What I've Learned in Two Weeks as a Parent

The following are a few discoveries I've made over the first two weeks as a parent:

• Coolers are king.
• Keeping a cooler on the nightstand to store bottles for 2:00 a.m. feedings will make your life a lot easier so you don't have to go far when hunger hits your newborn.
• Keep diapers everywhere.
• While changing tables might be nice, they are often inconvenient in terms of their location. If you live in a two story house, keeping a diaper station downstairs as well as upstairs will make your life a lot easier. In addition, it's useful to keep diapers near the bassinet if your newborn is sleeping in your room.
• Use a light that can be dimmed.
• The last thing you want to do is turn on the lights in the middle of the night to check on your newborn, to change his or her diaper, and/or to feed him or her.
• PDAs are useful in keeping track of feedings, diaper changes, etc.
• While this may sound trivial, the first thing your infant's pediatrician will ask you is how much he/she is eating and how many diapers you are changing on a daily basis. He/she will also want to know the content of those diapers. Further, you may enter a new parent coma, which will impair your ability to remember anything usually resulting from too little sleep. Thus, if it's not written down, you might not remember it at all.
• Don't believe size tags in infant clothing.
• Even though Brady was an average sized kid in terms of weight and length, all of the "newborn" clothes are still way too big. "Onesies" work well and we swaddle for warmth. Anything else they'll end up swimming in. I've also found that I like Carter's clothing the best and have found that they run large.
• A digital camera is your friend.
• Keep a digital camera in your diaper bag so that it's always accessible. Take pictures everyday and take more than you'll need. You'll be surprised at how quickly they grow and change. And since they're digital images, there's no cost for the ones you choose not to print.
• Make triple prints of all your photos.
• You'll want to keep a set for yourself and the grandparents will likely want a set as well.
  
• A good office chair may be a better bet than a rocker or a glider.
• Everyone raves about using a glider to calm your infant and/or for breast feeding, but my wife found that my ergonomic office chair worked best for her as the chair can be custom adjusted in all ways (e.g., height, tilt, arm height, etc.). You can't do this with a glider or a rocker. In addition, the chair swivels, so you can still use the chair to sooth your infant.
  
• Learn to swaddle.
• Nothing calms Brady more than being swaddled. Waffle style receiving blankets work best as they can be pulled tight, but they leave waffle marks on your newborn's skin. While they do sell swaddling sacks, they may be too large for your newborn.
• Your legs make an excellent cradle.
• If you're sitting in a recliner or on the bed, cross your legs at the ankles and use the space between your legs as a cradle. This way, your newborn will be close to you and you'll be able to see him/her clearly. However, keep in mind that he/she will be too far away for him/her to see you clearly.
  

Brady Is Born

It's official. At 10:23 a.m. on Sunday, January 28th, 2007, my son Brady was born. He weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. His head circumference was 14.25 inches and his chest measured 12.5 inches. His APGAR score at 5 minutes was 9 out of 10.

NBC Stuido Tour (Burbank, CA)

With time to kill before the taping of The Ellen DeGeneres Show at Studio 11 on the NBC Studios' Burbank lot, my wife and I opted to take a tour of the NBC Studios. The AAA admission price was $7.50 per person for an advertised 70 minute tour. In actuality, the tour took less than an hour.

The tour is advertised as including the following:

1. Visiting the Tonight Show Studio
2. Seeing one of Jay Leno's cars
3. Visiting a soap opera studio

The tour starts with a short, although outdated, video introduction to NBC Studios. From there, we were escorted into the studio to a variety of sound stages. The first stop was the Days of Our Lives sound stage. My wife was excited by this as she's been watching this soap for 20 years. However, we were not allowed into the sound stage, but instead had to view it through a doorway. As a result, nothing was recognizable to her, and she watches the show every single day.

We did get to enter the Telemundo news sound stage, where robotic cameras are used in the filming of the newscast. From there, we saw the car that Jay Leno was driving today, a 1940s era (I'm guessing) Saab, and then visited The Tonight Show studio. Since we had seen The Tonight Show taped live previously, this was not all that exciting for us; however, we did get closer to the stage and learned a few things we didn't otherwise know.

All in all, I'd recommend saving your money. The tour was no comparison to the tour offered at NBC Studios New York. Instead, I would recommend going to the gift shop/tour entrance and requesting tickets to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. That way, you'll get to see the studio and the show and you wont miss out on much.

If you are a Days of Our Lives fan, the area just outside of the NBC Studios Gift Shop is "Salem Place." Thus, if you want to see something from Days of Our Lives, you can access this area for free as you enter the gift shop.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show

On Thursday, January 25th, my wife and I headed to Burbank for a taping of The Ellen DeGeneres Show as this was on her list of things she wanted to do before our son, Brady, was born. Although I'll admit that the show's staff is very energetic and seem to enjoy their jobs, I must say that the ticketing process needs to be revisited.

Now, before I go on, I must state that we ended up getting tickets for Ellen's birthday show. As a result, more people may have been in attendance than normal.

Like most shows, tickets are given in excess of capacity, much like how airlines overbook their flights. While this is quite normal and I've experienced it for every show we've gotten tickets for, this simply meant arriving early to guarantee admission. However, for The Ellen DeGeneres Show, this process was quite different.

Rather than simply arriving early to the taping, Ellen tickets are distributed at 9:30 am. for a 3:30 or 6:00 p.m. taping. While the gates open at 7:00 a.m. to begin lining up for "guaranteed admission" tickets, many people arrive early and begin standing in line before this time. However, the general tickets clearly state that the Burbank Police may move those who choose to line up early.

We opted to leave our home at 5:30 a.m. and arrived at approximately 7:30 a.m. When tickets were finally distributed, we received ticket numbers 240 and 241 and were told to return at 4:00 p.m. for the 6:00 p.m. taping; thus, wasting the whole day. Unfortunately, only about 150 people were admitted to the taping as 30 seats were reserved for VIPs. The end result is that we ended up in the "Riff Raff" Room, watching the show as it was taped on monitors, never actually seeing the studio itself. And as a result, none of us in the "Riff Raff" room were eligible for any of the gifts handed out on the show.

While I must give The Ellen DeGeneres Show credit for having such a room, the ticketing process has to be revised. And although they offered us the opportunity to rebook at a future date--which happened to be on my wife's due date--we would have to arrive early and follow the same process outlined above. That being said, the show staff is very energetic, and I've never seen so many people having so much fun at one time. People were dancing, the music was loud, and Ellen even came into the "Riff Raff" room to say hello. She even acknowledge us during the show and we were filmed, although briefly, there.

Viejas Casino

Today, my wife and I visited Viejas Casino for the first time in many years as we wanted to play one last game of bingo before the birth of our son, Brady. While the bingo parlor has moved and the casino has been enlarged greatly, the overall layout remains the same. What we like most is that the bingo parlor has a complete separate nonsmoking section, separated by a solid glass wall. Most other casinos that offer bingo simply have a non-smoking section that is often smoky as there is nothing separating the two sections. The casino also has a very large nonsmoking casino, which was nice.

While we tried the well publicized buffet, I must say that I cannot recommend the buffet at $16.95 per person. Although the website, radio advertisements, and casino signs imply a fabulous buffet, it is not all that it is cracked up to be. In fact, Valley View Casino has a far superior buffet in terms of selection and quality for nearly the same price. I will give Viejas credit for ambiance, however. The restaurant area was stunning with a four sided rock fireplace and carved wood ceilings throughout.

Outside of a very good prime rib offered in very small portions, the king crab legs were nearly frozen solid and the shrimp were peel and eat. Further, the variety of items was limited and many had a "just out of the box" taste to them. There was also a shortage of soup and ice cream bowls. As a result, they ended up serving ice cream in coffee cups.

Given that the wait was an hour and a half, the buffet was worth $10.95, not $16.95. For only a couple of dollars more, Valley View's buffet offers action cooking stations, sushi, already peeled shrimp, and a greater variety of items overall. However the wait will be similar on weekends.

You Never Know Where Your Posts Will Be Quoted

As I was adding a section to my blog on some of the previous cruise reviews I've written on other sites, I discovered that one of my cruise reviews for the Pride of Aloha was cited by the Pacific Business News. The article can be found here. I'm cruiser "jkrislc" for those of you who might be interested.

If you're interested at cruising, take a look at some of the reviews I've written and/or feel free to post a comment here if you'd like to know my thoughts and opinions on cruising. Personally, I find it to be one of the most fun ways to travel, although my wife would disagree in many respects. Thus far, the only cruise she's truly loved is NCL's Pride of Aloha because of its casual dress, freestyle approach to cruising, and the fact that the ship overnighted in many of the ports while we were cruising Hawaii.

Maybe "Snakes on a Plane" Wasn't So Far Fetched

According to a news report today entitled Scorpion Stings Man on Plane by CBS News and many other news sites, a man was stung by a scorpion that somehow manage to make its way onto the plane. While it's not inconceivable that just about any kind of critter can make it onto a plane, it seems somewhat ironic after the earlier theatrical release of Snakes on a Plane and the recent DVD release of the movie.