Basics

As new parents, we have discovered that there are multiple approaches to assist mom’s transition back into the workplace.

As previously mentioned, Dad taking the second shift at home has contributed to mom’s sanity, since she knows Penny is at home with a parent. A good friend has given to mom a subscription to Working Mother magazine, which gives countless tips on getting out of the house with matching shoes and working from home effectively.

And there is one invaluable lesson we felt obliged to share in video form (New Parent goes New Media!). Please play the clip below, or if you don’t see the box below, click here link to be directed to the youtube site.

Say Cheese!

We had many thoughts about what would be the hardest part of the baby to keep clean. It turns out that the number one, hardest, most unreachable place to keep clean is nowhere near where the new parent would expect.

It is the neck. An amazing amount of milk flows from the mouth, across the cheeks, and into the inpenetrable recesses of an infant's neck. In fact, so much milk lodges in the folds that we could probably launch our own boutique line of aged cheese. Of course, at this point the oldest cheese would only be a little over three months.

But back to the issue at hand. Cleaning Penny's neck makes us feel like intrepid explorers, bravely charting the neck reaches where no one has gone before. Occasionally we hit the jackpot, finding a Comstock Lode of milky residue. Every bath is like an adventure in geological archaeology, as we quietly chip off layer after layer of curdled leftovers.

The new parent employs almost any means at their disposal in the attempt to stop the cheesy buildup at its source, using everything from bibs to cloth diapers in an effort to build a dam against the inevitable flow. Unfortunately, the milky tides are against us. Perhaps it is time for us to abandon ship, let the rivers flow, and enjoy bath time's discoveries that much more.

What cheesy product would you like to see on market shelves near you?
	Chubby Cheeks Cheddar
	Baby Brie
	Pretty Penny Parmesian
	Little Girl Gorgonzola
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In retrospect...(you know, hindsight and all that)

You may be wondering why you haven't heard from us for a while. The answer is simple -- during the last two weeks, we have made a series of rookie, new parent mistakes that should suffice to fulfill our new parent bad karma for at least a year or so.

Let's set the stage: three months of FMLA is up, and it's time for Mom to go back to work (on her birthday and a national holiday, no less). What is a new parent to do? We thought, and actually still think, that we were pretty clever. We developed this elaborate scheme in which Mom would take the first three month shift, and then Dad would follow for the next three months.

It turns out, that when you take away Mom, who has only been away from baby for no more than six hours since birth, and combine it with an underdeveloped ability to drink from a bottle, you create a confluence of circumstances not conducive to parental mental health.

The good news is that everyone quickly learned what to do. Penny now drinks from a bottle like a champ, and she and Dad have developed a good rapport (not that one didn't exist before, but now that he's home all day it's a little different).

The lesson for future new parents (and the humor for the old-hat parent) is that you should probably plan ahead for abrupt changes in personnel and routine. Just because we had it all figured out, didn't mean that Penny was in the loop. In the future, we'll be sure to "cc" her on all important logistical arrangements.

All this is in actuality a long apology -- we promise to return to our regular weekly posting schedule, particularly now that Dad has figured out how to type one-handed while propping a bottle up with his chin.

What does Penny think "cc" means?
	Crying and Cranky
	Cute and Cuddly
	Corporate Cruelty
	Copious Colostrum
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What does Newman think "cc" means?
	Crunchy Crickets
	Chewy Critters
	Crazy Cats
	Copious Chicken
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Road Trip: Destination...Delaware

This past weekend we took Penny on her first road trip. The preparation was filled with anticipation and anxiety. Would we pack too much to fit in the Mini? Would Penny cry the whole way there (not to mention the return trip)? How would she do in the hotel? How would she do at the wedding?

We thought this would make an excellent New Parent blog posting. Unfortunately, we have nothing to say. We fit into the Mini perfectly – including two large boxes that constituted the wedding present. Penny slept the entire way there. She slept completely through the wedding reception. She slept most of the way back, with a little bit of crying in the perpetual I-95 Delaware Traffic Jam. (What’s with that? I-95 only runs through Delaware for something like 11 miles. And it’s a toll road to boot - $3.00 equals 27.3 cents/mile. You’d think they could figure out how to manage it without causing huge traffic jams, but no. Click here for more on I-95 through Delaware, including instructions on how to dodge the toll.)

I suppose the moral of the story is that Penny is pretty portable at the moment, so we should probably not worry too much about traveling with her…yet. We’ll be sure to post an update when she (a) grows some lung capacity and finds the natural frequency of the Mini, or at least whatever bridge we may be traveling across, causing something to implode, or (b) gets mobile, making the whole corralling aspect of a wedding reception that much more fun.

For the record, the wedding and bride were beautiful, it was great to catch up with friends and meet new people, and Penny was totally cute in her little pink tights.