Daddy Mojo, Author at Daddy Mojo

Babygate and other conspiracies

Baby Mojo is right on the cusp of crawling so it’s time to safety proof the house and put up a baby gate near the stairs. Prior to being a daddy blogger I used to work for an animal shelter and had pets of my own. The great thing about baby gates is that they also keep pets out of some areas or off the stairs. We’ve had one up for a while to keep the dogs downstairs and learned a lesson or two that might help you.

There are the temporary gates that you have to remove or step over and stronger ones that allow you to open a door in the gate and step through it.

The temporary gates are usually cheaper and very easy to move between door frames . However these gates don’t allow you to step through them, so these would not be good if they are located near a highly trafficked area. If you’re putting this gate up in the kitchen or office for a little bit that is an excellent location and a relatively cheap fix.

As we have two dogs our option was a more secure gate that we could walk through. There are two options for this style of gate, one that is mounted to the wall and one that is not mounted, ie, no screw holes in your wall.

We’ve got a wall mounted baby gate that is secured into the wall.

Note the position when it’s closed and when it’s open. In the photo to the right, it’s open and there is not a bar that requires you have to step over it.

Most wall mounted gates that do not require you to drill holes in your wall come in a three peice set up and have a bar parallel to the floor when the gate is open. In theory this doesn’t sound like a big deal. However, having to step over a bar at the top, or bottom of your stairs is annoying at best and dangerous at worst.

We had the three piece, dangerous gate for a week or two. Then much to the chagrin of our walls, we exchanged it for the wall mounted version. However, the wall mounted baby gates are stronger, have a secure lock for the kids and are super easy to install.

Bottom line: If you’re getting a baby gate for stairs, don’t worry about your walls.

Ed Hardy and aging gracelessly

The other night Mommy Mojo and I went to see the Gypsy Kings. It had been a while since we actually had a date and we were due for a night without the teeny tiny toddler.

On the way to the venue I noticed that many of the guys were wearing these black t shirts with what looked like a white falcon on it. These are tight fitting shirts that you’d see on Jersey Shore or at an MMA fight, needless to say some of the guys wearing them that night pulled it off and some didn’t.

Some of the guys just looked silly. They were a bit out of shape and the parts of the shirt that should’ve been pushed out with muscles, were instead being taunted by age, moobs or guts. Ladies, this would be the equavalent of your muffintop. We all know that when you see girls wearing tops that are too short and their jeans are too tight it produces the classic muffintop. Sometimes a little muffintop is OK, sometimes, but very rarely.

I didn’t get the whole Ed Hardy craze a couple years ago either. They are cool shirts, but they are just t shirts and there is no way I’m paying more than $15 for a t shirt. The only exception would be a Roger Waters concert t shirt for the 30th Anniversary of The Wall, something like The Wall is an event. Spending around $100 for a t shirt just to prove that I went to the mall would place me perilously close to being a douchebag.

There were even some Ed Hardy shirts at the concert. Apparently they didn’t get the memo that the MMA/white falcon t shirt had supplanted them as the trendy shirt du jour.

I’m not mocking too hard because I was wearing a guyaberra shirt with embroidered dancing people. Describing the shirt that I wore can sound as gay as the tight, black trendy shirts made the other guys in the crowd look desperate. So I guess to each his own in this case. My wardrobe has changed a bit through the years and becoming a father certainly helped in that department.

The Gypsy Kings were amazing and is a great concert if you get the chance to see them live. We had no idea what they were singing or saying, but it was a great night out. It also got me pumped for the next season of Jersey Shore.