One of the differentiators between the American Girl dolls and others has always been their stories.  The dolls, from Kaya the Native American to Rebecca Rubin, the Jewish immigrant, gives a depth of character to these dolls that separate these toys from the others in any toy aisle. Now, Mattel is tackling the issue of …
Continue reading Meet Gwen Thompson: The $95 Homeless American Girl DollSeptember 2009
You are browsing the site archives for September 2009.
I shot a 5 and a half minute video of my family vacation at Disneyland in California, or rather, just a bit of the vacation. Here’s the clip: My thought when I did this was, “video should be fun, simple, and not exactly a complete capture of every moment of the vacation.” We had two …
Continue reading Making Media on VacationImage via Wikipedia (NOTE: The following article first appeared last September on my personal blog, Sassholes! It was this post about my daughter’s 17th birthday that led to Chris Brogan asking me if I’d like to contribute to Dad-O-Matic. Ever since, I have been honored to share my thoughts and experiences with you here each …
Continue reading From BARBIE to BLACKBERRY!We went to the doctor the other day for my daughter Lucy’s nine-month checkup. It included a smorgasbord of shots. And I got to hold her down. I was pretty nervous on the ride there, and I wasn’t even the one getting the shots. As we were driving, I told Kim that I would rather …
Continue reading Shots and SuperheroesWhen most people think of Dolly Parton they think of her flash Country persona, her anatomy (sorry, but it’s true), her starring in Nine to Five (if you’re as old as me) or her Islands In The Stream song with Kenny Rogers (ah ah!). In Nashville, TN. we often associate Dolly with her Disney-esque theme …
Continue reading Dolly Parton the BOOK LADY!Heritage is a powerful word. In its truest sense it implies all the things we are made of and all the things that make us who we are. Family heritage is deeper than DNA, and thicker than blood. Our heritage is built upon people and personalities, characters and culture, history and hysteria, stories and legends, …
Continue reading A Family Defined (In High Definition)From everything I have seen and heard, being a grandparent is a special thrill.  I am not there yet myself, but as my own kids grow into adulthood I know that eventually “Grandparent” will be another line item on my life resume.  While I cannot address what it is to be a Grandparent, I can …
Continue reading Matriarchs, Patriarchs, And The Grandest Of All Parents…Sunday was National GrandParents Day. It was started in 1978 so this little known holiday has been around for over 30 years. Even though we’re called Dad-O-Matic and focus primarily on dad stuff but we all understand and appreciate the priceless contributions that grandparents make to our families. We also know that, God willing, we …
Continue reading National GrandParents Day!I have never written about my experiences on September 11th. At the time I was working for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the Urban Search and Rescue Division.  That morning we were watching the events unfold in New York City when we heard the Pentagon was attacked. We could see the thick acrid smoke …
Continue reading Explaining 9/11 to my sonNature and nurture are in a never ending battle to claim the disposition of our children. While it’s true that the apple rarely tumbles too far from the tree, it is also true that there are a multitude of things we as parents can do to safeguard the childhoods of our children, limit their exposure …
Continue reading 7 Secrets to Raising a Happy Child[podcast]http://www.kimandjason.dreamhosters.com/clubkj_stuff/audio_articles/7_Ways_Fantasy_Football.mp3[/podcast] Summer is winding down, the kids are back in school, and the long, bleak, football hiatus is almost over. If you’re a fantasy football nut, you already know that this is one of the most exciting times of the year. You know the thrill of channeling your inner Jerry Jones in order to take …
Continue reading 7 Ways Fantasy Football Can Make You a Better DadThe circumstances of your life … how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home … That’s no excuse for not trying.
Continue reading President Obama’s speech to our children … so what’s the controversy all about?Everyone has family secrets…things that all the relatives know, but are better left unsaid outside the family circle. The worse family secrets are the ones we label as the “skeletons in the closet” – the things we truly dread anyone ever finding out about. No Bones About It… Not all family secrets are bad. In …
Continue reading Family Secrets Don’t Have To Embarrass You!I’ve always held onto my boyhood dreams of rocket jet packs and flying cars. I read the old pulp magazines when I could, devoured paperbacks and hardcovers that spoke of journeys to the stars and little green men from mars. I loved the feeling I got when I read the tales that brought dreams and …
Continue reading My Little Girl Builds Rockets…Being a parent is no easy trick. There’s no guidebook or instruction manual (okay, there are plenty on sale, but you can bet none are specific to your own experiences!) and every day is a new adventure. It’s a long-term gig as well, often with no reward and a lot of pain and heartache along …
Continue reading What Blogging Can Teach Us About ParenthoodAs parents, one of our jobs is to prepare our children for the future so we do our best to teach them how to be self-reliant and independent. Unfortunately, we sometimes get so focused on that one particular mission so much that we tend to lose sight of the fact that they are just kids. …
Continue reading Let Them Be Little