Author: Andy Rowell

  • Basic baby monitor review

    Our old Fisher-Price monitor broke so we sent it back and got a new one.  See my review below of our new one. 

     

     

    5.0 out of 5 stars A good choice plus advice on monitor shopping, April 23, 2011
    By 
    Andrew D. Rowell (Durham, NC) – See all my reviews
    (REAL NAME)   
    Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
    This review is from: Secure Coverage Digital Monitor – 2 Parent Units (Baby Product)

    Summary: This monitor, redesigned in 2010, is a solid basic monitor with two receivers and has clear sound quality. We have had four monitors with our three kids. Here are six pieces of advice I would give after buying this fourth monitor.

    (1) Baby monitors, which are on every night and for naps during the day for years, tend to wear out so it is worth keeping your receipt in case it breaks. With the continual use, it is perhaps understandable that they wear out faster than phones and other electronics.
    (2) The documentation on this unit says “copyright Graco 2010” and all of the Amazon reviews are from 2011. This suggests to me that this was redesigned in 2010 so that those who review this unit and say things like, “We had this unit years ago and it broke” are probably talking about an earlier version of the product. Here’s hoping it has been improved. It seems solid so far.
    (3) This is a basic audio monitor with two receivers. It is simple. You set up the transmitter near the baby and then you have two receivers with which to hear the baby. We put one receiver in the kitchen and one in the parents’ bedroom but of course you can put them anywhere and move them around wherever. The receivers also light up and vibrate to notify you the baby is awake but in my experience parents rarely rely on these features. Most all the products have at least the lighting feature.
    (4) A basic audio monitor is probably all you need but I would probably get a video monitor today if we were having our first baby because as a new parent you want to see what the child is doing in the crib. Back in 2005 when we had our first baby, video monitors were more expensive and rare.
    (5) In addition to this Graco model, Sony, Fisher-Price, The First Years, and Safety 1st have similar audio monitors with two receivers for a similar price on Amazon. (Motorola, Philips Avent, Angelcare and Levana all have basic monitors that come with a single receiver on Amazon).
    (6) From my perusing of the reviews, all of the monitors receive mixed reviews–half very good and half very bad. The manufacturers acknowledge that phones, cell phones, radios, televisions, microwaves, wireless networks, and neighbor’s electronics can interfere with the monitors. We have all these sources of potential interference and none of our monitors have had problems with interference. If the monitor you get has interference problems, I would send it back and try a different manufacturer and see if you have better luck. It seems to me from the reviews that all of the products sometimes have these types of problems. I would try to judge the products based on other issues besides interference since the reviews seem to be so contradictory on this issue.

     

  • Music for parents: Sara Groves and Andrew Peterson. For kids: TobyMac, Phil Joel and Steve Green

    We have enjoyed the music of Sara Groves and Andrew Peterson for sane words in the midst of parenting.  They have kept us going. 

    Lots of good songs about the pain and beauty of marriage on Fireflies and Songs (2009) by Sara Groves and one about parenting “Setting Up the Pins” that is about the repetition involved.  It was written while doing dishes.  Our kids put it on repeat on the CD player–no kidding.  Fireflies and Songs was named best album of the year by Christianity Today in 2009.  Groves has a blog and is on Twitter. 

     

    Groves also has the “Song for my Sons” song on Tell Me What You Know (2007) and another favorite “When the Saints” that keeps us going.

     

     

    I want to get this one too sometime.  Her Station Wagon: Songs for New Parents (2009).

     

     

    On Andrew Peterson’s album, Counting Stars (2010), there are a couple good songs about marriage: “Dancing in the Minefields” and “World Traveler” and one about parenting “Planting Trees.”  Counting Stars was the #5 album at Christianity Today music awards for 2010.  He is on Twitter.

     

     

    We have also enjoyed: TobyMac’s “Get Back Up” on his Tonight (2010)There is a lot of falling down in our house.  

     

     

    We have also enjoyed “Strong and Courageous” on DeliberateKids.2 (2010) by Phil Joel. 

     

     

    Seeds of Faith has great original Scriptural songs for kids.  We like the whole album.  There are other Seeds albums that look good as well.

     

     

     

    We also recommend the:

    Steve Green Hide ’em In Your Heart (1 and 2) albums from 1988 and 1990.

     

     

    Our kids are 5, 3, and 10 mos. at the moment.  

    For more kids’ music we have enjoyed, see my Music category. 

  • Barth on Exegesis, Dogmatics, and Practical Theology

    "Exactly halfway between exegesis and practical theology stands dogmatics, or more comprehensively expressed, systematic theology." Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline, p. 12. 

    Thanks, Barth.  I had been wondering how I got here.  I guess I had been walking back and forth between the two sides and I must have sat down in the middle at some point.  You make systematic theology sound interested in Scripture and the practical–what a concept.

    Note: Dogmatics in Outline are lectures Barth gave in Bonn, Germany in 1946.  The translation by G. T. Thomson is a little clunky.  It was his translation of Church Dogmatics I.1 that was later retranslated.