The Magic of Tractors

Our son has taken a liking to tractors, trucks, cars, riding mowers, and various other things with wheels. When we're out for a walk, he'll often point to passing cars and ask "Da?" to which we'll respond with the make and model. On a recent trip to great-grandpa's farm he was in heaven looking at the antique tractors. This led to the discovery of a great way to keep him occupied during those difficult, antsy times when we're all waiting for something or he's in a particularly squirmy mood in his car seat. Check the rack of free publications near the doors of your local grocery store for auto/truck/tractor trader magazines. The hundreds (thousands, perhaps?) pictures of cool vehicles in these magazines will enchant any kid who happens to be in an "everything with wheels is awesome" phase.

Frugal, Healthy Microwave Popcorn

Do you enjoy microwave popcorn, but are looking for a less expensive and probably far healthier way to enjoy this treat? America's Radio Sweetheart Jesse Thorn recently noted on the Maximum Fun weblog that you can make an easy snack by putting popcorn and a spritz of canola oil into a paper lunch bag and tossing it into your "radar range" for a couple of minutes.

For a little more initial investment, you can pop with little or no oil using a bowl specially designed for microwaving popcorn. I bought a Presto PowerPop a few years ago, and it continues to provide amazing popping performance. You should be able to find one for under 15 bucks. I use it without oil, then add some fat-free butter spray and salt after popping. Not only do I think this tastes better than what you buy in the bags, but you know for sure it isn't flavored with a cocktail of weird chemicals (that you didn't add yourself).

Review: Tamagotchi Connection V5

A couple of months ago, this product was sent to me for review. Since the PR firm involved in promoting this toy was nice enough to provide me with one, I decided to go ahead and review it despite the fact that my own kid is not nearly old enough to be in its target demographic.

Remember those Tamagotchis from years and years ago? They were little, egg-like electronic devices with a pixellated representation of a cute little baby creature on a black-and-grey LCD screen. You pushed buttons to feed them, play with them, send them to the toilet, etc. I never had one when I was a kid, but I knew enough about them to understand this Achewood comic strip about a fictional toy called "Click Robot". This V5 is pretty much the same deal, only now it's an entire family of little creatures in your care, and they've added some features as well as an online component.

The basic functions of the toy are cute enough. The little things dance around and play as long as you keep them happy. The games that you play with them are fun, but quickly grow tiresome as there isn't much to them. Sometimes they get bored and demand that you "train" them. This involves picking from three provided activities and then watching your creatures do it. I "trained" them to make a paper airplane, and their pixellated expressions conveyed just how much this blew their tiny tamagotchi minds.

I think this would be an okay toy for a kid who wants a pet but whom you think needs a bit more experience with responsibility before they can take care of something for which there are actual consequences for neglect. They toy is kind of fun at first, but after a few days of responding to occasional beeps keeping the things fed and happy it grows tiresome.

The manufacterer also provides a website where your Tamagotchi family can interact with other such creatures in a worldwide, online community. I didn't even attempt to mess around with this. If this were actually my kid's toy, I would be quite annoyed that it was asking him to spend additonal time serving his Tamagotchi overlords via online games, etc. I think the company would be better off putting more effort into making the toy a more robust, self-contained experience rather than luring youngsters into an online "community" as so many toys, TV shows, and breakfast cereals are doing these days.


It's good that kids are comfortable using computers - I think it's a legitimate way to spend time learning, socializing and being entertained - but I don't like when I get the feeling that a marketing ploy is trying to stake a claim to as much of a child's time as possible in order to build brand loyalty. Some kids in my neighborhood have been working on building a fort of some kind in the trees beyond my backyard. At first, I was just annoyed to see kids out running wild and making a mess. On further reflection, though, I thought about how they were outdoors, enjoying the spring, working with their hands, cooperating on something, and using their imaginations. I remember such play from my own childhood, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to run around like that.

Good, bad, or okay: Okay!

Get a Free One: Since I got this thing for free and my kid is many years to young to play with it, I'd like to give it away to a Clever Dad reader. Please comment below and include your first name if you're interested. I'll choose one of the commenters at random and announce the winner on this site. Then you can email me your address and I'll ship you this lovely, pre-played-with toy that has been chewed on by my toddler.

Mother's Day Approaches

Mother's Day is this coming Sunday in the United States, and Garrison Keillor has these words to share in his column at Salon.com:

She knows when you're in trouble. And you will get into deep trouble someday. Count on it. Someone will file a lawsuit against you and subpoena your e-mail and it will all come flooding out, your dark secrets, your nefarious dealings, and your friends will cross the street to avoid you and your brothers and sisters will fade into the woodwork, but your mother will still love you. Like an old lioness, she'll come running even if you're 2,000 miles away.

Reading this, it really rings true with how my wife and I have come to feel about our own progeny. When you meet your baby for the first time, he's a tiny, little stranger and you wonder if you'll ever feel that overwhelming love that so many people talk about. After a year with our boy, we're absolutely dedicated to being on his side come whatever may. We never knew we could feel that way about anyone besides each other.

Breastfeeding Reflections from Clever Mom

Clever Mom contributes the following regarding breast milk:

Dr. Sydney Spiesel wrote about a recent breast-feeding study for slate.com. They studied breast feeding in Belarus, and discovered that breast feeding played no role in reducing respiratory infections (but did reduce diarrhea and eczema), and in no way affected the behavior of the child at 6.5 years, or the mother's satisfaction with her marriage and family. The author is shocked, I am not. Dr. Spiesel concludes that the child is likely to do best if the mother chooses a method of feeding that works best for the family.

I believe that breast feeding is best for babies, especially newborns. And I think that new moms should be encouraged to give it a shot, because it starts the baby out with a food that definitely will be easily digestible (there are lots of different kinds of formula because some babies can't digest/are allergic to regular formula.) It also saves tons of money, is better for the earth, and helps new moms drop baby weight quickly. But I think the health benefits are very overblown, and I think it creates far too much stress on inexperienced mothers to expect them to care for an infant, go back to work, and be a baby food factory all at once.

I think breastfeeding is likely easier than formula feeding for stay at home moms, but for me at least breastfeeding and working full time was far more stressful than it was worth. I realized that since I spent 2 hours a day pumping and cleaning pump parts, 9 hours working and commuting, and my baby slept for 12 hours I only spent a single hour a day with my baby. So when he was 7 months old I hung up my Medula and got an extra 15 minutes in the morning and hour at night with my sweetie (and I didn't spend my lunch holding bottles to my boobs.) Women flocked to the workforce in the 60s and 70s because they had the option of feeding formula, and I think women are turning each other into guilty slaves by demanding that if they go back to work they still must breast feed. Granted, I think it is great that employers are offering lactation rooms, but I don't like the currently predominate school of thought that you are only allowed to go back to work if you dedicate yourself to pumping full time and working full time.

So basically I think moms should try breastfeeding, but you should ultimately go with the feeding plan that works best for your family. I also think it is important to frequently reevaluate your decision, to make sure that "not a drop of formula will pass through my baby's lips" is really a goal that will make you and your family happiest in the long run.

Online "Free" Credit Reports Not Always So Free

American Public Media's 5-minute daily tech show Future Tense did an episode yesterday about Freecreditreport.com and similar websites (link goes to site where you can stream this episode). Several years ago, the U.S. federal government required credit agencies Experian, Equifax, and Transunion to put up the website AnnualCreditReport.com, where you can actually get a free, annual credit report. Since then, these same credit agencies have put up other websites with similar names. These other sites often include "free" in the web address, but they actually exist to try and sell you unnecessary, additional credit services that the average consumer doesn't really need. So, despite the advice of the singing pirate guy, you should probably stick with AnnualCreditReport.com if you want a report that is easy to get and actually free.

Saving on Regular Monthly Expenses

I'm a believer in taking stock of your regular monthly expenses and thinking seriously about what could be cut or reduced. What you find and the action steps you choose to take will vary depending on your situation. What my wife and I found a couple of years back is that it made no sense to keep a land line phone when we had a cellphone plan. We also found that we are people who can live without cable television and never really miss it. (In fact, we know that if we did have cable, we would be unable to resist the lure of watching pure garbage. I just can't take the risk of seeing more than one episode of VH1's Rock of Love.)

More recently, we found a way to cut our high-speed internet bill by $20. We're honest with ourselves when it comes to the fact that we are people who need the internet. A good deal of our information and entertainment comes from the web, and it's also rather important when it comes to our personal correspondence and shopping. We had been paying quite a bit for cable internet, and while researching other options we realized that our cable company offers a lower tier of broadband internet at a significantly lower price. This is still broadband - just slower than the 11 mbps he had been paying for. From the research I did, all of the things we use the internet for (YouTube, email, research, news) should still work fine. I just called them yesterday to make the switch, and I'm already feeling about $20 cleverer.