The boy’s feet are as big as his father’s.

The daughter’s shoe size began matching my own sometime back in junior high which seems like forever ago even though it was just this past spring.

Now we are dealing with shoes wearing out rather than being outgrown (although the boy is still growing, he wears them out fast).

The solution was easy when the shoes were still in good condition, you just pass them along to younger children.

I remembered reading years ago in our childrens’ National Geographic Kids magazine about sending shoes to an organization to be recycled into playground surfaces or sent to countries where the kids have no shoes (this is an option if there are not holes in the soles).

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Rarely do I see the bottom of the toy box. But this week I was doing some cleaning and decided to remove the popular toys at the top of our wicker toy chest (mostly Star Wars weapons and bulky electronic games).

At the bottom of the toy box was an array of tiny toys and trinkets (see a handful of them pictured here). These bottom feeders had one thing in common - They were all sold by fast-food restaurants!

I was surprised by this discovery, since I rarely indulge my two sons in these expensive meals with their extraneous toys. I don’t have any animosity for the fast-food providers that sell these toy-laden meals. That’s the job of the folks working at the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.

I just think the toys are junk that tend to have some sort of tie-in to a blockbuster movie.

So why not buy a 10-piece McNugget meal, split the fries and have a perfect lunch for two toddlers? This method is much cheaper than ordering two, four-piece Happy Meals. And you get two extra nuggets to boot.

That’s my strategy, and I’m sticking to it. But sometimes The Wife strays the course. And grandma and grandpa are more likely than not to give in to the tiny voices in the backseat requesting a Happy Meal.

Now the question is what to do with all these toys. Some of them are actually pretty cool (see Batman and R2D2). But judging by their position in the toy box, I’m fairly certain they are not being played with regularly. I threw away some of them away yesterday. Anything that was missing an accessory got canned.

But others seem too good for the landfill. Should I save these fast-food toys for a garage sale? Would anyone buy them? I know some people have made money selling these toys as collectors items, but I really don’t want to hold onto these things for 30+ years on the off chance they are worth a couple bucks. Ideas?

Our family tends to have a mess in our house in every corner we turn. Some call it “life with kids,” others call it “creativity.”

Creating art is equally as messy. Those who want to maintain a perfect house (is that possible when you have kids at home?) may find themselves staying away from creating “art without limits.” Maybe they are worried about the paint staining the carpet or walls or sawdust covering everything or clay flakes getting stuck in the carpet.

As we prepare for another youth group year at church, we have been searching for new craft ideas for preschoolers.

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Some Web sites have the ability to consume large blocks of time without the viewer even knowing it.

Such is the case with www.shitmykidsruined.com.

The name is vulgar. So are the pictures. The site is basically a slide show of photographs from parents along with a brief description of the carnage their children left behind.

There are lots of pics of Sharpie markers being used on places not made for coloring. Below is a shot of a destroyed computer. Here’s the description that follows:

My 7 year old decided to move it, so he unplugged the power cord, and placed it on the keyboard.  He then shut the screen, so it was smashed against the black box of the power cord.  So now, I have a new, compact desktop (aka, the broken laptop) and another new laptop.

Hilarious.

Newspaper people have been talking about it for years, but when teens start talking about it, you know it is a concern on a bigger scale.

What is happening to books and newspapers?

They are going all electronic in a broader market, our daughter noted as she asked for an ereader yesterday for Christmas. My instant reply, “maybe when the price comes down.”

She had been researching all of the features and about the only thing that is not great about these readers (which are a lot like using a laptop, in my opinion) is that you don’t have the joy of curling up with a physical book.

This would particularly impact the little people in our lives, like the kids in Sunday School, youth group and our little nephews.

I picture our Wednesday night youth group opening their Bibles and holding them on their laps as they glance at each picture and follow along as the Bible story is read. It is fascinating (for all of us) that some have found out how fun it is to flip through all those paper pages in the thick book - rather than listen, ha, a, ha.
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Most parents I know don’t let their kids outside without sunblock. Now comes the story of a 27-year-old mother who did exactly that and was charged with child abuse.

According to an Associated Press story in the Omaha World-Herald, Crystal Znomist of Lincoln, Neb. was fined $250 and charged with child abuse by neglect when her four-month-old daughter, Gabrielle Znomist, showed up at the hospital with a nasty sunburn.

“She (Znomist) and some relatives spent five hours at the park on June 13. According to a sheriff’s report, sunblock was used on the baby twice. Nonetheless, the next morning the baby had to be taken to a hospital and treated for second-degree burns on her face,” the AP story reads.

Kudos to my friend and fellow stay-at-home dad Al Watt’s who alerted me to this story through his blog.

Al also provided a few more details than the AP story. For example, Gabrielle spent four days in the hospital with blisters on her cheeks. He also pointed out a similar case in Kentucky two years ago where a two-year-old boy ended up with golf-ball sized welts after his father failed to lather him up and another case in England where a mom had a bit to much to drink and forgot to cover up her five-month-old son. Both of those parents were also charged with neglect.

I don’t remember such attention being given to sunscreen when I was a kid. In fact, I remember someone telling me that it was important to get a sunburn as summer began. Then, the rest of the summer would be spent tanning rather than burning.

I’m certain I was given some bad information back then. In fact, I found a 2004 study from the American Academy of Pediatrics that says, “Intense exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation during childhood and adolescence in the form of severe, blistering sunburns raises a person’s risk of developing melanoma and basal cell carcinoma later in life.”

So there’s little doubt that sunburns can be dangerous but illegal? I don’t know. I think the mom in this case is likely a moron (though I guess it could just be a simple mistake). Either way, I don’t think that makes her a criminal.

The “Are You Kidding Me?” file just got a new entry. I was on a boat trip with buddies last weekend. As I was combing through 98 unread emails, I stumbled upon a press release for something called Sound Beginnings.

Curious, I opened the email and quickly dropped my jaw. A company called Creative Baby Inc. developed this Sound Beginnings product. It’s basically an elastic strap that a pregnant woman wears around her womb.

Small speakers are placed within the strap, strategically located near the head of the fetus (see photo below). The mother can then plug in her iPod or other MP3 player into the device and share a playlist with her unborn child.

I wish I was kidding. But it’s all true. Check out Sound Beginnings commercial on YouTube if you don’t believe me or have trouble visualizing this mechanism.

According to the press release, “Sound Beginnings features high quality speakers built into a nylon lycra band. The speakers are made to keep the total sound output at a low level for babies with the loudest it can go at 85 decibels. Furthermore, the speakers are encased in padded vinyl which almost eliminates the vibrations making it even safer for little ears. The band lends some added back support and is comfortable enough to wear under clothing while on the go.”

The YouTube commerical further explains that grandma, grandpa or a traveling dad can also call a special number provided by Sound Beginnings to leave telephone messages. The company converts these messages into MP3 files that can be played for the unborn child.

The idea is to get the baby familiar with the voices of family members while still in the womb. The company also makes the claim that the product might be particularly useful for military families which might be separated for long periods as a result of combat.

That’s all fine and good. But really this seems like just another needless product to sell to expecting mothers (just like the electric warmer for baby wipes). Sound Beginnings seems to rely on the natural insecurities that come with pregnancy. Of course, every parent wants to give their child every opportunity to succeed. But this seems like one of those products that promises success without having any viable way of backing up such claims.

Put it this way. I doubt anyone who buys this thing would recommend it one year after the purchase.

“One in three Americans in their mid-20s are college dropouts. Only 54 percent of college freshman graduate within six years,” according to author Harry Harrison.

Parents tap their 401(k) to help out their kids as they struggle to afford a college education and this is the thanks they get.

I wasn’t fortunate enough to have that happen in our family of six when I was growing up, so the issue of who should be paying for the college bills (I mean loans) is one I could argue for days.

The issue this time is finding a solution to the college dropout rate (with the obvious exception of funding) and the team of Ryan Rosenberg and Harry Harrison may have the answer.

Being organized for success is on the top of the school survival list of mandatories.

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I don’t know about you and your kids, but our summer decluttering list is still very lengthy.

Looking back to April, we decided that summer vacation was the best time to set aside time to declutter before starting the new school year. Things get busier the older the kids get and there was never time to do this during the school year — even on the weekends.

That was during spring break right as we ran out of time before having to return to class, practices, etc. Staying hopeful, we decided that there was a good chance the kids would have more time in the summer than during the school year to take on these projects in their rooms and the whole house. We were somewhat correct.

Where to start? Wow, walk into any teen’s room and she or he may be wondering the same thing but never admit it.
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Not a lot needs to be said here. This video is simply hilarious.

This particular YouTube video has been passed on to me by several friends. This time I felt obligated to share it with “Adventures in Parenting.”

There are plenty of videos out there poking fun at dads. Most of them are patronizing. However, I don’t get that same feeling here. It’s simply funny.

The video also looks homemade. I’d like to think that a group of dads living on the same block got together one weekend and put this together. Though, I guess none of that really matters.

It’s simply funny. That’s the only important thing. Click HERE to watch.