Babies in cabs

I read this post in Sfgate/moms a few months ago about babies and San Francisco cabs. Apparently, I am required by law to have a car seat in a cab, but the penalty falls on the passenger, not the driver. The officer interviewed for the article suggested that the penalty is not widely enforced. I'm going to stick with the bus (out of economic measures, not fear of the law,) but it is nice to know that a cabbie will pick up a parent with a child in tow.

Olivia's 12 month Well visit (at 14 months)

We had Olivia's 12 month well visit a couple weeks ago. Yeah, we're a little off. Here are the stats:
Height = 29 .5" inches, 75th percentile
Weight = 21 lbs 6 oz, 30th percentile (I have no idea how this can be the case)
Head circumference 47 cm 90th percentile.

Wash and Fold

Olivia Bathtime

Kids grow so fast

Olivia Knight has announced that she will be checking into rehabilitation for her addiction to playing with prescription drug bottles. Ms Knight, who has regularly told radio listeners that drug users should be jailed, said she began seeking empty prescription drug bottles after she got sick of her other toys.


Kids grow so fast. It seems like just yesterday that Olivia was learning to use a drinking cup and cell phone.

PS -- For those of you worrying in Pennsylvania, Spencer and I are going to give Olivia something else to play with. I don't want her mistaking prescription drug bottles for toys later in life.

Our last dinner out

When you have kids, your perspective on the world changes. I used to look at Drive-Thru Starbucks and be amazed that people were too lazy to get out of their cars to get coffee. When Olivia was a baby, I would have given my left arm for a drive through Peets in Berkeley.

Similarly, I never understood why people would go to restaurants in the mall. Why settle for chain store food when there are so many great mom and pop places downtown? That question was answered for me on Thursday night when we tried to go out for a dinner. Just a casual spot in Japantown, how much trouble could we get into?

We had forgotten to bring our high chair, so there was no containing the beast. We ended up taking turns eating while the other person chased down Olivia in the mall courtyard. Try doing that downtown. It's neither relaxing nor social to eat with a child, I think we're going to start ordering in for the foreseeable future.

Baby Mum Mum Crackers

Hot tip for other parents of young kids -- Baby Mum Mum rice crackers. We bought them on the way to the airport for our trip to Asia and I have been hooked since. They are not messy like zwieback or other baby crackers, and they don't have much sugar (so you can give your baby as many as will make him or her happy.) We found them at the Potrero Safeway and also at the Bay Street Safeway, I'm going to stock up next time I see them.

The real reason wooden toys are making a comeback

There's a conventional wisdom that you buy musical toys for couples with kids as revenge for making you wear an ugly bridesmaid dress or setting you up with some obnoxious guy. I've never done either of those things to my sister, but may start asking friends to collect phone numbers at bars.

For Christmas, Margaret bought Olivia an electronic piano. Olivia loves it. Upon receiving it, Olivia immediately figured out the start/stop button, which launches into a series of pre-recorded tracks (Ode to Joy, London Bridge is Falling Down, ...) The problem is that Olivia is not at all interested in playing the keyboard, just pressing the start/stop button for the pre-recorded music. It was fun for a while, but after hearing an electronic version of 'Ode to Joy' for the 98th time, I understand the real reason that parents like old fashioned wooden toys.

You can hear the music in the background of the above video.