The Snuggli is my friend

Had you asked me just a few weeks ago what the best invention ever was I would've answered the Sham-Wow, Magic Bullet, Magic Putty, or Swiffer WetJet. While I still think that the aforementioned items are great invention, my official nomination now goes to the Snuggli. For those of you that do not know what the Snuggli is, let me fill you in. The snuggli is a contraption that allows you to carry the baby on your chest (or back when they get older). Not only does this allow you the access to both of your hands, it also allows the baby to curl up into a contortion that only babies are able to achieve and fall asleep. Not just calm. I mean OUT. Like I just ended an all nighter by getting hammered and I just found a couch out.

Now I admit there are a few issues one must get around when using the Snuggli. First, it is by no means and easy in, easy out carrier. You have to master the right hand hold, left hand snap twice and then vice versa routine. Then there is a moment when you realize that your baby and a marching band bass drum have a lot in common. I have realized many things as a father, but this realization may have been the oddest.

Finally, I am convinced that the Snuggli had to have been invented by a mother. I think this not because it is a useful item for mothers to use while getting things done around the house. Nor do I think this it allows the person some freedom from the arm stingers that are recent parenthood. No I am convinced of this because when I carry Clare in it and try to get up and down from the sitting position, or even walk around, I do it exactly like Julia did just a few weeks ago in her third trimester. The Snuggli offers parents free hands, a break, puts the baby to sleep, and exacts revenge on the fathers, for this I declare it the greatest invention and say kudos to you females: You Win!

Now, the other day i promised you the story of when we went to get pictures taken at the mall. I am hoping that you weren't hoping for a hilarious story because it wasn't. The event of taking pictures is rather awkward, but then again I have always found going to a photographer to be rather awkward: My chin just doesn't need to go higher. Anyway, we decided to go for a stroll through the mall after the pictures. This started off good, but soon enough Clare let us know that she was done.

I am sure that you parents out there have had the experience of having your child scream as if they were on fire in a public place. The most shocking of this was that people continued to come up and look at her and comment on her cuteness. Now I mind you her face was beat red because she had decided that oxygen was not as important as making her point. Yet people continued to oh and ah at her. Now I am not trying to say that my child is cuter (though she is) or that she is any more special. What I want to know is when the common stranger goes from thinking that a screaming baby is cute to a screaming baby is annoying. The only thing I can think is that it is the carrier. A baby in a carriage alone does not get the pass that a baby in a carrier attached to a stroller gets. For this I believe that the baby carrier may have the single largest impact on our society than any other accessory. Seriously can you think of anything else that elicits a stronger impact. Now don't get me wrong the baby has a part. A person with just a carrier with no baby would elicit a completely different response, but at the same point again it seems to be a universal one at that. I'll be sure to fill you in any other developments in my research.

Now a few rules have come in and I am sifting through them, but as it stands right now I have earned no points, but I did get one complaint from my father. To be fair to myself I am not sure that my mom has even read the blog yet so I expect a bigger second half from myself.

New Lessons Learned

1. Babies don't like medicine squirt into their mouths.
2. Babies love mobiles; dogs hate them.
3. Suddenly midnight has become early and 5 A.M. become late.