Baby Now Going on Eight Months

Before we had our little girl, I was quite excited about keeping a blog about all the things that she would do and sharing my perspective of being a new dad. However, I've come to realize why dad blogs are few and far between. The fact is, much of the time that I am at home, I need to be getting water, preparing her bath, feeding her or keeping her entertained. At the same time, we don't want to be in front of the computer too much because she starts to be very curious what it is we are doing with this glowing screen of the computer.

Now she is almost eight months, Sitting up quite well now and able to balance from falling off. She enjoys being surprised and having our face close to hers. She also finds it funny to have her hand run over our face. She still likes holding her feet in the air and when she is being carried, she likes to bend backwards to the left and to the right. We have been feeding her cottage cheese with fish and mashed vegetables and she loved it. Last night, she started crying very hysterically which we suspect to be her first nightmare. She was sobbing for quite a while after that as well.

As a dad, it's been fun making her laugh, smile, stare and interact with me. Sometimes I just want to hug her and hold her tightly wondering whether she understands this as an act of affection for her. What we know is that she is quite attached now with us. As soon as she sees us turn her back on her, she can start crying. As soon as she is picked up, she stops as if she was never crying. Many people say that this is the best age for a baby because they can't crawl and walk away and are quite happy to sit on your lap, watch people and play with their hand, studying the opening and closing of their hands as if it were a new toy.

Baby Monitors - you have one already!

For months, we were trying to decide whether we should get a baby monitor. After all, we really would like to make sure that our little one is safe and secure when we are in another room. We don't need to mute the TV every time we thought we hear her cry. However, I couldn't get myself to spend $299 for an Angelcare baby monitor or some of the cheaper ones because it just doesn't seem like it's worth it.

Then I found out that I already have a baby monitor. I have an old Android phone which is not being used and by downloading an app called IP Webcam, I could set up a baby monitor (video and audio) facing our baby with the phone plugged into the charger. The app connects to your local wifi network and allows anyone on your local network to see the baby whether it be on your phone's web browser, or via an app like TinyCam, or via your laptop's web browser for a bigger screen. Hey, you could even put it on the big screen tv if you wanted to. The resolution is as good as you want it. You can even see a visual graph of the past minute's sound picked up by the other phone. If you need to, you can turn the phone's LED light on and off as well.

So before you rush out and buy a web camera, explore the free option. It could be better!