TMI Tuesday: Finding EVERYTHING on the floor!

Even before our son began crawling he would find the most minuscule piece of trash, hair, dust, crumb, lint, or string hiding in the carpet around him. Now that he is mobile and crawling at a clip that would impress even the most hard-nosed drill sergeant, he is finding more and more nearly imperceptible things within the field of carpet throughout the first floor of our house. It is actually quite impressive the amount of things that he has been able to find and also rather annoying since we have to keep a constant eye on anything that may seem out of the ordinary in the beige and brown floor.

Thankfully his toys keep him occupied more often than not and he tends to ignore many of the small pieces that we are able to quickly pick up behind him. Although there have been moments when I have contemplated putting some kind of shammy on this hands and letting him loose in the kitchen. He would probably have fun with it but I think it is a little too early and there might be something in the child labor laws about it. However, I think with his OCD tendencies he might do that all by himself when he gets a little older.

While we don’t keep a spotless house, and we probably never will, we do keep track of what could possibly be hiding in the fibers across the floor and in the kitchen around his highchair. We know where the possible discoveries are and we make sure to sweep, Swiffer, and vacuum enough to keep him from ingesting something we don’t want him to. On the other hand, the harmless things we don’t give much attention as he does have to learn every now and again that something, while perfectly safe, doesn’t taste very good.

And this is a lesson that he is quickly learning especially when he spends some time in the yard. Not only do leaves leave a bad taste in your mouth but they can also stick to the roof of your mouth even worse than peanut butter… something we avoid bringing into the house until we get some additional testing done. Now, fully mobile, he finds everything and he tries to eat everything which is proving to be humorous at times but, more than anything, a very tiring and challenging daily routine. And it is only going to become a bigger challenge when we start some of the improvement projects over the summer.

TMI Tuesday: Crawling

It wasn’t long ago when our son figured out how to sit up by himself from his stomach. It was one of those things that my wife and I caught him doing on the camera and soon thereafter he would sit up when he felt like it or, on occasion, when daddy asked him to do it. Heck, that is how I was able to see him do it and the smile that he gave me afterward is something I won’t forget. Since then I have been able to ask our son to sit up before picking him up. He’s actually pretty good about following directions when he wants to be cooperative.

It seems like just a short time ago when we were enjoying those moments which were soon followed by scooching across the floor and sitting up and lunging in a different direction to get what he wanted. That turned into a quasi-Army crawl which then became a half crawl with primarily propelled him backward. He has moved well past all of those stages and now the forward momentum is taking over. We are in trouble.

It started with a couple steps forward followed thereafter by three or four shuffles back. As the counterproductive kinks got worked out he began moving a little further each time. The toys on the other side of the room weren’t so far away after all. Once he could clear the room without stopping he started picking up the pace. This was particularly noticeable when he started catching the battery operated train and cars that he once just looked at as they rolled by.

Now there is a little more purpose with his crawling as he knows to move toward the hallway so he can see daddy walk through the side door when he gets home. He can also crawl to a toy, almost like he is stalking it at times, and reach up with one hand and grab it while still supporting himself. From there he reverts back to an old trick and sits up so he can play with his prey.

I guess this means it is time to really start thinking about the different safety locks and baby gates because he seems determined to move around the house by himself. It is that time already. I don’t know how we got this this point so fast but it is time to evaluate and see what needs to be done so we don’t hear cabinets slamming on fingers and our son sliding back down the stairs like dirty laundry on a wash board. Time for some DIY.

Musings About Mobile Monday

Yesterday was a long day but, fortunately, it didn’t feel like a case of the Mondays. It wasn’t about what had to be done at the office it was simply being out of the apartment for so long and all for business purposes. A day that began at the office ended at a Mobile Monday Conference in Philadelphia (right next to 30^th Street Station at the Cira Centre).

With the exception of running around like a mad man right before leaving the office, testing the limitations of the speed limit on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and having my patience tested when I missed the earlier train from Wynnewood by a matter of seconds, it was a great night that offered a lot of insight into the future of mobile in retail. Having recently delved into this space head first with my clothes on last month it really is a fascinating field and one that was interesting to hear multiple perspectives on during this event. It’s always fun to wade around in a pool of ideas.

During the evening it was also nice to simply get out and talk to people whom I may not have had the chance to meet during the usual course of my day. Of course, it was also an opportunity to run into a few people that I normally don’t run into during business hours including a fellow Rotarian whom I have met on a few other occasions at Rotary events along the main line. I guess if you get out and meet enough people you are bound to have some overlap here and there.

While meeting people is a great part of any gathering, the event really is only as good as the subject matter and speakers. The speakers may have seemed a bit dry to some but I found the discussion and audience interaction fascinating and the statistics definitely give you something to think about. Of course, leave it to me to be distracted by the fact that the panel moderator looked a lot like Robert Sean Leonard (Wilson from the television show House).

The idea of mobile in retail was not just something that got me thinking about the current applications and future implications (especially with the recent death null of Blockbuster) but it all got me thinking about how much things have changed in the short span of my own life. What once was advanced to play Oregon Trail on a green screen is not HD and 3D televisions and virtual gaming; what once involved taking an imprint of your charge card at the register is not a simple app that allows you to order ahead of time and pay with your phone.

It really is an amazing transformation that we have gone through in the last 20-30 year. Heck, even over the past 5-10 years. It makes me wonder what could be around the corner; what could be the next big breakthrough in technology. But, I think the main questions to be considered are whether the current technology (mobile retail included) is making our lives better/easier and whether the next step forward will, effectively building on the current innovations, will improve our lives or exacerbate our problems?