International Adoption often includes traveling to far off countries with upside down time tables.You know what I mean. China for instance is 12 or 13 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.The good people of your adoption agency understand this. Acclimation is one of the (best) reasons that they schedule a few days in Beijing before you go to your baby’s capital city. If you decide to travel to Korea, Russia, Kazakhstan, the same could easily apply.
While you are spending 2 weeks in China getting to know your new baby, the excitement builds at home.When we went, we literally had a few thousand hits to our blog while we were gone.We also had a gallery on the site and uploaded about 100 pictures while we were overseas.Then the scary thing started to happen. We
started to get emails from family and friends telling us that they were looking forward to seeing us after we got home. They were even proposing dates to do so.The excitement of the moment clearly clouded their thinking as many of these messages mentioned the week that we got home as “good” meeting times.At the
time, even my wife and I did not appreciate the magnitude of the problem.We added additional stress to our situation that we could have prevented with George-Bush-style preemptive measures.
I am a Pampers snob. I admit it. When my first kid was born, my wife and I tried most every brand at least once. And we kept on going back to Pampers. We tried to save a few pennies and go Huggies or Luvs but the Pampers leaked less, felt softer, and had better cartoon characters. We then tried to save a few bucks and go warehouse brands like Kirkland, Target, or Berkely and Jensen. Even if we felt a little better in the wallet, we felt worse when we were cleaning up poodad streaks in the crib and in the car seat.
So that's why when Noodad.com was approached to review the new Bear Hug Stretch diapers from Luvs , I was skeptical. Luvs is saying all the right things: "New Bear Hug Stretch premium elastic sides stretch to fit. Luvs® helps stop leaks as well as the pricey brands. For great leak protection, all you need is Luvs" Read the rest of this entry »
The
following is a Public Service Announcement to all you noodads who have
sons. Your baby or toddler could be pitching tents in their little
diapers. It's true. But you have nothing to worry about.
If you are like me, you thought that you didn't experience stiffness
until that time when you were 11 and you saw the commercial for the
designer impostor fragrances commercial on TV. You know the one — where
all you see is beautiful female legs being sprayed down by
ozone-killing aerosol cans. Now you know that you may have been
sporting wood since you were a wee little lad. Read the rest of this entry »
The oversize nails from the Hasbro Team Talking Toolbench can become
lodged in a toddler's throat, cutting off their oxygen. Two two
year olds have died from this.
Please always remember to follow the age guidelines for toys.
Also, watch younger kids when they go into their older siblings' or
friends' rooms. Remember, the safety of your children is
your responsibility. Babies and toddlers love to put things in
their mouth. Take it out of their mouth and tell them "no".
Be stern and repeat.
Cry cry. Bawl bawl. Sometimes that”s the only thing you hear from your kids. It”s one thing to hear a whimper or the occasional scream, but when your kid goes full-on inconsolable, you can sometimes be left with a sense of hopelessness.
The older your kid gets, the more you get to know the screams and cries as if your kid is speaking to you in some sort of high pitch whale call. For our 15 month old son, a, “whaaaaaaaaaaaaa” usually means, he”s thirsty, and a “whuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu” means he made a deposit into his diaper account. Read the rest of this entry »
If you are like me, you need a big ol’ cup of joe before you can do anything intelligent in the morning. I normally feel like a half-dead dad zombie until the moment the tar hits my lips. And that’s after a night when my kids sleep through! During those hellish insomnia-laden
months of infancy, I wanted to install a coffee machine right next to the changing table. Or maybe just a bag of crack. (Just kidding. “Just
say no”, kids.)
During the work week, I lumber through the morning and choose to “perk
up” on the way to work. But during the weekends, this morning ritual
includes the kids. So when my kids choose to wake up the slumbering
beast (me) early on a saturday morning, there’s nothing to do except
load them in the double stroller and walk to the local Dunkin’ Donuts. Read the rest of this entry »
There will come a time when your child, feeling like an animal cornered in a cage, will hit you. This can be a scary action on their part and a potentially humiliating one for you. It normally occurs because your kid doesn’t know how to express themselves in anger and their animal instincts react in the form of an open hand. When it happens, you’ll know it is purely instinctual because any physical assault on purpose would be a closed fist. It can also escalate into a full blown fit of rage—one in which you need to settle them down and explain ramifications for their actions.
So what do you do when this happens to you? If you said, “Hit them back.” you should leave this site and never come back. We don’t want your scum around Noodad.com. If you said, “I don’t know what I should do.” then get comfortable, and read the following: Read the rest of this entry »
In an effort to learn about the trends of 21st century families, restaurant chains like McDonald’s and KFC have developed “Advisory Boards” for parents to meet with representatives of the company on a regular basis. These groups will shed light to the big bad fast food chains on what parents really want. Sounds great right?
Not so great from where I’m standing. Apparently, to these chains, men do not matter because these groups consist of mothers and mothers only. I
understand that this is a great move to get to know the levers and barriers to selling their food to the next generation of fast food eaters. But to disregard the father’s role in these types of lifestyle decisions is absurd.
You read that right…in Russia, families that have more than one child are eligible to receive cash vouchers of $10,000 and subsidies for education and home improvements. Seems the Ruskies are battling population decline as a result of lower birth rates since the USSR collapsed back in '91, low life expectancies, and immigration.
The program, around since 2005, seems to be working…there was a 46% increase in births that year over 2004.
As further evidence of just how committed to incentivizing conception the Russians are, they have a contest in Ulyanovsk (a town about 500 miles east of Moscow) that challenges couples to conceive and give birth on June 12th which is Russia's National Day. Babies born on National Day earn their parents cash, cars, appliances and other prizes.
Wait – there's more! The leaders of Ulyanovsk created a holiday (Sept. 12) for couples to take time off from work to have sex…ok, to conceive…but quite a concept regardless!
You can read more about this here. You can petition your representatives in Washington for similar treatment by finding them here.
As
a soon-to-be-dad you will be confronted with some terms that are
confusing, strange, and downright-alien. Never fear! Like Frank and
Buster of the Koala Brothers, "We're here to help!" I am proud to
present the fourth installment of the Predad Dictionary. For this
installment, we will concentrate on names of medical staff that you
will come across. These people will be prodding your wife and looking
into their holiest of holy places, make sure you know they are legit. Read the rest of this entry »
International Adoption often includes traveling to far off countries with upside down time tables. You know what I mean. China for instance is 12 or 13 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. The good people of your adoption agency understand this. Acclimation is one of the (best) reasons that they schedule a few days in Beijing before you go to your baby’s capital city. If you decide to travel to Korea, Russia, Kazakhstan, the same could easily apply.
I am a Pampers snob. I admit it. When my first kid was born, my wife and I tried most every brand at least once. And we kept on going back to Pampers. We tried to save a few pennies and go Huggies or Luvs but the Pampers leaked less, felt softer, and had better cartoon characters. We then tried to save a few bucks and go warehouse brands like Kirkland, Target, or Berkely and Jensen. Even if we felt a little better in the wallet, we felt worse when we were cleaning up poodad streaks in the crib and in the car seat.
The
Cry cry. Bawl bawl. Sometimes that”s the only thing you hear from your kids. It”s one thing to hear a whimper or the occasional scream, but when your kid goes full-on inconsolable, you can sometimes be left with a sense of hopelessness.
If you are like me, you need a big ol’ cup of joe before you can do anything intelligent in the morning. I normally feel like a half-dead dad zombie until the moment the tar hits my lips. And that’s after a night when my kids sleep through! During those hellish insomnia-laden
There will come a time when your child, feeling like an animal cornered in a cage, will hit you. This can be a scary action on their part and a potentially humiliating one for you. It normally occurs because your kid doesn’t know how to express themselves in anger and their animal instincts react in the form of an open hand. When it happens, you’ll know it is purely instinctual because any physical assault on purpose would be a closed fist. It can also escalate into a full blown fit of rage—one in which you need to settle them down and explain ramifications for their actions.
the USSR collapsed back in '91, low life expectancies, and immigration.
As
