Clone of Daddy Types: May 2004 Archives

May 2004 Archives

May 31, 2004

Canadian Changing Table Superstore

The URL sounds like it's the guy's 10th choice, and the website looks like it was designed in 1996, but the Canadian site hotelfun4kids.com is a changing table heaven. HF4K consults the travel industry on making destinations more kid-friendly, and...
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Daddable Diaper Bag Roundup

If some rocker in England's got you worrying about which diaper bag is cool enough for you, here links to are some previous Daddy Types posts on the subject: Blending in With Camo Diaper Bags , Diaper Dude, aka...
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Birch-ply Utility Cart/Changing Cart

Instead of a traditional changing table, we got a heavy-duty enameled tool cart from an industrial supply dealer. We love it, but admittedly, not everyone has the power to persuade their Pregnant Person to trick out the nursery like an...
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Tall Grass Crib

You may have noticed how rare cleanly designed baby furniture is. Architect and craftman Christopher Ross noticed, and did something about it. His firm, Hiccup, makes great-looking cribs, dresser/changing tables, and more for the Tall Grass Collection. The Tall...
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A Surprisingly Favorite Toy: Lamaze Cube

Some friends with a 4-month old kid recommended we get this silly-looking Lamaze Multi-Sensory Clutch Cube; their kid totally loved it, they said, it's by far his favorite toy. Well, we got one, and our kid loves it. At first,...
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May 30, 2004

Eames Rocker: The Modern Solution

Few things turn a design-conscious parent-to-be's stomach more than the idea of having to get some fugly rocking chair. You've probably heard it before, but let me say it again from this side of parenthood: you want a rocking chair. One classic modern solution is the Eames shell rocker. Here's a quick primer on the options for buying one.
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Loews 34th Street (Reel Moms), 312 W 34th St between 8th & 9th Avenues - NO

My wife went to Troy (enough with the chick flicks, Loews), took the kid down the escalator to the restroom, NO changing table. She changed the diaper on the counter, but the kid's wiggling kept setting off the hand dryer....
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JetBlue, JFK Terminal 6 - YES

Handy after a long flight from LA, we hear. (Thanks, Blake)...
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May 29, 2004

TRUCK "Built-By-Me" Children's Rocker

TRUCK Product Architecture is a smart, furniture-making offshoot of NY architects Rogers Marvel, whose designs include Kate Spade stores and The Studio Museum of Harlem. The Rock-it Chair is from TRUCK's collection of "Built-By-Me" kids furniture, which also includes a...
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Father's Day Gift List Roundup

Here are some father's day gift recommendations from around the web: Pokkadots, a cool mom's cool online store On the list: several cool diaper bags--including Chris Martin's camo Diaper Dude bag, for wannabe rockstar dads--massage oil for after the kid...
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Cars I wish I was cool enough to drive, vol. 1

I don't know anything about their ride, reliability, utility, resale, or safety. Even as I laugh at and reject the flawed, obvious, "this is the most expensive car I can afford" approach to carbuying, I'm probably too brand-conscious to ever...
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To sleep through the night, think through the temperature

Take a baby's higher sensitivity to nighttime temperature changes into account. Twice now, our inadvertent temperature-related actions upset the kid enough to wake her up much earlier than normal. Once, we turned the A/C down before bed, as we always...
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Strawberry, Apple. Apple, Strawberry

Strawberry Saroyan (granddaughter of William) gives some friendly, reassuring advice for Apple Martin in the NY Times Style section. Strawberry and her sister, Cream's names were suggested by their grandmother, but readily adopted by her artist mother and "one-word poet"...
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May 28, 2004

Take Kids to the Hamptons The Gawker Way

Gawker has some advice if you're taking the LIRR to the Hamptons this Memorial Day weekend:2. Children need muzzles too. Duct tape will work. In fact, not only can you tape up their little mouths, when the train gets really...
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May 27, 2004

Baby Naming Madness

LOLOL ...How about Lou? When I was in England, I heard that name and it seemed to have a little tinkle to it. Randy is good too. You weren't listening QUITE hard enough in England, were you? ... And then...
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Taggies: Entertaining Doodad-covered Blankets

Double dad Bill Brown writes in, "I just bought two baby blankets that my girls adore. They're called Taggies, and they're nice fleece blankets with tags of all sorts sewn around the edges...I can't emphasize enough how much my daughters...
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Recreating That Pamela Anderson Feeling

First, get a Bjorn or some comparable (but inferior) babystrapping device. Once your kid is old/strong enough (3 months, in our case), strap him or her on your chest, facing out. Don't forget socks. Get your kid as cute as...
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Don't look at me; we live on the Upper East Side

You know how religious conservatives have been warning about the threat posed to families by the proliferation of the "homosexual lifestyle"? Well, now the feathered mule is on the other foot. According to this NY Times article, Chelsea, the nexis...
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Where all the decent cupholders at?

It's not asking too much, is it? It's not that you should categorically NOT buy a Bugaboo because it doesn't come with a cupholder, any more than you SHOULD buy a Jeep stroller because it has four. It's just that...
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May 26, 2004

Thanks, TMN

ATL - TERMINAL A, CROWN ROOM -- Wouldn't you know it, The Morning News, aka The American Academy of Lit Hip Dads and Dads-to-be, gives Daddy Types a plug...on the same day I abandon my 3-month old daughter for a...
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May 24, 2004

Because You Asked For It: Trixie Tracker

By popular demand, Ben MacNeil has introduced Trixie Tracker, a hosted version of Trixie Telemetry, the intensely analytical, easy-to-use baby management software he developed to pass along his daughter's daily activities after his wife went back to work. It rolls...
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P is for Programming your Kid

I just "read" Steven T. Johnson's Alphabet City to my 3-month old (the quotes are because there are no words, only pictures, and of course, I'm lucky if I sound like Charlie Brown's teacher to her at this point), which...
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Low Profile Infant Bath Cradle

My kid brother, who's got a fresh PhD, an MD on the way, and two kids of his own, pointed me to this soft foam bath cradle, which they've found to be very useful and comfortable. It looks like a...
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Crazy Blog 4 Fathers 4 Justice

Thanks to Jay, aka The Zero Boss, for pointing out Fathers 4 Justice's weblog, Men's Hour. Did you know "bitter" also means "thank you" in German?...
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May 23, 2004

Tree Huggies

There's a heated environmental debate brewing at the store, and it's worse than paper vs. plastic. It's over the environmental impact of various kinds of diapers: traditional disposables, eco-friendly disposables, and cloth. If your kid is so worry-free that you...
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Adoption on the Web

Wired has an interesting overview of the web's impact on adoption. After a couple of cautionary scam and unethical broker stories, the story plugs Dept. of HHS's National Adoption Directory and AdoptUSKids.org, which helps place older kids by "marketing" them...
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May 22, 2004

Vintage (seriously) Ikea Highchair

Nowadays, "Vintage Ikea" means the stained foam sofa your old roommate was too lazy to haul to the street. But Ikea's actually been singing their "good design, but affordable" song for over fifty years. In 1969, when this Dino...
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Dads Dust-up in the UK: Fathers 4 Justice

British Prime Minister Tony Blair was hit in the back by a projectile as he answered questions in the House of Commons Wednesday. The projectile turned out to be a condom filled with purple-dyed flour. It was thrown from the...
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David Mamet's advice for parents

From the press junket in March for Spartan, his Secret Service conspiracy movie which no one knew about because we were all too busy discussing The Passion:Do you see your career in any kind of continuum? There's a sense, like...
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DON'T LEAVE YOUR KID IN THE CAR

Seriously, it should go without saying, but sometimes it needs to be said. Like now. We've all seen the "hot enough to fry an egg? HOT ENOUGH TO FRY A DOG'S BRAIN" commercial. Babies have an even lower frying point...
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May 21, 2004

Baby Naming, Now Apple-Scented

Apple Martin's falling, so to speak, from the tree, has intensified the water cooler-level interest in baby-naming strategies. Strategies, as opposed to categories or outcomes: Asking a longtime friend for permission to name your child after theirs is both honorable...
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May 19, 2004

Three Centuries of Kids Gear at the Wadsworth Atheneum

So sue me. It turns out I did not invent fatherhood, and Daddy Types is not the first search for gear for kids. Kid Size: The Material World of Childhood is an exhibit at the Wadsworth Atheneum that explores three...
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Fresh from "The Cooler"

As I was Googling "tricked out" and "stroller" [so predictable, you don't need to ask], I found a review of Wayne Kramer's movie, The Cooler which mentions the sharp dialogue. I'd already heard about--I kid you not--Alec Baldwin's excellent performance...
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Roger Clemens dads it up

An interesting profile in USA Today of pitcher/dad Roger Clemens, who came out of "I want to spend time with my family" retirement for a year to play for the Houston Astros--and who included "I want to spend time with...
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May 18, 2004

NOT the Dads+Diapers combo we had in mind

Dude. Gothamist wonders aloud--and in photography--about a group of diaper-wearing middle-aged men walking through Washington Square Park last week. Commenters speculate that it's a ">SIDNY (Still In Diapers - NY) event. From the picture, though, I can't tell if it's...
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Bugaboo et al: Out of Africa

Maybe they haven't seen enough Sex and the City. The Washington Post Foreign Service reports that strollers are just not popular in Kenya. Marketed as prams (and unloaded from lorries, I guess), strollers are seen as cold, distant cages and...
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You could ask him to get a Thurgood Marshall tattoo on his thigh

Or try this: the area code for Boston is 617, minus one constitutional amendment, is 517. Now it's official: starting yesterday, gay men are going to have to remember their anniversaries, too. Good luck, guys....
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May 17, 2004

Coldplay's Daddy Video: The Nappies

When they have a baby, some musicians get their friends together and make silly T-shirts. Others get their friends together, put on silly wigs, and make silly videos. Coldplay, it turns out, falls into the latter category. To celebrate the...
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Big DON'T for raising a bilingual kid

Whether it's French, Spanish, or Japanese, we're very interested in raising our kid to speak or at least understand a language besides English. This weekend in the park, we happened to meet three French/English families, which'll get me off my...
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Rocker Baby T-shirts from Infantile

They grow up so fast. It was only two months ago that a couple of San Francisco rockers started a kiddy clothing line called Infantile, and now they're in the Washington Post. If the baby industry's going to be saved...
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May 15, 2004

Raising Little Saddam

Tot therapy, where were you when we needed you? If you thought the worst you could do to your new kid was give him TV-induced ADD, read on. White House inside reporter for the Times Elizabeth Bumiller explores the work...
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May 14, 2004

Subways and Strollers Don't Always Mix

Plan ahead or plan to be creative if you're taking a stroller on the NYC subway. We had the Bugaboo out, which I carried up and down stairs. That's the easy part. Tonight, we got off at a station that...
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Mercer Kitchen, 99 Prince St at Mercer St - NO

I suppose if it's not crowded, you could use a couch in the hotel lobby, but... I don't know. They might throw a phone at you if you did that....
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Florent, 69 Gansevoort St - NO

Actually, the Meatpacking District struck out: Pastis: No Florent: No Jeffrey: No...
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Wifebeater Onesies?

Yeah, they're technically for wearing with little sleeveless dresses or whatever, but if you combine these wifebeater Onesies � bodysuits* with a pair of baggy black pants and a do-rag, you can turn your kid into a gang-bangin' little cholito....
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May 13, 2004

Baby Furniture Cool Enough for the Dutch

More from Dwell magazine's June issue [just subscribe, already!], this time its a Dutch modern furniture company executive who got all into his house developer's business to improve the layout of their 2,000 sf house (and to make sure windows...
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Off-gassing and Kids

Not the kind of off-gassing where that tiny baby you just brought home farts like your frat buddies on a ski weekend. No, it's the other kind of off-gassing, the one THAT WILL POISON YOUR CHILDREN IN YOUR NEW HOUSE,...
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Reporter takes kid for the day, lives

They say you never forget your first time. But what they don't tell you is, when you're a reporter, you publish a minute-by-minute account of your first time for everyone's inspiration and amusement. And, of course, to score macho points...
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May 12, 2004

Entry-level Diaper Advice

1) You should change every diaper you can from as soon as you can. It's called division of labor. Especially if your womenfolk (or in the case of non-polygamists, womanfolk) are breastfeeding every couple of hours, they may feel somewhat...
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May 11, 2004

Japanese Low Chairs

Many Japanese families sit on the floor and eat at coffee table-height tables. [They have little heaters underneath, and in the winter, they break out thick blankets, which you huddle under as you eat and work. Off topic.] Anyway, think...
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May 10, 2004

Lessons from that first Mother's Day

If your kid's already born, it's a day late. Otherwise, it's 364 days early. Here are a couple of lessons I learned on our first Mother's Day that new dads may find useful: 1) On the way to Ikea Friday,...
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Chariots On Hire: renting strollers in the UK

While I blame them for planting the annoying Vangelis theme song in my head, Chariots On Hire gets credit for an interesting idea: They'll rent you a stroller for 2 weeks to 6 months or more, either to let you...
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Stokke Xplory: The Next Euro stroller

[I love how the category "gear" encompasses both a toilet paper anchor AND an eye-popping $800 eurostroller. Let me think about that. [7/04 note: Thought about and addressed.]] Stokke Xplory, the newest eurostroller. note: insouciant scarf-tying instructions not included Stokke,...
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Mom Invented TP Saver

Also from the International Juvenile Products Show: Mom Inventors ("Moms helping moms!") announced their latest product, TP Saver, designed to "baby proof your toilet paper!" TP Saver prevents your adventurous little kid from unfurling the whole roll of toilet...
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May 9, 2004

UK Parents Wrestle for Work/Care Balance

From London, the Observer has an extensive article on the current state of child carers (the British term for parents, etc. I hear they call trucks "lorries," too.). Mums and dads are both dealing with balancing work and family life;...
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Mom's Abacus

Bebesounds, "the juvenile products division of Unisar, Inc.," makes the best argument for dads to be involved in child care. While Ben MacNeil is writing software to take parenting into the 21st century with TrixieUpdate, Bebesounds launched a new product...
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May 7, 2004

Play Table by Marcel Wanders

Since his involvement in the earliest days of the influential Droog Design, Dutch furniture guru Marcel Wanders has put materials to uncommon, practical use: one chair is made of macrame'd kevlar rope, hardened in an epoxy bath. Wanders designed this...
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Car-based Parenting

It was a traumatic moment for this new dad New Yorker. Driving around DC yesterday, I decided--for the first time ever--where to eat based on whether or not I'd have to get the kid out of the carseat. Obviously, I...
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Pediatricians' Report on Enhancing Fathers' Roles

[via Rebel Dad] The American Academy of Pediatrics just published the results of a study that gives strong recommendations to pediatricians for getting fathers more involved in their childrens' care and development. It's an excellent piece which should get fired...
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May 6, 2004

Jean Prouve Cradle

Dude. This is phenomenal. A one-of-a-kind cradle designed by Jean Prouvé, the Ray and Charles Eames of France (and then some). It was initially designed in 1936 for the daughter of a friend and collaborator, the architect Marcel Lods....
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May 5, 2004

Balthazar, 80 Spring at Lafayette St. - NO

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Trixie Update Update

Ben MacNeil posts a link to an excellent profile of The Trixie Update by Jonathan Cox in the local paper, the Raleigh News & Observer. Online fame often exists side by side with comfortable hometown anonymity; now Trixie'll be recognized...
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Dr. Brown's Bottle for Colicky Babies

It's not just a bottle, it's a way of life. Jonathan recommended the Dr Brown's Baby Feeding System for dealing with a colicky, gassy, or spit-up-prone kid. We tried it, and it works as advertised; since our kid is a...
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May 1, 2004

Daddy Types does Reel Moms

Let me explain that. After posting about movies for parents with babies, I decided to try it for myself. Tuesday morning, I went to the Loews Georgetown theaters in DC for Reel Moms [sic]. I'd get all pissed about...
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