[A timely re-post since the holiday season is upon us:]

My cousin Sarah (mother of two very “boy” boys) has a spectacular idea for a baby shower gift: The Box.

The Box is a re-closable Tupperware box filled with Batteries (mostly C and AA), Wire Cutters (to foil those G.D. sadistic toy packaging maniacs who nail everything down to the cardboard like there’s a hurricane a-comin’), and Scotch Tape (to cover the shrill speakers that are installed on every toy).

I declare brilliance!

- Zac

 

From XKCD

After reading that these cough medicines are being taken off the market, I can’t help but imagine how bummed out Lester Bangs would be if he heard this news.

…y’know, if he hadn’t died 25 years ago.

- Zac

Here at BabyRoadies, we try to put some public service in between the boobs and the diapers, so here are a bunch of the Mattel “Lead Paint” toys with images so you can look at them and see if your version of the Sesame Street Giggle Drill is actually twice as dangerous now.

Some links may be broken, and the list is only half-complete, so if anyone out there is inspired to track down the ones we’re missing, the would would be a better place.

Images of Killer Toys:
H9186 Giggle Gabber Ernie: Image Here:
H9188 Giggle Gabber Oscar the Grouch: Image Here:
J0338 Diego Talking Field Journal: Image Here:
J0343 Go Diego Go Antarctic Rescue: Image Here:
J0344 Go Diego Go Deep Sea Rescue: Image Here:
J0345 Go Diego Go Mountain Rescue: Image Here:
J0346 Go Diego Go Talking Rescue 4 X 4: Image Here:
J5935 Giggle Gabber Soccer Elmo: Image Here:
J5936 Giggle Gabber Chef Cookie Monster: Image Here:
|J6537 Sesame Street Giggle Toolbelt: Image Here:
J6762 Queen Mami: Image Here:
J6763 Royal Boots and Tico: Image Here:
J6765 Prince Diego: Image Here:
J7983 Sesame Street Tub Pots & Pans: Image Here:
J9518 Sesame Street Giggle Drill: Image Here:
J9692 Dora’s Talking Pony Place: Image Here:
K0617 Twins Nursery: Image Here:
K3414 Diego – Talking Gadget Belt: Image Here:
K3571 Go Diego Go Mobile Rescue Unit: Image Here:
K3580 Fairytale Adventure Dora: Image Here:
K4139 Go Diego Go Dinosaur Rescue: Image Here:
K4140 Toucan Motorcycle Rescue: Image Here:
L0305 Dora Figure: Image Here:
L3194 Surprise Inside Diego Eggs: Image Here:
L3215 Sesame Street Elmo Jack-In-The-Box: Image Here:
L3507 Sesame Street – Super Boom Box: Image Here:
L5202 Birthday Dora: Image Here:
M0351 Dora Figures Dora & Kitty: Image Here:
M0527 Sesame Street Giggle Doodler: Image Here:
M0732 Dora’s Talking House: Image Here:
M2051 Let’s Go Rescue Center: Image Here:
M2052 Fairytale Castle: Image Here:

Stuff we can’t find:
M0352 Dora Figures Diego & Bear: ?????????
M0524 Go Diego Go Talking Gadget: ?????????
L5813 Diego Tub Trike: ???????????
L8905 Pablo & Pals: ?????????
L3488 Sesame Street Birthday Figure Pack: ???????

Stuff we haven’t looked up yet:
33662 Elmo Light Up Musical Pal
33663 Ernie Light Up Musical Pal
33664 Big Bird Light Up Musical Pal
34658 Elmo Stacking Rings
39038 Elmo Tub Sub
39054 Sesame Street Shape Sorter
87946 Elmo Keyboard
90267 Ernie Splashin’ Fun Trike
90609 Elmo Collectible
90611 Cookie Collectible
90612 Zoe Collectible
90613 Ernie Collectible
90614 Big Bird Collectible
90745 Construction Playset
93068 Elmo Boom Box
93107 Action Fire Engine
93307 Press N Go Elmo
93308 Rev & Go Cookie Monster
93492 Cookie Saxophone
93493 Elmo’s Guitar
93615 Splash Tub Puzzle
93780 Music And Lights Phone
B7554 Count To Beat Elmo
B7888 Shake, Giggle & Roll
B7987 Elmo in the Giggle Box
B7989 Silly Parts Talking Elmo
B9620 Dora’s Talking House
C6908 Dora, Backpack, Perrito Figure Pack
C6909 Diego Figure Pack
C6910 Swiper Figure Pack
C6911 Boots, Tico Figure Pack
G3825 Dora Talking Vamonos Van
G5112 Sing With Elmo’s Greatest Hits
G9717 Giggle Doodler
H2943 Grow with Me Elmo Sprinkler
H3343 Cousin Daisy
H3344 Birthday Dora
H5569 Elmo & Pals (Elmo, Cookie, Ernie)
H5570 Elmo & Pals (Elmo, Zoe, Big Bird)
H4187 Dora Figures in Tube
H4628 Water Fun Tote
H8236 Dora 3 Pack Figures in Tube
H8237 Blue 3 Pack Figures in Tube
H8238 Sponge Bob 3 Pack Figures in Tube
H9124 Chef Dora
H9125 Bedtime Dora

For a while I was posting little movies of my kid to YouTube but I ran into a lot of issues.

First of all, their service does not accept .MOV files and that is the file type that my camera outputs, so I had to go through a (lossy) conversion process, then upload the .AVI file to YouTube. Also, YouTube doesn’t have any editing tools, so basically, you’re stuck with the video you took, even if it ends stupidly.

Then I found Jumpcut.



Jumpcut lets you upload .mpg, .mpeg, .mp4, .avi, .mov, .wmv, .flv, .rm, and 3GP (mobile phone) movies, and once they’re up there on their site, you can add titles, some goofy things like make it black-and-white, or sepiatone, add music, add transitions and all sorts of Señor Spielbergo stuff.

Behold!


This routine home movie of a boy and his dog is now beyond entertaining thanks to some pre-programmed fonts and effects!

It also has a little bit more of an updated feel than YouTube, more user-friendly and community oriented. So it gets my vote, and someday we may be saying “WhoTube?”

- Zac

When Hank graduated to eating food, we needed a high chair (since feeding him in his stroller was getting to be a drag). We looked around at a bunch of them, finally deciding on the Fisher-Price Healthy Care Booster seat.

It just straps onto your own dining room chair so the kid is right at the table with you. The nice thing is that you don’t need to make room for (yet another) large free standing piece of furniture in your house. When he’s not in it, you can just push in the chair and it goes under the table. Also, the whole damned thing is plastic, so you can hose it down or throw the tray in the dishwasher.It folds up fairly compactly which makes it easy to travel with. We just got back from a week’s vacation and I don’t know what we would’ve done if we had a big monster high chair.It costs about $25, or if you like putting your money into the toilet you can rent it from this place for $25 a week. (How that makes sense to anybody, I’ll never know).- Zac