Every Thursday at 1pm Central time, the folks around DadLabs World HQ drop what they are doing and head into the studio for our weekly live show. The show runs between 30 minutes and an hour and covers a variety of topics. We’ve been working out the last technical bugs, and now we think we’re ready for you to check it out and let us know what you think. Here’s an expanded look at a couple of the topics we covered in this week’s show. Join us next Thursday at 1CT, text and harass Daddy Brad via Livestream.
Thanks to everybody that watched, congrats to the folks that won free stuff, and Woot! to our sponsors at BabyBjorn.
Girlie Birthday
If you want data of our efforts to avoid being Princess Parents, you need look no further than the birthday celebrations we had for Ri-ri over the past week. On the girly side, we have the present her mother gave her, and the craft project I came up with to kick off her birthday party — decorating jewelry boxes with decoupage.
For the project I went to the craft store and bought tiny brown cardboard boxes in a variety of shapes, thin craft paper in a variety of colors and patterns, decoupage glue (it’s specialized goo that dries into a clear glaze), and a bunch of glittery stickers. You tear or cut the paper into quarter size or smaller bits, glue them to the box, then paint over the paper with another layer of glue. When the glue has dried, you can add stickers for more personalization. (In the future I would drop this last part — it was the most expensive “ingredient” and you have to wait before you can use them.) The materials cost about $5 per kid.
Okay, this project may have you asking some pointed questions about me. So to clear things up, I had never in my f*cking life heard of decoupage before I hit the door of the craft store. A helpful clerk dude with a really long ponytail saw me wandering the aisles like a zombie and took pity on me. Thanks to him, Ri-ri’s party got off to a great start. They loved doing the project and the boxes came out great and were perfect party favors.
Pretty princess-y so far, right? The rest of the party was strictly in accordance with Ri-ri’s wishes. All she asked for was to have five friends over to the community pool, and to eat a bunch of barbecue. Done deal. The barbecue was from Rudy’s, not only because they have solid ‘cue, but also because their group meals are so thoughtfully and completely catered. Tablecloths and serving utensils? A bag of ice? Unmatched.
The high school football game that was on the agenda was a washout (ironic given the drought), but everyone seemed to have a great time. Speaking of football, the non-girly celebration continued the next day as Ri-ri continued our tradition of making the home opener for the University of Texas Longhorns Football team a father-daughter event. Nothing could be better.
Overall, not such a girly birthday after all.
iTunes 9 for Families (From our weekly Tech Dad segment)
One of my biggest technical headaches to date has been managing the multiple family iPods. Both of my older kids have their own Nano and their own profiles/iTunes applications — all linked to my iTunes account for purchasing. This creates lots of time consuming headaches when making sure that I have the media they want on their players, and also archived in a central place.
The latest update of iTunes just made that a ton easier. With the new Home Share feature on iTunes 9, I can link all the libraries and move media without having to connect, synch and re-synch iPods on multiple machines. The kids can now also drag and drop songs from my collection into theirs (like they’ll want my music).
The potential downside is that I have material in my library that is not appropriate for them (thanks Ben Folds and Hellboy). As usual, Apple has included easy to use parental controls. You can restrict access to content via Home Share via the Preferences Menu in iTunes (as opposed to the Parental Controls panel in System Preferences). Set the ratings you want your kid to have access to, then set a password and you’re done. This is a feature I’ve been waiting for and it’s been a huge help to me already.
On the show we also shared our thoughts on Bobcat Goldthwait’s “World’s Greatest Dad,” talked about the dangers of kids and “Reply All,” the Sigg Bottle controversy, a breast pumping Swedish Dad and much more. Hope we’ll see you next week.
I would 100% agree with daddy brad! stocking stuffers for kids should be maybe a few gift cards, batteries, chapstick, candy and maybe even a small toy. for mommy… small jewlery pieces, like earring studs, gift cards, parfume, candy, and if she is into theese things… fuzzy socks! a fun thing to do for the gift cards is take a small cardboard soap box and wrap it… that way it takes up more space! also make a small treasure hunt by putting a hint in the box under the tree, then telling you to go to where the next hint is… because we all know christmas morning never lasts long enough!
thats just a few…
Carrie
ps: packaging… open the gifts before you wrap them, do all of the necessary operating procedures ie batteries and twisties… then wrap them… you will spen more time with the kids, and less time pulling out your hair!
Actually in our family some of the best gifts WERE from the stockings. Rings, Jewelry (even the kind for little girls, balls, toys already taken out of the package (action figures, smaller electrics, puzzles, books, iPod was a great idea), stockings were our favorite part… and then yes, the candy in the bottom. PS in another vid. you brought this out, but all the gifts from santa in our fam. were NOT wrapped for ease of parent’s sanity.
This is a much deeper question than what to put in them. As you know, candy, the good kind, is prime realestate for most dads. A Hershey’s big block, or better yet, a half pound sugar coma inducing bar of chocolate heaven fits real nice in the sock.
But I digress, where, once you’ve filled it with the goodies, do you place this prize? If you don’t have a fireplace, there really is no good place to put it. You don’t want it on top of the entertainment center, it’ll block the view. You could tape it to the wall, but once you fill it with the bar of delight it’s sure to fall, even with duct tape as an anchor. Same thing happens when you hang it on the tree, and you’ll probably take down the rest of the ornaments with it.
By the way, we’re expecting our fourth girl in a few days (December 15) and could really use that travel crib. Let us know if we win!