Rookie Dad: The diapers are all about advertising

Since opening that very first package of diapers waaaay back last November I had wondered about the cartoon characters whose likenesses adorned nearly every inch of The Youngling's earth-destroying butt covers. When did this trend start? Are the diaper conglomerates paid to print the cartoons? Are the cartoons there for a reason?

Rather than do some sort of meaningful research about diaper cartoons, I chose to speculate. Diaper cartoons exist so that in complete darkness a parent can find the stack of diapers. But wait, wouldn't plain white be more visible at night than a myriad of colorful cartoon characters? Actually white is more visible so maybe the butt cartoons are all about he almighty dollar.

Let's assume that huge diaper conglomerates do receive some enormous kickback for printing Winnie the Pooh and Elmo on their products. What do we as parents gain from this? I can say for certain that we don't receive a lower price because paying $20-$30 for something that always ends up in the trash is the best scam ever - and even better if the diaper companies are getting a cartoon kickback and screwing parents.

The big three brands, Huggies, Pampers and Luvs, all have some sort of cartoons splashed across the available real estate of their respective diapers and it hasn't resulted in lower prices so maybe my kickback theory is backwards. Maybe the diaper companies, in some misguided effort to make their products more visually appealing, are paying to use the likeness of Elmo and Winnie the Pooh. If that's the case, I'd prefer my diapers how I like my rice - plain and white.

Rookie Dad: She's in the Army

The Youngling is amazingly well-tempered. She will sit for 30 minutes at a time in the living room on the floor playing with what I affectionately call toy mountain. She doesn't care if anyone is around but she has her own special way of letting you know that she is either bored, hungry, tired, in need of a new diaper or is just curious what is happening in the other corners of the house. She army crawls to where she thinks you might be. But if you're not there, she'll put herself in a precarious situation.

Those situations have included almost climbing in to the refrigerator because I make my lunch for the day with the refrigerator door wide open. I'll chalk that one up to The Youngling being curious about my wasting of electricity.

She has also closed herself in her bedroom because one of her latest hobbies is opening and closing doors. Yes, she actually closed her bedroom door and proceeded to stay sitting against the back side of it. After a minute of being patient and slight pushing, The Youngling took the hint and crawled away ever so slowly from the door. Yep, just over ten months in and she's already trying to keep us old geezers out of her bedroom.