Holiday Shopping Deals For Kids

I'm not above a little shameless promotion when it comes to sharing good deals from the various affiliate programs I belong to. And now that the holidays are here, why not? This is the first time I've done this here. I don't plan to do it often. Regardless, take a look at the links below. You might just find something you like.

20% off the LEGO® Star Wars™ advent calendar at shop.LEGO.com.

Merry Mint & Christmas Cookie Bear are now at buildabear.com!

Create your own LeapPad or Explorer Game Bundle and Save up to 20%! Offer valid now through December 31st!

New customer offer: Get 50 free prints when you sign up for Shutterfly.com!

Award winning free Internet Safety Software download

Print & iPad Subscription Discount N2027

Spend $50, Get Free Shipping on Select Kid's Apparel at Target.com

Special Deals & Offers in Toys & Baby from Buy.com!

P.S. I don't know what those little white squares are at the end of each link. So don't ask.

Review: A Very Big Bean Bag (Updated 12/18/12)

UPDATE 12/18/12: Not long after writing this review, my son decided to feel sick and throw up a little   on his bean bag. I saw it happen so I rushed into action by grabbing a wet cloth and wiping his poor little face off. I then grabbed another wet cloth and scrubbed the small area of vomitus on the bean bag. I managed to get it all off, so there was only a wet spot.

We figured we'd have to take the fuzzy cover off and wash it. But with a good scrubbing there is no sign that my son blew chunks. No smell. No little chunks of barf clumped around the fuzz. This means the bean bag cleans easily, and you don't have to take the damned thing apart to wash the cover.

Since it's my worldly duty to keep you informed about the latest and greatest in toys, I've written another review. This time the toy is a large bean bag. It's a very simple toy that's easy to overlook at your fancy toy stores. Best of all: No batteries required!

We bought this bean bag at Pier 1 Imports for $99. That's probably a little steep for a bag filled with beans. But can you put a price on your child's happiness? Hopefully the higher price will translate into lasting much longer. If we have to buy another bean bag in a month, I'll be very mad.

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Usually the first part of my review is about assembling the product. Bean bags don't require assembly, so I'm skipping this part. I suppose you might buy one that you have to manually fill with beans. That doesn't apply here.

Durability

I'm not sure how to rate the durability of a bean bag. But this one seems like it's not going to explode the next time my son jumps on it. I'm not sure what kind of filling is inside of it. The fuzzy outer wrapping appears to be okay. There is a zipper, which I'm assuming means that you can refill the bag if it A) your child eats all the beans, or B) the beans get crushed down enough it starts to look like a rug.

Playing Fun

My son loves it! We new we had a winner when we had to drag it out of the store with him on it. He likes to jump on it from the ottoman. This might sound dangerous, however, the bean bag is large enough for him to land safely. He has only hurt himself once, and it was just a minor bump on the ottoman.

Soft, fuzzy goodness!

Aside from jumping, he also likes to lay and roll around on it. And it's light enough that he can drag it around the living room, saving us a lot of time and effort.

Yes, I'd totally recommend this if you have a toddler. Just make sure you have plenty of room around it so if your little one takes a tumble, he/she will fall on the ground and not your medieval sword collection.

Like I said, you can buy these things cheaper than at Pier 1, I just can't attest to the quality or play fun of other ones.

Bounce House Injuries On The Rise

If there's one thing my son loves, it's jumping on the bed. If there's one thing he loves more, it's jumping  in those bounce house things.

But a recent USA Today article caught my attention. Those bounce houses are causing more and more injuries. I'm not all that surprised. After all, anytime you have a bunch of really young kids bouncing in a confined area on a cushion of air, accidents are bound to happen.

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In part, the article says:

The moonwalks, slides and bounce houses are popular entertainment at young children's birthday parties and carnivals, but the toll they are taking on the young is "epidemic," says lead author Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

 In 2010 alone, 30 children a day were treated for these injuries in hospital emergency rooms, the report says. The number of injuries increased to 11,311 in 2010 from 702 in 1995. Falls were the most common cause, followed by stunts and collisions. Smaller kids are a greater risk.

I take my son to Little Monkey Bizness, and they have a large, multi-level bounce house with slides and everything. The biggest threat to my son, in my opinion, is the older kids who don't pay attention to what they're doing. But to be fair, little kids don't pay much attention either.

The fun is real, so are the broken bones!

I'm not one to read an article like this and then not let my DS ever go in a bounce house again. I think it's worth noting and all parents should be a little extra vigilant. 

Heck, if we banned all the toys and fun things kids have these days, they wouldn't have any toys or fun things. Getting a little roughed up builds character and is part of being a kid. Damnit, I used to drink water from a dirty hose and jump off the roof of my house, and I turned out fine (though some would beg to differ).

Photo Credit: JollyJump Creative Commons

Happy Thanksgiving!

My family and I want to wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving. I'm very grateful for every one of my readers who support Brad the Dad.

Enjoy your holiday and don't eat too much.

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Review: Melissa & Doug Train Table

With the holidays right around the corner I decided I need to do the world a service by reviewing some more toys. After all, the measure of a good parent is proportional to the number of toys their kid/s have under the Christmas tree. Right? So I'm going to help you navigate those rough waters known as toy shopping.

Probably the most common toy I see toddlers have is trains. Whether it's a simple wooden set or a full-blown electric train set that makes all the other neighbor kids jealous, they seem to be popular with kids. Heck, even I love trains.

Hours of wooden track fun!

We got my DS a Melissa & Doug train set for his birthday. We set it up down in our newly finished basement, mostly because the upstairs living room is already overrun with toys.

Assembly

Compared to a lot of other toys, assembly of this train set takes some time and patience. I put it together with my dad (who is pretty good at this stuff) and it took us around an hour. As I recall, the parts are well labeled and the instructions are pretty straight forward.




But if you're like me and can barely change batteries without screwing something up, you might want to get help.

Honestly though, it's not too bad.

Durability

It's very durable. I can't imagine how a toddler would break it unless they took an ax to the damn thing. And if you kid is chopping at a toy with an ax, you have bigger problems.

The chair I threw at the table after my train derailed.

If you assemble the table correctly, there's no reason for it to break. The trains and tracks that come with it are wooden, so they're probably not going to break anytime soon.

Playing Fun

I'll confess: I enjoy playing with it more than my son does. And I'll qualify that by saying he might still be a little too young to understand and appreciate trains.

With all the track pieces you can create different track patterns to run your wooden trains on. It's great! Instructions are included on some basic track set-ups, but I burned those directions because their track set-ups sucked.

Used snack cup and sippy cup not included.

When my DS wakes up from his nap we head to the basement to play. I usually sit at the train playing while he does something else.

Yes, I'd recommend this train to any parent. If your kids don't like it, then it's just more playing time for you.

The Talking Game

My son is finally showing an interest in talking. He's quickly expanding his vocabulary and is starting to speak sentences of gibberish - which the doctor says is a good sign.

He's a late talker. With everything else he does great. He understands exactly what we are saying (well, sometimes it's "selective" understanding). He can communicate to us what he wants, usually through his own version of sign language and a lot of grunting. And he's great at figuring stuff out on his own.

My wife and I say that he's using his brain power for greater things than talking. I totally believe that it's true.

The most frustrating part about him not talking is that, well, he gets frustrated easy because he can't communicate what he wants. Like I said above he does pretty good at communicating what he wants, but there's still moments when it's chaos at our house.

I consider talking and potty training to be the last big milestones on the way to childhood-dom. Once toddlers have those down life becomes a little easier. I'm not saying it's smooth sailing, but a child's independence takes a big step forward.

For my own sanity, I pray my son gets there soon.

Does It Get Easier? Not Really.

The one question that I always tend to ask parents with kids slightly older than mine is: "Does it get easier?"The answers I get range from "yes" to "no" and everything in between. I've also been on the receiving end of that question.

My stock answer to other parents is that as your child gets older, it's just different.

But I was thinking about this yesterday when my son was being more of a pill than usual. I wanted to change my answer to the popular "does it get easier" question to "not really." I won't though, because it's too negative and isn't really an honest answer.

Let me explain. When you have a baby you have to deal with regular feedings, waking up several times during the night, crying, they need constant attention, etc. In other words, babies are a little more high maintenance than older children. Yes, you won't have to deal with those specific problems when your child gets older.

However, once he/she reaches toddler age, you have a whole new set of issues to deal with: Temper tantrums, potty training, child trying to push boundaries and exert their independence, etc. None of this is easy either.

It's ironic because when my son was a baby I kept saying I can't wait for him to be a toddler. Life will be so much easier. Now that he's a toddler, there are times when I wish he was a baby again.

So answering the question "does it get easier" with "it just gets different" is still accurate. However, I think it's kind of a round-about way of answering the question without really answering the question.

When a parent with a newborn asks me questions I always try to put a positive spin on things. When they talk about their baby's constant need to be held, I tell them it does get better. Same thing with late night feedings. I want to encourage parents as much as possible to give them hope. Those were the answers I took comfort in when my own DS was a baby.

If you were to ask me now if it gets easier, I'll answer by saying: "Each phase has it's own challenges, and I won't say any of them is easier than the last. But if you hate one phase (like the newborn), then you might love the toddler phase (for example)."

What do you tell parents who ask this question?