Brad's Top 8 from 2011 ABC Kids Expo Daddy Brad browsed hundreds of booths at the 2011 ABC Kids Expo (the largest pregnancy and baby product show in the country) looking for interesting and new products and trends. This year he found a bumper crop of interesting new products for pregnancy, infants, toddlers, and pre-k kids. This video features eight of his favorite baby, infant and toddler products from the 2011 ABCKidsExpo in Louisville, Kentucky. The chosen products come from manufacturers Folkmanis Puppets, Ogo Sport, BetterBaby, Pinch-Not, Brica, Easy Playhouse, Greater Than One Kids, and Gro Furniture. Check out the cool puppets, games, carseat covers, safety items, playhouses and cribs. No pigs were harmed in the making of this video. Histed by Brad Powell. Ep. 813 is brought to you by BabyBjorn

Daddy Brad:  Hey, and welcome to the ABC Kids 2011 Expo in Louisville, Kentucky. I am Daddy Brad. [music]
Brad:  Actually, I'm Daddy Brad. He's a pig. Hey, welcome the ABC Kids Expo here in Louisville, Kentucky. This is one of the largest baby and juvenile product shows in America, and we're here to find all the cool products, and let you know about them. I'm starting right here at Folkmanis Puppets and I found something that I really like. You know with all the technological video games going on, it's easy to let the old school, fun, arts and crafts, storytelling projects go by the wayside. But, not with a Folkmanis Puppets.
This is a puppet making kit. It's got everything you need. Kind of the old sock idea, decorate the old sock and do puppets. But this has got everything you need to make a really cool puppet. Comes like this, great arts and crafts project to do with the kids, and then it ends up like this!
You can do an art and crafts project, and then you can have a puppet and do a puppet show. What better activity to do with your kids? Folkmanis Puppets, I think you can find them in any high end, specialty retail store around the nation, or you can find them at www.folkmanispuppets.com.
Now we're going to go and scour the floor and bring what's cool to you. Let's go.
As you can see, this is an incredibly fun and entertaining athletic pursuit. I am here with Mary Kate?
Mary Kate:  Yes.
Brad:  From Ogo Sports. What are we playing?
Mary Kate:  This is the Ogo Sport Ogo disc.
Brad:  A Ogo disc.
Mary Kate:  A hand trampoline. You can play by yourself. You can use it in the pool, it'll float. You can use it with water balloons, beach balls, volleyballs, tennis balls. You can make up your own games.
Brad:  This is, as you can see, mesmerizing. It's one of my favorite products at the show, Ogo Sport disc. Where can folks find these things?
Mary Kate:  All kinds of specialty stores. We're online at Amazon.com, Target.com, probably in your local toy store.
Brad:  I could do this all day. Your kids will dig this, you'll dig it. Ogo Sport disc. Now I've been looking around for Daddy Danny, or soon to be Daddy Danny, some products that he needs as he enters the world of fatherhood. I've always, like when you're traveling with your baby as a dad, you can't breastfeed, obviously. There has to be an alternative. This is a great alternative. This is a Better Baby Quick Mix. We're here with Ryan from Better Baby to tell us about it. What's this thing Ryan?
Ryan:  Well, the Better Baby Quick Mix allows you to pre‑prepare your baby's bottles. It keeps the water and the formula separately. It's safe. It never spoils, and more importantly it's instant. When you're ready to feed, you push the button, shake it up, and it's time to feed.
Brad:  So it's pre‑mixed, and all you do is push the button. Boom, shake it up, and you're ready to go.
Ryan:  Shake and feed, no mess, no stress.
Brad:  So you designed this deal?
Ryan:  Yes I designed it. We also designed it so it works in other bottles. It works in Playtex, Born Free, Ma'am, and Dr. Brown's Wide‑Neck.
Brad:  Cool. So whatever your bottle preference is, you can use it. That's space‑age man.
Ryan:  It's called the pod. It's the pod that'll change the world.
Brad:  Now where can they get it?
Ryan:  They can get it online at BetterBaby.com. We're also on Amazon. We're also on Facebook.
Brad:  Cool. Danny, get one of these, now.
Cecilia:  Go ahead. Stick your finger in the door.
Brad:  Stick my finger in the door? Are you going to close it?
Cecilia:  Yeah, I am.
Brad:  OK. It didn't hurt, wow that really is amazing. OK, this is one of the best safety products we've found at the ABC Kids Show 11. It's called Pinch Not, and I'm here with Cecilia.
Cecilia:  Our products provide complete protection for finger injuries at doors. We have two products. One protects on the handle side of the door. Can't get your fingers caught there. Then when you need to close the door. Now this side, this product is even more important. This in on the hinge side of the door. This is where all the amputations occur.
Brad:  Kids are sticking their fingers in like that.
Cecilia:  15,000 finger amputations a year in the United States.
Brad:  15,000?
Cecilia:  This device completely protects from getting your finger in the danger area, no tools, no screws.
Brad:  Right.
Cecilia:  When you get it, you see how tall your door is, and you snap it at break lines to make it the right height. Then you peel the backing off the adhesive, and then you stick it on. It allows the door to operate completely normally, and it barely shows.
Brad:  Obviously, you want your kids to keep all their fingers throughout their life, so this is really good. Where can we find this?
Cecilia:  Go to pinchnot.com. Protect little fingers.
Brad:  There you go. Pinchnot.com, protect little fingers. I'm here with Nicole from Brica, and Brica has tons of great products. This is one that I think is really great especially with the coming cold and flu season. It's a canopy for your car seat.
Nicole:  Yes, it's the Brica Protect and Go Infant Comfort Canopy.
Brad:  Right. You put it on the car seat.
Nicole:  Put it on the car seat, it fits over any size car seat that you have. It has a retractable, UVA, UVB, water‑repellent cover.
Brad:  If you're outside at soccer practice and your little baby is sleeping, put that on.
Nicole:  Put it over here.
Brad:  Sleeps away.
Nicole:  Snap on the side here, it stays there. This actually retracts here, this little pocket.
Brad:  Awesome.
Nicole:  Take that away.
Brad:  It folds up in there.
Nicole:  Folds up, zip it up right here. We have breathable mesh fabric, baby can see out, you can see in, but it does protect against unwanted contact from strangers. Once again, perfect for flu season. You still have a nice airflow going through there so, yeah, it's really comfortable for baby. The other great aspect about this is that it has a night time visibility strip for added safety.
Brad:  Where can folks find this?
Nicole:  Babies‑R‑Us.
Brad:  If folks want to take a look at all the Brica products, where can they go?
Nicole:  They can log on to Brica.com.
Brad:  Brica. Another one of my best in shows, Easy Playhouse. What do they call this? The Cardboard Houses?
Man:  Yeah, children's' card boarded playhouses. Easy Playhouse eco‑friendly product. Our house is reversible. The kids can design and decorate the whole idea behind it. It's an art and craft activity as well as a play house.
Brad:  Keeps them from playing video games all the time.
Man:  That's right. Bring them back to the basics. Instead of playing video games and stuff, the whole idea behind it is the arts and crafts activity. Let them design and decorate a playhouse to play in.
Brad:  Easy to put up for the dad?
Man:  Yeah, only takes, probably a minute‑and‑a‑half, and your kids can put it together. It's two pieces, put it together, and when they're done, take it apart, turn it around and let them design and decorate it all over again.
Brad:  Where can we find these?
Man:  You can find them online at www.easyplayhouse.com. We're at many retailers across the country. Visit our website, you'll see all of it.
Brad:  Leashes are for dogs, not for children. That brings me to one of my favorite products here, the Hold on Handles. I'm here with Suzanne of Greater than One Kids, and she's going to talk about this cool little product. What is this thing?
Suzanne:  This is Hold on Handles, it is a shoulder accessory and a reinvented walking rope. Clicks right on to the stroller, just like that, easy so mom is out handed pushing the stroller.
Brad:  Or dad.
Suzanne:  Or dad, mom or dad. And the kids are trying and running around, this is a way to keep them close by without leashing them or harnessing them. It snaps on to a stroller or your belt loop or your grocery cart or anything and then the kids have these fun little handles to hold on to.
Brad:  This one's a ladybug.
Suzanne:  That one's a ladybug. This is a bee. This is a double handle set and we also have single handle sets. We have a spider for boys and dads love the spiders.
Brad:  These are plastics?
Suzanne:  These are plastic and we have two lines of the plastic ones. These are our busy bugs and we have ocean odyssey as well, which is a whole octopus, and. Then this is our new plush handle. This is our panda.
Brad:  That's cool.
Suzanne:  We also have a monkey. These are washable. Every mom wants to know that. You just take it off, throw it in the washing machine. It cleans really easily. Especially the young walkers, they love the little plush cubbies, and they hold on, and they befriend their little animal and it's a beautiful thing.
Brad:  Awesome, I like these. This is one of my favorite products at the show this year. It's the Grow Crib from Grow Furniture. I'm here with David Singland, who's the CEO and founder of the company, and he's going to tell us a little about them. David, these things are awesome.
David:  The Grow Cribs, they convert, on through a toddler bed, a play table, a day bead, and ultimately into a full sized desk. They use no mechanical fasteners to assemble. We believe that useful life is a true measure of sustainability, that a product that lives on beyond just a few short years that most baby cribs do. It's definitely a more sustainable product.
Brad:  Where can folks find these?
David:  We have them on our website at growfurniture.com.
Brad:  Thank you, David.
David:  Thank you.
Brad:  Well, that's all for me here at the ABC Kids Expo 2011 from Louisville, Kentucky. We've looked at some great products. I've had a good time, but now it's time to go. Come on Daddy Brad, let's go. All right, that's all for us here at Dadlabs, ABC Expo 2011. You ready to go pig? I'm ready to go. All right, let's go. Bye bye, thank you.