Where was this when I was changing diapers: Dove Men + Care Ultimate Changetable

Parents, as we grow older, we see products and services for our children and wonder how cool it would have been to have had that when we were kids.  I’m not the only one who does this, right?  Massive bouncy castles, iPads, gas-controlled mini-cars, and SO much more.

So yesterday, when I saw a clever twist on an established product, I was blown away.  I saw a change table which not just contained all that a father would need to change a diaper – diapers, wipes, etc., but also with a TV.  Sweet.

I can remember having to change diapers in stores, or malls, or restaurants only to find out that the change table was in the woman’s bathroom.  Then came the change table in the family / handicapped bathrooms, and finally change tables in men’s bathrooms.  We do change diapers too!!!

But a change table at a sporting events with a TV.  Brilliant!  As Dads, we have to make sure our children are clean and we gladly miss several minutes of live action to make sure we look after our kids, but not having to miss any of the action is a luxury and a gift to father’s everywhere.

I saw the Dove Men + Care Ultimate Gameday Change Table – billed as a “souped-up baby change table” at the Toronto Raptors / Miami Heat basketball game at the Air Canada Centre.

The official press release: 

Toronto, ON (March 18, 2012)  – Dove Men+Care unveiled an interactive change table to Toronto sports-fan dads at the Air Canada Centre, yesterday. The table was designed to be a light-hearted way to call attention to the brand’s campaign to support real men and their changing role in today’s society.

The Dove Men+Care Ultimate Gameday Change Table’s was given a ‘field-test’ during one of the hottest ticket basketball games of the season. The souped-up change table provides all the tools necessary to keep dads and their babies happy during unplanned intermissions, including:

• A built-in television so dad didn’t miss any game action
• An emergency Lullaby button that played soothing music
• An interactive timer and scoreboard to determine the best diaper-changer in the game

According to a recent study, men have tripled their involvement in childcare over the last four decades. That’s why Dove Men+Care has taken steps to change societal norms by tailoring a public change table temporarily to suit the needs of men and make it more enjoyable too. The Ultimate Gameday Change Table is designed to help men maintain at least one aspect of their daily life so they can maintain everything else and never miss a moment.

About Dove® and Dove Men+Care

Thanks to Dove Men+Care all men can literally be comfortable in their own skin. Built on Unilever’s success in the men’s deodorant, personal wash and hair categories, and the Dove brand’s heritage in outstanding skincare, Dove Men+Care products are specifically designed to provide men with both the results and the care they need. The Dove product lineup, manufactured by Unilever, includes beauty bars, body washes, face care, anti-perspirant/deodorants, body mists, hair care and styling aids. Dove is available nationwide in food, drug and mass outlet stores.

I actually began using Dove Men + Care products recently when my current deodorant / anti-perspirant started giving me a rash.  It’s safe on sensitive skin, smells great and the scent is not overpowering at all.  It also helps that their products are available everywhere.

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[i] Bianchi, S.M. (2011). “Family Change and Time Allocation in American Families”. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 638:21-44. The author analyzes how recent changes have altered American family life and have produced new challenges for working caregivers. Unpaid and paid work hours are averaged over all couples with children under age 18 and over the 2003–2008 American Time Use Survey data collections.

You can and should follow Dove on Twitter @madeformen.

Here are some pictures of the table.  The music note is so you can add a lullaby if your baby is cranky.  There is a pile of diapers already stocked in the table (on the right).  The TV screen you can see is in the middle and the hand on the top right let’s you compete with other Dads to see who can complete the diaper change the quickest.  The ranking is on the left of the TV screen.

It’s smart, it’s cool, and it’s fun!

Can I Please Get Some Sleep!

sleep (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee)

I feel like I am preaching to the choir when I start a post on a blog aimed primarily at parents which has the title; “Can I Please Get Some Sleep!” As mommies and daddies you know that when you decide to have children one of the most important things you have to come to grips with is the fact that sleeping in, and 8-9 hours of solid sleep are a thing of the past. It’s just no longer a part of your life, much in the same way combing my hair became a thing of the past when it all started to fall out. You have to accept it, give it up and then move on, otherwise you will find yourself a constant ball of angst and stress.

Even though we have long since accepted the fact that sleeping a full-night’s is no longer an option for you, the past couple of weeks at The Urban Daddy household have been like no other…

Let me explain what is happening here.

First off, our kids have always had a very structured day, so their evening begins with dinner, followed by kitchen clean up, bath/shower time, a snack, book (us or them reading) and then lights out by their set bedtime.  Boo, at just over 3-years-old is the first off to bed. Her bed time is 7pm. Ever since our summer vacation she has decided that bed-time routine begins with her falling to sleep in our bed, laying on mummy, in ”Mummies bed” as she likes to call it.  She also needs to have pee’d, brushed her teeth, and have at least her favourite stuffed animal of the day snuggled against her before she dozes off.

Once Boo is asleep, I carry her to her room and hope that she stays asleep during the walk.  It’s a temporary move, however.

Boo is now at that age where we need to teach her to tell time so she will not get out of her bed before 7am (like her brothers), so right now she  meanders over to our room at all hours of the night, blankies tucked under he arms and she climbs into our bed and snuggles up on top of my wife / her mummy.

Problem is, one awaken, my wife cannot get back to sleep.  I’m not so unlucky, and all I need is 10 seconds and I am back out cold.  So of course, Boo comes in, wakes up my wife, who 1 minute to see if I wake up too (which I do not), then kicks me to take our daughter back to her room, which I’m happy to do.

But parents, you know that once a child arrives in your room, they do not want to go back to sleep in their bed, so Boo then goes through her routine of stall tactics; “I have to pee”, “I want you to sleep with me”, I’m thirsty”, “I’m hungry”… Once all that is taken care of, I convince her that I am going to lay with her until she’s asleep, and once she’s back asleep I slide back to my bed, or sometimes I just fall back to sleep there beside her and hope that she hasn’t jumped back out of bed and into our room.

The problem continues because I’m trying to not fall asleep in her room – I want to break her of the habit of coming it and waking us up because she knows she either sleeps in our bed or she gets me to stay with her.  It’s tiring.

So it figures then that once we start to break the pattern we get a night like the one I’m about to describe, which happened last week.

Early last week, Boo arrived in our room – an hour and a half after her bedtime – and hoped into bed.  We were watching TV together so I got up to tidy up the house and let Boo and her mummy lay down to sleep.  Before I left, however, Boo asked me for water.  “I’m thirsty”, she said.

I gave her water and she guzzled some back, then she started to cough / choke, so we both turned to look at her.

“I almost threw up!” she said.

Third child, I’m thinking in my head, “No, you were just choking on the water.  You’re okay now, go to sleep, I reassured her.”

“No, I’m going to vomit!” she follows with, now opening her mouth to show me that she threw up in her mouth and did not appreciate the acidic taste.

“It’s okay, just got to sleep, please” I replied.

“No, I’m going to vomit” she repeated to me.  “I’m going to the toilet.”

Up she popped out of the bed, and then she tore off into our bathroom.

“Turn on the light!” she blurted as she zoomed into the bathroom.  I looked at my wife and we nodded in agreement that I should at least go turn on the lights for her.

So of course, upon turning on the lights, she proceeds to vomit into the toilet… Twice.

Oops, I thought.

“I vomited in the toilet”, she pointed out to her previously unconvinced father.

“Yes you did.  How do you feel now?” I asked her.

And this episode was just the beginning, which saw us change our bed twice, including the duvet and it’s cover off to the laundry room with her blankies, her bed sheet, her under-pad and about 10 towels.

Yawn.

Now, Six-year-old Stewie is a completely different story…  This kid looks like he is going to pass out exhausted by 7pm, and he gets right into bed and reads or draws, but he sleeps SO soundly.  He gets up at the creak of the floor or the sound of thunder and races into our room and snuggles in to bed with us.  He’s getting so big that he can’t sneak in any more, we have to make room for him.

We now tell him when it may rain at night and he always asks if he can come sleep with us if there is thunder.  We always say yes.

Then there is Linus.

He’s a great sleeper.  We had Stewie at home and Linus slept through the birth.

Nuff said.

So what would be the perfect gift for my wife???  A night at a hotel.  Imagine… Food, WiFi, TV and a soft, comfy bed without distraction… I’m shuddering just thinking about it…  For me.  :)

How do your kids sleep?

Thursday Thirteen: 13 Things I Need My Children to Remember as they Grow up.

English: Pink colour (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Often, I see lists, like the one I am posting today, about things we want our children to know, learn, remember and respect, and these lists are often quite to the point if not a little on the comedic side.  My Thursday Thirteen, however, is a little different from the norm as I have provided thirteen things that I need my children – Linus, Stewie and Boo – to remember as they grow up.  On the bright side, if they ever forget (and I have not completely embarrassed them by the time I cease blogging), they can always find it here.

As parents it is our job to teach and shape our children so that one day when they begin to develop their own opinions they will be able to use what they learned from us to shape their thoughts on things they didn’t know – so they won’t hurt anyone (especially themselves) along the way.   To do otherwise by your children, would – in my opinion – be considered failure as a parent.

Here are the thirteen things I need my kids to remember as they grow up;

13. To my boys: Pink is a colour, much as red, blue, black and green. Liking pink doesn’t mean anything except that you like the colour. If someone tells you otherwise you have to remember that it’s their problem, not yours. At some point in their life, someone tied to colour pink to a negative stereotype which simply does not exist. It’s okay to buy pink items, pink clothes and paint a room pink.

12. All (My 2 boys and my girl): Your nose is NOT an appropriate place to stick your finger – and this rule always stands, whether you are 3, 7, 8 or 38. If you do visit there, in the solitude of your own room, or home, it is NOT okay to them put that finger in your mouth, on your bed, or on your clothes. If, however, you choose to pick your nose, then you must have either a kleenex or square of toilet paper for when you are finished and wash your hands after. Remember that if your hands are dirty and you place a finger in your nose (or mouth) you are putting germs in your body. You will get sick. In addition, people think it’s yucky. Don’t be that yucky kid that turns into the yucky teen, then the creepy booger-eating adult. Please.

11. All: Respect others’ personal space and belongings. There are written rules which need to obeyed when you are in a home and there are some unwritten rules which you must follow so that you will . You need to respect others and their possessions. I know children will be children, but taking, breaking, hiding or damaging something that does not belong to you is not at all what I have in mind when it comes to creating art or playful fun. Neither is it fun to touch, push, trip or get in the face of someone for any reason. In fact, this is a lesson in doing it all WRONG! If you did this to my belongings or got in my face, I would not be happy.

10. Accept others for who they really are.  In an age where bullying has taken centre stage among our youth, I hope I have taught you to see the value in differences. Race, religion, colour, accents, or dress, interests, hair style or colour, ability or disability… It doesn’t matter.  See past it all and realize that we are all humans on this planet.

9. It is okay to cry. Crying is a natural emotional response to feelings. We all do it. Men cry. Women cry. Children cry. If you begin to cry and someone calls you a baby just remember that they learned this at home and they are being taught to hold in their emotions. Feel sorry for them but don’t allow them to change how you act or how you feel.

8. Always be proud of who YOU are. You may not be the tallest kid, or the fastest, or have the best hair, but really now, who cares? As long as you stay true to who you are, everything else will fall into place.

7. Find your passion. Keep looking and searching. Never ever stop.

6. Love this planet we live on called “Earth”. Recycle, reduce, reuse.  Go as “green” as you can by being aware of how you live, shop, and of what you consume (and where that comes from).  Now go join your mother and I hug a tree.

5. Be a brother / sister. Be a friend. Be a protector. Always be good to your family, even when there is conflict. Always remember that you are all that you have. Spouses and friends are great but at the end of the day you should know and have the support of your brother/sister when you need it.  Just don’t take advantage.

4. Smart is cool. Never be ashamed of being smart or nerdy, having freckles or glasses, or loving science and math (or tax). Smart never goes out of style, it stays with you as you grow, and it will lead you down the most successful paths you can imagine.

3. All: Your body is just that, it’s your body. You can keep your hair any way or colour that you want and you can dress any way that you want, but you must remember that others will judge you and it will impact how others treat you. So long as you understand that, you may continue. Don’t let pop culture define you. I don’t know why, but today we let pop culture manipulate our youth and it’s killing them emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually. From the early on fascination with princesses, to the ‘need’ for a boyfriend and big boobs, popularity, teen moms, and all the other garbage being thrown in their face – be confident going against the grain or you’ll risk selling yourself out.

2. Maintain your health. It’s life’s greatest asset.  Without good health you have nothing.  A positive approach to health encompasses physical, mental, social, emotional, and spiritual well-being.  Healthy lifestyle choices we taught you in your youth have already helped to lay a strong foundation for continued wellness throughout your adult life.  In addition, a healthy diet, plenty of exercise, stress management, self-motivation, and remaining positive will have a huge impact on your quality of life, health, and happiness.  Honourable mention: Never be afraid to laugh at yourself. Laughter is humbling. It inspires and motivates.  It keeps you real.

1. Wherever you are in life, you can come home. I will be here – always. ♥ Daddy. Remember children that you will all be my favourite children forever (and equally for your own strengths and inspirations). If you don’t believe me, ask Mummy. She will tell you the same thing.

Happy 42nd Birthday to Me. 42 Facts about The Urban Daddy.

Happy Birthday! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today, February 21st, is my birthday. It’s actually been my birthday since 1971, and I’m not posting this to solicit birthday greetings so please do not feel obligated to do so, but I realized this morning during my drive into the office that in the 8-years that I have been blogging, and the over 1100 blog posts between The Urban Daddy, Intaxicating, and Daddy Knows Sports (which I’m not using anymore) that I have shared very little about myself. So today, in honour of my birthday I have decided to open up my kimono and reveal 42 facts about myself to shed some light into who exactly has been writing these (long) posts for so many years.

So please sit back, enjoy, there is no need to take notes, and for those of you who actually know me, there are some things here that you will not have known and for total strangers who come by frequently, I hope you will still come back. LOL.

42 things about The Urban Daddy.

42. I am not in any way affiliated with UrbanDaddy.com, although many people “like” me on Facebook for this reason, then realize I’m a Canadian Daddy blogger, and they run the other way. That site, for the record, is not a “Daddy” and while it is “Urban”, it is not an “Urban Daddy”. I am.

41. I have a full-time job outside of being a parent, husband, etc. I have been working for 18-years in the taxation industry here in Toronto. I worked at the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)for almost 11 years, then I joined the private sector and have moved from a Manager, to an AVP, and now the Managing Director at Tax Solutions Canada, where this great organization of professionals help people who have tax problems work with the CRA.

40. I am a level-3 CGA, but stopped taking courses when my father, who was a CA, gave me some advice.  He said, “Son.  Why are you doing this to yourself?  You’re terrible at this.  Pick a different course of study… Please.”  So I enrolled into graduate school 3 days after our first child Linus was born, and completed my MBA 3-years later.

39.  I was a typical 80′s kid, growing up.  Overweight, bad skin, big plastic-framed glasses and a mullet.  Thankfully I grew out of it.

38.  In middle school I carried my baseball glove everywhere and was too busy with sports to do my school-work.  I told my mother I was going to quit school to be come a professional soccer player – yet I was never good at soccer.  I was also the kid who showed leadership in everything I did yet struggled in school.  When I applied myself I excelled.  I earned 50′s through grade 8, 70′s in high-school, 75 (B+) through University and 85-90′s (A/A+) in Grad school.

37.  I was bullied as a child in public school.  In middle school I was picked on for being Jewish.  In Hebrew school, I was bullied for being over-weight.

36.  After high-school, I lost 50lbs and found my voice.

35.  After our second child, Stewie was born – he was such a difficult child for the first 10-months of his life that I herniated a disc in my back carrying him all the time.  I asked my physiotherapist to please allow me to tie my shoes on my own.  She got me into shape and one year later I ran a 5k race in 33-minutes (without stopping).

34.  I tend to be a little right-wing in my political views, but fiscally conservative, not right-wing extreme in any way.  I’m pro-choice – A woman should decide what she wants to do with her body.  I believe marriage is for anyone and everyone, if they want to, and I don’t care who you marry, or sleep with.  I believe no one deserves to carry guns unless they are protecting people and you have the right to free speech and practice whatever religion you want, until you either insult someone else, or try to convert them to your beliefs.  Like my mother used to say, “Look at your own plate.”  Don’t look at what I’m eating or how I’m eating it.  Mind your own peas.

33.  I’m left-handed and actually started a left-handed club while at University to help get left-handed desks in some of the lecture halls where they were all the way on the left-side of the room.  Personally, I needed to sit front-middle, so I could see.

32.  I have never tried drugs.  Ever.  Not a puff of anything.  That being said, I do think that certain drugs should be legal and taxed.  Take the criminal element away and increase revenues.

31.  I see people as human-beings on one giant planet.  I don’t see race, or colour and I was really embarrassed when working at the CRA where I delivered a lot of training and we had a new employee from West Africa with a VERY heavy accent and I could not for the life of me understand him.  I was devastated.  He kept asking questions and I couldn’t understand him.  That was over 10-years ago, but it stays with me.

30.  I’m a terrible friend.  I never learned what it means to be a good friend and I don’t have any friends from when I was young.  Certainly makes it challenging as an adult, however, we’re meeting lots of great parents through school events.

29.  My voice is a little on the higher-pitched side and I used to mumble sometimes when I spoke very quickly, but I am also just under 6 feet tall and 225lbs, so no slouch at all.  I used to deepen my voice when I answered my phone at the government so people wouldn’t call me Mrs.  I even had a guy tell me he was coming to see me at the Tax Office so he could “kick the shit out of me” because I sounded like a “weak, little man”.  He came.  I greeted him in the meeting room, and he was about 6ft2, 350lbs, but when he saw me he apologized for his actions and within 5 minutes being in the meeting room, he was bawling his eyes out talking about his tax problem.  It’s unfortunate that people feel violence is the best solution.

28.  I have no tattoos, but I have my ear pierced.  I wanted to pierce it so badly when I was 14 but my mother said no, and it wasn’t until my wife convinced me to do it at age 30 when I finally did it.  Now, at my age, I’m not so sure I want or need it…

27.  I’m a great defensive driver.  I let cars out, I wave thank you, I don’t cut cars off and I do the speed limit.  But if you piss me off, Karma will box you in and I’ll be on one side laughing to myself while you stew.

26.  I say “bless you” when someone sneezes.  Anyone.  Anywhere.

25.  I love Canadian music.

24.  My musical influences were Queen and the Police when I was young.  Then Def Leppard, Platinum Blonde, Bon Jovi, STP, Soundgarden, Green Day all the way through Rob Zombie, Saliva, etc.  I like my music loud, hard, with a great beat and no screaming.  I’m also awesome on SongPop.  All genres, any year.  Challenge me!  I dare you.

23.  I support the Canadian Armed Forces – I prefer if there were no wars – but there are bad dudes everywhere and we need our troops to keep us safe.

22.  I’m in awe of my wife for so many reasons including the way she runs our household and has led the raising of our children.  She’s been supportive of all of us and sadly I have not taken her out enough.  She needs so time away from the house, the kids and the responsibilities.  She certainly earned it.

21.  I’m in awe of my children.  They fascinate me.  They’re smart, good-looking, friendly and they laugh a lot.  I find myself looking at them, staring at them amazed at how they are developing and hoping they can stay that happy forever.  They have no idea how nasty the world can be and unless we can create a nasty laser to zap away all the scumbags, they’re going to need to be watched over to make sure they stay safe while they find their way in the world.  Oh, and at 8, 6 and 3, I have a little time.

20.  I am externally motivated so I seek confirmation that I’m doing a good job / staying on track often.  I’ve learned to read the signs so I don’t annoy.  If you want to help me you can “like” The Urban Daddy on Facebook or follow this blog (or follow The Urban Daddy on Twitter).

19.  The glass is half-full.  Always.

18.  My favourite number and the number of my ball-hockey jersey.  I’ve played ball-hockey in a league (not floor hockey in a gym, but ball hockey in an arena – no ice and running) for 23 years and I’m getting better and better each year.  I’m shocked at the improvement, but loving it.

17.  I hate to lose more than I like to win.  In everything I do.  My ball-hockey team was 0-62 before we won a game and it felt okay to win, but when we lose I’m pissed.  That goes to everything I do.  Success and winning is great, but the other side really gets me going.

16.  I used to have no sense of direction whatsoever until my wife taught me how to navigate my way out of a wet paper bag.  Once, in France for our honeymoon, it was getting dark and we were in the countryside driving on a dirt road surrounded by lavender and sunflowers.  I was beginning to worried that we would need to sleep in the car but my wife made me stop, she got out of the car and pointed off to her right, and within 10 minutes we were at the B&B we had booked.  I have no idea how she knew to go that way, but she gets it and I’ve been learning from the pro.

15.  Nice guys do finish last, and after being sick of being passed over and left behind, I’ve brought in a little bad ass / I don’t give a f*ck attitude and it’s helped me tremendously with my confidence and getting things done.  I no longer take sh*t, but I’m still really polite and kind to service people no matter the place or the service.  They’re people too, and deserve to be treated with respect.  But when I have a task to get done for myself, my family or a client, look out.  I play to win.

14.  I’ve realized you cannot pick your neighbours, your family or your nose.  You get what you get and you don’t be upset.  Plus, I’m big into forgive and forget.  I’m just hoping others are too.

13.  I am passionate about things and sometimes that passion can get confused with a lack of patience.  If I know I am right, I will do whatever I have to do to get others on my side and go that way.  I had a keychain as a kid that read; “Diplomacy.  The ability to tell someone to go to hell and make sure they will enjoy the trip.”

12.  I don’t like clutter and sometimes in my odd way to keep my personal space in order, I line up things, like shoes, to keep them neat.  I might be a little OCD on that side.

11.  My father passed away 10 years ago, and my grandfather 8 years ago, right after we went on a vacation to Poland to visit his birth place.  I actually have someone right now who is not speaking to me because “[I] don’t know what it’s like to lose a father.”  I’m not upset.  I feel for them because they said something in a time of grieving which was factually incorrect and one day they’ll realize it and I’ll forgive and forget.  Life’s too short.

10.  I love coffee.  Flavoured coffee, actually, and have been compiling a list of the best coffee in Toronto for 3 years.  My last ranking reached McDonald’s Canada, Tim Horton’s, Country Style and Starbucks Canada.  These brands have amazing marketing and social media practices.

9.  I had bells palsy as a child, which resulted in paralysis of half of my face for almost a year.  I was lucky I recovered 98% of my functioning and only have the slightest sign of the virus when I’m tired.  The left part of my lip is ever so slightly higher than the right side.

8.  I have always had body-issues from being a solid shaped child and for the longest time I refused to take off my shirt to swim even though I love swimming and even though when I was running and going to the gym at lunchtime.  I have been in pretty good shape since the end of high-school.  I will never ever be that 150lb skinny guy.  As it is, my shoulders and back are so big that I need a larger shirt / jacket to fit my shape.  When I was 13-years-old, I fit into a size 56 jacket.  I was in a 42 pant (maybe more – as high as a 48, I’ve blocked this from my memory), but now I’m a size 36 pant and a 46 tall jacket.

7.  I was asked to contribute my thoughts to the OHIP4IVF awareness campaign and realized that I have found a cause that I strongly believe in.  Now I just need to help convince the government the same thing…

6.  I once asked then Toronto Blue Jays General Manager J.P. Riccardi for a tryout with the Jays, at a breakfast with the Blue Jays function.  He must have thought I was nuts, but he asked me this; “Do you have any experience?  Have you ever played ball?”  I replied, “No. But I’m left-handed, I’ve been clocked as fast as 88mph and I’m deadly accurate with a baseball.”  He then thought about it and said to me, “The day I sign a 38-year-old pitcher is the day I need to start looking for a new job.”  Sure enough 3 weeks later he signed a left-handed 38-year-old pitcher from Japan with a career 5.38 era.  Not long after he was looking for a new job.

5.  I did some fundraising for Karen Stintz when she was just getting elected, and we raised a ton of cash to help her out.  She was very appreciative and good to the community.  I hope she can find her way again and help lead the right-wing on Toronto City Council move some stuff through.

4.  After sponsoring 4 nannies over 8-years through the Canadian Live-In Caregiver program - and helping them settle in Canada once they fulfilled the terms and conditions of the program, I dubbed myself an expert on the CLICP.  I regularly post about it and get contributing articles from others in the industry.  As a matter of fact, readers from the Philippines are the 3rd most popular readers to visit here daily – after Canada and the US.

3.  I used to be horrible with money until my wife (probably fiancée back then) taught me a great lesson about impulse purchases.  She froze my credit card and debit card in a block of ice so when I needed it to make an impulse purchase, she said I could do that but I would need the ice to melt on it’s own first.  And by the time the ice melted I didn’t want or need that purchase.  The cards actually stayed in the freezer for almost 7 months while I got my spending under control.  Now… I’m very good with it.

2.  I, um, err, Ahhh, I… Fine.  I like wrestling.  It’s like a male soap opera with strong guys and girls in it.  I like the music, it makes me laugh and and I’m impressed with their athleticism.  Plus, my kids love it.  My daughter wants to be Kane when she grows up.

1.  I made it through the entire day without telling anyone – not one person – that today was my birthday, except the 2500 people who follow this blog, mind you.  This was a first for me, who usually tells anyone and everyone.  Now I feel better.

Honourable mention:  I love escargots, but hate bamboo shoots and water chestnuts…

Just under 46 Reasons why my kids have freaked out, at 3-years-old.

My wife posted a link to an article on Facebook the other day called “46 Reasons Why My 3-Year-Old Might Be Freaking Out“, and this was just after our 3-year-old daughter Boo had an epic 20-minute meltdown.  Once she was done we confirmed the cause of the meltdown was a result of the fact that she wanted the zipper on her fleece sweater zipped up… Who knew?!?

Sidebar:  Forget the terrible two’s, new parents.  It’s the Terrible three’s which will kill you!!!  Am I right?

I loved the article so much I wanted to re-post it, but I also wanted to yank out a few of the 46 reasons which applied to any of our 3 children.

So please, visit the original article, but only after you read this on either Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Tumblr or here on The Urban Daddy’s blog,   Then your next mission is to see which meltdown’s we have I/ had in common.  Then let me know in the comment section so we can all laugh together.

I’ve broken it down by boys (ages 8 & 6 right now) and girl (just turned 3).

Coles Notes Version

Meltdown’s in Common:

His sock is on wrong.

His lip tastes salty.

His shirt has a tag on it.

They are hungry, but can’t remember the word “hungry.”

His brother looked at him.

His brother didn’t look at him.

We don’t understand what he/she said.

He/she doesn’t want to get out of the car.

He/she wants to get out of the car by himself.

The iPad has a password.

He jumped off the sofa and we weren’t  watching.

He’s not allowed to touch fire.

Everything is wrong with his coat.

There’s a dog (or raccoon or monster or dragon) within a 70km radius.

I asked him/her a question.

His brother/sister/mother/father is talking.

The cat is in his/her way.

The inside of his cheek feels rough.

Things take too long to cook.

He has too much food in his mouth.

He sneezed.

He doesn’t know how to type.

His/her mom is taking a shower.

Someone knocked over his tower.

The food won’t stay on his spoon.

… and so much more…

How does this relate to your kids?

Related articles

• Momfessional #47: Freaking out (themomfessional.com)

Active for Life: Great Resource AND Cool Steve Nash Contest. Details Inside

Steve Nash(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I recently came across a cool contest run by an organization called Active For Life.  Active for Life happens to be a leading promoter of children’s physical literacy to help parents raise active and healthy kids and they are kick-starting their new year to get families thinking about getting active with an exciting contest for a chance to win a Luyou shoe autographed by Steve Nash, himself a Dad and an advocate for physical literacy, and $200 SportChek gift certificate.

This contest is currently running and it’s worth heading over to the site to see some great current articles such as;

Tips to manage your kids handheld media time, which can be found here;

or “Soccer Skills, not Trophies, leads to success” which can be found here.

As a Dad blogger, I hadn’t really heard of physical literacy before seeing this, but I’ve learned an incredible amount over the last few months and this site is great for offering suggestions to keep children active and healthy.

Active for Life is the place where parents go to learn about how to make a difference in the health and happiness of their children. Research shows there’s a right way and a right time to develop the fundamental movement and sport skills that benefit kids for their entire lives. Learning these basic movement and sports skills is known as becoming physical literate.

Being physically literate is the foundation for being successful in sport and in life. Physical literacy gives active kids the best chance at becoming top-level athletes who may someday compete in high-performance sport. It also results in them leading an active life. And as the word “literacy” implies, just like reading, writing and arithmetic, movement skills need to be taught.

The website offers expert advice, inspirational tips and activity ideas which can help us, as parents, make sure our children get their recommended daily amount of physical activity and we all know that active kids become active adults.

Physical literacy, is about giving our kids the physical foundational skills to enable them to stay active for life – able to participate in a range of physical activities.  What I like about this in particular is the down-to-earth information and articles that provide practical direction in how to incorporate physical literacy into family life and some of the do’s and don’ts around it to help us get it right.  Their website is a magazine format that provides a ton of information and a very cool skills-builder tool which helps when we want to look at what skills to work on with kids at a given age.

You can find out more and enter the contest here.

It’s a great cause, and a very cool contest.  Active for Life can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Back after being Missing in Action

Cleaning the Toto Toilets

You may have noticed that I had gone missing in action for a couple weeks.  With only a couple posts popping up here and there, I feel like I’ve lost my mojo after all this time without blogging, and it’s not like there is nothing to write / bitch about either, but in actual fact I’ve just been tired.  Very tired actually, and it all began with our nannies vacation back home, which began November 16th and ends with her return to us on January 14th.

7 long weeks in which I thought that, since I was off, would be the perfect time to help out and instead of hiring someone to temporarily file her role, I could do it myself and spend quality time with my daughter, my wife, and with my boys.   How hard could it be, right?  I’m their dad.  I know how to clean up a house…

Mistake #1.

Not only has it been impossible for me to take care of the house and the children while also taking care of the things I would normally do in a day, but it became perfectly clear to me that going to bed at 3am every night was not going to help me get everything done.

Mistake #2.

I clearly underestimated the amount of cleaning that a house with three children under 7-years-old requires.  Thankfully my wife got them on a reward chart (a later post) so they help with making beds and cleaning up around meal time, but the laundry, dishes, taxi, drop-off and pick-up and the endless need to sweep and vacuum is too much.  I don’t know how my wife does it, and I certainly don’t know how our nanny does it – except that when there are three adults cleaning it’s much more effective than 1 1/2.

Granted I have now come to realize that my wife and our nanny are WAY more organized than I have been – Monday has always been the day to change the sheets, and Tuesday the house gets swept and vacuumed and floor washed, but drop-off and pick-up has been something we’ve helped with, and meal’s taken care of primarily by my wife, so doing them all… Yeah.  Not so good.

So obviously once I settle down at night with hopes of blogging, there is nothing left in the tank.

In addition, my daughter, Boo has finally realized now that she is 3-years-old that she can get out of her bed at night and walking into our room.  We were encouraging her to get up and pee since she has been “commando” at night for several months with only a few accidents.  The hope was that she would get up, pee, then go back to bed instead of sitting in her bed and screaming for us or crying and waking everyone else up.  What has happened in actual fact is that she now comes into our room several times at night, along with 6-year-old Stewie and that keeps up awake.  Now 7-year-old Linus is getting into the act and that means either a rough night’s sleep or I’m sleeping in one of their beds with them.

Either way, it means I am getting less than 3 hours of sleep a night and that is a recipe for getting sick.

Now before you cry me a river or blast me for doing what every other parent in the world does, hear me out… My wife is still taking care of dinner (thankfully) and it did take me a week and a bit to get used to the house-time routine from a worker perspective.  I have been working full-time for 17 years and while I am used to helping out as much as possible it has usually been in the evenings or on the weekends when there are little to no distractions.

During the day when people are actually around and a 20-minute task of changing the sheets on all our beds, becomes an hours’ endeavour full of distractions and competing priorities.  I also cannot just clean for the sake of cleaning, like when I swept the bedrooms, I ended up moving all the furniture, sweeping, putting away the toys, followed it up with a vacuum and then washed the floors and baseboard.  When I do something, I do it right, not half-assed so I’ll have to do it again.

So while it took me 3 weeks to get this post out there is always a bright side, right?  I completed this post on the 20th, but I’m backdating it to the 15th and that means as of today we only have 22 days until our nanny returns and life returns to normal, which means a clean house, happy children and my daughter can get to school in the morning on time for once!

I can see the re-posted headline for this article;  ”Working Daddy Bombs as Caregiver”.

So true.

Related articles

• Thursday Thirteen – My 13 Most Memorable Posts of my first 900 Posts. (urbandaddy.wordpress.com)
• My Oldest Son Doesn’t Like His Name! (urbandaddy.wordpress.com)

O’ Canada: I know you changed the name of a Province not too long ago… Right?!?

Province of Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve got to stop making bets with my wife that I lose.  She tells me that she never makes a bet that she will lose, however I try time and time again.

Now I’ve got more than her to challenge me.  I’ve also got Linus to fare with.  He likes to interject his opinion on the world – whether he knows what he’s talking about or not – when he says; “Actually”…Then he throws out his 2 cents worth.    For example he is studying the Provinces and their capitals in school, and while I was testing him, he corrected me and said; “Actually, Toronto is the Capital of Canada and Ontario is the Capital of Toronto.”

Yup.

So after my wife and I set him straight (with a little help from Siri to reinforce the point) we decided to have a discussion about the provinces and territories in Canada as a family.  Note: I think he gave in because he 100% trusts what his mother tells him, clearly more than what I have to say, because mummy is a teacher, and teachers know everything!

In our discussion I mentioned that recently – within the past 10 years – Canada added a territory and changed the names of a province and a territory and that I did not believe it was Newfoundland, but I was not sure.  So we discussed, they called me crazy, we discussed some more, they were convinced I was crazy and we left it at that.

Later that evening we had friends over and with all 7-children in the basement playing I again brought this up to our distinguished guests and after my explaining that there was a recent name change or 2, there were now 4 additional people calling me crazy.

The sticking point here for my wife was that when she was in school she was taught that the province of Newfoundland was really Newfoundland and Labrador and if this was the name change I was thinking of, then I cannot say it occurred “recently” because 1949 was not recent.   I agreed.

So I went to Wikipedia and provided this update for my wife and guests:

On January 4th, 1999, Nunavut split from Northwest Territories.  Nunavut was assigned “NU" as its province code in mid-2000.

That we knew.

On December 6th, 2001, an amendment to Canada’s federal Constitution Act officially approved a name change from the easternmost province of Newfoundland to the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.  The move for change began in the early 1990s to provide “symbolic but important recognition of Labrador’s status as a full and vital partner within the province, with its own unique geography, history and culture.”   On October 21st, 2002, NL was recognized as the provincial symbol for Newfoundland and Labrador, replacing NF.

Insert huge smile here.

But there was more…

On January 1st, 2003, The name of Yukon Territory was changed to Yukon.

So Dads, if you ever decide to Google the term, “I was right”, you will probably come to this post.  Not only was I right, but I educated 5 adults, 7 children (and myself).

Now you know too.

Related articles

• What is the top tourist attraction in Canada? (lfpress.com)
• Newfoundland’s food revolution (matadornetwork.com)
• Targa Newfoundland: To drive and survive in a 2006 Mini Cooper S JCW rally car (motortrend.com)

I’m not sure how this happened, but I’m doing “NaBloPoMo”

NaBloPoMo (Photo credit: cizauskas)

The other day I was checking out my statistics on the WordPress dashboard, trying to figure out why my readership has doubled, beginning 3 weeks ago.

I began to think that maybe it was because I was trying to write shorter posts, or that I’ve been trying to put a little more effort into editing them which I’m sure you all know is not an easy task when the time you set aside to write and edit the posts is between 11-3 in the morning.  Like this post, for example, I’m doing my 4th re-write and each time I save it I am sure that it is fantastic and ready to be posted but upon further inspection, the draft was terrible and this one might be too.  LOL.    #ZombieDad.

So, after shaking that nonsense out of my head I kept looking and noticed that here I was on November 12th and I have actually  posted a fresh, new post each and every day so far this month.

How did that happen?

It is convenient, mind you that for the first time ever I have completed a post-a-day and it is November because every November in the blogosphere there is a challenge known for “NaBloPoMo”.  NaBloPoMo stands for “National Blogging Post Month and during the month of November the challenge is to publish a post a day.  I have never taken up the challenge, or even considered that kind of obligation to be honest.  I’m in a long-term relationship already.  It’s called marriage.  Oh, and being a dad, son, brother, friend, employee, volunteer… Whew.   Blogging every day for the sake of typing “NaBloPoMo” in an article just never appealed to me.

But here I am.  Almost 1/2 way through this challenge and now my competitive juices are starting to kick in.  I think I want to try to do it.  I don’t think I will, to be honest, but I’m going to give it a shot.  How hard can it be now?  I just need 18 more posts for the month that are meaningful, tied to the theme of my blog and longer than a sentence. 

Crap.

I’ll never complete this.

Heck, seeing that the first 12 days are covered in the calendar on the right side of my blog is cool enough already.  So what if the rest of the month is blank…

Thank goodness for the WordPress Daily prompt… http://dailypost.wordpress.com/category/daily-prompts/.  One of the first prompts I found there was a challenge to write a letter to yourself as if you were a 14-year-old boy.  Whew.  That would be a very short post for me.  When I was 14-years-old, I was a yucky, smelly boy who loved sports.  My message would be something like this;

“Hi.  14-year-old boy.  No body likes boys who don’t shower.  Go shower.  And take off your baseball hat sometimes, but your yucky hair, quit eating junky food and if you cannot figure out that light-blue rugby pants from the Sears catalogue are not going to make you popular, just fill your closet with blue jeans and black t-shirts.  That’s it.  Blend in a little more and stay clean.  Oh, and sign up for a baseball team, dumb ass.  If you’re already throwing a baseball in the high-70′s, low-80′s with pinpoint accuracy, and being left-handed, you might actually be able to make something of yourself in the game instead of being 41 and wondering what if.”

Hey, that was fun!

Are you doing NaBloPoMo?  Why or why not?

…and what advice would you give the 14-year-old you?

Related articles

• Half-Way Through, NaBloPoMo Update (withywindlenature.com)
• NaBloPoMo is here! Need some inspiration? (en.blog.wordpress.com)
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My Oldest Son Doesn’t Like His Name!

Linus awaits the Great Pumpkin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hmmmm.  I seemed to have had quite the dilemma here in the urban daddy household last month when my oldest child, 7-year-old “Linus”, told me he doesn’t like his blog name.

He said it’s “yucky”.

“Do you know why I call you Linus on my blog?” I asked him… “Do you even know who Linus is?” I continued.

“Nope”.  He replied.

So I went scrolling back through my older posts and I showed him this post from February 20th, 2008;

http://urbandaddy.wordpress.com/2008/02/20/re-introducing-the-urbandaddy-family/

In that post I explain to my readership that I will be referring to my oldest son as “Linus” instead of the “Happy Boy”.  Not because he’s not happy anymore, but because the similarities between him and the character Linus are striking.

Let’s take note:
Though young, Linus is unusually smart.
Everyone likes to think their child is smart, but we have had Linus tested and we know that he is unusually smart especially in mathematics and music.  He does have very strong language skills (often using words like actually, & similar at the age of 2-years-old.  He makes interesting connections, and has a fabulous memory.  He hasn’t quoted philosophers or found the Great Pumpkin yet, but at the time of this comparison, he was just 3!  Now that he’s 7, he’s doing just that (without the Great Pumpkin).

 

In addition, Linus is almost never without his blue blanket(s), which in our case, is striped.  And we don’t let it out of the house, although, if we did, believe me, it would be with him everywhere.  And like Linus’ blanket, Blankie has magical powers.  If Linus falls and hurts himself, blankie makes the pain feel better.  If he’s scared, Blankie makes him feel less so.

 

I let him read that post and he thought it was pretty cool, but he was not convinced.  He also asked about “Stewie”.

 

So here is what I told him about his “little” brother, our second child, the one we used to call the weed because he was exceptionally long when he was born and continues to grow tall and long.  We started calling him ”Stewie”.  Yes, him.  While Stewie is one inch shorter than Linus right now, and wearing the same size clothing for a boy 22 months younger that Linus, we felt Stewie better fit his character.

Our Stewie is a character and a half.  He’s stubborn, he’s tough and I swear he’s trying to kill us.  He’s very on the ball, he’s very bright and has been known to mutter obscenities in a British accent.  No.  That last bit I made up.  Our Stewie is always thinking..  Always plotting and like the character on the show, Family Guy, has a fondness for chatting to animals. 

I mentioned numerous times in the past that I felt Stewie was trying to kill me – he was the cause of my herniated disk in my back and he arrives at my bed at night and just stands there… Staring at me.  It’s kind of creepy, to be honest, but he’s determined to get what he wants even if he has to stand by my bed when I fall back to sleep after I’ve told him to go back to his room.  

Stewie Griffin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As for our youngest and only daughter, we called her “Berry” from birth, for reasons I think only family and friends understand, but changed her name to “Boo” after she was featured in the show at Disney this past summer. 

The post about that change is right here; http://urbandaddy.wordpress.com/2012/08/30/a-change-at-the-urban-daddy-blog-bye-bye-berry-welcome-boo/ 

So after all the explaining all this to him, I took to YouTube and showed Linus video about the Linus character on Peanuts and I watched as his serious face turned to a smile when he realized the similarities. 

He turned to me and said; “When I start my own blog, I’m going to refer to myself as Linus too.”

Whew.

Dodged a bullet.

Have any of you had issues with your kids and the names you chose for them on your blog or have you decided to use their real names?