Author: suburbandaddy

Should This Be A Toy Craze?

Apparently, this is a big enough story to make the front page of the Washington Post.? Forget Tickle Me Elmo and Webkinz, the hottest toy this year is a baby doll that actually poops.? Baby Alive comes with food you feed it, and then it pretends to poop.? Just like the real thing.

I don’t know, maybe I don’t get it because I only have boys, but do people really pay $59.99 for this?? I don’t see why someone would get this for their kid.

On the other hand, maybe I could see buying it for someone else’s kid.? Kind of like the toys with 6,000 tiny little pieces we would never buy for our kids, but other parents always give us as birthday presents.

Spider-Bat Lives On With StickyFan

When I introduced the world to Spider-Bat, I thought he would be a short lived phenomenon, not lasting much past Halloween.? But, the legend of Spider-Bat lives on and keeps growing.

StickyFan is a cool website that creates giant life-size posters from your own digital photos.? It’s great for action photos of your kids doing sports, but really any photo can be used.? The poster sticks to any wall or surface and can be moved over and over.

When I showed Thing 2 the five foot tall image of Spider-Bat, he was in awe and wanted him on his bedroom wall to watch over him.? Maybe with Spider-Bat in the room, he won’t get scared in the middle of the night and wake me up.? Regardless, StickyFan is worth checking out.? Tell them Spider-Bat sent you.

Rethinking The Smurfs

I’m always amazed when my kids are into stuff that I liked as a kid. Books like Cat in the Hat, games like Candyland, and now cartoons like Tom and Jerry, Superfriends, and The Smurfs. Compared to today’s computer generated animation, cartoons of the 70s are laughable. Just like the video games we played. Can you say Asteroids?

Many of the old cartoons, by today’s standards, are incredibly unpolitically correct. Bugs Bunny has racial and ethnic stereotypes. Tom and Jerry is too violent. Whatever, they still have something that kids find entertaining.

So when I saw the Smurfs again this week, I thought, here is something from my childhood that still looks good today. The animation is decent, and the story lines are pretty tame.

Except, I started to think about the whole premise of the Smurfs. A group of bare-chested boys communing in an isolated village in the woods, led by an older, fatherly figure who calls himself Papa. And then there’s the lone girl, Smurfette, who is worshiped by all the boys. It sounds like a cult, no? Papa Smurf has them all brainwashed to be afraid of an evil wizard, Gargamel. La la la-la la la.

Determined To Succeed

Single minded determination can be a good quality, and lead to some amazing accomplishments.? It took Albert Einstein eight years to develop his theory of relativity.? Michael Phelps trained for a decade on his way to winning 14 gold medals. These men had a single focus, suffering setbacks along the way, but persisting until they got to the finish line.

Thing 3 has the same determination qualities as these great achievers, albeit with a somewhat, how shall I say, less admirable end goal in mind.? He is determined, every waking moment and does everything within his power, to put his hands in the toilet.

Open the bathroom door the tiniest amount and Thing 3 tries to squirm his way through the crack like a mouse.? Like a dog, he can hear the bathroom door open from across the house and he’ll drop whatever he was doing and make a run for it.? All the while, with a mischievous grin that dares you to stop him.

Lately, Thing 3 absolutely loves bathtime, which was a welcome change from the screamfests of a few months ago.? Last night it finally occured to me why he loves taking a bath – because he is that much closer to achieving his ultimate goal.

I literally turned my head for one second, just to pour soap in the water as the tub was filling up.? In that time, Thing 3 managed to open the lid, put his arms in the toilet up to his elbows, and splash water all over the place.? It was one of those split second displays of pure athletism, much like Michael Phelps winning his 7th gold medal by 1/100 of a second.? Except I don’t recall Michael Phelps having that mischeivous laugh.

Did Motrin Go Too Far?

Have you heard all the controversy over this Motrin ad?? Motrin is trying to appeal to moms by making a case that wearing your baby, in slings and carriers, hurts your back, so you should use Motrin.? There has been a huge outcry from baby wearing groups, moms, and doctors.? To the point where Motrin had to take down the ads and post an apology on their website.

Too much?? I don’t know.? Maybe the ad goes a little over the line.? But I watched it, and if you ask me, the tone is firmly tongue in cheek.? After all, they’re trying to sell pain medicine, not make a statement about baby wearing. I have used a baby carrier many times, and sometimes, it actually does hurt my back.

Motrin had to know this would cause a bit of controversy.? That’s probably why they did it in the first place.? Issue an apology, get lots and lots of free press.

Or maybe they had no clue they would get this reaction.? If that’s the case, look out.? The last thing you want is to piss off a bunch of moms.? Especially ones that have recently had babies and are probably hormonal.

Uh oh, I apologize.? I shouldn’t have made that insensitive remark about new moms.? The last thing I want to do is start a controversy ;-)

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History Is Made, Again

History was made twice this week.? First, on Tuesday, Barack Obama was elected president.? Then, on Sunday, we shattered the record for sleeping in at SuburbanDaddy’s house and slept until 7:04am.? Who said lightning doesn’t strike twice?

I can’t understate how incredible this is.? All of the Things slept past 7 o’clock.? Even more important, I slept until 7am.? No exaggeration,? this was probably the first time I have slept past 7 since we brought Thing 1 home from the hospital nearly 5 years ago.

I’m normally happy if I get to sleep past 6am.? So this wasn’t just a new record, we shattered the previous record by nearly an hour.? This was like Michael Phelps winning 8 gold medals.? Joe Dimaggio’s 56 game hit streak.? Wilt Chamberlain scoring 100 points in a game.

And, just like we aren’t likely to see anyone approach those milestones anytime soon, I am not likely to sleep in until 7am again for a long, long time.? Yes, I’m counting down those minutes until 5:15 tomorrow morning.? Sweet dreams.