Author: Jon

Since Ann has written about “labor tricks that worked”:/news/2006/labor-tricks-that-worked-and-didnt/, I figure maybe I should post about some of the “hardware” we’re most glad to have in the house these days. The baby-commerce industry is massive and “strange”:/news/2006/what-would-lennon-say/, and we’ve found the best tools aren’t necessarily what we would have predicted. Continue reading “Must-have hardware”

It was just me, the long-haul truckers, the drunks — and the other dads with sleepless babies — out on the highway last night at 2:30 am. Continue reading “Road warrior”

This passage of Scripture is freshly relevant to us, and we thank our friend and colleague Ann Beyerlein for including it in a baby card we received today. It’s from Isaiah 40: Continue reading ““Those who have young””

We have a winner in the fabulous “Lucy’s Umbilical Cord Stump Drop Off Contest”:/news/2006/umbilical-cord/! During a diaper change just now, the little nubbins of dried cartilage fell away — so with an astounding guess that was off by _only 1 hour and 45 minutes…_ Continue reading “We have a winner”

Since some readers may want not only the illustrative photos which accompany many of our posts but also a high-resolution picture or two suitable for printing, we now offer the “Choice Photos”:/news/choice-photos/ page. It currently has eight shots of Lucy, but will slowly change over time. You can always get to it from the “Info” box in the right column.

For the past couple days, I’ve had Bob Marley’s song “Small Axe” running through my head. The beat has a “one-two-three” riff that has been lodged deep in my brain, to a degree that’s a bit unusual. Continue reading “Small axe”

In our ongoing effort to be as absurd as possible here at BNN, we’ve decided to launch a contest: *When will Lucy’s umbilical-cord stump drop off?* (Seriously.) Enter your guess here, and if you come closest to the actual day and time, you will win _fabulous prizes!_ Continue reading “Umbilical-cord-dropoff contest! Fabulous prizes!”

We’ve already learned that there are no sure-fire tricks in baby care — but if there’s one that’s come close so far, it’s swaddling. Wrapping up Lucy snugly to keep her arms and legs comfortably contained simply works wonders. It almost always calms her and puts that look back on her face that says, “Ah, yes, Papa; I can see that once again you are right: there _is_ nothing to worry about.” Continue reading “Baby Houdini”

Strange baby-commerce item of the day: White Cloud newborn diapers with lyrics from John Lennon’s “Imagine” printed on them: “Imagine all the people / living life in peace.” I guess White Cloud and the marketing department at Wal-Mart (where these are “available exclusively”) must have nixed using the lines, “Imagine no possessions / I wonder if you can.”

In addition to the “linguistic, spiritual, and family reasons”:http://lucyboyd.com/about/ behind Lucy’s naming, we were aware of a number of cultural references tucked away in her name — most of which we think are really cool. Here are the ones we know about already: Continue reading “Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes”