The ReviewDad clan was on the move today… We headed down to the in-law’s place in Southwest Florida. We’re here and we’re happy. It’s 9pm. We have all of our luggage. My son is in bed and I’ve got a glass of wine in hand. I’m in a good place and I’m ripe for reflection on the day and this stage of my life.
Reflection #1 – JetBlue rocks, everyone else pales in comparison. Three reasons:
Extra Leg Room – if you’ve ever tried to strap a Britax Marathon into an airplane seat, you know how valuable additional inches of space are. JetBlue has the most.
TV - Free Nick at 30,000 feet = Nirvana for parents + kids. Figuring out how to change the channels on the armrest is 15 min of entertainment during pre-flight that’s a god-send.
Service - the flight attendants DON’T SUCK. They’re not wretched, miserable trolls taking out their Read the rest of this entry »
By now you may have heard of Paramount’s live action G.I. Joe movie set to release in August 2009. The studio has been slowly releasing photos of the characters. Here is Scarlett in her cartoon glory and her live action counterpart played by Rachel Nichols. What do you think?
If you are a dad that goes to work, you know that kids (god love’m) can put a serious damper on your morning routine. You could have felt you had the most efficient, streamlined morning routine only to discover that it is your kid or kids that bring it to a screeching halt.
The bottom line is kids change our lives. Some of it is good. Some of it is bad. All of it is change. That is why if you have a morning routine that ends up in you needing to be productive and presentable for work you need to know these 5 rules.
Rule #1: Never put on your dress shirt until right before you leave
It has happened to me 3 times in the last 6 weeks. A kid rubs his dirty breakfast mouth on your neatly pressed white dress shirt shoulder just as you are running out the door. Or even worse, your kid throws up on you. I always iron my shirt and leave it on a hanger in my laundry room. I walk around in an undershirt until the last possible moment before leaving. Read the rest of this entry »
As far as I can tell only two kinds of people wear Crocs sandals – rotund, boisterous celebrity chefs represented by Mario Batali and kids.
Why Mario wears Crocs is beyond me but then again, I guess open toe footwear is in line with a certain je ne sais quio mentality from a guy who wears shorts in a professional kitchen. Kids wear Crocs because they make sense for a lot of reasons – they’re grippy on wet surfaces, are light weight and anti-microbial not to mention totally intriguing to kids in the same way Heinz Green Catsup is.
And parents seem to have no problem buying Crocs for kids despite their…um…unique…styling. It’s amazing how “honey I shrunk the kids” sizing can make even something fugly exceedingly cute. I count myself among that group of parents. And so far so good…but a Noodad reader aleted me to an article in yesterday’s Hartford Courant that had us contemplating pulling the footwear from rotation.
My daughter is about as smart and responsible as a dad could hope of his five year would be. I was shocked last evening when I found her bawling in the bathroom. I mean, she was like Noodad-with-a-hangnail-bawling! She just told me that she brushed her teeth and my wife told her that she did not do a good enough job. I guess she took of whiff of her breath and it reminded her of Cujo or something. I thought my sweet little innocent princess was bawling because she is a little bit sensitive about having to do things over. The truth was that she lied about brushing her teeth in the first place. That little rat! Furthermore, this was not the first time she lied to me about brushing her teeth! Innocence lost already? Not quite. After a three hour search of her room, I did not find any marijuana, Pokemon cards, alcohol, firearms, cigarettes, spare ribs or chewing tobacco.
She knows that brushing her little choppers is really important. She also knows that telling the truth is important. Seems there was a problem with her toothpaste being stuck in the tube and rather than ask us to fix it, she was just deciding not to brush her teeth. Or she would use her little brother’s training toothpaste if she decided to brush at all. Read the rest of this entry »
Our weekend did not go as planned. We expected to get up on Sunday and take the kids out for dim sum, suggestion from my oldest daughter. I got up early on Sunday (in an attempt) to let my wife sleep later. Anything past 8:30AM is really late in our house. I needed some baby supplies so I took the little one upstairs. That’s when I heard a thud and THE squeal. I rushed down the stairs and put the baby down and picked up my son who was already bleeding out of his mouth. He “decided” to taste the wood work at full speed.
I got some paper towels. I started to blot the blood while I inspected the situation. Ugh. One of his front teeth was clearly about a millimeter back. FREEZE NOODAD!
Where there is beer, there are spills. And if you are like me, you need to get those beer stains out of your carpet. My beer stains come from the fact that my poker table, although equipped with drink holders, are not build for beer bottles. 3 spills later, I needed a fix to get those stains out before my wife surveyed the damage. This was the best solution I could find and it works. Plus, it only has 3 easy steps: perfect for those hangovers the next morning. Read the rest of this entry »
Our family loves to use shutterfly.com. We find it really convenient for ordering pictures in a variety of formats including prints, postcards, holiday cards and albums. My wife very thoughtfully put together an album for my mother for her birthday. My mother is one of those people who will never tell you what she what she wants. She has always been a person who honestly thinks she does not deserve to have stuff. She always loves to get pictures of the kids though, particularly because she lives in Ohio and we do not. The album arrived the other day. My wife opened it to admire her handy work before wrapping it and to our surprise, the cover was ours, but the photos inside were of some family from Philadelphia. Immediate family fury ensued.
So I visited my friends Wally and Jen the other day to see their beautiful new baby girl, and they asked me my thoughts on a disagreement/issue they were having concerning the family pet. I thought I’d put the scenario out there to help them get some unbiased opinions from noodad readers. Here’s the dilemma:
A few years ago, before they had children, my friends picked out a spirited black lab/chow mix pooch from the local kennel. They named him Boone. Boone hasn’t been the easiest dog. He’s a prolific barker, jumps on guests, and he gets carsick. My friends hired a professional dog trainer and Boone’s behavior is improving, especially when there are no visitors in the house. Although Boone is challenging and willful (as my friend from Ireland would say), he’s never hurt anyone. He’s just kind of an excitable dog and they love him. Read the rest of this entry »
The ReviewDad clan was on the move today… We headed down to the in-law’s place in Southwest Florida. We’re here and we’re happy. It’s 9pm. We have all of our luggage. My son is in bed and I’ve got a glass of wine in hand. I’m in a good place and I’m ripe for reflection on the day and this stage of my life.
Where there is beer, there are spills. And if you are like me, you need to get those beer stains out of your carpet. My beer stains come from the fact that my poker table, although equipped with drink holders, are not build for beer bottles. 3 spills later, I needed a fix to get those stains out before my wife surveyed the damage. This was the best solution I could find and it works. Plus, it only has 3 easy steps: perfect for those hangovers the next morning. 
So I visited my friends Wally and Jen the other day to see their beautiful new baby girl, and they asked me my thoughts on a disagreement/issue they were having concerning the family pet. I thought I’d put the scenario out there to help them get some unbiased opinions from noodad readers. Here’s the dilemma:
