Last weekend I’m sure many of you saw my frantic tweets about Tre being rushed to the hospital by ambulance and being admitted into the ICU. You would think that seeing your child whisked away strapped to a gurney in an ambulance would be enough to frighten any parent, surprisingly however, I wasn’t shaken at all by the situation. If anything, I was a bit angry because I felt that the doctors and nurses were going extremely overboard. Well it turns out that Tre is quite a bit more fragile than I had ever anticipated and although he made it thru his hospital “bid” and got paroled early for good behavior, he clearly wasn’t put of the woods yet. Apparently the hospital stint was only the first hurdle for us to overcome in a long race against allergies and asthma.
A long time ago I wrote a post called The Name Game, it was about ensuring my kids had built in nicknames and some of the difficulties that such a task entailed. Well I’m happy to report that nearly 2 yrs later, I’m finally received those cool points that I wrote about oh so long ago. Tre finally, knows and responds to his nickname, he enjoys having a nickname and prefers people to use it. YES!!! Goal achieved, this is exactly what I never had as a child, and now both of my kids are enjoying the perk that I was denied as a child. Only problem is, I now have the HARDEST time calling Tre by his nickname.
Hot Wheels are to little boys what Barbie is to little girls. Everyone knows, that Barbie is nothing without her dream house and accessories, same holds true for Hot Wheels cars. What good is a car without a good track to race it on? That’s why today’s toy review is on the Hot Wheels 4 Lane Elimination Race Track.
This new and improved track is a redesign of an earlier version that we had for Ty. I must admit, they corrected all of the issues that we had with the previous race track and added a few extra bells and whistles to the 4 Lane Elimination Race Track. For starters, this track is actually pretty durable, we’ve all had race tracks in the past that couldn’t hold their weight in water, well Hot Wheels got the formula correct this time and produced a product that can stand up to the normal (if you can call it that) wear and tear of a toddler. It also features a foldaway design, which comes in handy for storage and transportation, that’s definitely a plus in my book.
Functionality wise, this thing is simple to operate and gets the job done without much complication (contrary to our video review below, lol). Your toddler, pre-schooler, and school age child will all be able to handle this race track with no problem at all and be provided with hours of entertainment in the process. Any toy that can span 3 separate age groups is definitely a winner. The basic principle behind each and every race is 4 cars start at the beginning and only 1 is left at the finish line. Throughout the race, cars are eliminated based on their position in the race. There are several eject pods located throughout the track which fling cars that are lagging behind off of the track. This is a cool concept, but the race is over so quickly, it is a bit difficult to take it all in. It would have been nice to toggle this option on and off somehow. That would add a bit more variety to races, instead of always having only one car finish the race, another variation could be to see which car travels the farthest after the race.
Overall, this is a great toy, which took a previous design and improved on it tremendously. It’s an inexpensive accessory that will extend the life of your child’s Hot Wheel cars collection. If your little guy loves cars like mine does, I’d definitely recommend picking this one up.
This toy is Tre tested and Daddy Approved! Buy It Now!!!
Hey everyone, now that I got my family back (2/3rds of them), I can move on to thinking about more important things; namely, what they should buy me for Father’s Day on June 19th since I’m such a totally awesome Dad. Then I got to thinking, all of you guys think I’m a totally awesome, super cool Dad as well, so maybe you’d want to buy me something. After the revelation of that thought, I decided it was only right that I share with you the Ultimate Father’s Day Gift Guide for 2011. You’re comments are all the gift I need, so spend your hard earned cash on a loved one other than me.
Now this isn’t the typical, boring, year after year necktie, coffee mug, or multi-screwdriver type of list. This list is filled with gifts that Dads actually want and need! Well maybe listing “need” as a qualifier is stretching it a bit, but one thing is for sure, Dads actually WANT this stuff. So go ahead and grab them something from this list and they’ll be sure to be thanking you for many months to come.
All items have links to where you can purchase the gifts from. Don’t worry, I’m not recieving any compensation for this, just want Dads across the world to by happy on our special day.
Feel free to add on other gift ideas that you think us Dad’s may like in the comments section.
With Memorial Day Weekend basically staring us in the face (how many of you are at work staring at the clock right now, probably reading this post just to pass the time until the party begins!), anyway, like I was saying, with Memorial Day Weekend pretty much front and center, I felt that today was the perfect time to blog about this ultra cool deal. After you read this post, you’ll probably want to offer me your next born child, but rest assured, I’m doing this out of the kindness of my heart; although, monetary gifts are surely welcome. Read on to be dazzled, be wowed, be amazed by the deal that’s sure to provide tons of fun for you and your family at absolutely no cost at all. Oh yeah, by the way, in place of monetary gifts, I’ll settle for you naming your next child “Keith”, boy or girl, it doesn’t matter, I’m not picky.
This isn’t something that I usually do, but a reader brought this issue to my attention and I felt it was a good idea to share it with all of you. Since it may potentially affect you or someone that you know, spreading the word is the primary weapon against preventing an unfortunate event.
Consumer Affairs explains the recall in full, but essentially, owners of the affected cribs are potentially faced with issues dealing regarding the following: “The bottom rails on the crib sides can separate from the sides when the mattress is in the lowest position, causing the spindles to separate and the mattress to drop. This poses fall and entrapment hazards for young children.”
Recently, I was approached with what I thought was a phenomenal and heartwarming story. It was the story of Alex and Hal Malchow; a story that was both compelling as well as inspiring. What moved me the most was the fact that this Father and Son team had not only overcome the odds and persevered, but they did so and then decided to give back and help others. Most individuals would have been satisfied with conquering their own challenges, but these guys took it a step further and are helping conquer the challenges of others as well. It is because of this that I have decided to get involved and promote The Sword of Darrow Scholarship Contest. Alex and Hal are offering a $5000 contribution to a 529-college savings plan for the winner of a parent/child short story writing contest. The contest is a way of celebrating the release of their book, The Sword of Darrow
I’ve gotta be honest with you guys, I truly don’t feel like blogging right now because truthfully I’m pissed off! I’m thankful, happy, and relieved, but still pissed off. I know the past few days here at Daddy’s Fish Bowl have been grim ones; so I wanted to update everyone on the latest information. I know that you’ve all been routing, praying and thinking about us in hopes that we make it thru this difficult situation and I can’t thank you enough for that. Well the good news is the eye of the storm has passed and Ty is SAFE at home with Fefe & Tre. He has been returned to our custody and we are all overjoyed by this. Ty and Tre especially; for two brothers who refuse to get along for more than 15 mins at a time, they showed & proved how much they’ve missed each other by holding off an entire 20 mins before bickering. If you’re not sure what I’m yapping about, you need to go read this post immediately and then come back and join the other up to date folks (tsk tsk).
Now if you’re the “warm and fuzzy” type, stop right now, go on your merry way knowing that all is fine and dandy in DFB’ville and have a nice day. On the other hand, if you love the controversy, enjoy the drama (which I know most of you do) continue on reading!
I haven’t blogged in quite some time, and that’s because the last two months of my life have been a wild rollercoaster ride complete with accomplishments, turmoil, and setbacks. The funny thing is: I didn’t purchase the tickets to this ride, they were given to me; unfortunately, I had no option to decline them. Last week, I thought the ride had ended. I believed it was over, so I unbuckled my seatbelt and stepped out of the coaster seat with a sense of pride; knowing that I had weathered the storm and survived. I was relieved that the nightmare was finally over and that life would continue on in its typical fashion…that was last week. Today however is a different story completely; if I were a betting man and had known that this morning’s weather was any indication of how my day would turn out, I’d be rich beyond my wildest dreams. Unfortunately, I’m not psychic, and today’s gloomy rainy morning didn’t set off any precursors to let me know that I was in for one hell of a ride.
From the look of the picture above, I guess it’s pretty safe to say that Ty lost this one. I really wish that I could tell you guys that this was an epic battle for the ages, complete with a training montage, Rocky Balboa style; but alas, I can’t. This thing was over before it even got started, I’m talking split second, one hitter quitter, wam bam thank you Ma’am. Looking at that picture, all I can think is, why my boy? What could I have done differently to protect him? The answer to those questions is staring me right in the face; I should have stopped this along time ago.
