Safety First

Now that the little bugger is crawling, his hands, feet, and head end up in every nook and cranny, under and behind furniture, and always underfoot. I just installed these "Safe Plates" over my outlets, and used outlet plugs for anything less frequently used. Asides from the outlets, watch out for any loose wires around your home, from circuit breakers to cell phone chargers. For some reason, everyone tells me that wires conduct electricity and attract babies; both facts I can testify to.

So to help keep Baby safe and confined, we usually plop him into his Baby Einstein Activity Center, courtesy of his Auntie. Looking for more creative ways to hold him in place, we've also placed him in this vintage toy that Daddy found in the attic, likely from the 1970's: If Daddy was not blinded by the happy exterior and red button nose, he may have noticed the obvious lack of safety features and high likelihood of being recalled in the 1980's, in what I now call the Happy Accident Ball, which eventually led to: ...which happened when baby tipped over and landed on his face. So we moved on to safer places to keep Baby, like in a fully enclosed swing, which yielded much happier results.
So a few lessons learned over the past couple of weeks:

• Keep those outlets covered and wires out of reach of crawling babies
  
• Play with toys less than a decade old and likely to be approved by the Consumer Product Safety Commission
• Cardboard boxes aren't just great for holding boxes of Girl Scout cookies

Year of the Ox

While doing some research for Chinese New year, I came across this interesting tidbit from Wikipedia:

According to tales and legends, the beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nian or "Year" in Chinese. Nian would come on the first day of New Year to devour livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year. It was believed that after the Nian ate the food they prepared, it wouldn’t attack any more people. One time, people saw that the Nian was scared away by a little child wearing red. The villagers then understood that the Nian was afraid of the color red. Hence, every time when the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. From then on, the Nian never came to the village again. The Nian was eventually captured by Hongjun Laozu, an ancient Taoist monk. The Nian became Hongjun Laozu's mount.


After reading this, we dressed Baby up appropriately to make sure no mythical beasts eat our food.
Here's Baby doing his best Happy Ox imitation:
Those born in the Lunar Year of the Ox (1913, 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009) are regarded as patient people of few words. They are supposedly dependable, tolerant, and hard workers, capable of enduring many hardships. Not unexpectedly, stubbornness is the most dominant negative trait for the Ox.

The Ox is the second animal in the Chinese Zodiac, behind the Rat. In the race to be the first animal of the Zodiac, the Ox took the lead with its determination and strength. Just before it crossed the finish line, the Rat, cunningly riding on the back of the Ox, leaped in front, forcing the Ox to be second in the Zodiac.

There are a few calves in the queue for 2009, and we wish lots of luck (and prosperity) for those expecting soon.