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Disney is Banning Kid Junk Food Ads on Their TV Network

June 5, 2012 //
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English: Bob Iger at the World of Color Premie...

English: Bob Iger at the World of Color Premiere Disney California Adventure (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In 2015, foods that are advertised on Disney channels must meet some nutrition guidelines before getting airtime.  These nutrition guidelines have been established by the Disney corporation to demarcate healthy from junk food.  Since obesity is becoming such a problem for children in the U.S., Disney CEO Robert Iger wants to promote healthier foods and associate them with Disney characters in hopes that kids will start eating better.  This advertising campaign is one of the first of its kind in America from such a large corporation.

Hopefully, this nutritious move by Disney will get other large businesses and corporations to take notice.  It’s hard to keep kids away from the television.  (I know.  My Worm is already mesmerized by the boob tube and he’s only a year old.)  So controlling what kids watch becomes a large part of parenting.  Keeping kids from wanting Gummy Fudgy Chemical Candycanes after seeing 500 daily commercials of it becomes difficult.  As a parent, what are you going to do?  Turn off the TV between commercials?  It’s bad enough that commercials are allowed to increase their loudness to get your attention.  The not so subliminal messages affect kids because their brains are so spongelike and absorbent (like a Bounty paper towel).  The reason why such a move probably hasn’t happened before is that advertising pays bills.  And this is precisely the reason why TV networks have allowed almost any and everything to be aired between shows.  Money talks.

I’m in favor of this corporate move by Disney.  I’m happy that my kid won’t be completely brainwashed by the Disney media saturating his waking hours with junk food images.  (It may even get me to add cable TV to our house…ok, maybe not.)  I’d still much rather the powerful corporations make these types of changes rather than have our government do so.  Once the government gets involved, the many rules, regulations and clowns typically turn a good idea into a circus side-show act.  The majority of the responsibility though, should lie with the individual and in this case, the parents.

This is a Yummy Apricot All For Me! (Sorry for blurry.  I’m still trying to figure out how to work my camera!)

Obviously, food in America is a complex thing because we always want meals to be cheaper, faster, and better.  And in my lifetime, I’ve seen cheaper and faster become the mantra of American food, with better food becoming more difficult to find.  Cheaper, faster food now always gets more expensive later.  (Do you ever wonder why baby food and toddler food is usually organic, pure, natural, and artificial ingredient free?)

Original article:

Disney To Ban Junk-Food Ads For Kids As America Struggles With Its Fat Problem

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Categories News

Are We Raising a Monkey or a Human?

June 5, 2012 //
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I said yes to a jungle themed baby room.  I said yes to stuffed monkey toys.  I even said yes to a monkey-themed birthday party complete with a monkey-shaped birthday cake (even though I argued strongly for a worm-shaped one).  But a monkey for a baby?  I didn’t agree to that.

With all the primate-related gear in his room, it’s no wonder Worm feels that he is 100% baboon.  He talks gibberish to his poly-stuffed brethren every day.  They hang out in his room.  (Get it?  Hang out?  Because monkeys ha…never mind.)  In the mornings, he greets his hairy cousins with a secret opposable-thumbs handshake.  Worm doesn’t yet understand why their tail is on the back and his is in the front.  (Though he’ll figure it out after he wraps it around a tree and hangs from it.)

As most monkeys do, Worm does too.  Hunched over, his knuckles and knees smack the floor at lightning speed.  He can cover the house end to end in less than 10 seconds.  Worm has recently passed the 14-month old mark and there’s hardly a desire for him to stand up, unless it’s to grab something up high (like a banana or swing from a drawer handle, which seems to come all too naturally).  I’ve also witnessed him climb up the furniture with uncanny deftness.  For a toddler that can barely balance on two feet, he defies gravity when attached to a vertical surface.  He climbs on the crib, the coffee table, the high chair, the bookshelf, the bed, and the couch!  Crawling-standing-walking-running has shifted to crawling-standing-climbing-swinging.  And Worm has no problem with this evolutionary deviation.

To give you an idea of Worm’s climbing prowess, we’ve placed a couch in front of him.  (I would have let Worm climb a tree in the back yard, but then Steph would beat me senseless once she got home from work.)

I Need To Conquer This Couch!

I Can Do This All Day Long…

Wanna See My Swirl Move?

Victory is Mine!

 

5 Clues To Why Worm Could Be A Monkey:

  1. He squawks and screams to communicate.  You have probably heard the short, ear-piercing shrieks and sound bursts that monkeys make.  Worm’s cacophony of noises are identical!  I can’t quite decipher and understand the many sounds because I’m not a primate, but once some prepubescent teenager creates the first monkey-english language app for the iPhone, he’ll be rich and I’ll be…well, kicking myself for giving away such a brilliant idea.
  2. He has interestingly placed body hair.  The fuzz on his forehead, back, and ears was cute at first.  But the fact that neither Steph nor I are hairy leads us to presume there is more ape than man in our son.  The “Ah ha!” moment will come when Worm’s hairline grows into his eyebrows.
  3. He destroys objects in fits of rage.  Monkeys are notorious for doing things like this.  They just flip a mental switch and chaos ensues.  Worm has that crazy button.  Since this blog is PG, my publicist won’t allow the carnage to be shown.  It’s bad for PR.
  4. He has a strange affection for Curious George.  His eyes light up every time he sees George’s face on the TV.  Worm even seems to understand George’s monkey sounds and gestures.  Very strange indeed.
  5. He loves bananas!  Every monkey goes bananas for bananas and Worm is no exception.  You should see what happens when I put whipped cream on the bananas…

I want Worm to grow up into a functional, kind, and caring adult, even if he has to beat his chest and swing from trees to do it.  There’s a little part of me that would love for him to grow up and be a man, just like his daddy.  But the other part of me wants him to shoot for the stars and become ‘Ape-Man’ for the Greatest Show on Earth!

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Categories Play

The End Of an Era. Bye Bye Carrera…Hello Family Wagon!

May 31, 2012 //
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You’ve heard this story before.  Young bachelor finds love.  Young bachelor buys love.  Young bachelor drives first love and finds second love.  Young bachelor marries second love.  Young bachelor and second love make third love.  Young bachelor, second love, and third love can’t all fit into first love.  Bye bye first love.

Trust Me. That’s Not a Real Smile…

As of today, my beloved 1993 Carrera (in red of course) will be leaving us and going back to the motherland.  After spending its youth here in the United States, the 911 will mark its 21st birthday in Germany.  It will be set free on the autobahn to redline to its heart’s content.  Maybe it will fall for a beautiful Maserati…

As for me, it’s a bittersweet goodbye.  I’ve put a lot of blood, sweat, and blood into fixing up the quintessential, most recognized 911 model ever built.  But as my ears, nose, and family grow larger, it is time to make room for all that extra growth…and this Porsche is not equipped to carry more than Steph and I (until stashing kids and dogs in a trunk becomes legal in CA).

Bye bye 911.  Maybe we will see each other again someday…maybe 20 years from now when the fledglings have flown the coop and we, old birds, are looking to recapture a semblance of our youth.  Steph and I will once again be behind your steering wheel…this time barely able to see the dashboard and hear if the engine is on or off.  We’ll drive you with the top down, my toupee blowing in the wind and Steph’s silver-blue wig firmly planted on the rear wind screen after having peeled off of her head.  We will cruise in the fast lane at 25mph under the limit and never move over into a slower lane for speeding traffic, for our Porsche is built for speed even if we won’t use it.  It will take us 5 minutes to get into and out of the Carrera and we’ll wonder why they don’t build these damn cars for old folks like us.

This chapter is closed and a new one just opened.  I went from us two to we three in a blink of an eye.  I’ve morphed into family guy man.  So when you see me pull up to the intersection in my dirty minivan and our eyes meet, try not to look at me as a poor soul hampered by a van overflowing with screaming kids, squeaking toys and stale cookie crumbs.  When you rev your sports car and peel away from the light with me in your rearview mirror, don’t scoff and sneer.  Just remember this.  Chances are pretty good that my kids have flicked some boogers on your nice paint job.

Minivan, here we come…

Worm, car-ma is going to pay you back for this!!!

Gavin – 12; Dad – 7

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Categories Random Thoughts

Homemade Play Dough Time!

May 24, 2012 //
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I’m More Like Michaelangelo From the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles…

I think Worm is getting tired of his toys.  We rotate them, but he may have already caught on to our evil toy recycling scheme.  We’re going to try something new.  Worm currently plays with plastic toys that are pre-designed, pre-made and pre-packaged.  Logically, the next creative step for Worm’s brain is to make something out of nothing.  To offer a truly plastic experience for him, I decided to make some good old-fashioned natural play dough!  This way, he can mold something out of the depths of his little mind…mu hu ha ha ha!

So a Train Conductor and Play Dough Walk Into a Bar…

I found a great recipe for play dough online at Skip To My Lou.  It takes only 15 minutes to make.  If you are married to a chef like I am, you may already have these ingredients in your kitchen.  Otherwise, find all this stuff in the cooking aisle of your supermarket:

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 cup warm water
  • 2 tsp cream of tartar  (It’s not the same as tartar sauce.  Trust me on this!)  Substitute 2 tsp of lemon juice or vinegar if you don’t have cream of tartar!
  • 1/4 cup salt
  • 1 tsp oil
  • Food coloring

Mix everything together except the food coloring!  Toss it into a small pot.  The consistency should be like thick coughed up phlegm.

Turn stove heat to medium.  Stir continuously.  (Come on, use a little muscle!  Work up a sweat!)  The mixture should start turning sticky on the bottom of the pot.  It will continue to get more and more clumpy.  (This is the magic of cream of tartar.  Tartar sauce will not do this, although it will add more flavor.)

You can stop stirring when you’ve got a huge lump of dough.  It should now look like caucasian Play-doh of Germanic descent.  (I’m trying to be politically correct here.)

Turn off heat.  Let the play dough cool.

Grab the play dough and feel the consistency.  If it falls apart too easily, add a few drops of oil and massage it into the dough.  (If you massage too roughly, the dough may wince in pain.)

Now you’ve got a hunk of dough the size of a genetically modified naval orange.

You’ve got a few choices here.  You can be uber-creative and break up the play dough into pieces and add different food colorings.  Or you could be a lazy good-for-nothing parent and give your child the dough as is.

Today, I opted to be the minimum requirements parent.  One that does just enough to still be called a ‘Dad’.  I added 30 drops of blue liquid food coloring to the dough ball before me and called it a day.

Can I Feed Some To The Puppies?

And yes, you can eat it.  It won’t kill you…in small doses.

Store it in an airtight container.  If there’s hair growing out of it, throw it away.

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Categories Play

And In This Corner, Weighing In At…

May 22, 2012 //
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20 lbs, 11 oz, the Tycoon of Teething, the Sultan of Spit-up, the King of Crawling, the Squirmin’ Vermin…it’s Gavin “The Worm”!

We had the 6 week weigh-in at the pediatrician‘s office today.  In 6 weeks, the Worm gained approximately 8 oz. which amounts to 2.5% of his body weight.  The verdict?  He’s still skinny.

Now, I’m no genius.  But if I remember correctly, something called a gene can get transferred from parent to child.  Genes can make a child look and act similarly to their biological parents.  I know it’s a stretch here, but I was a skinny baby and kid growing up.  So was my brother.  We were two crackers away from meeting Sally Struthers…”For just 25 cents a day, you are able to feed these starving young Indian boys and their 850 cousins…”  Some people are just more skinny streamlined than others.

I’m going to step out on a limb and say that my kid has a body like his old man.  I told the pediatrician this before, at Worm’s one year checkup.  But, I’m sure the words went in one ear and out the other.  I also told her that Worm is constantly on the move.  He doesn’t sit on the couch watching TV and eating chips.  I have to chase him all over the house just to feed him.  Worm is crawling, climbing, and blinking a lot during his waking hours.  Calories are being burned non-stop.

And to prove that we were feeding him more than kale chips and Altoids all day, we counted calories.  The Worm consumes anywhere from 800-1300 calories a day.  That’s normal to high for a 1-year-old kid.  (If I were to linearly extrapolate that amount to myself, I would be consuming 6400 – 10400 calories a day.  That’s a lot of cheeseburgers, although I have been known to eat 8 MickeyD doubles in one day!)

I don’t see being aerodynamic as a bad thing.  Sure he may never be big enough to play pro football, but he will always own the skill to squeeze himself through county jail bars should the need arise.  If he shares my metabolism, Worm should be able to throw down some serious grub and always look like a starving supermodel.  And 35 years from now when all his buddies hit their middle-aged spread, he’ll still be sporting a 6-pack.  Just like his old man.

You’ll thank me later for this one, Worm.

Gavin – 11; Dad – 7;

The Girlies On The Playground Say I Look Good With My Shirt Off!

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Categories Food

Take Me Out To My First Ballgame!

May 21, 2012 //
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It’s sushi and tacos and Cracker Jack!

It’s a San Diego Thing…

It’s baseball season and the San Diego Padres are our home team (until some businessman buys them and moves them to Hawaii).  I must admit, I’m not a huge baseball fan.  I don’t watch it on TV.  I don’t have a fantasy team.  I don’t even understand half of it.

But, that doesn’t stop me from going to a game or two during the season.   Especially when we get free tickets!  Petco Park is a great place for families, kids, and kids with families.  It’s a fairly new venue and dare I say that the Park is classy for a baseball stadium.  You can get the standard stadium fare (beer, pretzels, peanuts, cotton candy, slushees, etc.) and you can get gourmet fare (local brewed beer, shrimp burritos, fish tacos, sushi).  There’s even a gluten-free stand for those that wish to partake!  Plenty of food to choose from for your picky little eater!

Also, there’s a little field at the back of the stadium called “Park at the Park” with a kid’s sized infield and lots of space to picnic and just hang out.  It’s geared for families with kids that can’t sit still long enough to watch an entire baseball game.  Parents can set their kids loose in the 2.7 acre space and then kick back and watch the game on the big screen.  Just bring a lawn chair.  There’s enough space (about 2.7acres) in “Park at the Park” for the young’uns to run bases and wear themselves out.  These tickets are $5 each and if you’ve got a toddler like I do, he’ll probably like this much more than being confined to one seat for 3 hours.

Worm enjoyed his first visit to Petco Park.  It was a warm, sunny San Diego afternoon.  I think the immense size of the stadium structure with all the people amazed him.  He even let out a few drops of saliva on my leg in his excitement.

Worm ate nachos!  Worm ate burritos!  Worm I drank beer!  Some nice Padre girls even came over to make sure Worm was happy!  He even finagled some free schwag from them!  (Is ‘free schwag’ like saying ‘space meteor’?)  A fun time was had by all, for almost an hour.  Luckily, it was a short game.

Worm, You Gotta Look at the Camera!

If you’re looking for Padres information:

Padres Home Page

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A Kid Suspended For a Haircut? Again? Crew Cuts For Everyone!

May 17, 2012 //
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The problem with adults is that we place too much emphasis on stuff that doesn’t matter.  We’re free to dole out punishment against kids for a ridiculous number of things that have nothing to do with the big question “How does this affect my life?”

In the news today is an article about a young lad who is a basketball fan, Patrick Gonzalez.  Patrick is a huge fan of the Spurs’ Matt Bonner.  So much of a fan that he had a picture of his favorite NBA star Bonner shaved into his head.  (By the way, the picture is awesome!  Check it out here.)

Gonzalez faces an in-school suspension by Woodlake Hills Middle School in San Antonio, Texas, which he attends.

Matt Bonner himself chimed in on the controversy:  “Couldn’t you just move him to the back of the class?” said the red-headed 3-point shot ace. “Then nobody would see it; it wouldn’t be a distraction. Otherwise, the nicest thing a fan has ever done for me is ruined.”

So, obviously Bonner is touched with the gesture from a fellow redhead.

The part that bugs me is where the school decides that punishment for a haircut is worth taking away a child’s education for a week.  “It’s distracting.”  says unnamed foolish school official.  Oh yeah, you mean more distracting than the pregnant girls, drugs, and weapons that circulate through the halls.  Right!

But, don’t you think that making a big stink about a haircut is more distracting?  Maybe we should force every school-aged child to get a crew cut to attend classes.  There wouldn’t be any distractions then.  Right!

Just another day in America, where haircuts, pictures of girls kissing, and art are more dangerous than guns.

Original article:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/shaving-picture-matt-bonner-head-could-net-young-013230150.html

Related articles:

http://tucsoncitizen.com/usa-today-sports/2012/05/17/student-in-trouble-over-matt-bonner-haircut/

http://offthebench.nbcsports.com/2012/05/17/middle-schooler-suspended-for-awesome-matt-bonner-haircut-bonner-himself-has-message-for-school/

http://www.foxsportssouthwest.com/05/17/12/Bonner-haircut-gets-Spurs-fan-in-trouble/landing_spurs.html?blockID=730808&feedID=3742

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