Hands Free Device!

To be honest, not much has happened in the last week or two since I posted. . . Emily has quadrupled in size, gotten a job, learned to drive, and moved out. Seriously though, she mostly sat around all week. The only new development was the purchase of Emily's new favorite thing, a baby swing. After discovering the soothing effects of swinging Emily through a 180 degree rotation, in her car seat, I determined that a swing is something that she may enjoy. It turns out, that as usual, I was right.

After Christa did some Internet research, we selected a swing that would match the mobile in her bedroom, "Ocean Wonders" by Fisher Price. Upon arriving at the baby store, we were faced with a conundrum . . . they no longer had the Ocean Wonders swing in stores. We were faced with 2 options. Option 1, buy it on the Internet and swing her back and forth manually until it arrived, or Option 2, buy a completely different swing and not care about the fact that it wouldn't match. Christa, with complete disregard for the condition of my back and shoulders or even the length of my arms, fought heavily for Option 1. After she considered that all swinging duties would fall squarely upon HER back and shoulders during the hours that I'm at work, she quickly swung her support towards Option 2. With our direction decided, we were now faced with the difficult task of deciding which of the thousands of swings would make our little girl the happiest. After a series of coin flips, a couple of thumb wrestling matches, a few rounds of rock-paper-scissors, throwing a few darts, and tails pinned on donkeys, we settled on a swing. By now, you are probably wondering what we chose.

Drum roll please. . . . . . . .

We chose the Fisher Price, Rainforest Cradle Swing!

This swing is the Cadillac of swings, the Mercedes of swings, the BMW of swings, the Ferrari of swings. This swing makes all other baby swings look like an old tire hung from a tree limb. This is the swing I wish I had when I was a baby. Here are its features. . .

It comes with a Swing-Away mobile with dual motion. This mobile has a trio of colorful rainforest creatures that go around and around and a canopy of leaves that go up and down in a hide-and-seek motion. (It's fascinating!)

It plays 12, count 'em, 12 songs and nature sounds.

It has 6 speeds from Merry-Go-Round to Loop-de-Loop Coaster. (Like her Daddy, Emily likes the Loop-de-Loop Coaster speed.)

It can swing our little girl front-to-back or side-to-side.

The coup de grace, its crowning feature, it goes from Zero to 60 in 2.4 seconds, no wait, I mean it has AC or DC power. (Not the band, the electrical current.)

Sort of makes you wish you had one of these too, doesn't it? Well that's too bad, we bought the only one ever made, I think.

You're probably wondering what a swing has to do with hands free devices. So, I'll explain . . . You see, Emily can sit happily swinging left and right, staring at her dual action mobile, listening to her 12 songs and nature sounds at roller coaster speed for hours. To be honest, this is quite possibly the best feature of the swing. It has allowed Christa to walk around the house and do things that she has not been able to do while holding Emily. It has also allowed Christa and I to both eat a hot meal at the same time, hence the hands free device.

We will post again soon, as Emily is taking her first weekend trip. Details to follow. . .