Music

So I despise insipid music intended for children. The tinny, tiny voices of supposedly adorable kids or the faux-classical music constructed of bastardized Mozart and Beethoven makes me want to stab myself in the head. I'm all for singing nursery rhymes and lullabies but I also think that the Bug can handle any music, and can handle the "real thing" when it comes to classical music.

I'm not going to play gangsta rap for her, but when I play Mozart for her, it is from a CD of Mozart symphonies, not a cheery, synthesized version. The Baby Beethoven DVD we got as a gift is going back. I'll buy a book with the store credit. (Dudes, seriously, what is up with the creepy march of the puppets? I might not sleep again. And why is that teddy bear wearing a rubber suit?)

I think hearing "real" music is just as educational if not more so than playing fake children's songs for her. I also sing "the itsy-bitsy spider," but that's part of play, not forming her musical tastes. I'm a bit put out with the baby books that make classical music sound like brocoli, that is good for you but unpleasant. (I also like the green stuff, though, so I'm a bit odd.)

Since I don't actually know any lullabies, but have a head full of protestant hymnody, the other day to calm her down, I did an impromptu hymn sing after her immunizations. Don't knock it, it worked.

More to the point, thought, is that I think kids are capable of handling more art than we give them credit for. I'm not saying I'm going to take her to a performance of Pierrot Lunaire, Eight Songs for a Mad King, or a death metal concert. What I am saying, however, is that I can play her real music and it will help her develop just as much as the cheesy stuff.

Stuff I Love

So there are tons of websites devoted to reviewing the stuff you need for babies, and babies need a ton of stuff. So this entry isn't about the baby stuff. Maybe, when the Bug ends the infant phase, I'll review the things I found most useful versus the junk. I may never want to look at the hateful stuff again, who knows.

There are a few things, however, that I have found extremely useful that I never would have expected would be so useful.

1. My BlackBerry Storm with Pandora Internet Radio. (The DH gets similar results with his Motorola Droid) There are several layers of usefulness here:

• While I am nursing, I can read e-mail and catch up on my social networking. Not that nursing isn't great, and I am thrilled that I am able to do this for my daughter, but I can only gaze lovingly at her for so long before I get a crick in my neck.
• Babies like repetitive patterns/ noise. White noise, machines, heartbeats, periodic phrase structures in music. (Sorry, that last one is a nerd shout out.) Therefore, the Bug loves her some Bach and some Mozart. I have a Pandora channel that plays exactly that music. So much better than the out-of-tune awfulness that the noisemaker on the bassinet makes.
• The phone simplifies the process of taking and sharing photos.
• I can't keep track of stuff right now. The lack of sleep and the brain drain of mommyhood make getting me and everything for the bug out with us. When I go workout, I can only keep track of the phone, and listen to my K'naan channel, and not have to worry that I have the iPod, the armband, and the headphones. Just the phone and the headphones.
  

2. My Camelbak Better Bottle. Again, freaking awesome. The first night we were home with the Bug, I managed to spill water all over DH while he slept because I was trying to open a bottle and drink one handed, while holding the nursing Bug with the other hand. Nursing is thirsty work, and this bottle lets me drink with one hand and doesn't spill easily. Within the next day or two, we somehow found our way to REI, where we bought this bottle.

3. A YMCA membership. I love to exercise, but this isn't what I like best about going to the Y. What I like best is that I am able to go, put the Bug in their childcare program, run or whatever, the get a worry-free shower. (Okay, worry-slightly-less shower... part of the Mommy territory is worring some all the time.) Also, they have a whirlpool and a steam room, and this Mom business, thanks to the above worry factor and the Bug's increasing weight, makes my body tense all over. Plus, when I get the Bug ready to go, there's a wildly inappropriate song for me to sing.

4. String cheese. Nursing is thirsty work, but it is also hungry work. I am hungry pretty much all the time, although it is slowing down some recently. It requires an extra 300-500 calories per day, and then if I work out, that adds that much more that I need to be sure to eat enough. I'm stoked about the weight I've lost, but I don't want to loose too much, too fast, because I don't want to get sick.

These aren't baby products, but they have made my life with the Bug much easier. I'm going to keep watching for these things, because it might be my civic duty to point them out as needed.