smonk you: the best freaking daddy blog ever

If you've been reading this blog for a while you may remember I did a post about the Safe Starter from Kid Basix. It's a stainless steel bottle with a silicon sleeve and is a great alternative to plastic bottles because it's sturdy and BPA free. Check out the original pos t for all the info. Kid Basix actually has a full line of great products all of them stainless steel and BPA free. One of their newest products is the Safe Sippy2. I had to move some of my reviews off this blog so please click here to see the whole thing...it's easy.

Last week I was awarded a blog award called the Kreative Blogger award. Carli from MiniLaLa gave it to me...thanks Carli. There are some things they tell you to do when accepting the award so here they are: 1. Copy the picture and post it on your blog. 2. Thank the person that gave it to you and link to their blog. 3. Write 7 things about yourself we don't know. 4. Choose 7 other bloggers to pass the award to. 5. Link to those 7 other bloggers. 6. Notify your 7 bloggers. So here are seven things you all probably don't know about me: 1. I geek out about science and I came really close to adding Physics or Anthropology on as a double major to my Photo degree...but that required too much school. 2. In 1991 I made the last call for the first season of MTV Real World. 3. A couple years ago I got to hang out with Maya Angelou at her house while art directing a photoshoot for Target. Kwaku Alston was the photographer. Dr. Angelou is amazing. 4. I learned to whistle by w...

Fair warning...this post is long and goes all over the place so here is a spoiler: I think the movie Fantastic Mr. Fox, coming out Thanksgiving day, looks awesome. That being said you can stop reading and go about your day. Two weeks ago I did a post about a cute stuffed toy called Semi-Fantastic Mr. Fox stuffed toy we got. This week the caliber of fox I'm writing about is even better. Last week I got an email from a marketing agency that is working to promote the new animated movie Fantastic Mr. Fox. They found a bunch of bloggers and offered them the opportunity to have a conference call with Jason Schwartzman, one of the stars, to chat about the movie. I wasn't able to participate because it was during my 9ish - 5ish. At first when I got the email about the call I was super psyched...I'm a fan of Schwartzman and I think the movie looks awesome. But the same day I got the email about the call I was bombarded with about 15 other emails about products that people fel...

I was out of town the end of last week through the beginning of this week so I didn't have much time to review anything for this week...but I did find some goodies online. Fisher Price has released some of their retro stuff including the Chatter Telephone pull toy. It's pretty much the same one that was around when I was a kid, although I assume there is less lead in the paint...hopefully no lead. The eyes still roll up and down, the mouth chatters and the dial still rings. The funny thing is kids will have no idea what it is. When I was a kid this toy was a great primer on how to use a telephone...now it should really be an iPhone with wheels and a pull cord (patent pending by me.) Maybe you can get this for your child and then take them to a history museum and tell them how much it sucked to call a friend who had a lot of zeros in their phone number. The only negative I saw in the Amazon reviews is that the phone cord is super short...I'm assuming that's a saf...

I just got back from a trip to Chicago to see some old friends. While there I stayed at with friends who have 2 kids. Their youngest is 13 months...he's just on the verge of talking. He'll say small words like dada and up. I was semi fascinated by him. He's at that age where he's to young to speak but also too young to get frustrated that we don't understand him. I have never actually spent good time with a kid that age. I'm used to that stage he'll be at in a month or even a few weeks. That stage where they really know they are saying things but we have no idea what they are saying. I'm totally geeked out by human development...that's actually one reason kids really used to freak me out. Their brains are sponges and I think babies are relatively more intelligent than adults...different knowledge but they have crazy brain development and learning ability. Plus they observe and judge everything they see...it's intimidating. Any way it was so cool ...

Well I was going to talk about strollers this week and mention how we went with a Maclaren Easy Traveller because we heard from so many parents that this simple, lightweight system is much more convenient than regular all in one strollers. But then the recall went out. While I'm sure the fix will be fine I am going to hold off until I get the hinge guards and reevaluate then. So here's something more fun anyway...Staci found it on Etsy. It's a custom made fox toy made by Annie who goes by Bird and Little Bird . The fox is made of all natural materials and filled with organic cotton.She also offers a custom bunny and patterns for both. While Annie does offer some ready made foxes what's cool about her stuff is that she works with you to customize it to go with your nursery or whatever you want. The body is linen but she will send you pictures of swatches to be used for the ears, arms, legs and scarf. There are buttons on the arms and legs so maybe it should go ...

Winners have been picked for the giveaway. Todd was so nice as to give all who entered by the deadline a copy of his book. Thanks all who entered...I sent an email to you for your info. Please email me (info on the header) if you don't get that email. Rommel I could not find your email...please let me know your contact info. A bit ago I found Todd Lieman in Twitterland and he sent me a copy of his book ABC's for Expectant Dads: The Ultimate A- for Dads-in-Training. I'd looked at a bunch of expectant dad books and I thought most were terrible. I did pick up The Expectant Father and I liked it but I haven't looked at it in months. I think it's tough for dad's because we're just reading about what's going on with the mothers and it's easier to hear it from them. Staci is reading so much that she keeps me up to date on things I should know and I'm sure most expectant moms are the same. I'm also luckily in that doing this blog has connected...

This was once again written on the bus so pardon the typos. One: We had a 24 hour trial run as parents this week when a friends 2 year old son stayed at our house. We've had kids over but only when their parents were staying over. And Staci's watched kids a lot but no one has left their child in my care before.... It went well. I realized I'm not as bad with kids as I thought. Part of that could be because I thought you had to talk baby talk or talk down to kids so I had no idea what to say. But I just spoke normally and it was easy. Sarcasm didn't go over well because when I asked if he wanted to fix the thermostat in our dryer he got excited. That's when I learned the most important thing about caring for a child...you need to use misdirection. Look at woof (what he calls are dog) was all it took to get him on a different train of thought. He was super easy to play with and take care of. He's already potty trained which was awesome because although I'll be...

For this Gear Thursday I chose something that isn't baby related because I think it's a great product, and although geared towards active adults I think it would be great for kids too. It's the Fixx ID dog tag made by Road ID . They make 6 different styles of identification but I went with the Fixx ID because it's the one that's easiest to wear all the time and it fits my style. Identification is good to have because first responders look for them if there is an accident. They are usually looking for any kind of medical bracelet or necklace but they would see that your ID has your info and it could help them out and save time. They speak for you if you can't. I got mine 4 years ago when I got my road bicycle and started going for long rides. Then I started wearing it while snowboarding. Next I got a scooter and just started wearing it every day so I don't forget to put it on. Now that my family is growing I find it even more important to have my info...

Originally posted on Dad Camp: I’m not sure how I got my views of what raising a newborn will be like, but apparently they are pretty off. I realized it when my wife and I were discussing ditching cable. She said it would be great to have at those times our baby won’t sleep and we have to be up with him/her. I told her I’d just play some games on our Wii while I get they baby to sleep…so I won’t need cable. I guess I kind of thought you just pick the child up when it cries, it stops, you keep it close to you for a bit and then put it to sleep. You see the only experience I’ve had with a baby waking in the middle of the night happened less than a year ago when we had friends in town and I was left with baby. When he woke up crying I totally freaked out and called Staci to ask her what to do. She told me to figure it out. I did…I grabbed him from his pack and play at a full arms length in case of wetness. When I realized we were all good there I put him on my lap and swiveled i...

I was pretty sick over the weekend so I didn't think about what I was going to write. And right now my head feels like it's in a vice because of sinus pressure and I can't concentrate when I'm like that...so this will be really random. One: I've really been improving on the comfort level with kids thing. I again talked to a 5 year old and felt pretty comfortable. I was even engaged in the conversation and asked questions. If you've been reading you know that's a huge step for me because kids kind of scare me and until recently I could only ask them about their shoes (because Staci told me they like when you ask that.) I think that makes it a total of 3 kids that I didn't know that I felt comfortable with. Huge number. Two: A little setback in the above area socialization. My office had a halloween party and people brought their kids. I hid at my desk. Also we didn't give candy out this year at home because I was feeling crappy so we hid out a...