Haven James Rising

I’ve been told that this is ‘not on the top of the list’ (like the Cobra 427?), but I would so love to be able to put up a webcam in Haven’s room for family to be able to see! It fits with my general geekiness, and who wouldn’t want to watch us get ‘blessed’ by the fruit of our loins?


I’ve looked at several of them, and so far the best ones are the following:


Linksys WVC54GCA
http://www.linksysbycisco.com/US/en/products/WVC54GCA


D-Link DCS-920
http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=664


Both of them are wireless, which is nice because although I do have an ethernet port drawn to that room, it is at the bottom of the wall, and would mean routing more cat5 cable through the wall to get there. As it is, I’m already going to have to do that with power, and don’t really want any more hassle. Besides, the wireless capability will make it easy to move the camera elsewhere if we decide.


I’m a fan of Linksys… particularly since they were acquired by Cisco. I’ve never really liked D-Link stuff, but have seen good reviews of this camera. They are both priced about the same… but the one feature that stands out is the ability to stream Quicktime / Real / Windows Media from the Linksys device. I’m not sure if I would wind up using that… would probably just opt for using FTP and have the pictures uploaded when there was movement in the room… but still a neat feature.


I think that the D-Link has a java admin… while the Linksys requires ActiveX … which would mean that I could not use the web interface on the Mac without using Paralells.


So yeah… I’m torn.

ok… first off i will need to preface this post with the fact that i am a ThinkGeek addict. i’d say that at least 50% of my wardrobe came from them, and is in the obligatory black. i think that one of the greatest things about having a boy on the way is the simple pleasure of actually being able to justify all those toys that i always wanted as a kid but never got! not wanting to rush him to grow up… but how old does he have to be before i can justify a ‘66 Cobra 427 Hemi?


well… until then… here are some things that I would love him to have:


I Tcp/IP onesie
http://www.thinkgeek.com/geek-kids/newborn-infant/5e09/


Version 2.0 Shirt
http://www.thinkgeek.com/geek-kids/newborn-infant/6c71/


Version 1.0 Shirt (this one’s for me!)
http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/unisex/generic/6c68/


ItzBeen Timer
http://www.thinkgeek.com/geek-kids/newborn-infant/b45e/
This thing is a must have. Anything that will help to keep our sleepless selves on track!


Newbie Onezie
http://www.thinkgeek.com/geek-kids/newborn-infant/59cc/


Input / Output T-shirt
http://www.thinkgeek.com/geek-kids/newborn-infant/592c/


Baby Tux Shirt
http://www.thinkgeek.com/geek-kids/newborn-infant/5ace/
he will be indoctrinated early. oh yes, he will.


Further indoctrination
http://ipopmybaby.com/


Baby Tag Onesie (web 2.0 baby?)
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7483180


Hoberman Rattle
http://www.thinkgeek.com/geek-kids/newborn-infant/b0ad/


Winkel Teether
http://www.thinkgeek.com/geek-kids/newborn-infant/b0a3/


Mozart Cube
http://www.thinkgeek.com/geek-kids/newborn-infant/b412/
We’ve been told that playing music, particularly classical music is one of the best ways to enhance a baby’s congitive abilities.


Color Burst Safety Mirror
http://www.geniusbabies.com/colburbabsaf.html
It seems that Manhattan Toy does a really good job… has some pretty cool stuff for infants.


Curiousity Cube Early Years
http://www.geniusbabies.com/curiousity-cube-baby-toy.html
This one looks like a lot of fun… so much to do in such a compact space!

Melissa is wanting to use cloth diapers with Haven. We’ve gotten mixed reviews from different folks who have used them with their own children, and it seems like the technology has improved quite a bit because the folks who are all saying ‘good luck with that’ were using just straight up 4 corner white cloth diapers held in place with bobby pins (ouch!), where now we’ve got some really cool ones like these:


http://www.willowbuns.com/


ahhh… the wonderment of velcro!


Over the last few months, I have learned more about these things than I ever thought I’d care to.


One of the more obvious issues with this process is that there is well… poop involved, and you need to figure out a good way to rid yourself of it before the diaper finds it’s way into your washer. I want one of these:





I had actually considered making a hose / sprayer for the toilet myself… as I’ve gotten rather handy as of late, but decided that the over-all cost would be about the same with parts from Lowes, and I could probably use the extra hour or more (between driving, shopping, building, installing) to do something else.


This device seems so ingenious really, just sits right on top of the toilet, and all the poo goes down the drain!

I just think these things are so cool. What a simple product to market!

and they come in CAMO!!!

http://www.bebabean.com/products/pptp.aspx

I am not sure where I heard / read it… but they say that Moms are Moms as soon as they are pregnant, but Dads are not Dads until the baby comes out.

I don’t know when it really hit me. Maybe it was a few days ago when at about 2am I put my hand on Melissa’s belly and felt Haven doing somersaults in there. Or maybe it was the experience of actually seeing him smile at me while watching the ultrasound technician do her thing. Or possibly it was when I went running out to Walgreens to pick up a pregnancy test, and we went through three of them before we finally decided it was time to go to the doctor ‘just to be sure’.

Today as I sat in Melissa’s glider after positioning all the baby furniture in it’s ‘final’ place within Haven’s room, I prayed for awhile… and then looked at his crib and imagined him standing there looking at me. He was cute… just like his daddy. It is amazing to think that in less than 2 short months, he’ll actually be here in our arms.

I decided to pull these out of the animated video and just post them into an article.





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I’ve been working on getting the baby room painted and getting chair rail up. This is a video of how that’s going.

I have finally got the room just about completed. I’ve got the paint on the walls, and the chair rail up. I’ve still got a bit of touch up to do here and there, and I ran out of primer for the ceiling… so I will need to get some and finish that up. Note to self… I never want to do chair rail again for as long as I live. What a pain!

The furniture was delivered this past Thursday, and I built the crib that day during my lunch hour. I had a bit of a problem with it because some of the screw holes were not pre-drilled, and the rails got in the way of my drill while I was doing it. I managed though, and I don’t think it’s going to fall apart on us. I also ran into a problem with the legs of the end table, the nuts that are supposed to bind into the wood of the legs came loose, and even after trying to glue them back in with some gorilla glue… they still came off, so the table is leaning against the wall for now until I can get some new legs from the store.


The wooden horse was made by our awesome friend Lee Howell. He makes all sorts of cool children’s toys, and has offered to make a wooden cradle for us! Thanks Lee!


The scale was from our neighbors Scott and Soyoung, and will help prevent us from having to go to the doctor all the time just to get the baby weighed!


The Afghan laying on the crib was made by Melissa’s sister Rebecca. It’s so cute!


Today we got some of those new Compact Fluorescent light bulbs (CFL) for the room… and WOW! What a difference. I think we’re going to get them for the rest of the house. They are awesome, so bright!


We also picked up the infant car seat / carrier, it’s a Cortina Key-Fit 30. It’s one of two different ones that carry the baby facing backwards in the car for up to 30 pounds. All the rest of them only go up to 22 pounds, and it’s apparently better for them to be facing backwards as long as we are able to. This one should carry him backwards for up to about a year.


And… we got a nice leather bound Hans Christian Anderson fairytales book for Haven at Barnes and Noble today. (more for me than him I think *grin*)