Strange Machines

My Grandma has been diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer. I hope she will feel the love and comfort we bring to her in her final days. She’s lived 99 years. I hope she will see 100.

Me: Are you glad to have Jade in your life?

Jack nods.

Me: Why?

Jack: Because she’s so cute!

I must confess first. I was a TV addict.

After work, dear hubby and I would cuddle up in from of ole Faithful and watch our fave programs like CSI and munch on junk food. I could not live without TV.

Fast forward to year 2006 and Jack was born. I read that the cost of watching TV was the opportunity lost spent on other more creative and productive things like reading, playing, or talking to Mom. According to many peer-reviewed studies, kids who watch TV have less vocabulary than kids who don’t, and the latter are more sociable.

I was sold. I swore my kid would never watch television. Ever. And I had to set an example. The TV became a glorified plant holder and took up half the space of the living room. Surprisingly I found life without TV pretty alright, since we were busy with the kids and really have no more free time. I do fantasize about the days when the kids are off to college and I can finally turn on my 35″ TV and watch all the dramas I missed in the last 18 years.

As for the old clunker, we gave it away to an elderly neighbour who was thrilled to have it. She was retired and watching TV every day on a tiny 20″. We figured that by the time the kids were old enough to watch TV, our CRT would have decomposed and we could get a brand new plasma t.v. for $200. And let’s make it a Samsung plasma tv or a Panasonic plasma tv.

And is there credence to all the reports about increased sociability and higher vocabulary? According to people who have met Jack, he is very sociable with people of all ages and speaks non-stop like a Duracell bunny.

I don’t know about other children, but after 3.5 years of no TV, Jack isn’t fond of watching it and he would prefer to play or read than watch TV. He went through a brief phase of TV phobia, probably from something he saw on it at Grandma’s house. But he sat through The Lion King (his cousin was watching at Grandma’s) just last week (which from a child’s eyes, seems awfully negative about brotherhood and rather pro-revenge and violence). His first actually.

According to the scientifically-based Nurtureshock, kids pick up extracts from a story, so even if a story with conflict that gets resolved at the end, the child may simply pick up the conflict and not the resolution.

We can’t shelter our children from the media – heck I want my TV back one day – but the first few years are crucial to protect them from the effects of the media, much of which we as adults are already immune to or unaffected by. But children are vulnerable and judging from our viewing of the “children’s movie” The Lion King, I won’t be letting Jack watch any more till he is much older.

It is that developmental time again when babies start learning to crawl, even when they wake up at night, a little perplexed why they are on all fours, and that’s when they call for Mom.

In Jade’s case it started about a month ago, I’d find her looking rather confused, on all fours, so cute in her baby night dress, just wavering. I’d take her in my arms and nurse her back to sleep.

Tonight, she even cried when she felt me move an inch away. But soon she was asleep again, till the next 4 legged wake up call, till morning when she discovers cute animals on her bumper walls and looks upon them in intrigue and amazement.

Photo credit: Vital Images

V of Vital Images kindly snapped some shots of us in our Walnut Boba Baby Carrier the other day when we were having brunch (yes, even Barney thinks it is cool now).

Psst… watch out for my review of the 100% organic Boba Baby Carrier in a couple of weeks. There will be a very special coupon code for you awesome readers to order your very own Boba. If you can’t wait, go check it out first at NAP.

This phenomenon is apparently not new, but it certainly is funny to watch! Jade has started crawling but backwards and gets mighty ornery when she gets backed into a corner.

Meanwhile she and her brother are getting along great! Every morning she chuckles when Jack goes to say good morning to her and he watches her while I go get washed up and water the plants, wash the diapers, etc. The great thing about having 2 is that they rarely miss Mom when she has to pop away for a short while. I can often hear them laughing about something funny Jack is doing to amuse his sister.

Today she couldn’t stop laughing at him balancing on the top of the couch while her Daddy carried her. I’m glad she has a wonderful sense of humour, except when she gets backed into a corner. :p

The kids and I had gastric flu last week (or was it the week before) and fart jokes were abound. With hourly wakings and tummy trouble all around, it was a wonder anyone got any rest.

All I can say about this sleepless fugue of motherhood is your body gets used to it.

Soon you too will be scoffing at your partner for needing to nap after a 5 hour stretch of uninterrupted sleep.

After all, you’re bright and cheery after 4 hours interrupted sleep with 2 kids in tow (albeit with slurred speech, a glazed expression, and a short-term memory shorter than a gnat’s, and that’s after a big shot of caffeine).

Note: tummies are better but still have an intense dislike for fried oily food and will rebel with aforementioned response if afflicted with.

Speaking of sleep, today Jack woke 2 hours early and fell asleep nursing while standing up as I was carrying Jade in the Boba carrier!

Today we did an experiment. For the same distance I carried Jade in the front in her Ergo Organic and Jack at the back (yup, 2 kids!) with first, the Ergo, then the Patapum.

Comfort for Mom:

“The Ergo. Ergo on Ergo feels comfy. Weight is distributed mainly on the waist and very little on the shoulders. It was a comfy half hour walk.

The Patapum seemed to carry more weight on the shoulder and back which made it very uncomfortable for me by the end of the journey. The thick padded shoulder straps made my arms a little numb when not adjusted properly.

It also kept sliding up my waist, probably because of the stiff waist band and synthetic inner which makes it smoother. The Ergo tends to stay in place but bunches up with a bit more give.

On that note, I’d like to add that carrying 2 tends to generate quite a bit of sweat and it felt cooler with the cotton inner of the Ergo than the synthetic inner of Patapum.”

Comfort for Toddler:

“I prefer the Patapum because I like to put my legs through the hoops. More support. I like the Patapum for my back because it was very light (cooler).”

Asking Jack, he said foot straps would help him sit a little more comfortably. As it is, his legs are dangling rather uncomfortably. He said later that he liked the Patapum’s additional leg support better than the Ergo. There, the ultimate consumer has spoken.

Ideally there should be a carrier that is comfortable for both Mom and Toddler, that’s why I’m keen to try the Boba which has loops for the toddler’s foot to rest in. Till then we’ll use the Patapum for very short journeys and the Ergo for longer walks but I’ll give his legs a boost by holding them on the side.

Summary:

Ergo – cooler for Mom’s waist, comfy for Mom’s back and shoulders.
Patapum – cooler for Toddler’s back, comfy for his legs because of support.

According to Jack, the wool is much cooler and the BumGenius, covered with PUL, is about the same as a disposable. A touch test with the kids here with our hot and humid tropical weather reaffirms this. Jade’s bottom is dry when wearing wool but sweaty when wearing her BumGenius.

At a babywearing store opening last week, I got the chance to try on the Manduca baby carrier.

It felt great, very soft and made of 100% organic cotton. It wore and fitted and felt exactly like the Ergo, except for 3 differences and reasons why I would not buy it:

1. Design – Each of their bold designs have a cream coloured stripe (see pic) which I find rather unattractive. I felt that they should have kept the colour scheme a matching two-tone like the Ergo or a single tone like the Patapum. The cream may match some colours but not others like the black. They do however have limited edition designs which are quite pretty but cost more.

2. Usability – The release of the shoulder strap is different from the Ergo’s. I found this out when I had to nurse Jade in a hurry and when I tried to remove it the Ergo way, it didn’t work. It wasn’t a one-hand slide action. Pearline had to come to my rescue. Not immediately intuitive, not for Ergo users anyway.

3. Make – The plastic strip holding the buckle runs down the shoulder strap exactly where baby would suck. Note the picture of the woman carrying her baby on their landing page to see what I mean. Jade immediately clamped her gummy mouth down on the strap and I had to remove it a few times. The point of buying something organic is to protect your baby, so having baby suck on plastic kind of defeats the purpose of buying organic.

Still. All in all, a nice addition to the organic baby carrier family. If they change 3. But at the moment, I’d only consider it for an older child who won’t suck on the shoulder straps.

What I am considering is the new Boba baby carrier by the same people who brought you the Sleepy Wrap. At US$99, the Boba costs the same as a Patapum but it is organic and appears to wear like an Ergo and fit like a Patapum except without the complex leg loops to navigate baby’s legs through (see Ergo vs Patapum). Instead they have these awesome foot loops which baby can rest his or her feet in.

My concern as usual is the make. I’ll email them about their Patapum-like waist band and stuffing in the shoulder straps and see what they say.

Above is a picture of me on a sans makeup day with my Posh Beckham sunglasses babywearing 2 kids: Jack in the Patapum on the back and Jade in the Manduca.