagine it being any less different after pregnancy haha I'm ready for this girl trouble.
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I hope the labor goes smoothly and you have a healthy baby girl by the end of the day. Enjoy all them feels buddy.

 
dohdough said:
Good luck homie! I hear that it's a lot easier and quicker to pop out the second one compared to the first one. What name did you pick?
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We were stuck between Milania (my wife's go-to female name forever now; she got it from some Bravo TV show), Mia (my choice), and Mila (mutual like).

So we decided to go with Milania Mia as the first-middle name. With Milania being the first name, we can call her Mila for short anytime so this way, all 3 of our choices were covered.

 
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I feel bad. I haven't seen much of my daughter for the past 2 weeks. I've been working so much and our schedules clash since she gets off of school at 3pm and I have to be in at 3:30. I don't get home till midnight and she's in bed. Because of this i'm getting a little stressed and I think it's reflecting on my health. I don't have much of an appetite and I'm always tired.

My daughter really misses me. I saw her this morning and she didn't want to let me go, neither did I. She didn't cry but she kept saying over and over how much she missed me. It broke my heart. I can't take another week like this.

 
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I can relate, I went out of town on business for four days, and while one daughter didn't care as much, the other was pretty sad at the prospect. As parents we are a huge part of their little world, and its harder on some kids than it is on others.  I couldn't imagine 2+ weeks away from them though...

Oh well, at least the school year is coming to a close here in a couple of months, unless you have one of those year round enrollments...

 
Don't get me wrong, I've seen her in the past 2 weeks but just not as much as I want. But this morning was the first time she's seen me since Sunday, so that's been tough. She did have spring break last week but I had to work  everyday since all my co-workers took vacations. I figured it was good money but I wont be doing the same next year.

On the up side I have tomorrow off so I plan on hanging out with her all day after school. Going to the pool, order a pizza, even letting her stay up late since it's Friday. My first day off in 2 weeks. I'm just burnt out.

 
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Gave my daughter her first haircut tonight. I've seen better, but I've seen a lot more with worse! I was aiming for a pixie cut, but she was moving around too much, so I just gave her a little trim. Took about 30 minutes and I managed not to draw any of her blood. I wish I could say the same for myself cause I sliced up my fingers at least 3 times...lolz.

 
Going down the rabbit hole on CAG tonight, can't believe I haven't peeked in here before.  I have to kids: 5yo girl and 3mo boy. Been introducing my daughter to gaming both retro and current stuff.  Excited for when she can actually sit through playing a fun two player with me.  Cheers to my fellow Cheap Ass Dad's and Mom's out there.

 
Wife and I are headed up to Pax East this coming week, my mother in law is coming down to watch the boy while we're there.  I'm hoping he'll be able to come next year.

 
I started Tales of Zestiria last weekend with my seven-year-old sitting next to me. When I get to the language select screen, I ask him "English or Japanese?" His response? "Japanese." That's my boy!!!

For anyone with a Japanese PSN account with children, I can't recommend the Dragon Quest Builders demo enough. It's Minecraft meets Dragon Quest. My family has put hours in the demo.
 
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Introduced my 2.5 year old to mario not to long ago, she loves it.  can't play much with the one year old always messing with her...and the next one here in june.  I think i may have messed up having them this close together =P~

 
Happy Belated Mother's Day to the CAG moms!

Gave my daughter another haircut today and this time, I didn't slice up my hands. Progress!

 
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irideabike said:
Introduced my 2.5 year old to mario not to long ago, she loves it. can't play much with the one year old always messing with her...and the next one here in june. I think i may have messed up having them this close together =P~
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I do a Mario Maker session with my 5 yr old about once every week. It's a lot of fun. Kinda like playing with Legos where it brings out those engineering skills. She's made some incredible levels with little help from me. The only problem is she's terrible at actually playing the levels. She always hands the controller off to me.

 
Rodimus said:
I do a Mario Maker session with my 5 yr old about once every week. It's a lot of fun. Kinda like playing with Legos where it brings out those engineering skills. She's made some incredible levels with little help from me. The only problem is she's terrible at actually playing the levels. She always hands the controller off to me.
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That's the coolest thing about SMM, is that the kid can use the gamepad exclusively, and I keep the Pro controller handy (or a standard Wii remote) to press the minus key to play the levels my daughters make.

Kind of a co-op experience in that way, also works well if you want to play together on the 100 Mario challenge, no need to toss the controller back and forth, just use two of them to take turns controlling Mario. I can also take the reins quickly and make those hard jumps for her, mostly a seamless transition and a great idea.

 
Did my first cook out ever for my daughter's bday this weekend. It was a beautiful day at the park and it's a good thing I got the pavilion cause it got pretty warm out. All the little kids had a blast at the playground and had fun with bubbles we put in their goody bags. Can't wait to do it again! I bought enough food to feed 60 hungry adults for a party of 30. Hope I didn't give anyone diarrhea! Pretty sure I didn't or else the BIL would've definitely told me. Winning?

 
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dohdough said:
Did my first cook out ever for my daughter's bday this weekend. It was a beautiful day at the park and it's a good thing I got the pavilion cause it got pretty warm out. All the little kids had a blast at the playground and had fun with bubbles we put in their goody bags. Can't wait to do it again! I bought enough food to feed 60 hungry adults for a party of 30. Hope I didn't give anyone diarrhea! Pretty sure I didn't or else the BIL would've definitely told me. Winning?
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I do grilling a lot, but not for that many people. Maybe 10 people at the most. What did you grill? I usually do my special grilled wings (which everyone loves) It can be difficult but fun if you're hanging out with a beer. But if we go to the pool I'd rather just be lazy and order pizza. Besides I notice when you get kids playing they don't eat that much. Unless you have cake

 
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So my daughter got her first handheld. I bought a new 3DS XL for myself for an up coming trip to Japan. I gave her my old 3DS and she loves it. I got her a Cooking Mama game. Hopefully it's something she can play and not get too frustrated with. Any other suggestions for a 5 (almost 6) year old? I'm looking for games that don't involve fighting and Game Overs. I'm considering Disney Art Academy as well.

 
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Rodimus said:
So my daughter got her first handheld. I bought a new 3DS XL for myself for an up coming trip to Japan. I gave her my old 3DS and she loves it. I got her a Cooking Mama game. Hopefully it's something she can play and not get too frustrated with. Any other suggestions for a 5 (almost 6) year old? I'm looking for games that don't involve fighting and Game Overs. I'm considering Disney Art Academy as well.
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It may be difficult and I'm sure she'll get alot of Game Overs, but I would try Rhythm Heaven if your daughter is musically inclined. My daughter liked the music and the animations enough to keep putting more time into it with minimal frustration. She was closer to 6 1/2 when I introduced it to her, but it's something cheap and more game like than other ones geared for that market.

Also I heard good things about Disney Magical World, but I can't speak from personal experience.

 
I have Theaterythm, the Final Fantasy music game and it seemed too difficult for her.

I did look into Disney Magical World. It looks like Animal Crossing meets Disney. That could be something for her since she loves AC.

 
Any of you guys listen to Uninformed Opinions?  Wombat and Christian talk about kid's birthday parties this week and man I'm going through the same thing.  My son is turning 5 and we are planning his party now.  We've also gone to about one bday party a weekend for the past couple of months.

 
encendido5 said:
Any of you guys listen to Uninformed Opinions? Wombat and Christian talk about kid's birthday parties this week and man I'm going through the same thing. My son is turning 5 and we are planning his party now. We've also gone to about one bday party a weekend for the past couple of months.
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Heard Drake on the intro and shut it off real quick. :lol:

Oh and fuck no, I'm not inviting the whole fucking class. Family, our friends with kids her age, and a handful of friends from school are it. That's already close to 50 heads right there.

edit: We'll see if that works out in a couple years :rofl:

 
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encendido5 said:
Any of you guys listen to Uninformed Opinions? Wombat and Christian talk about kid's birthday parties this week and man I'm going through the same thing. My son is turning 5 and we are planning his party now. We've also gone to about one bday party a weekend for the past couple of months.
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I hear you. Seems like we're going to birthday parties every week.

 
My daughter's 7th birthday party is today and it's Star Wars themed.  She's gotten to the age where she can pick what theme we use for her parties and it made me proud to hear her say Star Wars.  Since I had two daughters I fear there will come a day when they put the controllers down and not want to watch anime with me to go to dress parties or go hang out at the mall (I don't even know if that's still a thing) or talk about boys.  Anyone else go through these thoughts?  Or your kids aren't into gaming, comics or collecting as much as you are?  Someone has to take the mantle when I'm gone :)

 
As a first time dad with a 5-month old, this thread is amazing. I haven't read through all the pages yet however unfortunately. I feel like this is a great support group / therapy that I need lol.

Its crazy how people tell you "oh its a huge life-changer, you can't get ready for the experience" and you're all like "sure, it's going to be big, but I think we're ready for it and can handle it." And then WHAM, it comes in like a wrecking ball with an attention-starved junkie riding on top. 

I've considered what a few people said in that they were forced to stop gaming and haven't missed it, and I do have a few hobbies/housework I could be doing instead, but I don't think I can give up the games. I love the stories, characters, and experiences and I'd love even more to have a new co-op partner when he gets old enough.

It's just so hard to find time right now to play anything. He still doesn't sleep through the night so we go to sleep when he does in the 7-9pm window to make up for waking up during the night to feed. The night feeds however have been my gaming times as my wife wants me to "assist" in the feedings. Which basically means she breast feeds on one side, I burp him, hand him back and he feeds on the other side, burping again, then we have to keep him upright for 20 min or so before putting him in his crib because he has some reflux issues. Now I have no problem doing the feeding myself, so one of us feeds him while one sleeps, but I feel like we don't both need to do it together every time. So I get almost an hour of game time in during the 2-3 night feedings. I swear, I will throw a huge party when he starts to sleep through the night and I can get more than a max of 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

So, question time!

Any suggestions on nighttime/sleeping habits? My wife isn't sold on the let them cry it out idea so I don't know how well things are going to go. I read 6 months is a good time to start that to help them to learn to sleep through the night. I also have friends who say their kid sleeps through the night but then say they do "sleep feeds" where they wake up to feed the kid but the kid is never really fully awake. By saying "the kid" sleep through the night, I'm more I'm looking for "I" sleep through the night. As in, put them down at Xpm, and then don't have to tend to them until its time to wake up and get ready for work/daycare. Is that just a pipe dream and I should just get used to being tired so often? He's at least made it 6 hours in a row a few times, and its so much better than the ungodly newborn-feed-every-2-hours nightmare we managed to survive somehow.

A lot of that is probably just barfed onto the page as a half-venting session, but hey, its good to talk to people in the same life-changing situation when you have no idea what you're doing! 

 
Hey brother, congrats on the kid and welcome to the club!

When it comes to sleeping, every kid is different. My two year old still doesn't sleep through the night, but most do by this age. You can manipulate it somewhat by following a VERY strict schedule with a routine ie bath, milk, storytime, etc right before bed and at the same time every single day. The only drawback is that if you screw up the routine, you're gonna pay for it. This also involves a certain amount of crying it out. Personally, we never followed that and my daughter has always kept her own consistent schedule to a certain extent, but my sister went with a schedule and let's her daughter cry it out, which typically lasts for about 15-20 minutes after she's put to bed. My niece sleeps through the night, but she still cries herself to sleep. Your biggest obstacle is the reflux and it should help if he grows out of it. Transitioning to solids should help as well. Like I said though, every kid is different so YMMV.

I wouldn't sweat the burping thing. It's really time well spent with your son regardless of how much of a waste it seems. There's going to come a time where you WISH he'd let you hold him, so really try to enjoy it while you can. Also, I'm sure your wife appreciates the help.

Gaming was pretty easy for the first month or two because of the frequent naps. After that, I don't think I really gamed for maybe 8 months? There was just too much to do to miss it, but not having any games I wanted to play helped more...haha.

 
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Thanks, a routine is something we're still working on, the biggest obstacle for that really is ourselves.

Its not that I mind burping him, its just the rational side of me that thinks it makes more sense if only one of us does the feeding so the other can get some more sleep.

I'm of course learning that rationality has no place in this baby world, and it's more flying by the seat of your pants. Sometimes sans the pants...

 
Congrats on becoming a dad offthecrossbar!

We are just dirty old hippies over here at my house! So we've espoused most of the stuff on that side of the child-rearing spectrum. And while it may be a spectrum there are pretty distinct divisions in many places. You've hit upon one of them. CIO - cry it out. Folks are sharply divided on that topic. It's almost like asking what candidate should I vote for for president or what religion should I practice! It's a decision you and your wife will have to make. I suggest doing plenty of research on the topic. I've probably mentioned some reading material earlier in the thread. We have two and wouldn't have ever considered doing cio. That was just our decision. I'll say the path we have taken is probably not the easiest. Me and my wife have both been willing to give up a lot for our kids. I basically gave up a career for mine. Wouldn't change a thing.

Routine is excellent advice from dohdough. Routine is important for years to come. You may find the reflux gets better when your child becomes more mobile. It did with our second. Regardless, it will all get better. The reflux, the sleeping at night, etc. But new problems will arise. And you'll get past those as well.

Also, as dohdough says, enjoy it all while it's happening! Don't rush anything! Don't spend your life waiting to get to the "next" stage of your kids life. The one thing that people say ALL THE TIME that I've found is so very true is "they grow up so fast." I know, I know - easier said than done sometimes. Like currently I'm very ready for my second to get out of diapers. She's been slow to potty train compared to my first. But we are getting there. Lots of poop and pee in the potty these days (even if I did just have to wipe some pee off the floor while in the middle of typing this reply...)

 
dohdough nailed it. And congrats and welcome to the community. I suggest start a routine. We did brush teeth, bath, read 3 books, sleep. And we rarely ever sleep with her in the same room. I wanted her to get used to sleeping by herself as early as possible. Maybe some "white noise" to calm him down? We had a little speaker that played underwater noises that really soothed our daughter.

As for the kid crying to sleep we did this a only a few times. I hated doing it and my wife hated doing it more. It's a mother's natural instinct to hold her crying child. I remember my wife crying tears when we did this. I really couldn't tell you if it was a good or bad thing. Looking back I probably would not do it again. 

Helping out with feeding/burping is a great thing. In first few months it's a challenge to find time for the father to bond but you seem to have gotten it down. My thing was baths, we always took baths together. Still do.

As for the gaming goes have patience. I remember getting frustrated that I couldn't get in my gaming time, or had to keep the volume down, no violent video games in front of her. But now that she's older we can play games together. She watches me play Mega Man, I help her with Animal Crossing and playing the levels she makes in Mario Maker. You're going to have to adjust for now but once you get a good sleep schedule going you'll find gaming time for yourself. It will happen.

 
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Offthecrossbar said:
Thanks, a routine is something we're still working on, the biggest obstacle for that really is ourselves.

Its not that I mind burping him, its just the rational side of me that thinks it makes more sense if only one of us does the feeding so the other can get some more sleep.

I'm of course learning that rationality has no place in this baby world, and it's more flying by the seat of your pants. Sometimes sans the pants...
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Yeah, sticking to a routine is tough at first, but like everything else, you get used to it and you're all still getting used to each other.

I don't think I got a four straight hours of sleep until well after 6 months since I was the one doing night changes. Late night poo clean up is never fun...haha. I feel you on the sleep thing though. While you're going through it, it can really suck hard, but looking back, I'm glad I was deprived of some sleep. Now, when my daughter sees pics/videos of me burping her, she smiles and puts her hand on her chin saying "burp burp!" Then she wants me to pretend to burp her. Dem feelz

 
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Congrats and welcome Offthecrossbar!  

There's not much more I can add than what these guys have already said since it is all great advice.  Just remember to go with what you and your wife think is right.  We read many ways to have our boys sleep through the night including the "cry it out method", but every kid is different so we had to find what worked for us and them.  It took us over a year and a half for my youngest to sleep through the night.  He still wakes up sometimes at 2 in the morning asking for milk, but that's how it goes.  

As far as gaming, it's definitely going to get tougher.  Just remember you'll be able to play games with him when he gets older!

I can't believe it's been almost 5 years since I started this thread.  I'm glad it's still going strong and providing support to fellow CAG parents.

 
dohdough said:
Holy crap, my daughter slept through the night last night! Praise the sun!

I only wish I could've said the same for myself :rofl:
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It's the worst, you want them to sleep through the night, but when they do, you're freaked out because they haven't woken up in the middle of the night. :)

 
I love this thread.  It reminds me when I enjoyed being a parent.  Now that I have 3 teenagers that believe me and their mom and the stupidest people on the planet and for the most part assholes all the time I look forward to a few years from now when they leave.  Seems like most of you still have youngsters.  Those were the fun years.  3 kids in high school are not the fun years

 
dohdough said:
Holy crap, my daughter slept through the night last night! Praise the sun!

I only wish I could've said the same for myself :rofl:
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This is your first right? Enjoy every single horrid second, my little girl is 8 and my boy will be 4 in a few months, they grow up so fast. Even now, I sleep between 5-6 hours between my work schedule just to spend a little extra time.

 
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razrvamp said:
I love this thread. It reminds me when I enjoyed being a parent. Now that I have 3 teenagers that believe me and their mom and the stupidest people on the planet and for the most part assholes all the time I look forward to a few years from now when they leave. Seems like most of you still have youngsters. Those were the fun years. 3 kids in high school are not the fun years
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Not looking forward to this at all.

 
I can finally wear this shirt I got about 6 months ago and not feel weird:

2lw95hj.jpg


 
I'm alive! Free time - now that's another story...

My older daughter just started kindergarten this year. She loves it!

I got her a 2ds and she's been playing mario kart and nintendogs a little. I have pulled some games from my ds collection and also picked up some rather junky throwaway games off ebay to add to her stash of games for her bday in Sept. She was cracking me up leaning and turning her whole body when she was learning to drive the karts!

I was able to get in on the Target pre-order of the NES classic edition system and am really excited to see what my girls think about that. (and I'm secretly hoping it might get my wife back in to some gaming too!)

As for me - I hadn't been playing anything until just a few days ago I decided to start playing Fallout 3. My nephew had given me a code for the digital version a while ago on xbox. I've never played a Fallout game. I'm enjoying it! I knew I would but I knew they could be time consuming games, which I don't have a ton of lately, but I still decided to give it a go.

Lastly - we've got a new addition to the family! It's not a kid (thank goodness) but rather a female golden doodle. She's insanely laid back. I've never seen a puppy like this. It's good though - not sure I could handle a super wild one right now!

 
oh cool!

I can't wait til mine is old enough to play. Right now all she does is button mash lol

Goldendoodles, I've always heard good things on. They're supposed to be super smart too.


I wasn't lucky enough to preorder the NeS Classic, but I'm going to get one, I'm hoping it gets my husband into gaming. I'm sure my little one is going to want to play it, and I think these will be easy for her to play, so if she plays, I know he will play.
 
We had an adventurous summer now it's back to school. My daughter started 1st grade and so far things are good. She's in a gifted class which makes me proud, but it's just 1st grade so I don't want to play it up.

I've been playing a little bit of No Man's Sky and Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD. Both of which my daughter likes watching me play. But for No Man's Sky she tends to lose interest after 10 minutes and I don't blame her. But school comes first so not much time for games or tv.

 
I'm starting a new job after Labor Day and my daughter is starting fulltime daycare tomorrow, so things are going to be a little nuts for a little while until #2 comes in April, then things will be totally nuts. I've been playing Fallout 4 the past couple months and I wish I never picked the damn thing up. It's such a time sink and since I don't have a backlog, I'm going back to reading books on politics to hopefully impart the joy of reading to #1 or start drawing again to impart the joy of art. I can't really think of any announced games coming out in the next year that I'm dying to play so the transition should be easy. Unless Devil May Cry 5 or Metal Gear remakes are announced, I'm pretty sure I'll be game-free until the next Gran Turismo.

 
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^^ Congrats man!  That's awesome!

We've had a really busy summer too.  My son started Kindergarten today but just for an hour.   His first full day is tomorrow.  My two year old is getting to be a handful.  He loves to climb on EVERYTHING so we have to watch him like a hawk.  

Gaming-wise, I've been playing mostly Nintendo stuff since that is what my 5 year old is into now.  My son and I have been playing Mario Galaxy 2 and have gotten pretty far.  He also loves playing Mario 3D land on the 3DS and actually finished the first 8 worlds.  It definitely helped to have the golden leaf power when he dies too many times.  I also got him hooked on Pokemon Shuffle.  He saw me playing it on my phone and he wanted to start his own account so I downloaded it on the iPad for him to play.

 
encendido5 said:
He loves to climb on EVERYTHING so we have to watch him like a hawk.
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When my now four-year-old was two I woke up in the middle of the night because I heard some beeping. I went downstairs to see what was going on and the kid had climbed out of his crib, over the gate on his door, over the gate on the stairs, down the stairs, up to the kitchen counter and over to the oven where he was sitting and pushing buttons on the microwave. I caught him just as he started messing with the burner dials on the oven.

Good times.

 
Thanks dude. If you're ever in Harvard Sq during the week, hit me up for lunch!

We totally weren't planning on having a second kid yet, but better now than later I guess...haha

I feel you on the climbing thing. We've had a few close calls! Like thelonepig's kid, we have to use the bolt on the door of our condo or else she might go looking for an ice cream truck in the middle of the night or something!

 
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Congrats on the new job and expecting no. 2 dohdough!

We are headed to the dr. this morning. My younger daughter just can't seem to shake the chest congestion she's had since Saturday. We are guessing it's pneumonia. It doesn't seem to slow her down too much though - she has wanted to go out and swing and scoot and such all weekend! It's just nights and naptime where it's keeping her (and us) up and it doesn't seem to be getting any better.

My kindergartner daughter has been enjoying playing a very low tech game recently - go fish! It's quick and easy and we'll all sit down and play it a couple times after dinner.

 
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