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In speaking with a relative-in-law recently, I thought of my earlier post about video monitors. The relative-in-law mentioned the phenomenon that the baby will sense your presence when you go check on him, reminiscent of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. If you open the door to see if the baby is asleep, that action will awaken him when he otherwise would not have been awakened.

I haven’t decided whether to call it the Heisenbaby Uncertainty Principle or the Babyberg Uncertainty Principle. Either way, the principle is that measuring the state of the baby will affect the state of the baby. The benefit of using a video baby monitor, as opposed to an audio baby monitor, is that it minimizes the effect of the Heisenbaby Uncertainty Principle.

On a related note, here is a story. When our oldest was a baby, his crib was within sight of the dining table, through an open doorway. We were remodeling the bedrooms and so his crib was temporarily in the living room. We found that if we were at the table and he was in his crib, he would be content as long as we didn’t make eye contact with him. If we did make eye contact, then he knew that we knew he was there and he would cry to be picked up. Some mealtimes, especially when grandparents were over, were interesting: “Whatever you do, don’t look directly at the baby!”

“For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it passes by, Or {as} a watch in the night.”
– Psalm 90:4

We took my wife to dinner for Mother’s Day. This particular restaurant had free suckers, and the kids knew it. So when they were done eating, they asked for them. Since it was Mother’s Day, we let the kids get one sucker each so that my wife could enjoy the rest of her meal in peace.

One child chose watermelon, and the other chose blue raspberry. I am not quite sure how raspberry got assigned the color blue. My guess is that when the artificial flavor industry giants collude, they decided that there were too many other red flavors and not enough blue flavors. Really, is blueberry the only other blue flavor?

Green has lime and apple, yellow has lemon and banana, red and pink have cherry and strawberry and watermelon, and orange has orange and peach. I suppose purple is used only for grape – they could have also chosen purple for raspberry. Not all raspberries are red – there is the black raspberry variety. They could have made the color for artificial raspberry flavor as black. Black raspberries are more like a dark purple, so I think purple would be a more fitting color than bright blue.

The child with the blue raspberry sucker of course had his tongue turn very blue. I asked what flavor he had, and he replied “blue raspberry”. I said that I have never seen a raspberry that’s blue. So he picked up the sucker wrapper (which had blue raspberries drawn on it), showed it to me, and said “Now you have!”

“The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.”
– Genesis 1:12

We recently had the award night, last night of the school year, for our church’s Awana program. That went well and was done shortly after 8 PM. We then walked down the street, about three buildings away from the church, to the local store and got some ice cream. Each child got a soft-serve cone. They ate those, then we got in the minivan and drove home, arriving around 9 PM. Then it was bath time, one child at a time. At 10:00, they were still jumping around, not exhibiting any signs of sleepiness.

Finally, after some bedtime books, the younger one was asleep at 10:30 and the older one was asleep around 11:00, about 2 hours after his normal bedtime. They woke up at 7:30 the next morning, so my wife didn’t even get to sleep in to make up for the late night.

Conclusion: Do not give children large ice cream cones within an hour of their expected bedtime.

“I will not give sleep to my eyes Or slumber to my eyelids,”
– Psalm 132:4

Having spent some time in North Myrtle Beach, SC, I thought I would post something about it.

If you’re looking for a condo-type place called Brigadoon in the area, you won’t find it. That’s because they are clever and spell it Brigadune. If you do a search for Brigadune in Myrtle Beach, you will find it quite easily.

North Myrtle Beach is a very touristy area. Every block or two there are at least one mini golf place, a discount beach stuff place, and an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet. There are a bunch of coupons available, so if you go to any touristy place, do not pay full price. I think the prices are inflated to make up for the coupon discount. Kind of like higher education in America today. Tuition prices are artificially high because of all the student aid, federal loans, grants, and scholarships. There is also a parallel with health care costs. People think they’re getting a better deal with the coupons, but really they just take the price back to about what it should be.

The seafood buffets are numerous, and most of them have websites in addition to the flyers and leaflets and coupons. But you won’t see a published price anywhere. You can have a coupon for $5 off your meal, but nowhere does it mention the actual price – it could be $15 or $50. You have to call and ask. The actual prices range from $15 to $30. Just remember that you’re paying for the experience and for the quantity of food, not necessarily the quality of food. I thought the salmon tasted too fishy and the carved ham was too dry. The German chocolate cake was good though.

The crab legs were fun. I don’t like seafood. Fish yes, but seafood no. My wife and sister-in-law got several crab legs. My sons had never seen crab legs before, other than on living crabs. So when the others came to the table with a plate of crab legs, I told my son “Look, they are going to eat those.” And he did not believe me at first. But we showed him how the shell-cracker devices work and the kids had fun the rest of the meal cracking shells and moving the claws around, pretending they were crabs. That’s what the kids will remember – the crab legs and the aquarium, not how the food tasted.

The same goes for the putt-putt or miniature golf places. Don’t go without a coupon, and remember that you’re paying for the experience. It cost $7.50 per game, I think, so $30 for the four of us. There was nothing fancy in the greens themselves, maybe some curves or a tunnel. But there was a pirate show every half hour. The cannons would blast (just sounds and some water mist for smoke) from the ship to the fortress and the fortress would fire back. That’s what the kids will remember – the extra effects, not the game itself.

“I consulted with myself and contended with the nobles and the rulers and said to them, ” You are exacting usury, each from his brother!” Therefore, I held a great assembly against them.”
– Nehemiah 5:7

My wife had mentioned that she would prefer cremation instead of burial should I ever have to make that decision.  I think a good plan would be not just cremation, but also turning the ashes into a diamond.  

That would be nicer to look at than ashes, and also easier to carry.

The actual price for the service varies, depending on the size and color of diamond that you want to get, but in all, it costs about half ($3000) as much as an average funeral ($6000). We would still have a funeral, of course, but no burial costs.  A few months later, when the diamond arrives, I would get a nice necklace or ring to hold her.

She says she would rather be in a keychain.

The advice I give new parents-to-be is to buy a video monitor. Most people go for the audio monitor – the standard baby monitor – but don’t realize what that entails. When I hear that someone is having a baby shower or has registered for baby gifts, I recommend to him that they register for the video monitor. The response usually involves something like “Why do I need a video monitor to see that the baby is awake? A regular sound-only monitor will tell me that.”

Keep reading if you fall into that category, or if you’re undecided and wondering “Should I buy the audio monitor or spend extra for the video monitor? Is the baby video monitor worth it?”

The audio monitor will inform you just fine if the baby has been sleeping and is now awake. But that is only one-third of the story. Trust me, if you buy the audio monitor, you will still be getting out of your own bed to check on the baby and you will regret not getting the video monitor. It is worth the money. And the money is not that much, about double a good audio monitor.

Two main reasons why you should get a video monitor: when the baby is falling asleep and when the baby is asleep. Again, the audio monitor lets you hear the baby crying, typically so you know he’s awake. What about when the baby is falling asleep?

He has been making noise, crying or fussing perhaps, and now he is quiet. Is he asleep or has something else happened?  The other case is that he has been asleep and everything is quiet.  Now you hear a thump or a bump.  Has the baby just kicked the side of the bed, or has he fallen out of the crib?  How are you going to check that he is okay with the audio monitor.  What if you hear one short cry and then silence? Was it just part of his dream or is he hurt?  As a new parent, you will be wondering those things.

Yes, it is a good thing for you to actually go into your child’s room. You can still do that with the video monitor, but at least it gives you the option of staying in your own bed if are curious about the state of your child during the night.

“Just as a father has compassion on {his} children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.”
– Psalm 103:13

When you have children, make sure they are born in the spring.   Then you’ll avoid any problems and decisions about whether to start them in school early or hold them back and start them late.  My wife and I are trying to decide what to do regarding sending our son to kindergarten. Do we send him now? Should we hold him back a year?

I enjoyed high school, and I think I missed some trouble because I was on the young side – being naive has its advantages.   On the other hand, I don’t know if I may have enjoyed school better being older.

If we start our child in kindergarten now, then he will be four when he starts but he will turn five a couple of weeks later.  That seems to be the right track, but then he will be only 16 when he starts his senior year, and that seems too young.  On the other hand, he seems ready for school and has almost completed a year of pre-school.

If we wait a year, we can always supplement his schooling and teach him things at home, ahead of his school schedule.  If we start him now and he turns out to be not ready, what are our options? Either he struggles through school or we hold him back a year.  What will be the worse option for a child: having to repeat a grade or being a grade ahead in some subjects?  From the child’s point of view, those choices are: am I not good enough or am I smart?  How would you rather have your child feel about himself?

“Give {instruction} to a wise man and he will be still wiser, Teach a righteous man and he will increase {his} learning. ”
 – Proverbs 9:9