So, I’ve started compiling a list of the great movies to show children, as well as a listing of what movies from Disney classics, to Pixar movie cartoons, belong in the home library of every parent with small children.

You can see the current list here: Best Movies for Kids

I also recently wrote up a page at another website detailing the Disney movie, The Emperor’s New Groove, which is one of the best kids movies for toddlers thanks to a fast-pace, fun characters, and plenty of action. In addition, the villain, while plenty scary and evil for those of us a little older and more comfortable with those topics, is surprisingly non-frightening for youngsters who find her more funny than scary.

Was thinking about ways being a father is different from how things are before you have any kids. I had a pretty good  list when I heard an nondescript noise from upstairs, and I realized, that one of the many changes in your life when you become a father is that those little I’m sure it was probably nothing sounds that you used to ignore quickly become, What was that? sounds that you need to check out right aways.

Just a lonely blurb for the afternoon…

Bleach is a no-no for baby clothes too, not that it really matters since virtually all jumpers, onesies, shirts, pants, and tops made for babies have bright colors or cute patterns on them anyway.

Baby Laundry

Shortly after giving birth to a beautiful baby the mommy and daddy realize two things, that sleep is really, really, important, and that the increase in laundry volume is very disproportionate to the increase in family members. The washing machine gets a workout and the dryer does too. For the most part, though, more laundry is easily handled, especially once you realize that there is no point in folding baby clothes.

Yet, when it comes to ugly yellow stains, or brown stains, or even blue stains (don’t ask) it can challenge anyone’s parenting skills. For some reason, our usual stain stick, the Shout stain remover with the plastic brush thing on the top, seemed particularly ineffective on baby food stains. It is also not fun to try and rub a stain fighter all over the back of a onesie after a diaper blowout leaves a disgusting yellowish stain all over that awesome baby outfit Grandma bought.

Many skilled parents use a baby laundry detergent like Dreft or other pediatrician recommended laundry soap with no dyes, no perfumes, and no harsh chemicals in order to keep baby from developing a rash from his clothing or sheets. It is natural to assume that a laundry soap like that might be "weaker" than regular soaps with all of their powerful non-sensitive skin friend chemicals; so, you might be tempted to try washing baby’s clothes in "regular" laundry soap. However it turns out that isn’t the case. (Most of the stuff in laundry soap these days has less to do with getting your clothes clean than it does with smell, wrinkles, or static.)

If you are thinking of throwing a scoop of OxyClean in with the "pure" baby laundry detergent, don’t. The oxygen bleach chemicals that give it the cleaning power it has are some of the most irritating ones out there when it comes to your baby’s skin.

So, what is a parent to do? Just get over it? After all, the baby doesn’t care if her clothes are stained, and most people are too busy looking at how cute she is to notice a stain on her back. Maybe, parents should just accept that baby clothing stains are a part of life.

WHAT?!?! Accept defeat? From a STAIN?  NEVER!

Best Baby Clothes Stain Remover

The Undefeated Daddy bought just about every stain remover and stain fighter on the shelves of the grocery store and at Target. There would be no permanent yellow poop stains on his kid’s clothes.

After trying out tons of different things it turns out the best baby stain remover is Zout. It not only gets out baby food stains, baby formula stains, and spit up stains, it also works really great on those poop stains that go unnoticed while baby is in their car seat, crib, or Jump-a-roo. Best of all, it comes in a spray bottle, so it is just as easy to cover large amorphous blob areas as it is to get a single strawberry jelly drop spot.

The most important baby stain removing tip is to rinse the clothing as soon as possible. However, do NOT use hot water. Hot water actually starts setting the stain even as you try and rinse it out. Instead, start with luke-warm water, or even cold water to rinse the stain out. Whatever is left, hit it with the Zout. Don’t be afraid to really soak it. I’ve never had it cause any discoloration even on super bright clothes or sheets.

Just let it sit there in a puddle on top of the stain until you are ready to do laundry. Obviously, if you let it sit there for five or six days, it might be too late; it isn’t magic. But, if you get baby’s stained outfit into the washing machine sometime that day or the next day, you should be fine. It shouldn’t be too hard to do with baby generating enough laundry for a small load every 24 to 36 hours

The downside is that the Snow White DVDs can become overpriced very quickly depending upon where you buy them. Disney is mass advertising its two-disc Blu-Ray / DVD combo package of the Snow White movie. Under normal circumstances, such a box set would beg the question, why would most people want both the regular DVD and the Blu-Ray DVD? If you already have Blu-Ray, then why would you want the regular DVD? If you only have a regular DVD player, then what use do you have for the Blu-Ray DVD?

The answer, most likely lies in the fact that the executives who run the Disney company have proven themselves to be not the most forward thinking people on the planet, over the last several years. They no doubt believe that the world will continue to abide by its release-once-a-decade shenanigans just as they have in the past. The fact that there was no Netflix or other rent anywhere systems the last time they used this playbook, hasn’t crossed their minds. After Snow White goes "back in the vault," millions of people will now find it very easy to rent.

Nor, has Disney considered that while most people choose to acquire their movies legally, that when faced with the choice of not being able to buy the movie because it isn’t being sold, or downloading a copy off of the Internet, people are going to be very willing to make an exception.

In other words, this "going back in the vault" bit isn’t going to work anymore, but Disney hasn’t realized that yet. Releasing this multi-pack means that IF Blu-Ray ever does become the DVD format that everyone has in their home, the people that bought the Snow White DVD will already have the Blu-Ray copy in the box waiting for the day that new DVD player shows up.

What does this all mean to the Undefeated Daddy?

My three-year old daughter will no doubt want to see Snow White someday. Frankly, I want her to see it some day. It is part of the national lexicon, and frankly, it’s a pretty good movie, too. Even if she isn’t interested today, it’s only a year or two away, so I figure I might as well buy it.

But, I’m not paying some big price tag for a half-century old cartoon even if it does come as a Blu-Ray combo pack (ESPECIALLY if it comes as a Blu-Ray DVD combo pack). Defeated? Hardly.

Fortunately, there are plenty of good deals going around on the Snow White DVD release. Some of the best deals involve Internet coupons coupled with a low-price on an Internet retailer like Amazon’s website. Add these together, and that is a price I’m willing to pay for a product I am willing to buy. Winner!

As of this write up, go to Amazon.com (click the link above, it takes you right there and I think I get like 22 cents or something if you buy it and add Snow White to your cart. It should be $19.99.

Then, use the coupon code SNOWHITE (only one W) and it should take $10 off.

Bam! Get the Snow White Super Deluxe Mumbo Jumbo Remastered Special Double Disk High Flying Whiz Bang Edition for $9.99. Buy some other stuff to make your total order $25 and you get free shipping. (If you don’t need anything from Amazon, then buy something you will need for sure later that doesn’t go bad like reams of paper, toner or printer ink, or whatever.)

Don’t anticipate an upgrade to Blu-Ray soon, or already have Blu-Ray? Wait six months and sell your extra DVD on eBay. You won’t get a lot for it, but you might make your money back.

FYI, if the coupon code above doesn’t work for you, or it has expired by the time you read this, use this search engine to find the latest Snow White DVD deal chat at the online deal websites that I use for most of my stuff.

Finding fun safe Halloween events and parties for kids in Denver isn’t always easy, but the zoo chips in with fun for the whole family.

Each year, the zoo offers kids of all ages the chance to dress up in costumes and trick or treat in a safe and fun environment. Boo at the Zoo is offered in two formats, one is during regular zoo hours in the day time. It is on the Saturday and Sunday closest to Halloween. This year Halloween is on Saturday, October 31, 2009, so that means you can go to Boo at the Zoo on Halloween day!

There are over 30 stations being set up this year! That means plenty of opportunities to trick or treat and get lots of candy. Of course, the zoo will also pull out some of its scarier residents and give the brave of heart an opportunity to pet a hairy tarantula or hold a big slimy snake! Zoo staff and volunteers dress up in fun costumes too.

The great thing about Boo at the Zoo is that it is a daytime Halloween event that is open all day long. That means you don’t have to make anyone miss their nap, or stay up late to have a fun Halloween day.

The daytime Halloween zoo event is free! Everything is included in the regular price of admission, so that means it is free for zoo members, and just $12 for ages 12 and up, and only $7 for children 3 to 12. Zoo admission is free for kids 2 years and under. There is also a special senior discount rate of $9 for people over 65.

Boo at the Zoo at Night

For the more adventurous, or for those who just know how to have fun in the dark, Boo at the Zoo at Night offers a rare change to visit the zoo after dark. The 2009 Boo at the Zoo Night time version is on Friday October 30, 2009 and runs from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Unlike the daytime version, the nighttime Boo at the Zoo is not free.

Admission is $10 for member 12 and older and $5 for kids 3 to 11. As always, kids 2 and under are free. For non-members, the cost is $15 for 12 and up and $10 for youngsters. Advance tickets are available NOW!

Consider buying your tickets in advance because it fills up fast, and the lines get CRAZY!

A money saving tip and line avoiding trick from your pal Undefeated Daddy: Go to the zoo during regular hours and then stay inside and Boo at the Zoo at Night is yours for the taking! Don’t forget, event though the Denver Zoo is open until 6:00 p.m. the entrance gates close at 5:00 p.m. so to pull this off, you have to get in before 5:00.

Have a fun save Halloween everyone!

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Typically, if you can find a sale on baby formula, it is from a big retailer using it as a "loss leader", which is a sale that the retailer loses money on, or barely breaks even on, in order to get you into the store, knowing that it is likely that you will buy other things while there and that the profit made on those items can make up for losing the profit on the formula. That is why savvy parents watch the ads for stores like Target and other large retailers to watch for baby formula being on sale.

Right now, Enfamil has a printable coupon for Enfamil formula for $5.00 off any size, which is probably one of the best deals online. The coupon expires October 9th.

The great thing about printable coupons is that they can be used over and over. The trick is to use a utility to "print" your coupon to a PDF file or image file instead of actually sending it to your printer. This way, you can open the file back up and print it again, and again.

If you don’t want to mess with a print emulator utility, then just print the coupon and make a copy and keep the original. Technically, copies of coupons usually don’t count, but with a printable coupon, that is a little tough to enforce because you can’t really tell if it is a copy, or a print out from a lower quality printer. In fact, with so many all-in-one printers out there, many times your copy machine IS your printer, so it is the exact same quality. The trick is to keep the original, because a copy of a copy is always lower quality.

If you can find a sale on baby formula to combine the coupon with, you can really save some big money on a pricey baby item.

You can head over to the Enfamil website yourself, or follow this link to get your printable baby formula coupon.

On the other hand, Zoo Lights is a big Denver Zoo money maker during the Christmas Holidays. The nighttime Christmas lights display is popular throughout the area and draws travelers and tourists from allover Colorado and the neighboring states, so there are also no Denver Zoo free admission days after Thanksgiving when Zoo Lights starts up either.

Still, if you have a large family, or are planning a trip to the zoo with lots of children, the Denver Zoo free days are a great way to save money if you plan ahead and schedule your trip for one of the freebie days.

2009 Denver Zoo Free Days

• October 7
• October 25
• November 8
• November 11
• Jan. 10
• Jan 19
• Feb 14
• Feb 24

Also, don’t forget that the zoo allows picnic lunches and coolers to be brought into the zoo, so you can save money by providing your own snacks.  Transportation is a snap with $5 wagon rentals just inside the admission gates.

Of course, if you live in Denver, or the suburbs, or really anywhere along the front range corridor, the biggest money saving Denver Zoo discount is the one that members get.  Memberships start at $45 for individuals.

Families get an even better deal. A Family Membership is $80 and allows for both parents (or grandparents) and all of their kids free admission to the zoo every day. If your child is under 3 years of age, they are admitted free, so you can save even more on zoo admission by getting a Zoo for Two membership which would allow both parents as members, and their young child for free as well.

Either way, as one of the Denver area’s favorite sightseeing destinations and a great way for kids to see and learn about animals, the zoo is a great fun activity for kids in Denver.

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While things like baby’s first words, baby’s first steps, and all the other baby firsts, are indeed amazing, thrilling moments for any parent, it is the other tiny moments that really are the best things about being a dad.  I’m talking about those dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of little things between you and your child that are special not because they are huge milestones, but because they are those wonderful little moments filled with wonder, awe, love, or amazement. These are the moments that make having a great baby journal so important.

Recently, I posted about how cargo shorts (or cargo pants) are essential dad gear because of their ability to carry all manner of "little things" required for those events that might not necessitate a whole diaper bag, but that definitely require certain supplies for maximum success and enjoyment.  In the comments Alicia mentioned that another value of cargo shorts was their ability to handle the "rock and stick collection." I burst into a wide grin and nearly laughed out loud.  I thought we were the only ones!

A quick check with other parents who are friends of ours confirmed that the walking toddler’s rock and stick collection is actually very common.  Those of you who are already dads might be smiling with recognition right now. For those of you whose children are not yet walking (or walking outside, that is) or for those of you dads to be, let me explain.

Once a toddler can walk on their own, they will eventually begin walking outside. This often involves going for walks because they are good walking practice on a different type of surface, great for getting fresh air and sunshine, and because they can help tire out an energy-packed toddler.  On these walks, toddlers will be discovering new things that had previously been either unseen, or out of reach as they were carried, or pushed about in a stroller. One of these many fascinating new discoveries will be rocks, and another will be sticks.

After spending plenty of time responding with "no" to the kid’s desire to pick up many other less savory objects, most dads are plenty glad to let Junior pick up a rock or a stick that he finds laying on the ground. After retrieving their prize, the child will want to keep it, and again, seeing no harm, many parents will say, "Sure."  Upon arriving at home, the child will want to keep it, and this is where the average Mom and Dad have to draw the line, in order to avoid both spreading dirt around the house and finding a dirty rock at 3:00 AM in the toddler’s sheets which they rolled onto while sleeping and woke up upset.

As a compromise, Dad or Mom will offer to keep the rock or stick in a special place. Though the toddler will likely never come back to that particular rock or stick, they will undoubtedly find others just as meaningful and necessary to both carry and keep as the first one.

Sentimental parents will find a certain number of them endearing and keep them as a memento of their child’s wide-eyed innocence and amazement as they discovered the world on those first walking adventures.  Then, the rock-stick collection becomes something even more meaningful that it was originally.  Ours is on the mantel in a vase that once held just one or two sticks and a half-dozen rocks.  Today, it is a virtual bouquet of sticks and filled half-way up with rocks.

Do you or your child have a rock and stick collection?  Where do you keep it?

What little things come to your mind when you think about the greatest moments of being a parent so far?

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As a Dad, you are going to need to carry around stuff, no matter where you go, or for how short of a time.  But, lugging around a bag just to hold a few things is no fun, no matter how manly they try and make Dad Diaper Bags or other man-style baby backpacks or diaper bags.

Imagine a morning walk while carrying your new son or daughter.  You probably don’t need an extra diaper, or an extra change of clothes, but you probably do need to bring along a drink, and maybe a stuffed friend as well.  Add your mug of coffee and you have hands that are too full to carry your baby.

Sure, you could carry around a backpack, diaper bag, or even a fanny pack but why bother for so little gear?

Instead, throw on a pair of cargo shorts or cargo pants.  Get them so that they fit in the waist, but are loose fitting in the legs (you want the pockets to be as big as possible, and form fitting shorts or slacks will make the pockets smaller.)  Get the kind with at least one extra "cargo" pocket on each leg.  That gives you 2 spots for things like sippy cups and other little things (the leg pockets even help the cups stay up right) and two pockets for your regular stuff like wallet, keys, and cellphone.

Don’t bother getting high-end or expensive new shorts.  These are your go-to carrying item when it’s your turn to take car of having all of baby’s stuff.  They’ll get dirty, and they don’t look stylish when the pockets are full anyway.

Now, you and your baby can stroll the neighborhood without any bag at all, not even a man style messenger baby bag.

Enjoy the sun.

As you can imagine, this schedule can be brutal on new moms.  Fortunately, once Mom and baby are comfortable breastfeeding, meaning that baby latches on and eats for a full feeding without any real trouble and without needing any real encouragement, you can start doing bottle feedings.

Many pediatricians recommend doing at least one bottle feeding per day once the infant has established good breast feeding habits.  Make the most of this feeding by taking one of baby’s usual feeding times that would give mom plenty of extra sleep.

For example, if an infant normally feeds around 8:00 PM or 9:00 PM and then again at around midnight, followed by another feeding between 3:00 AM and 4:00 AM, consider doing a bottle feeding for that midnight feeding.  That way, when Mom is done feeding baby in the evening, she can go to bed.

If she gets to sleep at 10:00 PM, she would normally only get 2 hours of sleep before having to breastfeed again.  But, by having someone else (Dad, we’re looking at you) do the midnight feeding, she could sleep straight through until the 3:00 AM feeding.  On a lucky day, maybe all the way until the 4:00 AM feeding.

Now, instead of 2 hours asleep, then awake from midnight to 1:00 AM, then two more hours of sleep (adds up to 4 interrupted hours), mom could sleep from 10:00 PM until 3:00 AM, all uninterrupted.  That adds up to 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep.  That plus a couple of hours in the morning and a nap or two here and there, and Mom can be way less sleep deprived than she would be otherwise.

The best way to make the bottle feeding work is for baby’s mother to pump breastmilk during the day and then store that breast milk in a baby bottle in the fridge for use during the night.  Formula, of course, can be used as well, but check with your pediatrician first to make sure that switching back and forth between breastmilk and formula won’t be too much for baby.

If an infant will drink breast milk from a bottle with no issues, but won’t drink formula without a lot of assistance and encouragement, take that as a sign, that baby isn’t ready for formula yet.

Over time, it turns out that there may not be a need for newborns or infants to breastfeed exclusively for any fixed period of time at all.

The main concern of lactation experts when it comes to mixing breast feeding with bottle feeding is what is termed "nipple confusion."  Nipple confusion is when the baby gets "confused" with how to feed from both bottle and breast.  It turns out, that when breastfeeding properly, this is not much of a concern at all.

Good breastfeeding is dependant upon the infant getting a proper latch.  Most hospitals have a lactation consultant that will work with new mothers on obtaining the proper latch.  There are numerous techniques and breastfeeding positions, or holds, that can be used by a mother to ensure a proper latch.

What is a a proper breastfeeding latch?

Basically, it is when the baby has the proper hold on the nipple with its mouth.  The key thing to a good breast feeding latch is that more than just the tip of the nipple is in the baby’s mouth.  If the baby takes just the center part of the nipple that extends out from the mother’s breast, they won’t get a good latch and may release too soon.  Additionally, such a latch tends to cause painful breastfeeding and sore nipples.

A good breast feeding latch is when the baby has all of the center nipple AND some of the surrounding breast tissue in their mouth.  This is not easy to accomplish at first, and even if the baby gets it right one time, the next time, they may not. 

It is thought that introducing a bottle at this stage may make it harder for the baby to learn the proper technique.  Considering what is known about baby’s memory (they don’t have very much of one) and the fact that any infant kept in a hospital nursery during feeding time, or any baby that isn’t getting enough hydration or nutrition will end up getting at least a few bottle feedings and then go on to breast feed for months or more without additional difficulty, the conclusion that bottle nipples will interfere with proper breastfeeding might not have much merit.

Once an infant develops a good breastfeeding technique and uses is consistently, it is committed into the only functioning memory a young infant has, muscle memory.  Every time a baby is presented with the same approximate situation as before they will use their muscles in approximately the same way.  This is how a baby learns to breastfeed.

After the baby and mother have both grown comfortable with breast feeding and can do it pretty much every time, it is now thought that introducing a bottle at this stage is not only not detrimental, but perhaps beneficial.

Our pediatrician (from a very respected practice) recommended at our baby’s one-month checkup that we introduce a once a day bottle feeding.  Whether that bottle is full of breast milk or formula is a personal decision for the parents to make.

There are several benefits to introducing a bottle feeding for infants, not the least of which is allowing someone else, like dad, to feed the baby.  Timing the bottle feeding right can give Mom several more hours of uninterrupted sleep and lead to a happier, better rested, more healthy mother and baby.  Don’t forget that the same rules for baby formula apply.

Check with your pediatrician to see if introducing a bottle feeding is the right move for your infant.  Keep in mind that just a few years ago, the advice of doctors and professionals was different, so it is important to get new, up to date advice. 

Also, make sure an ask your pediatrician specifically about breast feeding and bottle feeding, especially if it isn’t your first baby.  Many doctors, nurses, and other experts will assume that as an "experienced" parent they don’t need to talk to you about such things.  For them, they’ve been giving the same advice for a couple of years now, and may not remember that they told you something different when your 3 year old was born.

Most Children’s Place retail stores are in shopping malls.  There is a Children’s Place in the Cherry Creek Mall on the upper level near the play area (giant breakfast food!).  It seems that the physical stores carry much more clothing for toddlers and older kids, and not very much in the way of infant and newborn clothes.  However, the Children’s Place online store has tons of stuff for infants and newborns as well as all the same things for toddlers and kids that they have in their physical stores.

The prices at The Childrens Place are good, but not great.  That is, until they have a sale.

Children’s Place has sales all the time.  Even better, they offer a lot of coupons too.  Sign up in the store or online and you can get coupons in the mail, email coupons, and discount codes or coupon codes for www.childrensplace.com.

Combine these coupons with a sale and you can get a great deal on baby clothes and save money on toddler clothes and kids clothes too.

As an example, our son, who was born in June, has lots of clothing thanks to gifts from family, friends, and coworkers, and of course, gifts from a baby shower.  Like all babies, he got a lot of really "cute" clothes and a lot less of the plain staples that any parent needs to dress their baby warmly and comfortably.

Since he is a newborn, we have a lot of newborn sized clothes and 0 to 3 months sized clothes.  The catch is that he is big but not always big enough to need 3 to 6 month sized baby clothes.

To fill in the gaps in baby’s wardrobe, I went to Children’s Place online store during a "Monster Sale" with a coupon code that I got.  The sale included $5 shipping on all orders regardless of size.  By scrolling through baby boy sale items I was able to pick up 4 pairs of shorts (in 2 sizes), 4 tops, and 2 onesies for less than $25 including shipping.  You can’t beat that price even at Wal-mart.

Ironically, I dropped into the mall store a couple of days later to find that the same stuff I paid $2.25 for (before coupon) were only marked down to $4.99 in the store.  That doesn’t sound like a big difference, but on 10 items that adds up to $20!

It looks like they are having another sale now, online at least with a coupon code and a $5 flat fee for shipping.  That means you are basically getting free shipping on everything after you buy 3 things. 

The current coupon code is S2DSE but it changes every month, or for every sale.

Do yourself a favor and go create a Yahoo email or Google email account (Google email is better) for signing up for coupons and sales information.  Don’t use your regular email account or it will get stuffed with emails all the time.  Go do this now, because you can save a ton of money by signing up for email newsletters, or offers, or whatever from not just kids clothing stores, but diaper companies, formula companies, baby bottle companies, and so on.  Don’t be afraid to sign up for these offers or you will be missing out.

Since you have a separate email account just for these offers and registrations, you can just let the emails pile up in the inbox until you need something.  Then, log on and see if you have a coupon for whatever store you want.  Then, do a select all and delete everything else to start the process over again.

A little effort can save you big money which is very important to new parents because babies are expensive, and don’t even get me started on how much having a toddler costs.

(By the way, always check the "sizing chart" whenever shopping for baby clothes, toddler clothes, or kids clothes.  If you think that sizes are never the same across brands for adult clothes, it is even worse for children’s clothes!)

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Registering a child’s domain name probably makes a little bit of sense.  It is reasonable to assume that dot com domain names will remain the standard for the foreseeable future. Yes, it is possible that there will be a wholesale change in the way domain names are registered and allocated someday in the future, but it won’t be soon, and it won’t be easy.

Too many people and too many companies have spent too much money building their little web empires under the current system for domain name registration or domain use to be changed swiftly or easily.

The interesting new frontier is in the realm of domain names that include the top level domain, or TLD, as part of the word.  Del.icio.us was one of the first major sites to go this route, although they currently own and use delicious.com now, so maybe it wasn’t that big of a hit.  Other more minor websites are using this practice however.

The URL shortener service that I use is tr.im which I have known as "tee-are-dot-eye-em" since I started using it, but if you pay enough attention, you’ll notice that if you ignore the period, it spells trim. If enough people and websites catch on, the tactic could grow enough to be used by a full-sized major corporation. 

A full list of currently available TLDs can be found here.  See if any of those would match up with the ending letters of a name or title that you might want, and then look into how to get such a domain name registered.  Since most of those are for other countries, the rules and fees might vary a lot.

My daughter loves butterflies, but they are pretty hard to come by on demand most of the year.  However, the Denver Botanic Gardens attracts them in droves thanks to their array of plants and flowers.  But, when there aren’t any butterflies around, it doesn’t matter what kind of plants you have.

A dozen Google searches later and I’m still no closer to finding out when the peak season for butterflies is in Denver.  (Just FYI, I do know about the Butterfly Pavilions in Broomfield, CO and yes, she loves it there too, but the Botanic Gardens are closer, bigger, and outside which is what I was shooting for today.)

A .org site search lead me to the North American Butterfly Association which has the domain NABA.org so I’m guessing their pretty legit.  Still, no quick answers, but at least I finally have some usable links.

Thanks to commenter Lisa another parenting blog writer who shot me a link to a Denver Post article that says:

The butterfly season in Colorado is generally May to October.

Even better is this more recent article which says:

Summer and early fall are the peak seasons for butterflies.

Well, there you go.  Went to the Botanic Gardens too early.  No problem, we’re members so we’ll go again later.  I just won’t promise butterflies again until August or September.

As a new father, again, this time of a young son, I am remembering some of those really great tips and tricks that helped me survive having a new baby at home last time around.  One of them is developing some resources that provide entertainment, distractions, or a way to work while simultaneously holding a baby that won’t sleep unless he’s in your arms.

It can be frustrating during those first few months when a new baby can’t sleep on their own all of the time.  Most of us don’t mind holding our beautiful baby boys or baby girls in our arms.  The issue is that we often have other things we need to be doing and with our own sleep hours dwindling, it can be hard to find enough time.  One answer is to use that time when wall baby needs from mom or dad is their body heat, smell, and breathing’s rhythmic rise and fall of the chest or stomach.

The catch is that most babies don’t turn into pliant lumps of clay that can be moved around to accommodate accomplishing tasks.  Instead, parents need to find ways to be able to do things without disturbing baby.  Usually, this means doing it one handed.

Last time around, I made sure to have a stack of printouts laying nearby.  This time around there is a better option.

The Amazon Kindle and other electronic readers like it allows you to stock up on a bunch of reading that you need to do (or want to do) and then hold it in one hand.  The latest 6-inch size Kindle can be held in one hand to allow for reading while baby sleeps in your arms.  Fill it up with reports, books, manuals, webpages, news feeds, or whatever you need and then keep it near your usual baby holding spot.  That way, when baby falls asleep in your arms, you can get through some of your reading.

Adjusting to a new baby takes both flexibility and maximizing your time and resources.  These electronic readers provide one more way to get more done while still taking great care of your newborn baby.