Fidelity To Harvey Karp and What Is On Stella's Face?

Yes, I'm talking about Harvey Karp again. He's a genius and has made our home peaceful. Harvey says there are 5 S's to a peaceful baby. Swaddle, Side, Shhh, Swing, and Sucking. I am definitely down with 4 of the 5, but have a tough time with the agressive Shushing that Karp does. I realize that by not doing the Shushing, I'm not really being faithful to the Harvey Karp method, but I just can't bring myself to do it. Jim, on the other hand, especially enjoys the Shushing. I think he does it to annoy me, and it works. We have plenty of "white noise" options in our house, so I usually opt for something that doesn't leave me out of breath.

Last night we were working on getting Stella to sleep for the night- well, I was feeding her and Jim was sitting on the couch watching football and eating peanuts, but he was there with me for support. I got her to the swinging stage, and she was still not ready for sleep. Jim told me that it was because I had skipped the Shushing step and went over to provide assistance. He Shushed her for a few minutes and she was happily off to dreamland.

A while later I went to pick her up to take her to bed and noticed what looked like crumbs on Stella's face. I figured out that it was a few little pieces of peanuts.
How did Stella get into peanuts, I wondered?
Did Cole sort out his Halloween candy on her blanket, I wondered?
No, the peanuts came from her Daddy.

Apparently he Shushed while eating his snack and sprayed our daughter with peanut crumbs. Gross- and Funny!

Being parents to a newborn is an awesome responsibility. Sometimes it is very stressful, but it's also incredibly fun. I'm so glad that we can laugh at ourselves and the silly things that happen during the day to day tasks.