Wow, I had a ton of great entries in the Baby Sherpa Diaper Backpack contest. So many people were in the competition. I’m certainly going to do more of them and will let you all know when the next one is ready to go. Baby Sherpa was my first contest on this blog and they also had enough faith in me to send me a Baby Sherpa Diaper Backpack to review. For that I am most appreciative as well as for the contest prizes.

The three winners are

Winners
• 1st Place winner Jennifer from The Dirty Shirt. She won a Baby Sherpa Diaper Backpack in her choice of color. She picked black.

• 2nd Place winner is Karen from Mommy’s Favorite Children’s Books and Mommy Fashion Blog. She won a Short Haul Diaper Backpack in her choice of color. She picked black
• 3rd Place winner was Laura from Laura William’s Musings. She won a DayLite Diaper Bag. She picked Navy Blue.

I want to thank Heather and Valerie from Baby Sherpa for supplying the prizes. She has been awesome to work with and so generous to give these away through this blog. I appreciate it so much.

This past Saturday I was watching Eva, we went to a local zzoo/playground/garden. When we got home I set her on the floor to play, I gave her a container of Cheerios. I went tot he kitchen for a moment and the next thing I know she’s got the entire contents of the container spilled on the floor. I should have know this would have happened. Oh well, they make a fun noise when sucked up into the vacuum cleaner.

Eva is 10 months old and we have taken her to restaurants practically from the time she was born. She loves being at the table with everyone when we are eating and now she even tries a little bit from our plates.

I’ve heard horror stories from friends who have had to leave restaurants because their kids have lost their minds and screamed and yelled and thrown things. We are determined not to let that happen and so we take measures to prevent this. So here are the things that we do to keep Eva on an even keel at a restaurant.

1.) Timing - When we go out we try and do so when it is mealtime for Eva. We take food and her sippy cup with us for her water. While we eat we also feed her. This keeps her occupied and satisfied.

2.) Preparation - We always have our Baby Sherpa Diaper Backpack with us and with the backpack we have everything we need for a good time at the restaurant. We pack her food, bowls, spoons and bib. We make sure that we also have a container of Gerber puffs or cheerios.

3.) Seating - Restaurants have all different types of high chairs and we avoid them. Early on we sat Eva in one, because she was doing so well sitting up, but we had to stuff a purse in it as well because she is so petite. So we went out and picked up the Fisher-Price Healthy Care Booster Seat this has been a godsend. We use it when we go to the Cape, to restaurants and wherever. It provides Eva with a seat at the table. Being at the table and included in the meal is important. She is learning to be a part of the family as we eat together.

4.) Entertainment - Again the Fisher-Price Healthy Care Booster Seat was the perfect solution, there is a snap in piece with activity items that Eva can play with when she is done eating. Everything snaps together and is pretty compact. It can also strap to any chair.

5.) Snacks - Once your child is into finger foods a container of Cheerios or Gerber puffs are perfect after dinner items or if your child has already had dinner they are perfect distractions.

So, keep the kid fed, involved, entertained and amused and you ‘ll have a nice time at the restaurant. Individual results may vary.

Walking is not too far off. Eva has taken to standing these days and she stands really well. She was playing at the table int he living room the other day and I noticed how long she stood and how balanced she is getting. She even let go with one hand to test her balance. It certainly will not be long before she is off and running all over the house. I’m going to have to detail the babyproofing that we need to do on the house.

We try to expose Eva to many different events. Last weekend we took her to see a free kids concert given by Ellis Paul. This week we went to the Newport Folk Festival and saw Jimmy Buffett perform. Eva likes music very much, she even taps to the beat once in a while. She loves dancing with Momma and Dada too.

Taking a child to a large outdoor event like this can be a challenge, especially with one so young. Here are a few pros for taking your child to the event.

1.) They are exposed to some place different.
2.) They can people watch.
3.) They learn to be flexible, changing up the routine is a good thing.
4.) You get some cute as hell photos.
5.) You get out of the house.

Some cons for taking the child with you.

1.) You can’t always stay as long.
2.) Diaper changes don’t happen unless your favorite song is playing.
3.) You can’t plan for everything.
4.) They could be perfectly fine on the drive over but scream during the whole event.
5.) You can’t party like you used to.

I had a hard time coming up with cons because for the most part they are more selfish reasons than anything. They cons don’t really apply to us anyway as Eva is a really relaxed kid. I did learn a few things when we went however.

1.) Make sure that there are enough things to keep your kid occupied. Don’t count on the music to keep them entertained the whole time.
2.) Double check your diaper supplies (there is nothing like walking a mile back to the car for 1 diaper)
3.) This is a given but… Watch them constantly, Eva tried to eat the grass.
4.) Don’t forget the camera.

I truly believe that because we take Eva with us all over she’s going to be a pretty adaptable kid. There is a need for structure but it shouldn’t be totally inflexible either. Changing things up from time to time is a good thing.

]]> http://www.readtomedad.com/paddington-adventures.html/feed http://www.readtomedad.com/babysherpacontest-2.html http://www.readtomedad.com/babysherpacontest-2.html#comments Fri, 01 Aug 2008 05:00:34 +0000 BenSpark http://www.readtomedad.com/babysherpacontest-2.html Contest Entries are no longer being accepted. Winners will be announced soon. Thank you everyone for participating.

During the Month of August I am holding a contest in conjunction with Baby Sherpa at http://www.babysherpa.com/. We will be giving some lucky bloggers some great Baby Sherpa gear including a Baby Sherpa Diaper Backpack, a Short Haul Diaper Backpack and a DayLite Diaper Bag.

I discovered the Baby Sherpa Diaper Backpack while reading one of my favorite Web comics Dog Eat Doug. Brian mentioned the website so I followed the link and learned more about the product. I wrote to Baby Sherpa and told them about Read To Me, Dad and how I’d love to work with them on a contest and I’d love a Baby Sherpa Diaper Backpack to review. They sent me one and I love using it. I have taken it with us on trips with Eva and I can see that it is going to stand up against time and the elements as it is a really rugged backpack. And for an active kid like Eva, rugged is what we are going to need.

I initially wanted to do a contest to give away just the Baby Sherpa Diaper Backpack but Heather from Baby Sherpa insisted on a first, second and third prize. That is very generous. So instead of one prize there will be three. A Baby Sherpa Diaper Backpack for first place, A Short Haul Diaper Backpack for second place and a Daylite Diaper Bag for third place. The winner will get their choice of color and the prize will be shipped to their location.

So how do you win?

I will be using the random.org to pick the three winners.

Required: For One (1) contest entry - Leave a comment on this post.

Optional: For Two (2) contest entries - Subscribe to this blog. Shoot me a screen capture of your feed reader for confirmation.

Optional: For Three (3) contest entries - Stumble this post and do all the different social networking submissions, each one is worth 3 entries.

Optional: For Ten (10) contest entries - write a post about your current diaper bag and how a Baby Sherpa Diaper Backpack would make your life easier. Have you gone through diaper bag after diaper bag only to be dissatisfied with the lack of space for all things that you need? Do you find yourself carrying multiple bags to make sure that you have everything you need with you when you go out on adventures with your kids. Tell us about your diaper bag woes. Take pictures, make videos, sing songs be creative. Include a link to the Baby Sherpa homepage at http://www.babysherpa.com/ using keyword Baby Sherpa. Include a link to the Baby Sherpa Diaper Backpack product page with keyword Baby Sherpa Diaper Backpack. Extra entries for real creative posts.

Important details

Prizes
• 1st Place winner will win a Baby Sherpa Diaper Backpack in your choice of color.

• 2nd Place winner will win a Short Haul Diaper Backpack in your choice of color.
• 3rd Place winner will win a DayLite Diaper Bag in your choice of color.
• Participants may only win one item.

Submissions accepted till August 15, 2008.

Winners will be selected and notified by August 20, 2008

The video was from the first time I wanted to run this contest. I like the work I did on the video but disregard the “rules” and the dates.

]]> http://www.readtomedad.com/babysherpacontest-2.html/feed http://www.readtomedad.com/talking-to-your-kids-about-animal-cruelty.html http://www.readtomedad.com/talking-to-your-kids-about-animal-cruelty.html#comments Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:48:53 +0000 BenSpark http://www.readtomedad.com/talking-to-your-kids-about-animal-cruelty.html Animal cruelty is a terrible thing. Your young ones might come to you with some tough questions about animal cruelty. They might have seen an occurrence of cruelty or they may have seen something about it on TV. For example when the Michael Vick dog fighting information came out I’m sure that more than one kid had some questions.

Luckily parents have a great online resource in the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.) In addition to many ideas on how to help your local community help animals there is also a place just for kids called AnimalLand. This site, run by the ASPCA has places where you can go to have questions answered, also there are resources for when you children ask why people abuse animals.

And so you don’t start thinking that the site is all about negative things it certainly is not. There are cartoons with pet tips, activities, information about animal careers and many other things. This will be a nice site to explore with your children especially if they are looking to get a pet. Pet care and responsibility is, in my opinion one of those important things that a child should learn early one so they learn to respect and love animals.

** Photo is of BooBoo & Bo, a brother and sister who survived a trip in the wheel well of a truck. While they are not abused they do need help. You can find out more about them at The BenSpark.

Is there any children’s book character as curious as that little monkey George. I don’t think so. The other day I was leaving for a work trip and spent some time with Eva reading Curious George: Visits a Toy Store. Our friends Amy and Ryan and their son watch the TV show about curious George. We’re trying to keep Eva from TV as long as possible so reading to her is what she has right now. She did sit still for most of the book too.

At our house we love music. We love good music and not that crappy repetitive baby garbage. Eva is growing up with the tunes of Jack Johnson, Jimmy Buffett and the Bare Naked Ladies to name a few. But she really really enjoys Ellis Paul. So when I heard that my friend Lisa was doing a contest to give away That Baby CD and DVD I had to enter. This is a set of songs from known artists that are great for baby and parents. So no Barney and I Love You, You Love Me for us.