How to make your baby sleep? Buy him stuff

We threw our checkbook at Isaac's sleeping issue today. This is how we solve problems. We bought him an "aquarium" for his crib that makes gentle washing-machine-like sounds and also has soft lights and plays songs, at the suggestion of Erin and others (our buddy Clayton also has one), who unanimously give this thingy two thumbs up. Something else suggested by Isaac's daycare provider awhile ago for the sleeping issue was a book -- The No Cry Sleep Solution, so we bought that today, too. The first page of this book spoke to us (and I quote):

Do any of these describe your baby?
*It takes forever to get my baby to fall asleep
*My baby will only fall asleep if I do one or more of the following: breastfeed, bottle-feed, give a pacifier, rock, carry, swing, or take a ride in the car
*My baby wakes up frequently throughout the night
*My baby won't nap easily, or takes very short naps
[Um... yes, yes, yes, and yes]

Does this describe you?
*I desperately want my baby to sleep better
*I won't -- I can't -- let my baby cry it out
[YES and yes]

So we have high hopes, although this lady's bare-minimum definition of "sleeping through the night" is 5 continuous hours of sleep, which Isaac can do on most nights. Perhaps her techniques, however, will enable us to beef that up to a more respectable number, like 8. Or 9. Or 20. Just kidding. Sort of. Anyway, there is a peacefully-slumbering blond baby on the front cover of this book, so if Isaac doesn't easily succumb to its tactics, perhaps I can just show him this illustrative front cover and he will get the idea. That's worth $15, sure.

We also bought him the most adorable hat (see below). I am not really a clothesy person, and I don't even understand the whole point behind silly clothes such as baby shoes, but I have a terrible weakness for baby caps with ears. This one is gray and has little gray ears, but we are not entirely sure what animal Isaac is supposed to look like with said gray ears. They are not big enough for an elephant, and they aren't quite the right shape to be mouse-ears. Dad keeps saying they are bear ears, or more specifically, polar-bear ears, but clearly he is wrong because there are no gray bears. My personal opinion is that they are donkey ears. Dad disagrees, but I think it's because he doesn't like to think that his boy looks like an ass (har har). Does it really matter, I wonder? Hat-ears are universally cute.