Too much tv

Not only is it a pillow.

Nor is it merely a pet.

In fact, it's a Pillow Pet.




Is anyone else plagued by this completely nonsensical informercial sweeping the nation? Yowzah!

Month in review: Parental Essentials

I'm thinking I should trademark that accidental rhyme in the title. Eh?

And now onto bigger and better things: the content of this post

Praise the Good Lord that we've survived 5+ weeks of keeping Anjali alive. Seriously. Now, before I get too far into today's edition, I want to say that this will NOT become a mommy blog. Not to slam the mommy blogs, but just to specify that this is not one of them.

However, there will occasionally be some random child-rearing thoughts that I will share with you from time to time.

I just wanted to make that clear....

Moving on.

I wanted to give a shout-out to some key essentials that have helped us survive these last 5+ weeks. You may or may not be a parent, but I'm hoping that in either case, this will be somewhat interesting/useful to you...there have been 2 things that we really couldn't live without, and an additional item that seems to get almost as many comments as the baby itself. Allow me to enlighten you:

Item 1: The pacifier


Now let me say this, I'm all for kiddos coming equipped with a 'mute' button. However, our Creator did not necessarily design us that way, thus enter the pacifier. Whoever invented this device has simply got to be a gazillionaire at this point. I will admit that we've gotten a lot of mileage out of the pacifier. Not that this is a revolutionary thought by any means...I just don't think I really valued it much before having a baby. Now if they just made them for adults....

Item 2: The Moses basket



We live in a small house. This means that we have about 2 closets in the entire abode, and I am not about to clutter them up with baby gear. If you want to buy the latest gadgets for your kid, go for it. Around our house, however, we are trying to take a minimalistic approach. Thus, when considering purchasing a bassinet, I decided to pass.

However, some friends of ours mentioned that for their 4 kids, they used a Moses basket and definitely got their money's worth out of it. And since their kids are now all well past the infant stage, they loaned the basket to us.

HALLELUJAH!

I think Anjali has slept at least 6-8 hours a day in this thing, if not more (granted, those precious hours aren't in a row yet...). She loves it. We love it. This thing plus the pacifier have allowed me to sleep, eat, shower, brush my teeth and occasionally watch TV. It's been nice to be able to cart a sleeping baby around the house as needed without disturbing her.

Item 3: The stroller



Now, we haven't used this thing too much thus far, but when we have, we get a lot of comments. At church on Sundays, people will actually spend more time asking us about the stroller than about the baby. It's pretty funny, actually.

Anyhow, it's really easy to use and again, Anjali seems to like it. But it still cracks me up how a lot of people are super curious about it. I think next Sunday we'll have to give demonstrations in the church lobby just to fend off the crowds.

Well, that's my take on early parenting. We have lots to learn, and believe you me, I could do an entire month's worth of posts on the usefulness of the burp cloth. I will spare you the details...

You parents out there - was there anything you couldn't live without during the early infant stage? Let me know...

In praise of the Kindle

It's no secret that we have a lot of books in our household. In fact, there are several bookshelves where I've had to double-stack books (two rows deep on various shelves) just to fit them all in.

So when Amar decided that he wanted to purchase a Kindle, I was very much open to the expense, because it meant that there would eventually be less book clutter in our house. Little did I know that I would soon become a Kindle fan.

Since welcoming Anjali to our household, I've gotten a TON of use out of the Kindle. I think I probably spent about 3-4 hours reading now, mainly because there's not much else I can do when I'm feeding her. And since feeding her means that I have one hand free, the Kindle is perfect. Basically, I can feed Anjali, holding her with one hand, and read a book in the other hand. I can turn pages one-handed (a simple click of a button). It's super easy to use, and I can switch between books without getting up. Good stuff!

Thus far, I've read the following books on the Kindle in the last 5 weeks:

• Percy Jackson: The Titan's Curse
• Percy Jackson: The Battle of the Labyrinth
• Percy Jackson: The Last Olympian
• The Bible: Psalms 20-73 (I'm reading through Psalms and Provers this summer with our church via The Voyage)
• Moneyball: The Art of Winning and Unfair Game
• Liar's Poker

Also, books are cheaper on the Kindle. Books that would cost $10-$30 to purchase soft/hard copies of are only $4-$10 on the Kindle. All in all, the Rama household highly recommends the Kindle if you're considering purchasing one. Yay!