Benjamin Brown (0:9.646)
Hey everybody and welcome in to the first episode of the dad verb podcast for 2026. This is our first episode back. We took a couple weeks off, spend time with families, enjoy Christmas, enjoy the holidays, enjoy the new year and just, well, I say try to relax, but if you guys are anything like me and have school age children, this has been one of the longest winter breaks in I believe like 30 years, something like that.
Muamer Razic (0:34.915)
⁓ Thank ⁓
Benjamin Brown (0:37.910)
⁓ because of the way the holidays fell. So I'm in the trenches. I'm in the trenches guys. It's been with the kids went back to school full time today. Finally. ⁓ I loved having them home, but having two, ⁓ five and almost three year old at home for two weeks and having to find things for them to do every single day has been a struggle. So I'm glad to be back. I'm glad to see the gentleman here. We've got momer and Andrew Saunders here.
And today we're just gonna catch up a little bit. We're gonna talk a little bit about the holidays, favorite gifts that we got for Christmas, anything that we got that we really enjoyed and goals for 2026. We know that this is the time that we're all, you know, everybody's setting their New Year's resolutions or trying to set their goals and figure out who they wanna be, what they wanna do, where they wanna be better in 2026. We're gonna chat through that today.
But as always, before we get the episode started, number one, I want to remind everybody whatever platform you are on, we want this to reach as many people as possible. So if you give us a rating on Spotify, Apple, wherever it is that you listen to the DadVerb podcast, we would really appreciate it. Leave us a comment. ⁓ Send us a message in the Discord. Let us know any topics that you want to see us cover in 2026. We'd be happy to put it on the docket, discuss it, ⁓ and get that back to you as a...
You know, three dads just trying to live life and make things work. So first, let's do our first inaugural sick check of 2026. Mommar, let's start with you. How's everybody? Everybody healthy? Hopefully. ⁓ no.
Muamer Razic (2:13.217)
I'm already gonna ruin it. ⁓ No, you already ruined it. ⁓ I know, starting off strong boys. I know. ⁓ Well, we know we closed out the year with RSV. Everyone started to get better. My youngest has got better, but then he just had this persistent cough that never went away. Actually went to the doctor today. He has a lung infection. So started the round of antibiotics from, all came from RSV, started the antibiotics.
Andrew Saunders (2:15.287)
God, God. That's why we can't have nice things.
Benjamin Brown (2:18.306)
Alright.
Benjamin Brown (2:24.065)
Mm-hmm.
Benjamin Brown (2:36.964)
⁓ no.
Muamer Razic (2:42.193)
And he got the, ⁓ I took a picture and video cause like it's, know he's using the medicine, take the mess, but it was so cute. He got like the inhaler with the mouse, the mouth. Well, eating it's not a nebulizer. It's an actual inhaler, but it's got like a mouth cover for them to just get the puff in. ⁓ but I'm like, man, he looks so cute in this thing. Like I know it's bad, but so, he's a, he's, he's a trooper. He's going through it. So hopefully now that we've started antibiotics, he can kick it and get better.
Andrew Saunders (2:50.615)
Nebulizer.
Benjamin Brown (2:55.822)
⁓ Mm-hmm.
Benjamin Brown (3:1.518)
⁓ You ⁓
Benjamin Brown (3:8.622)
⁓ Well, hopefully he's on the mend. know you guys have been dealing with that for the last gosh, probably three weeks at least almost four now that you've been going through the ⁓ RSV plus the ⁓ fallout of that. So hopefully fingers crossed everybody is on the mend Saunders with your ⁓ family's elite immune systems. ⁓ How are they doing over there? Is everybody healthy?
Muamer Razic (3:14.741)
Yeah.
Muamer Razic (3:20.000)
⁓ No joke.
Andrew Saunders (3:30.584)
We We are, ⁓
Benjamin Brown (3:38.018)
Hehehe.
Muamer Razic (3:52.218)
I was just thinking that I was like any more batteries
Benjamin Brown (3:55.064)
Yeah. ⁓
Muamer Razic (3:56.417)
SIM card.
Andrew Saunders (4:1.323)
It was something benign and I watched her stick it up her nose and she got yelled at and it came right out. But it was like ⁓ slime or like, like Play-Doh or something. Like she was just like, what's this feel like up there? And I was like, did you just put Play-Doh in your nose? Yeah, I did. Blow your nose. Like, yeah.
Muamer Razic (4:14.105)
you
Benjamin Brown (4:15.118)
Amazing. Well, they're experimenting. All right, I guess I guess Well, hopefully things stay out of noses. Hopefully lungs get better ⁓ Our household is ⁓ pretty ⁓ fingers crossed healthy right now Although I don't know if I'll be able to say that next week my wife ⁓ came out of some meetings today and kind of came out of her office and was like ⁓ My my snot is green I'm coughing
Muamer Razic (4:42.141)
Mm-hmm.
Benjamin Brown (4:43.342)
I pretty sure I'm getting sick. So I think it's probably on its way if it's not here already. So we'll see what next week looks like. We are actually supposed to go on a trip here in a couple of weeks ⁓ for my daughter's birthday, which we're really excited about. So hopefully if we do get anything, it's quick. We can get it over with and be done and enjoy a little, little quick family vacation. ⁓ but as I mentioned, yeah, thank you. ⁓ but as I mentioned, go ahead.
Muamer Razic (5:5.428)
May the force be with you.
Andrew Saunders (5:10.349)
Sorry, I forgot to mention. So it just occurred to me, like, I don't consider my wife's ailments actually being sick right now, because she's ⁓ eight months pregnant. So like everything is a problem, right? Yeah, yeah. ⁓ But I should probably bring up that she's like been in indigestion mode and like she basically eats nothing but like cheese and ⁓ bread, right? But. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (5:24.002)
Yeah, ⁓ everything hurts.
Muamer Razic (5:24.213)
Everything is a problem.
Muamer Razic (5:33.216)
⁓ that stage. Yeah.
Benjamin Brown (5:33.807)
⁓ that's brutal. ⁓ Yep.
Muamer Razic (5:38.590)
Yeah, I remember those.
Andrew Saunders (5:39.553)
So she's technically not well and we've had prescriptions and sick, but ⁓ it doesn't count. ⁓ She's just in the final stages of infestation. yeah, ⁓ yeah. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (5:43.222)
Mm-hmm. ⁓
Yeah. She has a literal parasite living inside of her right now. Well, good. So let's hop into today's episode. So first, let's talk about Christmas. ⁓ Christmas, fantastic time to be around your family, around your kids. It's so different every year as your kids get bigger. ⁓ One of the things we found is we always get less and less for each other and more for the kids. But for this year, we tried to focus.
Muamer Razic (5:49.152)
⁓ I love it.
Benjamin Brown (6:16.556)
more on traveling with the kids in 25 rather than buying them things, right? They get the stuff they need throughout the year. There's not really, there's not usually a time where we need to buy them like big, big things for Christmas, ⁓ unless it's something special. So I know this year, ⁓ you know, we got our son a bike. ⁓ So he went to his first pedal bike. ⁓ Amazingly, he figured out how to ride it in like the first 20 minutes of having it.
Muamer Razic (6:28.606)
Nope.
Benjamin Brown (6:41.356)
Shout out to guardian bikes and starting him on a balanced bike. was really easy for him to make that transition. ⁓ and then ⁓ on a bit of a, ⁓ we'll call this a bittersweet note. ⁓ can't say I didn't get emotional doing this, but my daughter who is about to be three is finally out of her crib, completely out of her crib. So we had converted it to a day bed, but she was getting a little big for it. So it was time and she was gifted a big girl bed.
So now she has her own big girl bed. So I had the ⁓ unsavory task of having to sit in her room and take down the crib that both of our kids have slept in since they were babies. And I came to the realization as I was sitting there that we do not have babies anymore. They're we're done with that stage of our life and they're, they're both, you know, ⁓ getting to are almost fully potty trained, ⁓ you know, even at nighttime. So we're, kind of getting to this really rapid stage of.
The crib is gone. ⁓ The pull ups and stuff are starting to go away. ⁓ and my kids are getting bigger. So I had a bit of an emotional Christmas, I will say. ⁓ but it was fantastic. It was great to spend time around the family, spend some time at home, ⁓ and not do a whole lot other than, you know, hang out with the kids, enjoy our family, do some really fun stuff together as a family and, just try and enjoy our time together. ⁓ but I know we're going to talk about favorite.
Muamer Razic (7:58.099)
Hm. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (8:9.502)
So Saunders, do you have something you want to add?
Andrew Saunders (8:10.979)
Yeah, I was like, which, so you got a big girl bed, but which big girl bed? Like, did you get her a full size twin, like a full bed, or did you get like...
Benjamin Brown (8:14.147)
We did.
Yeah. So she's, yeah, she's got a twin bed. ⁓ so this will be her bed basically until, know, she decides to change it some years down the road. But ⁓ I will say the biggest upside to this is ⁓ as she's gotten older, she likes to cuddle more. she really, she used to be, yeah, she used to be a kid that just, she wanted to be, she didn't want to be rock. She didn't want to be held when she was ready to go to sleep. You put her down. She went to bed. ⁓
Andrew Saunders (8:33.635)
So you fit? ⁓
Benjamin Brown (8:44.622)
As she's gotten older and more aware, now she really wants to be cuddled. And that's, that's difficult as a, you know, 220 pound man, uh, with a daughter who's sleeping in a crib. That's now a day bed. I don't fit in there. Uh, it's probably dangerous for me to try to lay in there with her. And that was what she wanted all the time. So I ended up just laying on the carpet. Not the most comfortable thing in the world. So now I actually have a space to lay. So, uh, while I am sad to get rid of the crib, it is nice to actually have a space to.
Muamer Razic (9:7.173)
You
Andrew Saunders (9:10.125)
Great.
Benjamin Brown (9:13.430)
you know, fall asleep when I don't want to inside of a room and, wake up at one o'clock in the morning with the sound machine blasting, ⁓ and, realize that I've fallen asleep. But you guys, how was your Christmas? Mom, let's kick it over to you. What did you guys do? ⁓ kind of ⁓ what did you get? Anything that you really enjoyed? Anything special for the kids?
Muamer Razic (9:34.000)
Yeah, it was good. ⁓ Got my kids ⁓ all the fun little toys that they had picked out. Paw Patrol. Both of my kids are in a big superhero phase right now, so all the superhero things. ⁓ But I will say one thing I did that they have loved and they have talked about since then, and this is where AI and chat GPT have been amazing, ⁓ is I took a picture of the tree and I took a picture of where the boys wrote like a note to Santa.
And left him cookies and then they also did like oatmeal and stuff they put in the front yard So I took those three pictures and asked chat GPT to help me create the image So I'll show this for the folks on the video But basically it's Santa at our house actually delivering presents and it did a really good job like match the wrapping paper everything It's Santa reading and eating the cookies off the exact plate. It's showing the actual note like their little scribbles and stuff
Benjamin Brown (9:59.575)
Mm-hmm.
Benjamin Brown (10:17.073)
wow.
Andrew Saunders (10:27.460)
Hmm.
Muamer Razic (10:29.583)
and then the reindeer in the front yard. ⁓ So I think the rating the reindeer food. I think that like that's been something that they've talked about ⁓ even to this day, like just yesterday, they were mentioning it to my mom. They're like Santa came ⁓ like they they've instilled in them. They loved it. And so I think that's something that's I think going to be a theme for us trying to keep that trend going forward. But as far as what I got, my wife and I
Benjamin Brown (10:30.276)
So cool.
Andrew Saunders (10:34.189)
man.
Benjamin Brown (10:34.273)
Are they eating the reindeer food? Wow. ⁓
Andrew Saunders (10:58.204)
I was going to say like, ⁓ chat GPT gaslighting children for thousands of years. ⁓ just ⁓ that ads gonna write itself. ⁓ Right?
Muamer Razic (10:59.334)
Go ahead.
Benjamin Brown (11:4.207)
⁓ Whatever works.
Muamer Razic (11:5.245)
⁓ Listen listen, you know how hard you know how hard parents had to work you know hard parents had to work back in the day to like make the ⁓ Like the the myth of Santa be real ⁓ Like I remember hearing my mother-in-law tell stories of like they'd put the girls so my wife was one of three girls They put the girls upstairs the bed and then somehow as they're doing that
Benjamin Brown (11:14.925)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Saunders (11:18.861)
Yeah.
Muamer Razic (11:30.087)
The dad would like run outside and like ring the doorbell and like jingle bells. Like there's like so much work. I can just ask Chad GP to just make a picture. ⁓ I even showed it to my seven year old niece and she was like, how did you get a picture of Santa? So like it still works for a little bit older. like, this is good. This is what we're going to do for now. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (11:38.680)
Yep.
Benjamin Brown (11:46.319)
Yep.
Andrew Saunders (11:46.501)
All right, all right. This is, we're gonna have an entire generation of 20 year olds in 15 years. We're gonna be like, Santa's real? I have a photo, you're wrong. Like, yeah, kid, all right, yeah. Sorry, that was the first thing I thought. Like, oh great, now we're gaslighting our own children. This is gonna be amazing.
Benjamin Brown (11:49.369)
That's awesome.
Muamer Razic (11:52.220)
They're like, no, I've seen him. He's real.
⁓ Exactly. No, ⁓ no. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (11:57.745)
Thank ⁓
Muamer Razic (12:7.900)
Hey, anything for the joy of Christmas. Like that's right, dude. It's exactly. Well, my wife and I are actually talking about this as this is like off topic, but like it's crazy how some of these like little things are are so emotional and important to them. Like trash truck right now, not the show actual trash trucks. We're driving behind one today and my two year old was just like yelling at the trash truck.
Benjamin Brown (12:11.381)
Anything for a little magic, man.
Andrew Saunders (12:11.586)
Right? That's the whole point of parenting, right? You gasoline your kids until they're old enough to figure it out and then you go, yeah, I lied to you for 15 years, get over it.
Benjamin Brown (12:18.425)
Yeah.
Benjamin Brown (12:29.013)
you
Muamer Razic (12:37.419)
waving to it just loves it. I'm like simple things. It's like gotta keep that joy as much as possible.
Benjamin Brown (12:40.783)
⁓ As long as you can.
Andrew Saunders (12:40.792)
Yep. As long as you can.
Muamer Razic (12:44.504)
Yeah. Now, before I distracted us gifts, ⁓ so my wife and I sometimes will go big. Sometimes we won't. But we went. ⁓ I had a couple key things I just like have had on my list for a while that I wanted nothing big and major. ⁓ And she was sweet enough to give me those. One of them you can see in the background here. It's a Jones clock. So for whatever reason, I've been in like a yeah, it's like a little retro looking one.
Benjamin Brown (12:50.285)
Mm-hmm.
Benjamin Brown (13:9.071)
Wow, those are so cool. ⁓
Mm.
Muamer Razic (13:13.404)
It's orange. I've been on an orange kick lately, so I got an orange one back there. I got a little mushroom lamp. I know if you can see in the wide angle or not that and then the other thing was a Carhartt tool roll. This is actually something that I gifted my dad and he used it all the time and I have like my little tool bag that I'll use, but it's nice to just put like some pocket knives in there to put my screwdriver and other miscellaneous things that I just like to have in the truck. So just small things that I got that I really loved and enjoyed.
Benjamin Brown (13:35.448)
Mm-hmm. ⁓
Muamer Razic (13:43.195)
Um, but it's funny cause both of these were on the long form video that we've made on the dad verb channel. And I said, was like, listen, everyone says I'm hard to shop for. Here's a video where I talk about the great things and the things that are on my list. But it's funny cause some people were like, this is sponsored. I'm like, no, it's not. It's the things that I want. So please buy it. Yeah. So what about you guys?
Andrew Saunders (13:49.516)
Yeah. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (13:49.935)
⁓ Thank ⁓
Benjamin Brown (13:58.071)
Mm-hmm. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (14:2.605)
of things I actually want.
Andrew Saunders (14:5.558)
I just went down my Amazon wishlist and said these. Let's see. ⁓ It was good. Yeah, so I actually have to give a shout out to ⁓ Grandma Eby and Grandpa Robert. They are not the kids' official grandparents, but ⁓ they were basically my surrogate parents for the 15 years I lived in Utah. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (14:10.553)
Saunders, what about you? How was your Christmas? Any big gifts?
Benjamin Brown (14:29.668)
Mm. ⁓
Andrew Saunders (14:30.168)
They kind of adopted me into their home. We spent every Christmas Thanksgiving together for over a decade. mean, we were just the family we chose, right? ⁓ And this year, they were feeling very missing, their surrogate grandchildren. So a few days before Christmas, Robert hits me up and he goes, hey, what's your Venmo? And I was like, he's gonna send me some cash for the girls. All right, so ⁓ I shot it over to him. ⁓ It's exactly what he did.
Benjamin Brown (14:39.609)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Saunders (14:59.906)
but he was way more generous than he should have been. ⁓ And ⁓ my daughters got a Ford Raptor two-seater power wheels ⁓ for Christmas ⁓ with a remote control car. ⁓ And so Grandma Eby and Grandpa Robert bought that for them. And then ⁓ we actually took video of it and they drove it to Grandma and Grandpa's house, which is about a mile away ⁓ on Christmas day for Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's house. ⁓ So they were all bundled up.
Benjamin Brown (15:8.920)
Nice. ⁓
Muamer Razic (15:11.640)
Nice.
Andrew Saunders (15:29.860)
⁓ The new power wheels are amazing. They have these little remote controls and so I got to like basically ⁓ RC car them ⁓ for over a mile ⁓ to grandma and grandpa's house. And that was kind of our biggest ⁓ bestest kid thing. They are ecstatic about it. They played in it until I decided it was ruining my hardwood floors ⁓ and is now put away until spring, because it's not really a winter outdoor toy. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (15:42.816)
Awesome.
Andrew Saunders (15:57.295)
So that'll be a fun spring toy that we get to play with. ⁓ But for me personally, I would say my gift that is probably the ⁓ most this year was my mother-in-law gave me a gift certificate to Home Depot and I bought myself ⁓ a knife block that holds ⁓ all of my global kitchen knives. ⁓ So when I lived in Japan, I bought global kitchen knives.
Muamer Razic (16:0.419)
nice.
Benjamin Brown (16:15.756)
always good.
Andrew Saunders (16:26.722)
like they were going out of style. And this is the first time my entire collection of Global Kitchen Knives has been ⁓ in a singular knife block and on display and looking good and classy. that was, ⁓ yeah. Yeah, it's the little things. And then I bought myself the Lego Game Boy because ⁓ Santa had to give daddy something.
Muamer Razic (16:36.397)
Nice.
Benjamin Brown (16:38.947)
Nice, it's the little things, ⁓
Benjamin Brown (16:49.650)
Yep. For sure. Um, so I know talking through, we, we kind of talked at the beginning of the episode about like the big gifts that we got for the kids, you know, bike, new bed. Um, you know, I had picked them out. of the things that I really love to buy my kids, which is a bit of a problem, uh, are Jordans. I love getting Jordans and, yeah, new shoes. And so.
Andrew Saunders (16:53.508)
Ugh.
Muamer Razic (17:8.706)
god.
Andrew Saunders (17:9.110)
shoes. My kids get Converse, so don't like we have matching sets.
Benjamin Brown (17:12.941)
Yeah, my daughter, my daughter got some little, little purple Jordan high tops, like purple and white ones, which are absolutely adorable. And then, ⁓ my son is finally at the age where, ⁓ a lot of times they will make matching Jordans in my size and his. And so one of the things I'll do is usually if, if I've got a pair of shoes, like he comes home with a matching pair too. so you had like some black and white ones that are now my daughters. Now we have some like, ⁓
Muamer Razic (17:19.097)
That's funny.
Benjamin Brown (17:40.621)
like these taupe pink ones, they're taupe pink, white and black. ⁓ So I got, actually picked up his shoes almost a year ago because I saw them and I was like, they're never going to have these again. They were on sale, picked them up, hit them in my closet and just left them there until he was big enough to be able to wear them. And finally, this Christmas, his feet were big enough to be able to wear these new shoes. So was really excited to give those to him. ⁓ And then as far as like gifts for me, ⁓
You know, like I said, in 2025, we've been doing a lot of traveling. So that's been our kind of gift to each other is like, we just want to go places and do stuff together with my wife and I and with the kids. ⁓ but one of the best things that she got me was I have been, ⁓ I have been looking at and researching, ⁓ safety razors for ⁓ a lot for like probably like a year, right? Just looking at, just looking at safety razors.
Muamer Razic (18:25.048)
⁓ you
Andrew Saunders (18:30.764)
yeah. ⁓ my God.
Benjamin Brown (18:36.167)
And in my stocking this year was ⁓ a beautiful, ⁓ you know, metal safety razor with like hole kit, shape bowl, all that stuff. So really excited about that. That's I've got the whole kit like laid out. ⁓ Really enjoy that. You know, no more plastic disposable razors, disposable razor heads, all that stuff. And I'm really excited about that because it's it's heavy. It's nice. It's awesome.
Andrew Saunders (18:43.341)
ice.
Muamer Razic (18:45.482)
Nice.
Andrew Saunders (18:56.921)
We might have to do ⁓ a whole episode on the best lather soap, because there's so many varieties out there. And ⁓ man.
Muamer Razic (18:59.128)
That's the best way to shave.
Benjamin Brown (19:4.661)
so many options.
Muamer Razic (19:6.680)
That's the, think all three of us, think are now going to be using those. I know it doesn't look like it from the video stream, but when we do.
Andrew Saunders (19:11.405)
It's the... ⁓ shave here? I shave here? ⁓
Benjamin Brown (19:13.489)
I ⁓ haven't shaved in a couple days, but...
Muamer Razic (19:17.952)
I did right before Christmas, my wife was so mad at me, I ⁓ did a full shave, so ⁓ I just trimmed it back down. ⁓ yeah, so we can spend definitely a whole episode talking about the safety razors. I love that, that's awesome Ben.
Benjamin Brown (19:18.201)
Shriva Fiji.
Andrew Saunders (19:31.973)
⁓ Yeah.
Benjamin Brown (19:34.069)
Then I did, ⁓ I got the, what's that? ⁓ it's a badger. Yeah. Yeah. Badger hairbrush. Yeah, they're great. And then, my, my big gift to myself, which I've been wanting to do for a while, ⁓ which you guys are not going be able to see on the episode. I did go out and get myself a brand spanking new four, ⁓ pro Mac. ⁓ Yeah.
Andrew Saunders (19:35.301)
What kind ⁓ of ⁓ brush did you get? What kind of bristles on the brush? it... You didn't get a badger? ⁓ they're so nice. They're so nice. ⁓
Andrew Saunders (19:59.814)
Ooh, ⁓ shiny.
Muamer Razic (19:59.927)
Ooh, nice, nice.
Benjamin Brown (20:2.479)
All my video editing. Yeah, it's awesome. I went down to the 14 inch one from the 16 inch, a little bit more portable, still super powerful. Great for all the video editing that I do and all the work that we do here on Dadverb and on my own channel. excited for that. That's made my life much easier. I'm not sitting there waiting for videos to export for like 20 minutes.
Andrew Saunders (20:7.781)
Alright.
Muamer Razic (20:17.483)
awesome.
Andrew Saunders (20:22.277)
⁓ What color though? I mean, what?
Benjamin Brown (20:26.351)
⁓ Space black. Yeah. Yeah, I got that one. So ⁓ all right. So, ⁓ and one last thing. And if you guys are out there looking for like fidgety stuff, one of the things that I really, really enjoyed and I keep I'm playing with this on camera is ⁓ these little guys. ⁓ This so ⁓ Lego. No. So Lego did a partnership with Formula One ⁓ and
Andrew Saunders (20:28.143)
All right. right. Safe. ⁓
Andrew Saunders (20:42.469)
⁓ The thing that's been ticking in the background everybody
It's an RC car?
Andrew Saunders (20:53.604)
yeah.
Muamer Razic (20:53.719)
Mmm.
Benjamin Brown (20:54.435)
Big fan of Formula One and they have all these little for like 10 bucks, I think maybe a little bit less. They have these little mystery kits and you get a little box and there's only so many parts in them, but each one is a different car from a different Formula One team. So there's a Lego store locally to us. And so we've been picking these up that you can get them at like Target and at the Lego store and a couple other places. Yeah. It's just like a checkout line, you know, grab and go type thing, but we've really enjoyed building these little
Andrew Saunders (21:13.475)
Target has them, Walmart's got them.
Benjamin Brown (21:22.803)
Formula one car so we have like the I think we have a Haas Formula one. We have Aston Martin It's kind of hoping for a Ferrari or Mercedes. I haven't gotten either of those yet But this has been like a super fun little just like weekend, you know kill 15 minutes sort of project ⁓ These are super fun
Andrew Saunders (21:39.589)
Do ⁓ you like the mystery of it? Do you like the fact that you can end up with four Haas cars?
Benjamin Brown (21:43.918)
I do.
Yeah, I mean, not ideal to end up with four hot stars. They'll they'll probably end up crashing into the wall at some point, but you know.
Andrew Saunders (21:49.924)
Well, I'm just...
Andrew Saunders (21:54.032)
So I did this with the, they did D &D Lego of Figs. ⁓ So they released, I want to say 25 or 12. Anyway, they were just the little miniatures, right? And they were different Dungeons and Dragons characters. ⁓ Lego is great at the mystery box game because if you don't want to play the game, you can scan the QR code on the bottom and it'll tell you what's in there. So you can go figure out, like if you actually want to collect them all, you can scan them and you don't have to buy the ones that aren't the kit you want. So just.
Benjamin Brown (21:58.008)
Mm.
Benjamin Brown (22:13.775)
⁓ You can see what's in there.
Mm-hmm.
Benjamin Brown (22:21.997)
There you go.
Andrew Saunders (22:22.595)
Be aware that's an option for you, Ben, if you get tired of, you know, five Red Bull F1 guys in your house and you're like, I just want a Mercedes.
Benjamin Brown (22:27.947)
Yeah, I don't necessarily want that many. ⁓ Nice. Well, let's jump into 2026, right? We're in the new year. ⁓ We're setting goals. We're trying to figure out, you know, what we want to do with our businesses, jobs, lives, family lives. ⁓ I know we're kind of all ⁓ setting goals or trying to find areas that we can improve on from 2025. So, Mamar, I want to kick it over to you. When you look at 2026,
What's, what's on the schedule for you? What are you trying to do? Where are you trying to be better? What are you trying to get good at? Maybe start something new. What, what do you got going on?
Muamer Razic (23:5.430)
My wife's making me make a boot or vision board, say mood board. That's her thing. She wants me to put a vision board together and I straight up asked her, cause I was like, I don't know what that is. She was like, Google it. was like, ⁓ okay. That's what she said. She was like, just go on Pinterest. I'm like, I don't know what you're asking me to do. ⁓ But I have spent some time thinking about it ⁓ and I've got, I guess ⁓ three things. ⁓ One.
Andrew Saunders (23:17.591)
It's Pinterest before there was Pinterest. ⁓
Muamer Razic (23:32.087)
I want to do a better job. Everyone always talks about like, want to make more money and that's great. I'm going to continue to try. We have a bunch of plants for businesses, all the growth, but I am a sucker for a good ad. Like you market to me and I like it. will buy it. So my goal is to spend less money because I have always wanted the newest and nicest thing, but I'm trying to do a better job of, I want to instill this in my kids too, right? Of like what you have is the best thing more likely than not, because you already have it. You can use it.
Benjamin Brown (23:43.588)
minutes.
Benjamin Brown (23:52.131)
Hmm.
Benjamin Brown (23:59.065)
Hmm.
Muamer Razic (24:1.597)
Use it until it breaks. ⁓ And this actually started because one of my Christmas gifts that I was going to get was a new watch. I just got this one this year ⁓ and they're not cheap and luxury watches ⁓ aren't very cheap. And so I'm like, you know what? I could spend a ton of money on this and that would be a great gift and I would love it. But I just got this one and it's great. So I'm trying to take that mindset into 2026 to ⁓ second thing is ⁓ I want to do a better job because these two folds on camera.
have made me feel more guilty about not cooking as much and only doing the grill. ⁓ no, no, no, this is the cooking aspect of it. So I think Saunders called them dad dinners. So be more dad dinners at my house. Kind of figure that aspect out. ⁓ But I want to take it a step further because two things, one thing that my kids love, one are
Andrew Saunders (24:33.925)
⁓ I thought you were gonna say something about video editing or content. I'm like you do stuff like every day. What are you cooking? All right
Benjamin Brown (24:34.403)
Hahaha. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (24:48.527)
Hmm.
Andrew Saunders (24:49.295)
Yeah.
Muamer Razic (24:57.418)
I did a dad dinner tonight, super easy, hot dogs and mac and cheese and delicious, simple, but the kids loved it. ⁓ But one thing that my kids really love when they go to my mom's house is she has a huge garden. They'll go out to the garden, pick fresh veggies, just eat them like it's all homemade, organic, right? ⁓ And so I'm like, they will honestly, like you two, make me feel bad about myself.
Andrew Saunders (25:2.671)
Solid.
Benjamin Brown (25:4.057)
Yep.
Benjamin Brown (25:11.695)
Hmm. ⁓
Muamer Razic (25:22.002)
And just like guilt treatment like, well, we can do this at Micah's house. I'm like, okay, come on guys. Like this is a competition, but okay. ⁓ So I want to start gardening and I want to build like a full on like couple raised beds, do some things that we'll use pretty frequently. ⁓ So kind of put that in the rotation. We ⁓ talked about that gardening and then being more present. So ⁓ I, one of the videos that you guys will see coming up on the dad verb channel is about screen time. ⁓
Especially on the holidays Ben had mentioned it where you have to you know spend a lot of time getting your kids entertained when you're all at home together ⁓ and I would sometimes feel that like they're watching too much TV and My wife called me out on it rightfully. So I looked at my screen time. It was like seven or eight hours I'm like this is more than I sleep some nights with two little kids like this is nuts So I'm trying to be more present my wife and I are both having this as one of our racial resolutions like after work
between four, whenever we wrap up four to eight or five to eight, whenever we get the kids to bed, like ⁓ I need to be fully focused and locked in. So those are the things that I'm trying to be better about ⁓ just because ⁓ this thing is, you know, ⁓ it's addicting. ⁓ So those are my three main ones. Yeah. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (26:30.351)
Hmm.
Andrew Saunders (26:31.076)
Your dopamine machine is addicting? What? No.
Benjamin Brown (26:33.741)
Yeah, yeah, right.
Andrew Saunders (26:36.370)
All ⁓ right, let's see what else on my list So we also made I made a commitment to my wife ⁓ Since I do most of the evenings since she's currently working in the evening that I am NOT gonna let the girls watch TV in the evenings Some nights are better than others ⁓ with that ⁓ But so far we have not watched any children's television in the evening. So if the girls do watch TV, it's whatever I'm watching the news
Benjamin Brown (26:51.671)
Mm-hmm. ⁓ Course. ⁓
Andrew Saunders (27:5.934)
sitcom ⁓ So that's a big one that we are currently What five six days into now at this point when we're recording? ⁓ That's the first one Plans for 2026 in February or I mean in the next six weeks. I'm having the third kid So that's gonna prioritize a bit of my 2026 So that's happening ⁓ I have started
Benjamin Brown (27:15.033)
Mm-hmm.
Muamer Razic (27:24.853)
⁓ Hehehehehe ⁓
Benjamin Brown (27:27.097)
card speed.
Andrew Saunders (27:35.692)
On Monday, the continuation of my collegiate career ⁓ and the path through a graduate program ⁓ has started. ⁓ So I don't know when the end of that will be or how long it's going to take. But ⁓ Mamma and I have actually talked a little bit about what those plans look like and what it could mean for dad-verve and all that. And I am pretty excited about that. So that's some progress and some work that I'm solving for myself. ⁓
Muamer Razic (27:42.984)
Nice.
Benjamin Brown (27:43.199)
Awesome. Congratulations. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (27:57.529)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Saunders (28:5.646)
What else is on the list? My God. ⁓ My year is going to be busy. ⁓ Preschool kids. ⁓ Yeah, we've got two in school come August. ⁓
what my wife is ⁓ looking at what her career looks like once ⁓ she has a third child and what that looks like for us. So we're going to have to address that portion. ⁓ Yeah. And ⁓ I actually designed, do I have them within reach? I think I do. ⁓ I do. ⁓ So for Christmas, ⁓ going on the food category, ⁓ I did ⁓ customized seasonings for all of my family.
Benjamin Brown (28:31.631)
⁓ Mm-hmm.
Muamer Razic (28:31.846)
Thank ⁓
Muamer Razic (28:51.515)
Ooh, nice. ⁓ Fat man's kitchen. my God. ⁓
Andrew Saunders (28:52.378)
with a little ⁓ logo that I designed up. ⁓ And so I actually own that domain. ⁓ And so part of my 2026 goal is to get a spice brand ⁓ up and running. Because I have done this three or four times where I've made small batches, given them to family, people seem to enjoy them. ⁓ So there's no reason. I can't figure that out. So one of my goals for that is to ⁓ get that
Benjamin Brown (28:54.563)
That man's bitching. ⁓
Muamer Razic (29:0.916)
I'm
Benjamin Brown (29:7.136)
Awesome.
Muamer Razic (29:7.237)
Ooh, I love it.
Andrew Saunders (29:22.456)
Moving in some direction. ⁓ Andrew's got lots of plans, I need to start ⁓ the book that I'm working on. I need to finish the children's book I'm working on. ⁓ Yeah, it's going to be a big year if I accomplish half of this. ⁓ But that's my goal. I don't know. We'll see. ⁓ A lot of New Year's resolutions, and this time next year they'll probably all still be on the list. ⁓
Muamer Razic (29:42.803)
That's awesome.
Benjamin Brown (29:43.639)
You got it man, hammer down. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (29:51.100)
It's okay as long as you're working towards them. That's all that matters Yeah Yeah, and you know I would say ⁓
Muamer Razic (29:54.643)
Progress not perfection.
Andrew Saunders (29:56.293)
All right. Exactly. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (30:1.365)
On our side, ⁓ we got a lot of goals for this year, both business and family. ⁓ as I think I've shared on here before, my wife and I, so number one, I lost my job in November of 2025, right? So still in severance, like things are still okay. ⁓ But I came out of corporate America ⁓ after, gosh.
Andrew Saunders (30:16.987)
Cool.
Benjamin Brown (30:26.895)
15, 16 years of working in corporate America, almost a decade at one company. ⁓ And so through that process, I've had to do a lot of just soul searching, right? Figuring out who I am, like who am I without my corporate career? ⁓ I've always enjoyed creating content. I've always enjoyed having, you know, building communities, being a part of this, creating videos. And so...
For me, one of the big goals in 2026 is to continue that. ⁓ So I'd had a ⁓ big follower goal. had been stuck under 10,000 followers on Instagram for at least a year and a half. ⁓ Posted one reel or two reels, I think. And between those two reels, I gained like 3,000 followers over the course of like a week or a week and a half. ⁓ So now we're sitting at...
Like 12.2, almost 12.3 thousand followers on my personal account. ⁓ but my wife and I, you know, besides that, like I would say with that content business, there's kind of a couple things that I'm trying to build out. Number one is to work with more brands, ⁓ just do more content for, you know, UGC creating ads for, ⁓ you know, different products and whatnot. So a big part of that is pitching, right? Actually reaching out to these brands and having the confidence to say that my content is good enough.
to be paid for. I had set an ambitious goal in 2025 of earning at least $10,000 from creating content for brands, and I managed to hit that goal and exceed it. And so now it's time to put the hammer down and keep that going. But that also means the way you get paid for that is you only get paid when you're working. You only get paid when you're creating content for these brands, which
I don't necessarily want to be tied to that forever. So the next big goal for that is to start creating some, ⁓ some sources of like passive income, ⁓ whether that's courses. ⁓ so I'm working on two big ones right now. One is called part-time creator, ⁓ which is specifically for like parents, dads, anybody who has a full-time job and wants to create content. Maybe they're passionate about it. Maybe they want some extra income. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (32:48.003)
kind of trying to demystify brand work, thinking that, you know, brands are just gonna reach out to you if you have a good Instagram, which is not the case. It happens every now and then, but you have to figure out the business side of it, right? Like you have to have, most of the time you need an LLC, you need ⁓ process, you need to be able to deliver on time. What are they looking for? What's your portfolio look like?
all of the work that I've done over the last year and trying to summarize that into something that people can actually use and would be useful to them. ⁓ And then the second one is a, ⁓ I think I've talked about this on here before. have an am on the side, also a professional photographer. ⁓ I've done a lot of product photography, but a lot of what I do now is for our other business, which is our travel business.
Muamer Razic (33:30.288)
Nice.
Benjamin Brown (33:38.163)
So my wife is a travel agent. go around and basically follow her with a camera and help create a lot of her content and build that brand up. ⁓ But a lot of what we saw is when we talked to other agents is they're like, well, we travel with our families. We just can't seem to get like good photos and videos of them. So I want to put together ⁓ a course. ⁓ Right now I'm working on the family photographer course. There will be another family like videography course that focused specifically on
Muamer Razic (34:2.609)
Thank
Benjamin Brown (34:4.943)
⁓ parents and how to get good photos and videos of your kid, what to look for, how to figure out lighting, how to use the stuff that you already have, like your phone, things that are already in your pocket to get those, to capture those memories, right? And in a way that feels like it did when you were there, rather than kind of looking back at a bunch of blurry images that you're never going to use again. ⁓ So I'm trying to get literally three courses launched ⁓ over the course of 2026.
Continue to build our travel business. We've made a commitment to travel more in 2026. You ⁓ know, not necessarily we do a lot of Disney travel, but doing some international travel with the kids. We're planning some things out there to try and get out of the country a little bit, experience some different cultures. ⁓ And then. Yeah, we we've done a Disney cruise. We're considering a European Disney cruise, which would be awesome. We're looking into some of those. ⁓
Muamer Razic (34:47.857)
⁓ Hehehehe
Andrew Saunders (34:52.282)
Disney Cruise, Euro Disney, Disney Asia, Asia, yeah, yeah. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (35:2.913)
And then, you know, personally, I think there's, there's a couple things. number one, I've gotten back into like journaling and meditation. I gave those up for a while. ⁓ there was a long time I was getting up at like four or 35 o'clock in the morning and meditating for 15, 20 minutes, and then journaling a little bit just to set myself up for the day. ⁓ and I found that when, when I don't do that, ⁓ my anxiety goes up, I sort of discombobulation goes up. I don't really have a lot of focus.
⁓ so getting off my phone a little bit more, making sure that I'm setting myself up for success in the mornings, making sure I get back into that routine, ⁓ has been super helpful over the last couple of weeks that I've been doing that. ⁓ and then lastly, ⁓ you know, with the kids trying to be ⁓ the best dad that I can be, ⁓ trying to, you know, limit, ⁓
Muamer Razic (35:37.681)
⁓ .
Benjamin Brown (35:56.833)
The amount of times I raise my voice, ⁓ understanding, you know, how I talk to my kids is how they're going to talk to themselves. I'm making sure that even in my frustration that I'm not saying things that are long-term going to be detrimental to them, right? They might feel good in the moment. might go, why would you do that? Or, you know, why can't you do this and blah, blah. Like there are ways that I should be speaking to my kids that, ⁓ builds them up instead of tears them down. ⁓
Muamer Razic (35:59.984)
you
Benjamin Brown (36:25.335)
And so the meditation, the journaling, the sort of self-reflection really helps with that. ⁓ but overall just, just trying to ⁓ speak more, you know, kind of love and life into my kids rather than, ⁓ you know, being, ⁓ too ⁓ caught up ⁓ in the little stuff, right? The little messes, the little, little junk that doesn't matter in the longterm, ⁓ and really focusing on the big things. So we'll see how it all goes. It's, ⁓
and then reading, reading. I'm trying to read a lot more, ⁓ which, ⁓ has not, not gone well super far, but there's, there's a, there's a really good book I'm reading right now called the lion trackers guide to life. That's fantastic. ⁓ it's really short, but really good, ⁓ kind of poignant point of view sort of stuff about this guy who was a professional lion tracker in Africa and kind of all the things he learned and how that relates to life. So super interesting book. If you guys are interested in it.
Muamer Razic (36:56.752)
⁓ Interesting. Yeah.
Muamer Razic (37:15.011)
Yeah.
Muamer Razic (37:22.809)
Nice. ⁓ Might have the opposite goal. My goal is to read less this year. ⁓
Andrew Saunders (37:22.820)
Nice. ⁓
Andrew Saunders (37:27.367)
⁓ Yeah, after after you did what 200 books last year? Yeah
Benjamin Brown (37:28.235)
You read a lot, ⁓
Muamer Razic (37:30.031)
Yeah, I did 100. did 40. did 90, 94 the year before and I was like, I can crush 100 easy. It was hard. I got to the point where I was just reading books I didn't even like, because I have a, it's good, but like also bad because I won't stop reading it if I don't like the book. I'm like, I'm just gonna power through it. So there's a lot of one star books on my Goodreads. But so this year I'm really focusing on reading more quality books.
Benjamin Brown (37:33.359)
Wow.
Andrew Saunders (37:53.681)
You
Benjamin Brown (37:57.890)
Hmm.
Muamer Razic (37:58.265)
You'll see the there's the red rising series behind me that I'm a huge fan of and ⁓ they're supposed to be dropping red God. And I remember Pierce Brown on Instagram posted like somebody had asked him what song he would use to describe the last book. And he said hurt by Johnny cash. I'm like, God, I'm not ready for this. ⁓ I don't know what to emotionally expect. And then I want to get into Brandon Sanderson. ⁓ he's been on my bookshelf for awhile, but I know those like,
Benjamin Brown (38:1.613)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Saunders (38:14.983)
No.
Benjamin Brown (38:15.747)
wow. boy.
Andrew Saunders (38:18.823)
⁓ that's great. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (38:23.181)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Saunders (38:23.449)
god.
Muamer Razic (38:26.239)
one book alone. like, I can't just like justify a number. So I'm like, I want to read less.
Andrew Saunders (38:30.087)
It's like saying you're gonna start a Terry Goodkind series and you know you're just gonna be into it for 15 years.
Muamer Razic (38:33.497)
Yeah.
Yep, so I have the obstacle of being read less. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (38:40.471)
Yeah, I for sure have to read. don't I honestly don't think I've completed a book ⁓ in. ⁓ Maybe a year at least, I've started a lot of books, I've started several books, but I really want to make sure that I actually finish some books this year.
Muamer Razic (38:57.080)
Nice.
Andrew Saunders (38:58.023)
On the, so have you guys heard this? There's actually a quick way to tell how your kids are doing while they're sleeping emotionally and safety wise and how they're feeling. you, I don't know the position specifically, but you can tell how emotionally stable your kids are by what positions they sleep in. If they like sleep on their stomachs or on their backs or curled up in a ball or like there's a lot of science around what their emotional health is.
Benjamin Brown (39:10.276)
Hmm.
Muamer Razic (39:19.662)
Hmm.
Andrew Saunders (39:28.199)
⁓ to how they sleep.
Benjamin Brown (39:28.331)
What happens ⁓ if they sleep spread eagle with their feet in your face? ⁓
Andrew Saunders (39:32.537)
I mean, ⁓ it's co-sleeping and we have discussed that at Nausium, right? Yeah. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (39:35.961)
See.
⁓ Seems like they feel pretty safe. They sleep like this. Just wide open. Open to any threat.
Andrew Saunders (39:47.272)
So there's, all right. ⁓ this is their impact on feed. No, no, no, ⁓ it's a really interesting piece of science because ⁓ it's one of the ways when they do home studies and stuff, they tell if kids are semi-traumatized is how they actually nap because they will ⁓ nap defensively. And I'm like, what? Is that a thing? ⁓
Benjamin Brown (39:50.474)
Now, now you got me hooked. Now I'm interested.
Benjamin Brown (40:16.331)
Yeah, who knew that was a thing?
Andrew Saunders (40:17.177)
Apparently it is. Yeah. So there's stuff for like, ⁓ if you sleep in the fetal position, right? ⁓ Curled up in a ball. ⁓ It's ⁓ what does it say? It's ⁓
and I'm not going to be able to find it quickly. Somebody's got an image, I'm sure, that'll give me this in a quick digestible format. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (40:42.787)
funny. My son sleeps like me, almost identically. Like when we my wife leaves for work in the morning, if she wakes up and looks, she's taken a picture of us before because I always for some reason I always sleep on my back with one arm up like this. ⁓ And she'll wake up and my son is sleeping. He always sneaks into our room at some point. And he's sleeping next to me identical to me, like just the little like mirror image of the way I sleep, which is really funny to see that come out in your kids.
Muamer Razic (40:48.781)
you
Muamer Razic (40:55.713)
Mm. ⁓
Andrew Saunders (41:10.565)
My friends have ⁓ an ultrasound photo of their eldest daughter and she is ⁓ legs crossed, ⁓ arms behind the head. And the best part about it is this, it's an ultrasound photo and you're like, really? And then very next photo on their fridge is her husband doing the exact same thing on the couch asleep because that's how he falls asleep. And so it's like, those two, that's a genetic like comfort thing. Yeah. So it's ⁓ bum in the air.
Benjamin Brown (41:20.687)
you
Benjamin Brown (41:34.232)
That's genetic.
Andrew Saunders (41:39.995)
is very common for toddlers. ⁓ And it is, ⁓ they're just, it's common. Curled up on the side in the fetal is comfort and security. Arms up or the starfish, ⁓ it reduces ⁓ startles and is soothing. ⁓ And then ⁓ diagonal ⁓ is they're seeking warmth and comfort from a parent.
Benjamin Brown (42:1.752)
Mm-hmm. ⁓
Andrew Saunders (42:9.478)
So if you have one of those children that like spins in the bed, they're actually looking for another human or you or anyway. ⁓ When to be concerned if they have difficulty breathing when they're flat, obviously refusing ⁓ to sleep flat. So if they want to be upright or and then excessive restlessness are obvious like big signs of their sleeping issues. But ⁓ yeah, so.
Muamer Razic (42:16.717)
Hmm.
Benjamin Brown (42:18.063)
That's interesting.
Benjamin Brown (42:24.150)
Hahaha ⁓
Benjamin Brown (42:37.411)
Wow.
Andrew Saunders (42:39.354)
If you really like look it up, do your own research, right? This isn't facts. This is just, I read it on something and I was like, ⁓ that's an interesting piece. And ⁓ when you're looking at your infants and toddlers, you can tell how they're doing emotionally by how they're sleeping. It's a very, ⁓ I know right? Little factoid. Yeah. And to harken back.
Muamer Razic (42:44.333)
⁓ you
Benjamin Brown (42:47.938)
Hmm.
Benjamin Brown (42:55.821)
Good to know. Way to start 2026 off with a little bit of little something we didn't know. Well, awesome, ⁓
Muamer Razic (42:58.302)
Yeah.
Andrew Saunders (43:3.740)
To episode five, I'm gonna follow my advice and before the next episode, I'm gonna install the Bode now. ⁓ Yeah.
Muamer Razic (43:9.793)
There you go.
Benjamin Brown (43:10.415)
⁓ All ⁓ right, gentlemen. Well, I think this is a great way to kick off 2026. I really appreciate the conversation. I'm glad that everybody had a fantastic Christmas. I hope that everybody out there in Dadverb land had a great Christmas too. Look, ⁓ I know we say this a lot these episodes. We parenting is hard. Fatherhood is hard. It's probably the hardest thing that we're going to do. ⁓
But if you're here, if you're listening, if you're worried about being a good dad in 2026, or if you're worried about it in 2025, you're already halfway to being a great parent. So keep on out there. Keep chasing your goals. Keep trying to be better every day. And we will see you guys in the next episode. Peace.
Muamer Razic (43:52.812)
Peace.
Andrew Saunders (43:52.933)
at least.
