In this time of distancing and quarantine, finding things to do with your children can be incredibly difficult. Well, lucky for you, I have a great idea.

We all have that massive bin of Lego in our homes. A bin so deep that those pieces at the bottom share space with Judas and Brutus. What can be done with this?, you may ask. Well, your child could just independently play with it to build and create something new, but this is 2020 and who has the time and patience for that.

Here is the answer you have been looking for. Get those children to organize that Lego. Does not matter how you want to do it; by color, size, theme or set number. This will keep them busy for hours. They learn the importance of organization and teamwork when they work together to find and sort these pieces. You get more free time to read your favorite parenting blog. As a plus the next time they want you to help with find a piece you wont have to. Enjoy the 2 to 3 days of planned children’s activities I have just given you.

Note: If you really want to be a rock star parent, get them to put all their little pieces or mini figures into Tupperware containers. Not only its this more organization of Lego, but they will also have to tackle the abyss that is ones’ Tupperware drawer.

2020 is here!!! My new years resolution is to post more….. look I’m already doing it.

In my family, safety is very important to us. We don’t use after market products in our car seats and all our furniture is well secured to the wall. One of the biggest ones is safe sleep, but my little almost 2 year old has taken it a bit far. In fact, you could say he is a bit of a safe sleep Nazi.

Since I just called my son a Nazi, I best explain why. As all parents know, when your child is a little baby you shouldn’t put anything like a blanket or pillow into their sleep space. Being that our son is almost 2, we decided a few weeks back to put ONE stuffed sea star into his crib. ( see picture) The boy is head over heels for anything stars so we figured it could be something he could play with if he was up early or cuddle with if he is having a bad dream.

Well, that bad dream turned into his nightmare. The very first thing he did when he saw into in his bed was to give us a very disapproved look. In fact, a look that says “Mom and Dad, are you trying to smother me?” He then went right over to the the cute little star and took it out of his crib and tossed it into the laundry hamper. We took it out and told him it is ok to have that in your crib, but a toddler has a near iron will and that poor sea star continued to find itself in the hamper for about a week. We would take it out before putting him to bed and in the morning we would find it in the hamper again.

After 3 weeks he has come to peace with the sea star and now it sits in his crib. It has not moved for 2 weeks, but at least its found its rightful home. A toddler’s ability to compromise is only matched by a totalitarian regime. Maybe by Christmas he will drop his rigid ways and fully embrace his new bunk mate.

I don’t normally post others people’s stuff on my blog, but this is to good not to. I feel like it’s a similar sense of humor to me.

See more at @howtobeadad

Today is a great moment in the history of my family. It’s not someone’s first word or their first day of school. Those are pretty important, but this ranks even higher. I have been dreaming and planning for this day before they were born, even before I met my amazing wife. This is a day decades in the making. Today was the first day that me and my eldest son played with Lego! I remember as a geeky single guy that when I bought a Lego set or two I would say to myself. “ This is not just for me, but for my children to play with one day.” Well, that day has come!

Like any great events in history, it most be recorded for posterity sake. Here is the official history of this event. My wife had left for an appointment and my youngest son, despite a valiant fight was put down for a nap. This left me and my oldest son up and ready. Lunch and his nap were still a ways off. What to do with this time? That’s when I reached for a bag of blue Lego that I had sitting around for just this situation. I took a few pieces out and put them together. He then tried to put some together. He was only able to get two together once and was very proud of himself. He played for ten minutes as he dumped the bag out. Moved the Lego around and made it into a pile. Once we were done, he and I saved the feet of our family by cleaning up all the pieces.

I know what you are thinking right now; he is under two and you are letting him play with Lego? First of all, he was not playing with it by himself. The fear many parents have is that their child will put it in their mouths and choke. Yes, he did try and put it in his mouth once, but after I told him no, he only tried one more time. However, he had that look I have seen on his face a many times. It says, “if I do this will dad tell me know again.” Once I told him no for the second time, we were good. Even though he is technically to young to play with it, even just getting it in his hands and use to it is a good step. You know your child and you know when they are ready to experience new things. This day was everything I dreamed it would be and it is but one of many to come. Cherish these days with your family; they come and go so quickly.

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By popular demand, my first product review. Today I will be looking at O ball or as I like to call it baby catnip. Oball is made by Kids2 ( the same people that brought you the baby Einstein toy, so it has to be good right) They started just by making ball shaped toys, but have moved on to bath toys, cars, rattles, stackable and other ball shapes such as a football for example. These balls come in different sizes, colors and some even with rain sticks built in. What parent doesn’t want to give their baby a toy that makes noise?

These toys are so good because of the catnip factor. You give your little screamer an Oball product and watch them go from super Saiyn to Mr. Rogers’ mellow singing. I have no idea what magic they use, but it works. It could be the bright and easily distinguished colors of the toys. It could be that the toys are BPA, phthalate, PVC and latex free; which I know for a fact, all babies care about. Plus they can go in the dishwasher, but my daddy senses tell me, its the large finger holes that any youngster can clasp with ease. They love to look at, grasp and throw these toys and once they start teething; you have a built in teether. Both my little guys continue to play with them and I even have the first one I bought before my eldest was born. It is the gift that keeps giving everyday.

Overall, baby cat nip are great toys, which help baby develop fine and gross motor skills ( translation, keep them quiet and content while they learn). They are not highly priced with most single toys under 10 dollars. However, some of the larger sets can get to over 50 dollars. (not in my house!) If you are a resourceful (aka cheap) parent like me, they can be found used for even less. So, whether you need 10 minutes of peace and quiet, or you have to buy a baby shower gift and have no idea what to get, the Oball is for you.

Oball ( baby catnip) gets 9 dad bods out of 10

When I was a teenager, I took my lifeguard certification. After spending many weekends with the good people trained by the Red Cross, I was able to save lives. Today all that training pays off. A lifeguard has many jobs. One of which is to keep the pool clean. That’s were I start my day, I get the net and clean out the zoo full of bugs that feel like my pool is the best place to take a bath. Check the water temp and add a chemical or two. Now its go time. I take up my position to watch over the lives of 2 young swimmers. Off comes my shirt. Revealing a pasty white dad bod which I’m sure can be seen from space. The pool is a massive 8 feet in diameter and an impressive 12 inches deep, but this is what I trained for. Should any emergency arise, I will need to muster all my training and highly toned ab to save the day. It was an uneventful day for those under my watch.

Dad, the man, the myth, the lifeguard.

Dads are always concerned about who their children will end up dating, marrying and having children with. To this end, I was concerned the other night as my youngest son had a girl with him in his room. She is older than him and has long legs and pale skin. She was also covered with freckles. When I went to see what they were doing. I quietly walked into his room. I was shocked to see them going at it heavy. He had her in his arms and most of her face was in his mouth. They were making out hard. To tell you the truth, I was so shocked I just snuck out of his room. To make matters even worse my oldest son used to make out with the very same girl less than a year ago. I later found out her name was Sophie and she gets around, a lot. I need help. Should I be concerned about this girl?

I have to give a quick shout out to my loving, amazing and directionally challenged wife. Without her editing, my blog posts would look like they went through Google translate in about a dozen different languages. Just look at the sweet sign she made for me this past father’s day. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is. This dad bod is for you.

(Edited by said wife and APPROVED)

Check out the “about me section”for 50 questions all about me and my dad bod.