I picked up some AA to D shells from Lees electronics in Vancouver. It puts 2 AAs in the space of 1 D cell. That way I could just keep buying AA and AAA for everything.

AA and C are the same length, so you can jam an AA where a C goes if you do it right.

For the swing, you're going to have to use Alkaline and not Rechargeables. The voltage difference will be apparent and the swing won't work well under load.

Kids toys use an ungodly about of AA and AAAs.

It does make sense to keep contributing to your RESP b/c the RESP is effectively tax free for your kid (they'll make so little in their school years that they basically pay no taxes) so even if you don't get the grant it's a great tax haven for your money.

Ideally, you front load your contributions to get the maximum growth - I'm doing $500/mo for my kid's first ~4 years or so before lowering it to just get the match. Some folks who have lots of money do all the front loading in the first year. More info: https://www.looniedoctor.ca/2019/04/26/resp-lump-sum-2/

I manage my RESP via an ETF from Wealthsimple - it's the easiest way to contribute IMO with fairly low costs involved.

Makes me wonder why these toys don't just come with internal rechargable batteries

100% cost issue when it's cheap plastic disposable toys. Much easier and convenient to design for and use.

Plus there's no standards for charging ports that they use. My kids small remote control cars that had LiPos in them all had different plugs. jst, or barrel but different sizes. They all had cheap USB charger cables, but they were junk and fell apart.

Lucky I have a airsoft/ r/c lipo charger and use that with the stripped cables.

lol, random share:

The other day, my wife randomly said that my face looks really huge now...
Funny thing is, I was thinking the same that her face looked really huge for the past while too.

Because we've both been interacting with our newborn for the past 6 weeks and staring at his little face for so long, in comparison, our faces look huge to each other now, especially when we hold the baby's face next to each of ours. lol... this is so weird.

^^
Have you started noticing mommy/daddy brain yet like literally forgetting shit all the time, whether it's forgetting to do something or forgetting you and wifey told each other something.

lol... not that I know of yet... I think.

Our 9 month old is actively going for kitchen cabinets and drawers now so it's time to babyproof the place. I am curious what options you've all tried for babyproofing the kitchen drawers and cabinets and what you'd recommend? I'd prefer not to drill into the cabinetry if possible. All of our hardware is pulls, no knobs. Thanks in advance.

https://www.amazon.ca/Magnetic-Invis...%2C139&sr=8-13

been using these for quite some time for both our places. Works great, no drilling and hidden.

Drawers we haven't really put anything. I just make sure all the sharp and glass wear is on the higher ones. Let them take the pots and pans out. Great way to let the kids play while you cook and clean the kitchen. By the time they can reach the higher drawers, they will be old enough to understand not to go in them.

Depending on your layout, might be easier to just get a baby gate to section off the entire area.

I didn't want to drill the baby gate, and it wasn't for stairs or anything, so I bought some laminated wood from Ikea's salvage corner, and drilled the gate into that, and taped the wood to the walls using 3M. Worked fine for 2 years.

As far as actual baby proofing goes, use Amazon. It's like 20% of the price of retail stores, and they're all basically the same.

I'm finally ready to talk about it.

Two weeks ago our newborn was admitted to Children's for 4 days. Before that she had been sick for 5 days already. It started as a runny nose, never had a fever, and congestion. We visited Children's on the 3rd day due to laboured breathing and we were unsure about using a sucker to clear her too much. They cleared her congestion with a sucker and said we should continue to do so. Bring her back if any of the following:
- Eating less than half
- Less than 3 wet diapers
- Has a harder time breathing

On the 6th day, she had a wet diaper at 8:30am, then nothing.
She had fed 30ml at 5am, 40ml at 8:30am, 35ml at 12pm. A normal hungry feed is 75-80ml
We called the doctor and we had to bring her in.

When we arrived at Children's they checked her oxygen levels right away and it was good. It was 2pm. She had a wet diaper. They were slightly concerned about the laboured breathing but will monitor.
By 3:30pm her oxygen levels were below 90 and at concerning levels. They had to give her supplement oxygen.
They had to keep her on oxygen for 3 days and had to use a feeding tube.

Moral of the story? Things go downhill extremely quickly. Don't wait, if you have a doubt, go to Children's, or to your closest ER that can handle pediatric cases. Find out where the closest pediatric ward is.

And again, extremely thankful for Children's Hospital. If we weren't in a 1st world country, she may not have made it.

Relieved to know that the incident remained nothing more than a scary incident. I hope she is doing well now, and will continue to do so.

My little person has grown too big and heavy for me to carry him now, but I still find every chance (or lame excuse) to hug him whenever I can.

It's no joke, my sister is good friends with the parents of the little girl in Richmond who died of a heart problem a little while ago after getting sick... went from being at school with her classmates to dead in a week with no precursors.

The parents are beyond devastated and on top of it all they're constantly getting attacked online by antivaxxers saying it was the covid vaccine and they killed their child.

Definitely looked at my niece and nephew differently after seeing that all happen, don't take them forgranted!

Shxt like this -- the anti-vaxxer bullshxt, that is -- really boils me up. WTF is wrong with these mutherfxxkers?! Don't they at least have the bare minimum human decency to leave the grieving parents alone???

I know right, makes you sick... social media BS, would challenge any single one of those people to look into either of that girl's parent's faces and still say whatever they said... I bet not one of them could do it. Bunch of chicken shit uneducated parrots.

Besides doctors appointments, this past weekend, I finally took my son out for the first time to a family gathering so other relatives were able to meet him.

Never knew carrying a baby around in a car seat for longer than a few mins was so tiring... Or I just need to hit the gym. But my arm was so sore for the next 3 days. And my baby is also getting fat. 85th percentile.

This is why we bought the lightest baby seat possible lol.

Also there's a way to hold it so it's not so hard on your arm.

I got the nuna lite for the low weight

That method helped somewhat, but we had a 95th percentile kid. He got moved to the stand alone rear facing seat at around 6 mths.

with the 1st kid i remember carrying him in the car seat alot and it was absolutely brutal. it took its toll on my arm and shoulder. BUt the 2nd kid i barely remember ever carrying her in the seat. I think me and my wife basically went to stroller friendly places or 1 of us were just sitting in the car for the duration of the nap.

I've read up about this method earlier in the thread.
But it does take up more room besides your body, and in my case on the weekend, I was trying to maneuver the car seat through a maze of chairs and tables since I was at one of those big Chinese restaurants. I had to hold the car seat in front of me, basically holding it like a bicep curl while walking through the restaurant.

Good deal for any kids 3-8 (Ride on car)

https://forums.redflagdeals.com/walm...rx-99-2603482/

Sold out already. Saw it too late

Anyone done with their baby monitor and wanna sell it to me?

Buy a wyze, we are using two and it works for our purposes. You can repurpose them later when your kids are older.