FIRST Babies
 

It seems like a lot of FIRST alumni have reached the age where they're starting their own families. I'm seeing more and more FIRST Babies at events, and I am LOVING it.

As a sucker for robots and (other people's) babies, I'd love for people to use this thread and post pictures of their adorable second generation FIRST children rocking out at FIRST events.

Re: FIRST Babies
 

I have heard that team 88 (TJ^2) actually has a full-on 2nd generation FIRSTer. A member of the founding TJ^2 team had a child and that child is now high-school aged and is participating on TJ^2.

That is incredible!

-Brando

Re: FIRST Babies
 

Attached is a picture of my daughter Zoey Elizabeth Zende (2yrs Old) she was born January 19th 2012 and has been attending F.I.R.S.T. events all her life. I started freshman year in high school with FRC team 281 from 1999-2000. I then moved on to FRC team 507 from 2001-2003. In 2004 my family and others started FRC team 1319 and I have been with them ever since.

I very much look forward to the day when Zoey can participate in FLL, FTC and eventually FRC.

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Eric (Angry Eric) & Kim Eckhardt are both experienced FIRST mentors and I believe alumni. They brought their adorable little baby daughter to FLR.

She was even sporting a "red mohawk" hat.
Just awesome.

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Argos FRC Team 1756 has quite a few young fans. They were all decked out in "game day" bibs and team gear at Central Illinois. Not sure if they are legacy FIRSTers, but they are cute!

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I guess im a gen 0 FIRST baby as I have attended 1+ Frc regional or championship since 2002. Now im a senior with 13 different frc games and 17 events attended.

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My wife and I brought our daughter Caitlyn to her first FIRST event (Lenape MAR District event). She's not quite 6 months old yet but had a good time experiencing all the things going on the competition. My wife is the FIRST alum and we are both mentors for 1640. Here she is sporting her "safety glasses" (best we could do for an infant).

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This - saw them at TVR, so cute! And the hat was just off the cute meter! :)

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Unfortunately FIRST wasn't an option in my high school back in the days of yore, but I'm pretty sure Kim has more than enough FIRST experience for both of us :p

Here are the facts about our fully autonomous mini-bot:

While we overran the build season by more than a few weeks, all our I/O is up and functioning and we're making great progress on control of our manipulators and drivetrain. Still need to improve on feedback to the drivers, and there is a pesky software bug that causes pretty bad control system crashes toward the end of the day. While OPR is low, DPR is through the roof due to routinely tripping the opposing robot's cuteness breakers.

While a rookie team in years, there is serious dedication already behind this robot. Out of the 7 weeks since ship day, the robot has been at 4 regionals or districts already, and still has 2 more to go! How many rookies have you met that are attending 6 weeks of competitions? The team has also asked the judges not to be considered for the Rookie All Star award at each competition, as the team is really a RINO (Rookie In Name Only) and felt that other teams deserve the chance to compete for RAS at Champs this year. GP is alive and well in the next generation of FIRSTers!

During alliance selections, this robot is a solid 2nd round pick that will compliment any offensive pair! Keep an eye out for this team during the New England Pine Tree District and NE District Championships this year and let's bring home a banner!

On the downside, after every few matches we let the "magic smoke" out. Believe me, a toasted Victor is both faster to replace AND smells better :rolleyes:

PS Thanks to Brett Brimhall from FIRST Team 20 The Rocketeers for this awesome photo!

Re: FIRST Babies
 

Not alumni exactly... but so far two mentors from our team have had kids while on the team! With the first, she was very pregnant during competition (the kid was due right around champs), and we got a ton of "who's the pregnant girl on your team?" questions... very awkward. The second had the baby right before our first competition this year, and brought it to meet the team at our second competition this past weekend. Again, questions of "Who's the girl with the newborn on your team?"... very awkward. But I guess that's what you get when you have two female mentors who both look young enough to be team members!

Re: FIRST Babies
 

Thats great. I posted back in 2011 asking if there was any second generation FIRSTers. This is the first that I have heard of. Are there any others?

Mr. Mike

Re: FIRST Babies
 

Here's a few pictures of my son Bennett from this past weekend at Waterford. He started his FIRST career in 2012, being 4 months old and coming to build with me 1-2 days a week. Now as a 2 1/2 year old, he's here 3 days a week. He loves watching the robots and his "robot friends."

My favorite part about having a kid while being on a FIRST team is how much my students, mentors, and parents embrace him as a team member, he's the team toddler! I'm excited because next season he's going to have a new robot friend since another mentor is having his first-FIRST kid!

Re: FIRST Babies
 

Here is a picture of my son, Benjamin. This picture is from Boilermaker and was actually taken by Carolyn (OP). He's been a regular at robotic events in Indiana since he's been born last July (he's only missed Crossroads so far) and I'm sure he will continue to be a regular in the future.

Re: FIRST Babies
 

I had similar problems with my two little mini-bots. And just like a good FIRST robot, every time you fix a problem, some new software bug manifests itself.
But as you can imagine, its all worth it in the end. :)

Re: FIRST Babies
 

Thanks for noticing! Although I'm the only mentor to have a kid old enough to participate this year, we have 14 other daughters ranging from infants to 6 years old and 2 boys. They are regularly at our team meetings. I half joke about spawning an all girls team in the future.

Sometimes they are insightful beyond their years. My personal favorite quote from my, then 4 year old, daughter is, "if it works, who cares?" She told that to me and four mentors that were discussing how terrible something looked after hours ;)

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Wyatt is one of four thoroughbot babies (thoroughbabies?). Here he is checking to make sure the field is within spec thursday night. He had to be sure everything was +/- 1".

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This post really makes me smile:)
keep it up.

Re: FIRST Babies
 

Hurray for the ref-baby!

Re: FIRST Babies
 

This is going to really quickly become one of my favorite threads. One, I love cute babies, and Two.. how cool is it that the FIRST community has grown this much over time?! I think these are some incredible stories. Keep 'em comin'.

Re: FIRST Babies
 

I also think it bears mentioning that you're the original FIRST baby :)

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This is very true! Come to think of it, there's some pictures my mom & I need to dig up from the early years. If I find them soon, I'll post here.

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Somewhere in the Buzz175 photo archives, there are photos of a young Libby sporting a yellow Buzz smiley face shirt!

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My daughter Audrey has been to the Bridgewater district the past 2 years. She was quite entertained watching the finals.
Attachment 16734

Re: FIRST Babies
 

I usually am a stalker on CD but I had to comment on this thread.
I am a very proud mentor of FRC Team 180 but I have to admit that when my darling hubby came to me in 1997 and said, "Hey honey, I am thinking about helping some other engineers put together a robot team with local teenagers. Okay with you?" I laughed and said, "Are you crazy I am 5 months pregnant and we are about to have our first child!" He sweet talked me into going to some of the meetings and then when I was 9 months pregnant I went with him to Epcot. As I sat on the metal bleachers in 100 degree weather I started having contractions....thankfully they stopped... But I have to tell you I was hooked on FIRST and absolutely fell in love with our S.P.A.M. family.
That boy is now almost 16 and he has been in FIRST since he was 6 years old with JrFLL, then FLL, and now FRC. I am thrilled and excited seeing him in his flowing red cape and gloves as the human player for S.P.A.M., but truthfully I can squint my eyes and still see him in his little blue S.P.A.M. onesie clapping and screaming, "Robot!"

Stacey Jones :)

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Ow, my ovaries.

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Found a picture of Austin from 1999 in that blue onsie. Boy is he going to kill me!

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Your move, Grady... ;)

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As a member of team 88 I can actually expand on this. Our founders son was a member of the team over a decade ago and he just had two of the cutest twins ever right at the end of build season. That means in only about 13 short years we will have a third generation FIRST member which I think is awesome. :D

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Thank god..... I must say I was quite relieved when I started reading through this- I feared this was some sort of discussion about proper chaperoning and management of co-ed FIRST teams! :p

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The head mentors of 2337, Clinton and Brandi Bolinger (Clint is a CD user), had Lucas before the 2011 build season, and he's been to every team competition that I can remember, and almost all of the build season meetings. Picture shamelessly taken from Daniel Ernst's 2012 MSC collection from post-eliminations Saturday - the best one I could find on short notice.

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I believe there is a G31 foul happening in this picture :D :P
(3 balls in the corral for extended time)

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Minibot!

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I gotta admit to favoritism. Lucas Minibot Bolinger is the greatest.

He's already fulfilled the roles of team lead (pointing to students and giving directions enthusiastically), FTA (all you have to do is stare down the robots on the field until the light turns green, right?) and announcer (baby on a mic: nothing better)

Re: FIRST Babies
 

And, if I recall, Clint is an FRC Alumni.


Then there's Also Troy, Courtney, and Cody Hughes...

Re: FIRST Babies
 

Considering that he can already repair the robot on his own (I saw pictures of this) and is already MCing matches it's just a matter of time before he's leading the Enginerds to Einstein (probably by the time he's 6).

Re: FIRST Babies
 

...except that the baseline age for volunteering at CMP is 16.

Not trying to be Debbie Downer, but even with all the cute, it is your responsibility as a FIRST volunteer to know the rules with children at the event. It's not trying to tell you how to parent, it's a liability concern - we want to keep everyone having a good, safe time!

This means realizing that exploding Clippard tanks or stray balls could happen. This means that FRC events are germ cesspools. This means that there are noise concerns, and just like safety glasses, you may want to invest in good hearing protection. Most importantly, it is in the VC manual that no volunteer should ever be directly in charge of a minor while on the clock.

Sounds like common sense, but sometimes we need to be reminded of these things. As a VC there is a happy medium here - I love to see lots of great pictures during breaks, and if a child is over 13 (or 16 at CMP), a VC will usually try to pair parents and children volunteering in the same location together so they're on common schedules.

Just stay safe out there. We want to see families have a great FIRST experience!

Re: FIRST Babies
 

Good points Jess!

...for the record, the Bolingers have neve volunteered while taking care Lucas. Great parents. Actually Brandi has an awesome website about being a FIRST mom. Maybe she'll post it here for all you newer FIRST mommies.

Re: FIRST Babies
 

Lucas has been a part of FIRST and our Team since the beginning. We was born 9 days before the Kickoff and has attended every Kickoff (2011-2014). He attends almost all of our competitions (currently 31 events) and almost every team meeting. Has attend the Championship the last 3 years and if all things go well with our team he will be at the 2014 Championship.

So I couldn't just pick one picture... so I made a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOA0wmSK6-U

Enjoy!

-Clinton-

Re: FIRST Babies
 

Brandi's Website: http://www.aFIRSTmom.com/

-Clinton-

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He's also served time as a referee, if memory serves.

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And as a great MC at certain times of events.:D

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My six years old boy Idan, joined me for all Israel's regional events.http:// http://www.chiefdelphi.com/f...d=13963877 43

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My 7 year old little sister came out during our quarter final match and waved our flag, well she was supposed to, she just got stage fright and stood there awkwardly!

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Confirmed.
We do indeed have a freshman on TJ^2 whose father was also a student on the team during the 1997 season (actually TJ^2's second year in FRC, and that year's game was "Toroid Terror").

I'll be contacting Frank for our prize :)

Re: FIRST Babies
 

We have several babies at the Orlando Regional. Our VC has one of the cutest little boys around and our MC Dan is the proud daddy of Ri3D Cute Baby (there is a great pic of her on the field with him at the South Florida Regional last year, I will keep looking for it). One of our robot inspectors and the Head Ref are the proud parents of two cuties who have been coming to regionals since they were in their mamas belly. One of them is our official Safety Baby.

Re: FIRST Babies
 

Jess you read my mind. Babies are cute, they're even more cute when not being rushed to the hospital for injuries sustained while trying to be cuter.

I have a feeling the amount of robots babies is about to skyrocket in the next five years.

Re: FIRST Babies
 

Absolutely agree!

The great thing is that I have never ever witnessed anyone putting a baby in danger at a FIRST event, and especially never just to try and make them cuter. I've never heard of any babies getting injured. Safe babies! Yay!

Now. More pictures?

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I have to say I agree with this. I was 6 months pregnant at the Wisconsin Regional. As we were receiving our Team Spirit Award I overhead one of the judges saying well I sure hope she isn't a student. While everyone who I told this story said, "Well that means you look really young!" I found it quite offensive. Its one thing to wonder, its a completely different thing to make a comment that could be overherd by the person. Yes I understand I look young and that is great! But can you imagine how someone would feel if they were a high schooler and pregnant and they overheard someone saying something like that about them.

I have to say I'm pretty excited to have a FIRST baby. While I won't be super involved this coming year, my husband and I will definately be going to the events and bringing our little one with us. I look forward to another 18 years of FIRST involvement.

Re: FIRST Babies
 

My wife has quite a few stories like this. One person at an event even told her that she is glad she "decided" to keep the baby (being "so" young). My wife was 28 when she had Lucas and we were married for 2 years before having him. Which we planned our Wedding around the 2008 FIRST offseason.

-Clinton-

PS. picture to satisfy Carolyn's need for Cute Baby Pictures! (Yes, that is CD5).

Re: FIRST Babies
 

All of my children have grown up on robots.
My second son was born during the 2003 CMP.
This is the only FRC event I have missed in 17 years.

All 3 of my kids have played active roles as "mini-mascots" for the Killer Bees.
My oldest son is now 12. In a few years, he will be old enough for FRC.

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Haha! Yep. I've had Lucas MC with me once or twice.

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I <3 Cute Babies. We need the Cute Baby College Fund for STEM Babies. Or maybe just a "Babies react to robots" video by the Fine Brothers...

/edit link didn't work so I will have to add the photo later...

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Your kids read C++ reference guides, McMaster catalogues, wireless sensors and physics textbooks already? Boy, give them a few years and companies will hire them instantly!

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hhh your baby is the most famous baby thanks to the RI3D videos
Great parenting!!

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That is probably the cutest/coolest picture ever.

C++ and physics books? Too good!:) :D

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Don't forget the Massive McMaster catalog! Awesome pic, that's for sure.

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Our two second generation FIRST members at Lone Star. They are still a year or two away from the green CRyptonite mohawks like daddy.

Dad (Steve) is an alum of team 141 (1997-2000) and team 461 (2001-2002) and current mentor for team 624.

Mom (Stephanie) is a first volunteer and former employee of National Instruments working with FIRST and Lego League.

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Eric is too modest; What he didn't tell you is that Kim, along with a host of NE alumni put together not only the best district championship, but the district events as well, all while caring for a baby. Hats off to the both of you.

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The C++ and physics books are good, but Henry Petroski's "Invention by Design" is AWESOME!!

Seriously, his books should be required reading in every engineering curriculum - I'm still thankful that "To Engineer is Human" was part of mine!

Re: FIRST Babies
 

Anyone have pictures from World Champs of cute babies? I definitely saw a few running around!