It’s more common to struggle with vegetables than fruit it seems but we do have some friends whose children do not eat fruit or veggies without a lot of pain. So I tried a little trick and it worked and now my kids are hooked.

So here is a simple recipe for a shake your kids will love. It uses spinach as a sweetener and is a fun play on the green color. I got my kids to drink it by telling them that Sam I am from Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham, drinks a green shake too.

WWDD’s Green Shake:

You’ll need to vary the ingredients per serving so just use common sense. After you’ve made it a few times you’ll know what flavors you want more of so you can vary the quantity to suit your taste buds.

1 Apple  (any kind- we usually use Fuji, Pink Lady or Braerburn apples)

1 Banana

A handful of fresh baby spinach

A handful of Raw Almonds

1) Cut up the apple and banana as show above

2) Place ingredients into a blender

3) Pour just enough water into the blender to cover the ingredients

4) Press Liquefy until ingredients are blended nicely and smooth

Pour into glasses and give to your kids!

I’m not sure how or why but a combination of spinach and banana flavors are sweet and yummy. I love it too!

You can mix up the ingredients as well. We’ve used cucumbers, peas as well as pears, mangoes and pineapple . If you use blueberries or strawberries it turns gray so remember that!

But just be sure to use water and not juice because of the sugar content.

You’re getting all the pulp and all the goodness from the fruit and veggies and it’s 100% natural.

Make sure the almonds are raw and not roasted as you’ll be getting high fat contents with roasted almonds. Raw are pure and good for you.

Enjoy!

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I saw a great announcement coming from C2E2, a big comic book convention in Chicago that happened this past weekend. Ironically I created some star Wars sketch cards for the Treasure Chest charity, that were auctioned off as well.

Anyway, for all of you Yo Gabba Gabba fans, W!LDBRAIN Entertainment, the producers of Yo Gabbba Gabba! and indie comic publisher, Oni Entertainment are bringing your child’s favorite critically acclaimed preschool television series to comic books.

DJ Lance Rock, along with all of the residents of his magic boombox, Brobee, Muno, Toodee, Foofa and Plex, are launching from their hit series and live stage show to the uncharted regions of comic books this fall, with the first Yo Gabba Gabba! comic book called–Yo Gabba Gabba! Story Comic Book Time Vol. 1.

Yo Gabba Gabba Story Comic Book Time Vol. 1. will be on store shelves this fall. The first in a variety of planned Yo Gabba Gabba comics, the hardcover anthology weighs in at 128, full color, oversized pages. As soon as more info is available, I will let you all know.

As a comic book artist and geek, this is great news to me. My kids love comics and I wish more shows would do the same thing.

For those of you who don’t know who Oni Press is,  they are a leading publisher of independent, creator owned comic books. They were Founded in 1997 on the belief that comics can be used to tell any story, Oni Press has published hundreds of different comics and graphic novels and they have won numerous book, library, and comic awards. With a strong focus on character, genre, and story driven creator-owned work, Oni Press has become one of the most well respected publishers in the comic industry.

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DJ Lance Rock is so cool, he was at Coachella this weekend.

If you don’t know who Yo Gabba Gabba is, or Dj Lance Rock is…you need to get with the program. DJ Lance Rock is the star of the hit preschool TV show Yo Gabba Gabba! DJ Lance Rock (Lance Robertson) is supported by a cast of colorful characters, including: Brobee, the little green one, Foofa, the pink flower bubble, Muno, the red Cyclops, Toodee, the blue cat-dragon and Plex, the yellow robot.  They all live in his magic boombox.

Wildbrain Entertainment producer of Yo Gabba Gabba are also affiliated with the goofy band the Aquabats. In a Christmas show in Pamona, CA in 201, they had DJ Lance join them, and did a little set featuring the origin of DJ Lance Rock: Here it is:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s a little more info about DJ Lance, the Los Angeles-based musician, DJ, and actor, Lance Robertson.

Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, Robertson is a 1983 graduate of Hazelwood East High School. He was the vocalist for a local electronic band “My Other Self” in the 1990s, and he was the owner of a record store called Deep Grooves. Robertson later relocated to Los Angeles. While working a day job at Amoeba Records, he became well known in the local indie rock scene through his band, “The Raymakers”. During this time, he met Scottie Schultz of the Orange County indie pop band “Majestic”, and they eventually played a couple of shows together. Years later, when Schultz was co-creating the show Yo Gabba Gabba!, Lance was asked to serve as host.

In conjunction with appearing on Yo Gabba Gabba!, Robertson tours with The Aquabats performing kid-friendly DJ sets and dancing with the monster “cast” of the series.

DJ LANCE IS AWESOME!

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I got a great question from a reader and I wanted to share it with you. He raised some concerns about a food many of us love–Tuna. As the world we live in becomes more toxic from the errors of the past we must be mindful of what we eat and more importantly, how much we eat. It’s pretty common to question the safety of everything we put in our bodies and our children’s bodies.

What Would Dad Do’s Answer:
Hey Bobby, thanks for writing in, Tuna is actually great for your son. It’s a light oily fish that is very healthy–if consumed in controlled quantities. Canned tuna is a healthy source of vitamins and protein, but it does contain some levels of mercury. Whether it’s enough to require posted warning signs on the can labels is still being debated. Studies have been all over the place at this point in time but most studies conclude that people should not eat more than ONE can of Albacore tuna a week because of the mercury levels it contains.  However, Skipjack tuna is a very common brand of canned tuna and it is safer for consumption than Albacore. Obviously raw tuna found in Sushi is filled with Mercury.

Below I have lsited the recorded mercury levels of fish and the recommendations for consumption.  Honestly, the Mercury levels in some fish are surprising to me and scary. When you start to investigate what you eat it can become a bit disenchanthing. But a list of mercury levels in fish is something we as parents and human beings should no be completely aware of.

Here is a current list provided by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

LEAST MERCURY
Enjoy these fish:
Anchovies
Butterfish
Catfish
Clam
Crab (Domestic)
Crawfish/Crayfish
Croaker (Atlantic)
Flounder*
Haddock (Atlantic)*
Hake
Herring
Mackerel (N. Atlantic, Chub)
Mullet
Oyster
Perch (Ocean)
Plaice
Pollock
Salmon (Canned)**
Salmon (Fresh)**
Sardine
Scallop*
Shad (American)
Shrimp*
Sole (Pacific)
Squid (Calamari)
Tilapia
Trout (Freshwater)
Whitefish
Whiting

MODERATE MERCURY
Eat six servings or less per month:
Bass (Striped, Black)
Carp
Cod (Alaskan)*
Croaker (White Pacific)
Halibut (Atlantic)*
Halibut (Pacific)
Jacksmelt
(Silverside)
Lobster
Mahi Mahi
Monkfish*
Perch (Freshwater)
Sablefish
Skate*
Snapper*
Tuna (Canned
chunk light)
Tuna (Skipjack)*
Weakfish (Sea Trout)

HIGH MERCURY
Eat three servings or less per month:
Bluefish
Grouper*
Mackerel (Spanish, Gulf)
Sea Bass (Chilean)*
Tuna (Canned Albacore)
Tuna (Yellowfin)*

HIGHEST MERCURY
Avoid eating:
Mackerel (King)
Marlin*
Orange Roughy*
Shark*
Swordfish*
Tilefish*
Tuna
(Bigeye, Ahi)*

* Fish in Trouble! These fish are perilously low in numbers or are caught using environmentally destructive methods.

** Farmed Salmonmay contain PCB’s, chemicals with serious long-term health effects.

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Shel Silverstein is  back! Though he has been dead for over ten years, Harper Collins recently announced that they will be publishing a new collection of his work in 2011. This will be the second posthumous collection of poetry and illustrations Silverstein to be released after his death, Publisher’s Weekly reports.

As of now, the currently untitled volume will include 120-130 previously unpublished works, which are being curated by the author’s longtime editor, Antonio Markiet. With a ton of material left behind, there is no shortage of work from Silverstein, who died in 1999 at the age of 67. His first  collection published by Harper Collins in 2005, was ”Runny Babbit”.

Silverstein, whose body of work includes “The Giving Tree,” “Where the Sidewalk Ends,” “A Light in the Attic,” and “Falling Up,”  was skill at depicting the innocence of youth in a unique, engaging and silly way. Because of his wit and honest candor in his work, he has remained immensely popular with children and adults due to his creative and eccentric observations about life, typically geared toward the child in all of us.

I have spoken of Silverstein before on WWDD and my love and my children’s love for his work. Silverstein’s funny rant like  hypochondriac poems, capture the imagination we all had and some of us =may still have — especially when it comes to those highly coveted chances to remain home, dodging any and all responsibilities  and chores. Writing about the common issues of the world of a child, made Silverstein not only entertaining, but extremely relevant to adults even.  And some 40 plus years later, Silverstein is still relevant.

So as a Dad, a gifted creator and a man whose work has transcended his death, we salute you commonly Shel Silverstein–You are the Dad of the week, you billy sabbit!

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As a Dad of 2 daughters, and a man the exact same age as Tiger Woods, I can honestly say I DON’T CARE.

I don’t care about all of the women he had sex with.

I don’t care to know their names, what color panties they wear or how they will use this shameful time to exploit 15 minutes of fame.

I don’t care about Tiger’s rehab stint.

I don’t care about his indefinite leave or his definite return to Golf.

I don’t care about what happens in Tiger Woods personal life. I just don’t care.

From the moment the story broke about Tiger Woods’ affairs and adultery and all the skanks he boned, I never cared. I turned the radio, the TV and skipped the web page when his face was plastered everywhere. I just don’t care and I have a feeling most of you out there don’t care either.

With a sagging economy, no NFL or MLB going on, the sports media needed a story. So in December,  they found Tiger Woods, the squeaky clean image guy who owned Golf over the white boys like Jordan owned Basketball. This story has been blown up everywhere now and has dogged us for months day in and day out. Interviews with all of the skanks that he boned on the major newsrag publications was just a tip of the iceberg. Their faces showed up everywhere as more of them came out of the woodwork. It’s just sickening that when you go to ESPN.com or you turn on ESPN on your TV, this is what you have to hear about.

But guess what super-intelligent news media? NOBODY CARES! Everybody is so busy in their everyday life that they don’t need this negative garbage about this guy and his adulterous affairs to listen to. As a man I can speak for many when I say that none of us really give a crap what’s going on in someone else’s marriage because we have our own to take care of.  We have our wives to please, our own children to take care of and some even have their own skeletons in their closet to worry about!

Big deal, Tiger Woods, like every other athlete out there before him had girls he banged in different area codes. Who cares? Seriously, who cares? It’s just that this guy was the most famous golfer out there, and he’s black/Filipino and he has been dominating a white-washed good ol’ boy sport for the last 10 years. So why not just gang up on him because he cheated on his wife, and he didn’t buy her a big purple diamond like Kobe. So what that he had a large list of girls he was sleeping with.

Then he went to rehab which is a joke. A man went to rehab for being a slut. All I can say is WTF? And Jesse James followed. If this is how society works these days, then I know a lot of women out there who’ve been in my life that could go to rehab as well. Since when did someone who loved to have sex with multiple partners need rehab?

You don’t need rehab for cheating on your wife, you need to have a conscience and to take a good look at yourself and your self centered ways. It’s all about ego. Ego rehabilitation. Unreal. It’s just that Americans take the misery of others and eat it up. What a shame and a reflection of our society as a whole. Maybe if we cared so  much about fixing this economy, global warming and ridding the world of famine, disease and other disasters as we seem to care about Tiger Woods’ sex life, things would be different.

So as Tiger practices today for the first time since his indefinite leave, all I can say is WHO CARES, it’s Baseball season.

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Happy Easter to everyone who is Christian, Happy Passover to everyone who is Jewish and HAPPY WHATEVER to everyone else.

Growing up a Catholic, we celebrated Easter on a regular basis of course. I personally just wanted my present and Easter brought me some great gifts; the G.I.Joe HISS tank, Gung Ho and Snow Job from G.I.Joe as well as things like the Cars album, the Cars on cassette tape and then later on Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy CD and so many more things…such as chocolate rabbits and cadbury eggs. I often feared the evil costumes of the Easter Bunny as a child and I have passed that fear down to my youngest daughter as well it seems.

But the best thing about Easter were some of the ridiculous commercials that came out around that time.

So for all of you people like me out there who enjoyed Easter and all of its goofiness, I have compiled some of the best Easter commercials from youtube…Enjoy!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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I have gotten several questions recently from readers. One I keep getting is my opinion on what age a child should be out of diapers and using a potty.

I personally have my own strong opinion on this and here it is.

Age 2 and use common sense.

If you are an intelligent and compassionate human being, get your child out of diapers ASAP. Why would you want your child swathed in their own urine and feces? Get your child trained ASAP and get them pooping and peeing on the potty. It’s common courtesy to your child.

John Rosemond has authored 14 parenting books, pamphlets and writes a nationally syndicated column on parenting and is a very busy public speaker on the subject. His opinion on the matter, I find to be very true. John Rosemond claims it is a “slap to the intelligence of a human being that one would allow baby to continue soiling and wetting himself past age two.”

Agreed 100%.

However, pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton, believes that potty training is the child’s choice and has even encouraged this opinion in various commercials for Pampers Size 6, a diaper for older children. As a pediatrician, Brazelton warns that enforced or stressful toilet training can cause serious longterm problems, and that it is the child’s decision when to stop wearing diapers, not the parents’.

Now I agree with this as well. It is your child’s ultimate decision, BUT you must encourage and introduce your children to this notion of being a “big” boy or girl. To empower them to pee on the potty. Don’t be lazy as a parent, be proactive and give your child a positive feeling about peeing and pooping in a potty. Don’t be a militant jerk about it.

Again, in my opinion, you should start doing this at age 2. It’s common sense.

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When my oldest daughter was about two she became fascinated with plastic food–mini versions of real food cast in plastic. For Christmas we bought my daughter tons of things such as Talking Elmo, a piano and all sorts of other really cool and intricate toys. Toys I considered to be “educational”. There are a lot of really crappy toys out there so I really wanted to make sure I got good educational toys for my daughter. But out of all those expensive toys, she only played with a cheap old tub of plastic food that I bought her as a stocking stuffer. At first I was personally bummed out because all of the toys I thought she would love, she didn’t. But she did find a toy that she would educate herself with.

But then I bought into it when I saw how much she loved this cheap tub of plastic food. She would play for hours with them and it brought her so much joy, how could I not be convinced. Months passed, her new sister came and my daughter kept getting smarter and smarter with age. Then came the kitchen for her Birthday along with pots and pans and dishes and cups. Now she was cooking meals and everything. It was so fun to watch her.

And as she grew, we bought more types of plastic food, more intricate food. She began to segregate vegetables with vegetables and meat with meat…and she began to realize what junkfood is and how it’s not good for you. It was awesome. But this carried over into real food as well. Now my daughter was trying and loving brussel sprouts, cauliflower, eggplant and even quiche!

Now my daughter is almost 4 and she’s still loving her food, and her younger sister is now into it too. One of the things my 2 year old is doing with the food is learning her colors through them. Green lettuce, green broccoli, green beans and red tomatoes and brown potatoes.

Never would I have thought that a $29.99 tub of plastic food would have been such an exciting addition to our toybox that would influence my daughters’ education. Strangely enough it’s helped them with everything from counting, colors and food identification to influencing their diet. I’m a firm believer that my daughters would not eat some of the foods they eat like brussel sprouts, cabbage and more if it were not for those great plastic foods.

Nowadays it’s not such a stretch that a boy plays in a kitchen too. I love to cook and am the primary chef in our house. So I wouldn’t be hesitant to recommend plastic food for boys either. Cooking is a manly thing these days. I bet you can name at least 5 dudes you know who claim themselves to be “king of the Grill”.

So if you get a chance, buy your little ones some plastic food, especially if they are giving you problems with eating vegeatbles or need to learn their colors. They’re a cheap, educational toy that you’re kids will really enjoy.

This is the exact set I got my kids:
Step2 Play Food 101-pc. Set

They also liked these pots and pans:
Learning Resources Cooking Set

And this shopping cart has been a HUGE hit at our house:
Little Tikes Shopping Cart – Yellow/Red

They also really like these dishes:
Green Toys Dish Set

Whichever toys you decide, it’s a win win.

And if you feel brave, here are some examples of the kitchens out there to choose from as well.

We chose this one:

It’s huge but really well built and is so worth the investment because all of the joy and education ti will give them. My kids play in their kitchen for hours at a time.

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Dexter is a well written, well acted and well produced series that follows the day to day events of Dexter Morgan’s (played by Michael C. Hall) life, a forensic blood spatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department who also happens to be a serial killer, and a dad in his free time.

The story focuses on Dexter’s struggle with humanity after as a small child he watched his mother brutally murdered and hacked up with a chainsaw in front of his face–then spent two days in a bunker sitting in two inches of her blood. You see, Dexter is a serial killer that kills “bad people”. He was taught by his adoptive father, a decorated Police officer named Harry, to kill only those “who deserve it”. Dexter mainly kills other killers who have escaped the legal system or were never suspected in the first place. The series is all about him balancing an everyday life with his secret identity all while keeping up a facade of normalcy.

However, Dexter is a good dad. Like the rest of us, he does whatever he can for his little 3 month old son, Harrison. He sings to him from work, rocks him to sleep, sacrifices his own sleep but unlike us, he murders people to keep his son safe.

So if you haven’t seen Dexter yet, check it out on Netflix or on Demand or DVD – Dexter: Seasons 1-3 . It’s awesome and you won’t be disappointed.

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