Your kids are psyched. They just got off the high of Christmas gifts and they are anxiously awaiting the visit from another mythical creature: that human size rabbit that walks with 2 legs and deliver baskets stuffed with candy. It’s Easter time and for most people, Easter means decorating eggs. But nothing can bring your kids down like a crappy easter egg decorating session. You need to know how to cook easter eggs the right way every time. Follow these steps and you will get perfect eggs that are ripe for decorating, easy to peel, and perfect for making you some egg salad sandwiches.
Step 1: Old Eggs
Now, I am not talking wicked old eggs that reek like old men at the public baths, but I am not talking about farm fresh that is still warm; just popped out of the hen. Perfect eggs are ones that are 5 or so days old because when you boil them, they are easy to peel. Read the rest of this entry »
A couple of years ago, I wrote an article here on Noodad.com called, “How to Check Email With a Kid on Your Lap“. I offered up a way to keep your entertained while getting through your stuffed Inbox. That solution was admittedly low-tech. It did utilize a metal clothes hanger hanger after all. Well, now there is a high tech way to keep your kids entertained while you get through your email.
It is called Tengu and it is a USB powered toy that lip syncs to your music and to voices in the room. “Tengu”, which comes from a character in Japaenese Folklore, is an invention of Crispin Jones for Solid Alliance and is aimed at “design-savvy people who spend too much of their time working on the computer”. Read the rest of this entry »
The kids album of the year is already here and it was not conceived by those fabulously flamboyant Wiggles, lost-indigo-girl Laurie Berkner or that sickenly-cute-little-red menace, Elmo. Ironically, the same band that once wrote such lyrics as “someday mother will die and I’ll get the money” and “minimum wage (yaaaah!)” has put together (yet another) incredibly listenable collection of songs about numbers that kids and parents can enjoy together. And the kicker is that it’s actually educational.
One great thing about 123s is that is a full media experience. The 1 CD 1 DVD set has 27 songs and 24 videos. The puppets of John and John are also pure genius and hearken “back” to when they collaborated with the homestarrunner.com gang.
The music is fun. In typical TMBG fashion, it’s not possible to classify the album as anything but an eclectic mix of genres. The sort of thing that would kill just about any other band is gold for them. The song Zeroes has my three year old singing about millions and millionths. High Five is our family favorite, particularly because my daughter thinks “down-low-too-slow” is the greatest since the finger in warm water to pee the bed trick. I could go one and explain how Seven is mixed by the Dust Brothers or that there are some weird Disney tracks at the end due to a much deserved Disney sponsorship, but you get the picture. Now go forth and buy it, put it in your car CD player and enjoy the fact that you’re listening to TMBG with your kids and not Raffi. Just be careful because you might find yourself singing “On Mondays, I never go to work…”
The Lord of the Sith was the best daddy a padawan learner could ask for. Check out this new shirt from the Noodad labs showing Darth and his young jedi.
This is a limited edition design limited to only 100 shirts. You can get this new Noodad shirt for $20 with free shipping. Just email me at supernoo@noodad.com to request more information on PayPal payment.
If you haven’t heard of Vanessa Van Petten and you are a parent of a teenager, you should. Vanessa has a site that explains to parents what their teens are u to, worry about, and need from you.
Here is a great example from her videos explaining why your kids are into social networking.
Leap Frog makes some pretty cool and educational products. My wife and I actually attribute the Fridge Phonics toy as the reason our daughter is advanced in speech. Now my 2 oldest kids have Leapster LMAX units and to see how much they are learning form these things amazes me daily.
But as much as I love the products, I can tell you that Leap Frog is a bunch of liars and cheap bastards trying to take advantage of the uneducated and uninitiated. Here’s why:
We gave our daughter a Leapster LMAX for her birthday last October. The unit came with a flexible plastic cover that hinges from the top of the unit and snaps into the frame round the LCD screen to protect it. This is important as, even with careful hands, things get dropped and a scratched up screen will pretty much render this $89 toy useless. Read the rest of this entry »
Pre-kids, Home Depot (or Lowe’s) was likely a store that if you couldn’t happily lose yourself in it for a whole afternoon, it was at least good for an hour of mild entertainment easy. Chances are that when you do go there these days, your trips are decidedly more abbreviated and surgical. For me, it’s painful. The thought of not being able to browse sucks…but there are things to be done and kids at home to attend to.
One Saturday a few months back, I woke up with the notion of trying an experiment. My wife was going to be heading out for her Saturday morning yoga class, I’d be home with my son and I needed a few things for a project I’d started the weekend prior but never finished. So my son and I would go to The Depot together. I know! Earth-shattering concept.
I thought, he’s my kid after all - perhaps he’d find that environment as interesting as me. And I was confident that with a little forethought and some improvisation (AND a cup of coffee picked up on the way), despite the early hour, I could make it a fun experience for both of us.
A couple of years ago, I wrote an article entitled, “The Top 10 Myths of Fatherhood: Debunked.” In it, I wrote, “You may be contemplating fatherhood and are scared to make the decision. Or you may have a kid on the way and are worried your life is over. If you watch television or movies you will have a very twisted idea of what fatherhood is. And just because your friends might go through hell, and can’t stop talking to you about it, it does not mean you should take it as fact. Listen to the truth my friend, and then decide whether you want to join me in fatherhood. You will see, that you can’t believe everything you see on TV.”
Well, maybe you have taken the plunge and you have one or two or maybe even three kids now. Surely, there is very little debate: kids change your life. And although I wouldn’t trade in my little ones for anything, there are a few things that I really miss. I hope that by reading this, you will know that you aren’t alone in missing the great things about not having kids. So here it is: the 10 things I miss about not having kids. Read the rest of this entry »
My kids are part of a generation that is far less exposed to advertising than I was. At some point when I was not paying particular attention to kids shows it became taboo to put ads in little kids shows. So instead they put sponsorships at the beginning or they will put an ad or mini infomercial at the end of the show. When I was just a foolad, there were 2 ways that we knew all the kick ass, must-have toys: we would look at those awesome catalogs from companies like Best, JC Penney or Service Merchandise or we would also see about 1,000 TV ads per day during shows.
I am not even going to try and hide the fact that I watched WAY too much TV as a kid. As a result, I have themes and ads in my head that I cannot get rid of. Who needs to be able to sing the Facts of Life theme song or the Jacko Energizer ad? If I could hook my brain up to my computer via USB, I would trash all sorts of useless junk that is floating around in there to make room for more useful stuff. Plus I would be filthy rich because I figured out how to jack into my noodle and read it like it was a Linux box and a MySQL database.
So your kid is growing out of the crib. What next? The options are vast and the decision making process may drive you crazy. If you are like me, it wasn’t like my kids were telling me they wanted a bigger bed. This decision was self-imposed. This is mostly because my kids are spaced roughly 2 years apart from each other and I was too cheap to own 2 cribs.
So…my wife and I slowly transitioned our kids out of cribs and into beds. But the dilemma of what type of bed stressed me out more than the night after night of screaming while transitioning them.
Your kids are psyched. They just got off the high of Christmas gifts and they are anxiously awaiting the visit from another mythical creature: that human size rabbit that walks with 2 legs and deliver baskets stuffed with candy. It’s Easter time and for most people, Easter means decorating eggs. But nothing can bring your kids down like a crappy easter egg decorating session. You need to know how to cook easter eggs the right way every time. Follow these steps and you will get perfect eggs that are ripe for decorating, easy to peel, and perfect for making you some egg salad sandwiches.
A couple of years ago, I wrote an article here on Noodad.com called, “
Leap Frog
A couple of years ago, I wrote an article entitled, “
So your kid is growing out of the crib. What next? The options are vast and the decision making process may drive you crazy. If you are like me, it wasn’t like my kids were telling me they wanted a bigger bed. This decision was self-imposed. This is mostly because my kids are spaced roughly 2 years apart from each other and I was too cheap to own 2 cribs.
