Zone Defense

When Maxfield, my oldest, was a toddler my wife Lauren and I had it pretty easy. Max was an only child. We played double coverage defense most of the time. We both took care of all the parenting duties, assisting each other and both staying on top of the energy filled 2 year old.  We always knew that we could go man-to-man to give the other person a break. We could sub in and out on an as needed basis.

When Wyatt, the middle child, was a toddler, Max was four.  Lauren and I learned very quickly how to play a man-to-man defense without subs. Divide and conquer,one on one would keep the kids in line. Occasionally one of us had something to do, a night out or traveling for work and we were forced into a zone style defense staying on top of the all the activities, moves and jukes of two little kids. Chaotic but doable.

Jackson, our third boy,  the youngest, is now (as of July 6th) officially two and half. Lauren and I are outnumbered. We are constantly in a zone defense and most days feel like the kids are playing a full court press. Jackson has studied under the tutelage of his older brothers and has learned a thing or two about the terrible twos. He is independent, sharp and quick tempered when things do not go his way. He is also extremely cute with a good sense of humor and has learned to head fake, dodge and a fast break against the defenders more often than his teammates ever did.

Jackson is becoming more and more acquainted with the Time Out Chair. I am not saying that Jackson is trouble I just think he takes advantage of our zone defense. We can't play man to man, we are outnumbered. Jax knows we are tired. He knows we can't cover everyone all the time. He knows that every now and then his dad needs to sit on the bench for a breather and that there is no sub coming in to cover him.

Happy 2 1/2 Jackson Grey.

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Huggies has asked me to let my readers know about their new promotion for their Jean Diapers. To celebrate the return of the Jeans Diaper and Every Little Bottom, Huggies encourages parents to “Dress ‘em cute for a cause” and show-off pictures of their little one rocking the Jeans Diaper on Huggies.com. For every photo uploaded and every photo “liked” Huggies will donate diapers to Every Little Bottom to help babies in need.

Huggies has offered me a "Fashion For Good" kit to give away to one of my readers. The fashion kit includes a Huggies product coupon , a limited-edition Huggies Jeans wipes, An Old Navy button-down dress or shirt for a baby (to go with the styling jeans diapers) and an Old Navy tote bag. For a chance to win the fashion kit leave a comment telling me where or what you are doing for summer vacation this year. I will randomly pick one comment to win the fashion pack. Please make sure you leave a valid email address.


Check out Huggies Facebook page and follow them on twitter @Huggies. Huggies and thier PR company are good people.

Full disclosure- I was NOT paid by Huggies to post this post. I just think that the Every Little Bottom program is a good cause to support.
Huggies® provided me with the “Fashion for Good” kit to conduct a reader giveaway. However, my opinions on the product are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive sentiments towards Huggies® or their products.”



Decoy

I don’t know how it is for girls, but when changing the diaper on a little boy as soon as the diaper comes off they immediately reach for their penis. Read the rest of the post here Poop and Boogies Review

Point It Down

After Maxfield was born our friend Alyson gave us some parental advice. She already had a little boy and she knew a thing or two.

"Remember," Alyson said "when you change his diaper make sure you point it down."

She was not talking about pointing 'it' away from the direction you were standing but actually making sure that 'it' was actually pointed down in the diaper. By pointing 'it' down, we made sure that there were less leaks. All diapers have the absorbing material in the lower front to the back of them. No diapers make the "belt" area absorbent. If 'it' is pointed up, well, pee leaks right out the top of the diaper. Baby girls do not have this problem.

However, once boys get a little older, a little bit more mobile, keeping 'it' down becomes more difficult (and even more so when they hit their teens). Now that Jackson is walking and crawling and running and falling, keeping 'it' in the down position is somewhat of a crap shoot (pun totally intended since I am talking about diapers). Putting him down for a nap without checking to see if 'it' is down can result in an unscheduled load of laundry.

Our family has always used Huggies as our choice of diapers. Huggies is one of the few products we use where we feel that the name brand is important. We tried changing brands once before and it did not work out for us. Huggies for some reason always fit our boys the right way and kept 'it' down, which prevented leaks.

Last year Jackson was invited by Huggies to test their Little Movers line of diapers. My biggest concern about switching from the regular Huggies to the Little Movers was whether the Movers would have the same snug fit. Would they be able to keep 'it' down. Let me just say since going to New York last September we have not used any other kind of diaper on Jackson except the Little Movers. We have yet to have any kind of leak or accident with the Little Movers brand. I have actually stopped checking to make sure 'it' was down when I take him for his naps. The Little Movers work for our little mover no matter what part is moving.

Huggies recently came out with a new line of Little Movers Jeans diapers. They were nice enough to send me a package for Jackson to model. A few things that struck me about the dark blue denim-looking diapers--

1. I think they are cute.
2. They are exactly the same as the regular Little Movers.
3. The get lost in the dark pocket of a deep diaper bag. They blend with the shadows (like Nightcrawler from the X-Men).
4. Now women who make diaper cakes for baby showers, can actually make a blue diaper cake for boys.

And 5. Jackson is one handsome kid.

There has been some debate, over at the Huggies Face Book page, caused by the new Jean Diapers. People were surprised that some parents would let their kids walk around only wearing a diaper. As you can see from the pictures I have no problem with it. How do you feel about it, would you let you kid walk around only in a diaper? What do you think of the Little Mover Jean Diaper? Does that change your opinion?

Disclosure- I have partnered with Huggies Little Movers and their Ambassador program. I will be receiving compensation, product for my personal use as well as any reimbursement for reasonable expenses relating to the Ambassador program. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive sentiments towards Huggies products. Woo hoo, I got a sponsor Y'all.

Project Run-a-way

My wife Lauren has been busy making stuff for her Etsy shop. Every now and then she makes something that requires a model.

Now that Jackson is standing, walking and toddling he makes the perfect model. Although now that Jackson is standing, walking and toddling he will not hold still long enough to get a decent shot. He constantly runs away. For every 100 pictures we take only one will turn out usable. Thank God for digital cameras and the delete button.
Since Lauren makes a lot of girly things, Jackson is often modeling dresses and other "sugar and spice and everything nice" types of clothes.

Last September Jackson went to New York as part of a Huggies promotion. The great people at Huggies were nice enough to send us a pack of their new designer diapers, Little Movers Jeans. Diapers that look like Jeans, very cool idea.

So now here is a beefcake shot of Jackson modeling jeans.

Not really "snakes and snails and puppy dog tails" but I will take it.

First Steps

Jackson started walking last week. I love watching him trying to get control of his legs while he finds his balance and center of gravity. Every time he walks it is a new experience for him. He is amazed at what he is doing even if he has not grasped the concept completely.

Last fall Huggies invited Jackson to NY for their Little Movers promotion. At that time Jackson was not a mover at all. Well he is now. As my wife said, it is time to cover the house in bubble wrap.

Huggies was nice enough to send me some coupons for free diapers to give-away as a "Poop and Boogies turns 5 promotion". That's right, FREE jumbo pack of diapers, which is like 12 bucks, which to a parent with kids in diapers is like gold. I have 5 coupons (P&B turns five...5 coupons, see how creative I am) to give away. If you would like a chance to receive a coupon please leave me a comment with the word "Huggies" in it. I will randomly draw 5 winners on Sunday. You need to have a valid blogger user name for me to track you down. Also if you have kids in diapers and you have a Twitter account you should follow Huggies, they give away stuff all the time.

If you are not interested in winning the diapers please leave a comment congratulating Jackson.

My Prom Date Jason Sehorn

When I took Jackson to NY last week for the Huggies/ KaBOOM event I had the opportunity to meet Jason Sehorn. Jason Sehorn is a former defensive back for the NY Giants and also the husband of Angie Harmon. We were two of only a handful of men that attended the event. While his wife was being interviewed by the press I made a bee line for Jason and introduced myself. He was very nice and friendly. He seemed genuinely interested in talking to me and we talked for about football for about 5 minutes. In an area that was filled with women and babies it was nice to have a good macho man to man conversation about my favorite sport.

Knowing that my brothers, who all consider me the non-athlete of the family, would never believe that I met and spoke to a professional football player I asked Torrie, another blogger attending the event, to take our picture. As Jackson, Jason and I struck our pose, Jackson got all squirmy and turned away from the camera. Instead of forcing Jackson around and having him look all ticked off for the photo, I simply turned my body the other way. Jason put his hand on my shoulder and we waited for Torrie to take the picture. Torrie asked that we hold the pose so she could take another with a different camera setting. Then someone from the Edelman group,the people who hosted the whole thing, asked us to stay in the pose so they too could snap a shot. We stood there for seem like a really long time.



The end result kind of reminds me of my prom picture.




A bigger picture can be found at Torrie's Flickr site here. And check out this pic of Jackson. He is so cute and should be the spokesbaby for Huggies. Thanks Torrie.

Jackson Takes NY

I posted yesterday about how Jackson was invited to New York, by Huggies, for an event promoting their new line of Little Mover Diapers as well as an auction to raise money for KaBOOM. The live auction, held at Madison Square park, auctioned off two pairs (or is it two pair? I don't know) of Huggies sneakers signed by Angie Harmon and Jason Sehorn. Both Angie and Jason attended the auction. There are other celebrities, like Jenny McCarthy and Tori Spelling (start bidding Sue) signing shoes that will be sold on ebay to raise money for KaBOOM.

We had a blast. The people at Edelman, Huggies PR company, did a great job with the event.

Jackson and I took the train from Philly to NY on Monday night and we had dinner with some other bloggers that were also invited. I was familiar with some of the blogs but not all of them. We did the whole "go around the table and introduce yourself" kind of thing. When it came around to me I made my intros and told everyone that I had Poop and Boogies business cards to hand out and exchange with the other blogger's business cards. Guess who was the only dork to bring business cards? Yup. Me. Either I really am a nerd for copying and pasting my P&B header, along with my contact info, and printing them on Avery 8879 size biz cards, or none of the other bloggers wanted to trade with me. Either way, dorkish.

Tuesday morning, prior to the auction, Jackson and I took some time to walk around Manhattan.

We walked down Madison Ave.

We also stopped in some parks before we met the other bloggers and the Edelman people for breakfast and some feedback about diapers. During breakfast I mistook a little bowl filled with white granules and a spoon as sugar and I salted my coffee. I nearly spit the coffee on the person sitting across from me. I then needed to explain to the waiter that I needed more coffee because I was an idiot and put salt in my coffee. During our Q and A with the PR people I only said "whore" once (although I may have said hooker I can't remember) and I handed out more business cards because I had so many to give away. I make very good first impressions on people.

Jackson was not so much the "little mover" at the Little Mover Adventure Zone as he was a "little sitter". Either way though, he was really cute. Jackson was a great travel companion and I really enjoyed spending time with him. Except changing his diaper on the floor, of the bathroom, on the Amtrak train. I do not think there is enough Purell in this world to get rid of the heebie jeebie skeeviness I feel.

I know that Sci Fi Dad made fun of me in his comment on yesterday's post. He called me a mommy blogger. But he is just jealous because, you see, I also got to meet Angie Harmon.

I asked her if we could work out an arranged marriage between Jackson and her youngest daughter (who is only a few weeks older than Jackson). She kind of chuckled.

I then handed her my Poop and Boogies business card. She put the card in her purse. I make very good first impressions on people.