The Essentials

I'm sure most parents find that there is all this fancy stuff out there that you just "have to have." In some ways, we were those people, but I think we were also pretty level headed about it. As I'm sure most parents do, we found the simplest things were the things we simply could not live without.

Take a look at the John Dickson survival kit:

10. Power windows in the car - for the first year of his life, putting down the windows in the car was like sticking a paci in John Dickson's mouth. Crying is never worse than when you are confined to a car - power windows were sent to us from God.

9. Garden hose and stain remover - need I say more?

8. Bibs with pockets - as fast as that little dude shovels in his food, he tends to lose a lot down the front of his shirt. The pockets are great because they catch the food, but ALSO - John Dickson knows they catch his food, and so when he finishes, he eats out of his bib pockets. Waste not, want not - thats his motto!

7. Disposable changing pads - sometimes it is near impossible not to get a nice mess all over the changing pad, and there were many times it was a thousand times easier to just lay John Dickson down on the pad and then throw it away.

6. Aveeno baby wash - the only baby wash that I really believe is "tearless"

5. Scented bags - are you noticing a theme?

4. Born Free sippy cups - we tried them all, every sippy cup on the market, and Born Free were definitely the favorite of John Dickson, and they were pretty good about not leaking. They have lots of pieces to wash, but I can handle that!

3. Gerber Take and Toss cups - after John Dickson quit requiring the soft top sippy cups, we gave these a try - they average about 50 cents a piece, are only 2 pieces, are EXCELLENT about not leaking, hold up in the dishwasher, and did I mention they are 50 cents a piece? If we accidently left one in the car with milk residue in it, we'd just toss it, but for the most part they've all been used at least a hundred time.

2. Swaddlers with velcro - John Dickson couldn't sleep without them!

1. Duct tape - ahhh the point of the post. The duct tape. The #1 tool in our John Dickson bag of tricks. Nobody believed me that I duct taped John Dickson's footie pjs, but I sure did. And then Adam caved and he started to duct tape him as well. There was never the slightest tape on skin action going on, before you go calling DSS on us. We tried it every which way, taping up the zipper, taping the top where the zipper and button start, taping down the flaps on his diaper. Our little Houdini is much too smart for all of that. We finally taped him around the middle with an extra strip up the back and voila!!! He finally quit yanking off his diaper everytime he took a nap. He has now outgrown that phase, thank goodness.

But he is smart. Do not underestimate him. He has started to get very creative in trying to find ways to get us to come in his room after he is supposed to go to bed. His latest is taking his pants off at night and then crying for us to come put his pants on. "Pants, pants, mommy, pants, daddy, pants, pants, milk, pants". I put them back on the first time. And in desperation, I put them on one more time that night, thinking he was exhausted enough that the comfort of his pants would let him go to sleep. And then we were done, and he began to sleep with no pants. So after 2 nights of this, he smartened up and started to remove his diaper, knowing we couldn't ignore that. Now we pull his summer jammies pants up over his shirt like a grandpa and wrap overlapping layers of duct tape around his belly. And a strip up the back.

What's that sound you ask? Ahhh, its the sweet sweet sound of sleep.

Duct tape. It's our number one.