Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations New forum....

Since I was last on here the forum has obviously changed dramatically in terms of layout, provider etc.
Difficult for me to get used to so far. Tricky, tricky.

Ok, that's all.

I guarantee you're not having as many problems as we did when the switch-over occurred.

Hey Chris, good to see you back. Congrats on the new baby. For those that don't know him, Pottsy is a world class do-it-yourselfer. I think he refers to himself as mostly a cheapskate. Good guy from the cold country.

Hey Dave! Thanks for the kudo's! And now that I have a little baby girl certain categories of cheap-skatedness are long gone. You should see my heating bill! Yowsa! I am glad to come back and see the ship is still headed in the right direction. I am on another couple of 'Hunting/Sport' related websites and I have yet to see a single discussion stay civil. (You wouldn't believe the way simple topics or questions can get degraded into ignorance for unknown reasons, but I digress) It is refreshing to see the high class of posters still here at PB forum. YA!

I think it is just plain impossible, no matter what amount of thoughtful planning and consideration prospective parents put into it, to realize ahead of time how much children will change your life. Or how much love, effort, and sanity one can put into the care of a sweet little angel WHO WON'T LET YOU SLEEP!

Sleep? Apaprently I don't need it... or do I and I just haven't noticed yet. Hey wait, where'd I park my truck? Oh jeeze I forgot to shave and comb my hair.... what time is it? hehehe

The little one is just awesome, yet exceedingly time consuming.

Theo surely you are past that stage of parenting by now.

I agree that the best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray !!

...then they grow up to be little teen-age Brettski's and DD1's. Now the local and collar-county cops are keeping you awake.

Yes, thank the almighty, for about 8-9 years now. But I'll never forget the sound track of many nights spent endlessly recranking the old Swing-o-Matic automatic baby chair, catching ZZZs in 15 minute increments:

"Crank, crank, crank, crank"
(Wind that sucker up.)

"Creak, creak, creak, creak"
(Try to nod off myself. Baby daughter is NOT asleep, just temporarily entertained by full range of Swing-o-Matic motion.)

"Cre-eeee-ak, cree-eeeeeeeeee-ak, creeee-eeeeeeeeeeeee-ak"
(Slowing down)

"Wahh! Wahhh! Wahhhhh!"

"Crank, crank, crank, crank"

(and repeat ad infinitum)

And I was just the Dad - I had the easy job compared to Mom!

Thank you so very much for that look ahead.

I recommend to anyone with babies or toddlers, the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Weissbluth. We had trouble with our first child's sleep routine and someone recommended this book to my wife, she read it and went over the ideas with me (some seemed a little too liberal for me at first, nothing extreme, just different from the way I was raised),but we gave it a chance, and now my daughter asks to go to bed at night. It's great. It works great with my son, also. The gist of the book is to keep a firm bedtime routine, be sure the child is well rested (naps), and get you child to bed before they show signs of being tired.

We just gave our older son a coupla drops of JD and coke as an infant, then, right off to sleep. Hey, I know what you're thinking; he is 37 now and hardly will drink a beer. It sure beats the taste of para-goric, or whatever you call that opium junk my folks gave me. Yuk.

I need to get he and his wife that book, bbjr, they have NO sleep routine for their 4 kids, 3-10 Y.O.

burgermeister,
Now that is the conservative approach I was talkin' bout .

{RANT ON} Ain't that the truth Theo. I have been a long time believer that one of the courses that should be taught in high school is parenting. The course should be complete with requiring both boys and girls to take care of those robotic babies for at least one week. I realize that we are not talking here about babies having babies but I thought that I would just take this opportunity to vent. {RANT OFF}

I shudder at the thought. If government teachers in my state would teach parenting as well as they teach math, science, and English...

Experience does beat all though.

With our first child (daughter, now 3 years old), we would sit in a rocking chair with her for whatever time it took for her to fall asleep; then we'd try to stand up, walk over to her crib, and lay her in her crib. Damn creaky floor!!!!!!!!

So she was always used to that routine. Now, I just go up an put her in her bed. Seldom do I ever rock her.

Now for our boy, just over a year old now, we never even rocked him. We just threw him in his crib with a bottle, blanket, and some god-forsaken Nora Jones CD playing. No problems.

He's about to switch over to Hendrix though. I'm concerned about the long term effect of Nora Jones on young, impressionable minds.

It warms my heart to know that at least someone out there is raising the next generation properly. Way to go Sunil!

I might also suggest some additional classical music such as Emerson, Lake and Palmer to provide some fidelity balance.

You know, JHAP, when my daughter was getting close to a year old, I was getting close to insanity from having to listen to all of these kids music CDs while rocking her to sleep. So I made up a mix of some of my favorite Hendrix tunes, trying to keep it on the mild side. I included the song, Third Stone From the Sun, considering it was mostly instrumental and had a cool vibe. If my daughter fell asleep while there were still tunes left on the CD, I'd leave it playing after I left the room believing subconscious Hendrix to be only beneficial for her.

A few weeks later, I was walking by her room later at night after she'd fallen asleep, and I could hear Third Stone From the Sun playing through the door. It was during the part where it sounds like some kind of cosmic storm is blowing through with some great guitar distortion. Back when I had made the Hendrix mix, I had forgotten about that part of the song, not that there's anything wrong with it, mind you.

I immediately then flashed back to my college days. It reminded me exactly of walking past someones room late at night, with the door closed, and hearing music through the door. At that time, behind the door, people would be having a good time doing whatever they were doing.

And then come back to current times, and it's only my two year old daughter asleep in the room. It kind of made me laugh thinking about what she may be thinking is the purpose of that song, and why she's listening to it. I know she's picking it up, because when she hears other Jimi tunes that are not on her mix, she knows it Jimi.

She also gets regular subconscious exposure to the Allman Bros. Band, Traffic, Fleetwood Mac, and other good music.

You're a great Dad Sunil. Exposing her to the classics, giving her a taste of nature with your pond property. I raise a glass and toast your approach. I wouldn't at all be surprised to find out she wants a Fender Stratocaster for her 10th birthday.

I'm still waiting for one of my kids to want a '62 Gibson ES-335 in Chuck Berry Red.