For spontaneous napping on the go

I just saw a Twitter post about this very cool little portable kid-bed, and a seemingly was less cumbersome alternative to the Pack-N-Play.

It’s called the KidCo Peapod Portable Travel Bed. Very cool!

Here’s a post on Boing Boing about it, and here is the product
page on Amazon.

Coding for Kids

This is a cool post I read about a new programming language released by Microsoft that is especially for kids, called Small Basic.

After a year in the making, and with very little fanfare, Microsoft last month launched Small Basic, a free programming language aimed at kids. Unlike Scratch and Alice, tools designed for kids to learn programming in a ‘codeless’ environment, Small Basic is essentially a small version of the BASIC language.

Original story on the Microsoft Development Network website

Stinkpalm – it’s the smell that keeps on smelling

Those of you who have seen Mallrats will know what I’m talking about, whe

n Brody is demonstrating the finer art of giving someone “stinkpalm”. If you’ve never seen it and don’t have any clue what I’m talking about, you can read up on it in this Urban Dictionary entry.

Moving on. It has occurred to me on more than one occassion that having a child is like having your own personal stinkpalm machine only, unfortunately, you are the one always being “palmed”. Stick with me here. Have you ever changed a really big and/or nasty diaper and accidentally gotten some of the poop on your hand or fingers? And no matter how hard or how many times you wash your hands, you cannot get rid of the smell. It stays with you for hours. I try not to change any diapers before mealtime if I can help it.

If anyone has any suggestions about how to defeat the stinkpalm, please feel free to let me know!

Scratch-proof DVDs?

Nope, no such thing. And I don’t know about you but my kid LOVES to get into her DVD collection and take every single disk out of the case. She thinks this is a great game. We’ve put all of our “non-kiddie” movies up out of reach but keep all of her movies easily accessible, which has proven to be a problem. And all of those CDs that just get stacked on top of each other instead of being put back in their cases? Scratched and unusable, save for a couple of tracks here and there. Well fear not – technology to the rescue!

You knew it was only a matter of time before someone figured out how to repair old/scratched CDs and DVDs, and that time is now. Check out this article from Wired showcasing three prominent CD/DVD repair models. I can’t wait to get my hands on one and bring a giant stack of disks back from the dead.

<click here for full article>

Number 2

Just a quick note to say that the wife and I now have baby number 2 on the way. And it’s a boy, which means that we will have the complete set (boy and girl). That also means we’re stopping at 2. Congrats to us!