If I Face' and 'Space, do I have to Tweet too?

Are we really being social, or anti-social being part of all of these "social-networking" sites.

I understand that the social networking thing is huge. It's a great way to keep in touch with people who you would otherwise not keep in touch with but it's also an amazing time-suck!

The other part is, you have to figure out what your intended audience is. I mean, should I be writing this blog on Twitter, so that all of my friends (none of which are on Twitter that I know of) could see this blog post automatically? Or should I just post a link on Facebook to say "Hey, here's another story about my life... look at me... look at me!"

We now live in an extremely vain society, where 1 1/2 year old children can't even wait to see what their picture looks like, because they say "Lemme see, lemme see" two seconds after you snap a photo. Can you imagine waiting a FULL MINUTE to see a Polaroid "Instant" picture develop before your eyes in today's society? I mean seriously, I think some kids would have a nervous breakdown waiting that long. Or, at least they would have sent a text message to twelve of their friends saying that they were waiting to see a picture develop.

Everything is "instantaneous" and we all love to share. Photos, stories, experiences and whatever else we can think of. It's great for keeping in touch with family, and showing photos of your kids to friends and relatives in other countries who wouldn't otherwise get to share and experience the same things at the same time as people living next door if the technology wasn't there.

However, this past weekend we were at my wife's parent's house looking through old photo albums looking for a baby photo of her for a work related event at her company. While physically browsing page by page through the albums there is a certain kind of heartfelt intimacy and nostalgia to the hard bound photo albums. The time, effort and care that went into putting those albums together over the course of several years provides you with a different kind of feeling and family history.

Now, I post my photos to Kodak Gallery or Flickr to share them with friends and family, or even a "baby blog" website for my daughter, which is great because I can provide the story along with the photos. But, there is just something so much more personal and emotional about flipping through the pages of a photo album that was put together thirty-plus years ago.

Flipping through those pages got me thinking about where these photos and websites are going to be thirty years from now? Will my kids, or my Grandkids be able to click on a website and "thumb" through our photos and stories when they're looking for baby pictures for a company event?

The way things have gone in recent years, or even months, I don't know if those sites, or companies will be here thirty years from now, so I think the "old fashioned" way of keeping photos is going to be the best way to retain these pictures and stories. I may even start creating a soft-bound book and include the blog stories along with the pictures. It's just something to ponder.

As for all of the social networking sites, I think I'll stick to just two for now, and wait for another one to come along in the not so distant future and see what that offers us and where it takes us. I Face' more than I 'Space now, and I have two blogs with another one on the way (since baby #2 is just months away) but I don't Tweet. However, according to the name of this blog, I do chirp!

A Brutal Week!

The past seven to ten days have been pretty brutal. Not in the fact that things are going badly or that any "major" changes have been happening, there is just one thing that has been making the last week or so really tough… Lack of Sleep!

My daughter, Isabelle, is teething. At least we think she is teething. So, she has not been sleeping through the night very much since the Friday before last. She has been waking up between 1 and 3 a.m. a bit fussy and then when you settle her down, she just doesn’t want to go back to sleep, she’s ready to party. At her daycare, they actually call her “party-girl”, I hope that moniker goes away by the time she’s out of pre-school, God help me!

Whenever this happens, Daddy has night-time duty. So, I get up with her and I either bring her down into the living room and put her into the swing and we watch a little television, while Daddy tries to catch some more z’s on the couch. However, this method that used to work like a charm and lull her back to sleep has failed miserably in recent attempts.

She now begins throwing her binky and monkey blanket about the room and leans over and looks at me while I sleep on the couch with her arms dangling over the edge of the swing like a monkey swinging by its tail off a tree limb.

As cute as this really looks, it’s not so charming or cute at 3 in the morning.

The next phase after this 45 minute failed attempt is to bring her back upstairs to her room, and try to see if she’ll rock in the rocking chair for a few and put her cute little head on Daddy’s chest and fall asleep. Once again, in recent attempts, miserable failure!

Izzie pushes away from me and wants to get down and play with her toys and “read” her books. I mean why not, she’s wide awake right? So, I put her on the floor to play with her toys and she starts walking around her bedroom carrying any number of books or stuffed animals in a dizzying circular motion. I don’t know if the dizzying effort is for her, for me or to lull the stuffed animals into a false sense of security, but either way, my head starts spinning and Daddy needs to lie down on the floor.

While we are both now on the floor, Izzie starts handing books to me to read to her. I do my best to keep my eyes open and be at least mildly entertaining in the state I’m in. She usually gets bored rather quickly at my mediocre late night/early morning reading skills and takes the book from my hands barely halfway through and discards it immediately. She then picks up another book or toy and comes back over and basically sits on my chest or hip, bounces a few times, gives me a look and a giggle through her binky-filled mouth and goes back to playing with her chosen toy.

Our next fun step is cranky time. We’ve now been up around an hour and a half to two hours and we’re both getting sleepy again. Isabelle starts getting tired and rubbing her eyes. Daddy starts yawning and rubbing his watery eyes as well. It’s hard to tell which one of us is crankier at this point, but I’m going to have to lean toward Daddy.

Now, as much as you’re told not to give your baby a bottle in the middle of the night because they will get used to waking up to eat, you’ll do anything to get them to settle down and get back to sleep. To add to this, Isabelle hasn’t been eating very well lately because we think her teeth and mouth have been bothering her, so, she probably is waking up hungry as well, and that bottle isn’t going to hurt as far as I’m concerned.

And it’s a proven fact in the Daddy science book (that I am currently writing) that warm milk makes you sleepy and want to snuggle up with your stuffed animals. So, warm milk it is, and it usually does the trick. Lately, however, her awake times have been a little longer so, Sandy, aka Mommy, has been getting up at the four or five o’clock hour and giving Izzie the bottle.

To be honest, Mommy does have more of a magic touch when it comes to bedtime than Daddy does. It usually takes Mommy about 25-30 minutes to get Izzie back to sleep, and I welcome the peace and quiet and comfort of my bed after a long couple of hours awake in the middle of the night. Of course, getting back into bed and having to jockey for position with the two dogs is a story for another day.

What we did notice this weekend is that Isabelle’s two front teeth at the top that have come through, and two more on either side of her two front teeth are close behind. It also looks like two more bottom teeth on either side of her front teeth are on their way as well. Hopefully, when these come through, things will settle down a little bit and we can all get some sleep. Because I know I need it, and I’m sure everyone else in the house would benefit too!