The Notorious Baby

Rachel's First Play

2013-05-06T20:51:00.002-04:00

A little while back Rachel went to her first play. It was Grease (she's a huge fan). We were in the front row, and she behaved wonderfully. She had two dates - Daddy and Papa (her grandfather).

It was put on by the Coast Guard Academy, which is near where we live, and Rachel kept on pointing out when "they got a part wrong," since the play was different than the movie. She knows the movie too well! She did NOT like it at all when Sandy slapped Patty Simcox towards the end.

"I don't like this Sandy, Daddy."

("Yes, she's not very nice.")

However, all was forgiven when she was able to take a picture with Sandy after the show. Rachel was in her Rydell High outfit, which was a Halloween costume we brought out again for the show. It was a hit with the cast. I've included a picture of her at home before the show with her red jacket and pin, one during intermission with a sideways pose, and one with her and the girl playing Sandy.

Hope you enjoy the new pictures! Summer is approaching here in New England and we can't wait!

In Honor of the NFL Playoffs

2013-01-19T18:17:00.000-05:00

Enjoy!

Rachel's New Video for Blog Visitors Only

2013-01-12T14:35:00.000-05:00

Lately Rachel has been learning to read and do simple math facts. We may have mentioned this in a previous post, but Starfall.com is a great site for children learning their letters and letter sounds. Please feel free to add any sites you know that you enjoy as well.

We recently posted a video of Rachel saying all of her presidents (click here to see it), and wanted to post a private video for blog visitors only. It's Rachel singing "Five Little Monkeys" and learning subtraction. It's really cool to see her learn these things each day right in front of our eyes.

Click here to see it. We hope you enjoy the new video!

Dave and Lynn

Our Scandalous Snowman

2013-01-06T20:58:00.002-05:00

Rachel made her first snowman today, and as the snow melted, this is where the carrot ended up. Lynn and I wondered how many neighbors saw it before it was fixed!

Have a happy new year everyone. Thanks again for all of the kind comments!

Dave and Lynn

Special video for blog visitors only

2012-06-25T21:10:00.000-04:00

Here's a longer video of one we posted recently on Youtube. This longer video is listed on Youtube as unlisted, which means that only people with the link can view it( you can see it by clicking here)

It’s an extended video giving you a better idea of how our mornings typically go. Rachel now comes up with random conversations such as this one about once a week now - this one I decided to record since it was something she appeared to feel pretty strongly about - she needed to tell me that she doesn't like Santa, that she will on Wednesday, and that I will save her by hugging her. Apparently she's discussed this topic with the kids at daycare too!

Lynn and I hope you’re enjoying the videos. Please become a member of the blog and share stories of your own or videos!

FYI, she's never referred to herself as Rachel before...that was unique to the day as well. You may notice my knowledge of the princesses is pretty weak. The story there is that she gets tattoos from her daycare teacher of the Disney princesses when she uses the potty - which is going pretty well - but we're not planning on having her see a Disney film for a while. She's scared of a toy Cookie Monster we bought her a while back, so we're guessing that Scar from The Lion King would freak her out.

Father's Day

2012-06-21T21:00:00.002-04:00

I'm attaching a picture of the beginning of my Father's Day - which was perfect - Lynn surprised me with breakfast in bed and the kids joined me as I ate - Rachel was very excited to show me the card she made for me. We hope your Father's Day went well also!

Educational videos and James Brown

2012-05-22T22:46:00.003-04:00

We can't believe how happy this new baby boy is...all the time! Lynn and I thought Rachel was "easy" enough, but we're amazed so far. He's ready to crawl and is talking up a storm (for proof, click here).

This month we thought it might be nice to share an educational video that we've been using with Rachel. It teaches the months of the year, and she's learned it pretty quickly because of the music. Click here for the video. We sing it in the car quite a bit, but it hasn't moved ahead of the Alphabet Song as her all-time favorite just yet.

Also, there are some Youtube videos that have some really great stories for kids. Lynn and I use a playlist for Rachel (link here) that has some Eric Carle stories - there were some Dr. Seuss stories as well, but they were deleted.

If you have any websites or playlists with educational videos or stories to share, please share!

If you're wondering what Rachel is listening to lately, it's James Brown. Every day on the way to daycare, she says "James Brown Daddy" and points out her observations. "James Brown says 'ha!' Daddy" and "James Brown doesn't care" are common, as well as "James Brown is screaming" - the song she loves is Cold Sweat, so if you give it a listen, those comments will make a lot of sense.

She's very particular about her music, and now has a CD filled with songs she likes that we bring along for longer trips. If you'd like the mix songs, feel free to drop us an email!

Update on the kiddos

2012-04-29T20:34:00.004-04:00

We've got a baby on the verge of crawling. Jason is babbling away lately (click here for proof!) and is rolling over daily. He has a bald spot on the back of his head that just won't go away yet, and his mother is hopeful he'll start sleeping through the night.

Rachel is doing well and is amazing us with her vocabulary. Lately, she enjoys taking out all of my records and asking about who each person is on the album covers. She's randomly come up with saying "The Beatles are the best!" but always wants to hear "Fame" by David Bowie as soon as I put a Beatles record on. She can identify George Harrison on the Hey Jude album but seems to think that one of the statues in the picture is a band member as well.

We are looking forward to the warm weather here in the Northeast and am wondering if we can get Rachel started on swimming soon, or if it's too early.

For you parents of young ones out there in the United States, we've discovered a great membership for children's museums, but it may be changing soon. It's the Association of Children's museums reciprocal membership (link here). We have a small children's museum near us which has a family membership for 75 dollars, and for 25 extra dollars a year, we get free admission into all of the participating museums as a part of this program. Around March of next year, the Association's reciprocal membership will only allow people to get half price, so take advantage this year if there are several museums around your area in the United States.

Stay well!

David

2012-02-27T20:25:00.004-05:00

Please consider donating to a worthy cause. Thank you in advance!

Relay For Life of Southeastern Connecticut

Who knew - it's heriditary

2012-01-28T18:36:00.000-05:00

Apparently, it's hereditary. This is our 3 month old son Jason enjoying the song "Paul Revere" by the Beastie Boys. Jason so much more mellow than Rachel was at his age, so we rarely have to use any music to get him to calm down. Jason typically cries and decides that it's too much effort to keep it up, so he calms down after a minute or so. We consider ourselves lucky. He's been taking a while to do it, but Jason just rolled over last week! We're looking forward to all of his new developments. Hope you enjoy his smile as much as we do! Lynn and Dave

2012-01-05T18:23:00.001-05:00

Rachel was a Good Morning America host's favorite video of the year! video platform video management video solutions video player

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T09:19:00.000-05:00

We're in Chicago now, waiting for family and friends to arrive so they can meet Rachel's younger brother Jason, who is sleeping quietly. Rachel and Jason visited with their great-grandmother and great-grandfather yesterday, who were very excited to see the kids.

We had a bit of a Christmas miracle - both kids were fantastic on the plane ride. We planning on having one more child, and can't imagine trying to fly with three kids!

Rachel randomly thanked Santa yesterday morning, when we celebrated Christmas at home. The quality isn't perfect, but it is very cute. The link is below.

http://youtu.be/eY2NvDtzLDE

Have a wonderful holiday season!

Dave and Lynn

Two more holiday websites

2011-12-19T05:47:00.000-05:00

Two more cute holiday websites:

In this site, which is very kid-friendly, your child can write a letter to Santa, listen to stories, visit Santa's workshop, or chat with an elf!

(I'd stay away from the Toy Shop link, which brings you to Amazon.com and other sites where toys can be purchased.)

www.northpole.org

The "Santa tracker" - on Christmas Eve, this site tracks Santa's trip around the world.

http://www.noradsanta.org/en/

A few (free) excellent holiday websites for kids and family.

2011-12-01T07:25:00.000-05:00

I wanted to share two websites with you. Both are Christmas oriented, FYI.

The first website:

http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/home
This website sends a personalized message from Santa to your child. It is VERY well done. It takes a few minutes to enter in all of the information, but when done, Santa sends a video to you, where he says your child's name, puts their name in the "good/bad list machine" (you can pick which list your child belongs in) and talks to him/her about a gift he wanted. Santa also talks about some events that happened to your child over the past year, so having pictures available on your computer is helpful. When Rachel got up a few days ago, I told her that she received a video from Santa, and she was open-eyed when she saw it.

The site also has videos for family and colleagues, but I haven't tried them out yet.

The second website:

http://www.elfyourself.com/

This website requires a few pictures of you and your family. You can put your family's faces on dancing elves, and the dance routines are hilarious. We did a disco holiday dance and a rock n' roll holiday concert song.

On another note, here's a picture of Rachel from this year when she saw Santa for the first time. Her face is priceless.

If you know of any great holiday websites, please share them!

Dance Party

2011-11-30T07:56:00.000-05:00

I've uploaded another video of Rachel that shows her on her "dance party" stage (or the bottom of the stairs, depending on who you talk to in our house).

She doesn't always require sunglasses for the dancing. Apparently she was not in the mood for Earth Wind and Fire on that day. Lynn and I would disagree with her choice - "September" was the first fast dance song at our wedding!

http://youtu.be/fSlUpHF0qH0

Also, we were recently contacted by a Japanese television show - they would like to use the clip of Rachel calming down to Biggie. If it is used on the show I will try to get a link.

Interview with Going Viral

2011-11-30T07:51:00.000-05:00

Here is an interview with Simon Ostler of CTV Edmonton. He hosts a show called Going Viral and asked to Skype with us one night. Lynn was unavailable - Jason was going to bed for the night.

http://youtu.be/v3PKuvouR0w Hope you enjoy it!

Regarding Jason, he's almost ready to roll over! Any day now!

Dave

Black Friday trick

2011-11-23T18:43:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine taught me a trick a few years ago that helps you get Black Friday deals while avoiding the crowds. It takes a little bit of effort, but it saves you a lot of time considering the lines you need to wait in on Black Friday.

This trick works for all items that are not "doorbuster" items, and may not work with items bought online.

The trick: go to the Black Friday advertisements (they can be found at http://bfads.net), find the product you want to buy, and buy it before Black Friday, when there are no lines, paying full price for it.

A few days later (don't go on Saturday or Sunday, I've found) go back to the store and ask to have the item's price adjusted. Do not ask for a price match - a price match policy is different, since it involves the store matching another store's price. A price adjustment involves getting money back from the same store that you purchased the item from, if the item you recently purchased goes on sale.

Most retailers have a policy that states they need to adjust the price of an item that goes on sale 1-2 weeks after you have purchased it. When you ask for the price adjustment, the store will refund you the difference of what you paid and the sale price, giving you the same deal you would have received by going on Black Friday. We've done this on a few occasions and it has worked very well for us. I don't believe you will ever run into an issue with this trick, but if push comes to shove, you can ask to see a copy of the store's price adjustment policy.

Here is an article regarding Target's price adjustment policy:

http://www.thriftyandthriving.com/2011/11/target-black-friday-price-adjustments-opening-at-midnight-for-black-friday/

I know this post is too late to be useful this year, but keep it in mind for the future!

Dave

New videos

2011-11-20T14:42:00.000-05:00

Here's another hip hop calming technique I found in some of our videos from a few years back. It's not as funny as the BIG video, but it's pretty cute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6exHL5cBLA

2 million views!

2011-11-20T06:14:00.000-05:00

The video reached two million views yesterday. Since one million views, the video has been on the Ellen Show and Inside Edition. I was interviewed by a Canadian magazine, and will include the link to the magazine on this page once it has been published.

Also, Justin Bieber "tweeted" the video, which made the viewership go through the roof!

We know that the popularity of these videos is short-lived, but are amazed at how many people around the world have seen the video. We've seen it on Japanese, German, and Brazilian websites! As a friend of ours pointed out, it's amazing how many smiles around the world that Rachel has created.

Here is another picture of Rachel from this year. I'd like to mention that we try (nicely) in our house to influence Rachel's favorite baseball and football team. I have her wear lots of Red Sox and Patriots gear, and Lynn clothes her in White Sox and Bears gear.

(If she turns out to be a Yankees or Cubs fan, we'll be so confused.)

A few pictures

2011-11-16T23:35:00.000-05:00

Many people have asked to see some pictures of Rachel around the time of the video. Here are a few Lynn and I thought you might enjoy!

Rachel's first bath

2011-11-16T23:13:00.000-05:00

This is a video we shot of Rachel's first bath after she arrived at home from the hospital. Rachel's grandfather provides some commentary. Hope you enjoy it!

Notorious B.I.G. and the baby

2011-11-14T14:48:00.000-05:00

Well, we just hit 1,000,000 views on Youtube!

My wife and I thought some of you might be interested in some things that have been going on:

We've been in touch with the parents of the videos Charlie Bit My Finger, Talking Twins, and Baby Laughing at Ripping Paper. They've been really helpful in giving us viral video advice. For example, getting another email account. I've received over 1,000 emails due to Youtube comments!

Most comments have been kind, and sweet. We've enjoyed reading the stories of how others have calmed down their children, or how they were calmed down when they were babies.

There have been some cruel and racist comments. We don't respond to them, but these comments are so rare compared to the positive ones.

Rachel, my daughter in the video, thinks the video is of Jason, her younger brother. And we're fine with that!

We've been in touch with Jimmy Kimmel, Good Morning America, and other news organizations as well. LeBron James and Alyssa Milano have "tweeted" the video and possibly others. I tried signing up for Twitter and "tweeting" but realized quickly I have no idea what I'm doing!

My wife and family have been saintly. One of the best things about this was the fact that I've touched base with family that I typically wouldn't see unless there was a wedding or a funeral. It has been great catching up with them.

My wife and I are glad you've enjoyed the video!

Take care,
Dave