The changing table

Had a brief email exchange with family that included this:
While the white lie may be an essential parenting technique, I for one think Luke deserves a time out. There may have been more than one lie in James' email, but one of them was not that I agreed with him. As far as teh changing table controversy goes... well, I agree with James. its good to have a place to store stuff, have the "don't roll away from me" pad buttoned on and most importantly, spare your back.



This may be more important for Owen than anyone but any amount of work done on the large children this family tends to have is probably best done at an appropriate height. I also think the changing table only places are ridiculous. that said, Amazon lists several hundred of them, this is for two reasons. 1) It is good to have a changing table, and 2) new parents are suckers. For instance, don't buy thirty outfits in the 3 month size, they will only be in that size for four days, and with a little bit of laundry, fifteen outfits should last 4 days (with proper diapering).



Claire and I got a tallish dresser, it stores outfits, diapers, and a few medical supplies, then we put the changing pad on top. the changing only tables have little bars on the side that are supposed to help with the rolling protection, but Owen, who is an expert roller, and has plenty of desire to escape the changing pad (as he associates it with torture), hasn't really been too hard to keep on the pad we have even without the roll bars. Get something that is adaptable for future use, or get something sturdy that you already have and then firmly attach the pad to the top of it. (carpet tape, or buttons work well).



Speaking of amazon, they are where I buy diapers, often cheaper than costco with free express shipping. If you "subscribe and save" they take an additional fifteen percent off. As a bonus, they often don't charge sales tax, although you are supposed to report these on your state tax return. Also if you follow THIS LINK, every time you go to Amazon, I will get somewhere between 4 and 9% back on your purchase as part of a referral fee. I assure you this is totally legitimate and I will use the proceeds to some good end, like a nice bottle of scotch, or Owen's college fund. Basically, every time you go to Amazon, some website somewhere is claiming credit for you geting there. be it google, yahoo, www.naked_coeds_on_the_beach.com or whatever other site you've recently visited. (they put a cookie on your computer). Amazon is currently paying THEM, when you could keep it in the family.

Seriously, any time you think, oh, I'll go to Amazon, do so by finding this email and clicking on this link (or follow the link, THEN save it as a favorite, bookmark, etc.) :

http://www.amazon.com/?ie=UTF8&tag=jglens-20&link_code=ure

Your christmas presents will benefit, although I cannot offer you a quid pro quo kickback as that is against the terms of service. Still, its better than the money going to www.I_love_rush_limbaugh.com or whatever sites murray visits on your home computer kate. (it is also possible to find equivalent links from worthy charities on the web, but, really, what's a more worthy charity than this?)

But I digress, changing table, not a bad idea with certain specifications.
-John