Benjamin Brown (0:9.816)
Hello gentlemen and I don't know, maybe a few ladies out there. Welcome to the dad verb podcast. ⁓ Yeah. That's awesome. There's at least one out there.
Nate Klein (0:12.138)
⁓ Aww, that's sweet.
Andrew Saunders (0:15.835)
My sister listens. There's a couple, at least one. ⁓
Muamer (0:17.186)
⁓ Hey, ⁓ I listen who knows what the algorithm is doing and ever I do my post on social media It's like an 80 20 % split on women to men. I'm like, I'm not reaching the dads. ⁓ I'm reaching the moms ⁓ like ⁓
Benjamin Brown (0:29.322)
Nope. Nope. You talk about parenting, it reaches the moms.
Nate Klein (0:30.600)
Next time, ⁓ they're passing the advice. ⁓
Andrew Saunders (0:33.559)
Yeah, well, fine. They're not yelling at us, so we must be doing something, ⁓ I would rather they were listening and being like, honey, you need to listen to this podcast. Honey, you need to like ⁓ every three episodes, they're just increasing our downloads. It's fine.
Muamer (0:36.522)
Yeah. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (0:37.538)
Must be doing okay.
Muamer (0:40.450)
⁓ Yeah. ⁓
Nate Klein (0:42.634)
you
Benjamin Brown (0:43.811)
Yeah.
That being said, if there are any ladies out there listening to us, make sure you pass this along to the men in your life. That's who we're trying to reach. We're glad you're here. ⁓ But this is a podcast, DadVird podcast. It's for dads by dads. And as always, before we get started, we're going to... Should we run through our sick check again? So technically, ⁓ we'll let you guys in on a little secret. ⁓ Sometimes we have to record more than one podcast at one time.
Nate Klein (0:51.955)
us.
Andrew Saunders (0:52.008)
Right?
Andrew Saunders (1:6.876)
Yeah, why not.
Muamer (1:7.154)
Might as well, this'll be. Yeah.
Benjamin Brown (1:16.192)
So we're actually recording, I know, little production secret. We're recording back to back. ⁓ Yeah, put the hood up, make it look like you changed.
Andrew Saunders (1:16.818)
What?
Nate Klein (1:19.306)
So I up a hood like.
Muamer (1:22.364)
Movie magic.
Nate Klein (1:22.964)
of the different, like, ⁓ in my sleeves.
Andrew Saunders (1:24.029)
I mean, ⁓ I love the fact that Ben is letting this secret out almost three years later because like six months in, we would take a break and be like, okay, everybody go change t-shirts and we'd all go change t-shirts ⁓ and we'd come back in different outfits and then just go.
Benjamin Brown (1:33.890)
Yep. Go change shirts. Like, look, like we've all got lives. You guys understand I literally do not have the energy to go change my shirt and then come back and do a podcast right now. So ⁓ we're just going to roll with it. So we're going to skip our sick check for today's through doing back to back podcasts. If you heard the one before this, you know, everybody's yeah, only Nate's got Nate's got sick kids. We've got Nate, Andrew and mom or and your host Ben. And today we're going to talk it's
Nate Klein (1:34.826)
I could put up my hood. ⁓
Nate Klein (1:45.674)
think it's fair. I think that's a good looking shirt.
Nate Klein (1:52.970)
I'm one for her.
Andrew Saunders (1:54.971)
It's Nate's fault. Yeah.
Nate Klein (1:56.028)
It's my fault. Not bad.
Benjamin Brown (2:3.694)
⁓ It's January.
Andrew Saunders (2:3.719)
You notice how last episode we were all co-hosts now it's our host Ben and every... ⁓
Nate Klein (2:8.422)
I'm good with that. Change roles. ⁓ Mix it up. Mix it up.
Benjamin Brown (2:8.438)
Yeah, every yeah, it's this is my show guys my show. But today we are we're having some discussions because we are in ⁓ basically the dead of winter and all different parts of the country ⁓ varying degrees of winter. But we've all got kids obviously and we all need stuff to do because.
Muamer (2:18.785)
.
Muamer (2:27.867)
Okay. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (2:31.818)
summertime, it's easy, you can kind of take your kids to the park, let them run around outside, although here it does get pretty hot out. So you know, we do kind of have to be careful about that. But right now we live in South Carolina, we're in a cold snap, it's like 20 degrees at night, like mid 30s during the day. It is not a fun time to try and be outdoors. So we thought today we discuss three of our favorite activities, indoor activities for us and our kids.
Nate Klein (2:45.161)
you
Muamer (2:45.696)
Okay.
Benjamin Brown (2:59.000)
Hopefully mostly for our kids, a little bit less for us. We all know weekends are busy. We got stuff to do, dishes to do, laundry to do, errands to run. ⁓ But let's kick it over to Saunders. I'm gonna start with you. ⁓ Let's give your first one. What do you like to do indoors? What's one of your favorite activities with the kids?
Andrew Saunders (3:1.779)
Hahaha
Andrew Saunders (3:16.691)
So I get home from work at five, like a normal ⁓ everyday Joe. And ⁓ one of the main things we do if we're not going out to dinner that night is I like to cook dinner with the kids. So we will work ⁓ on, you know, they get to cut potatoes, they get to cut onions, which is fun to watch them cry, just because I'm a little masochist like that. ⁓ you know, mushrooms, things like that. ⁓ We haven't mastered carrots yet. They're a little too hard and they roll. ⁓
Muamer (3:36.275)
Okay.
Benjamin Brown (3:37.716)
Ha ha ha!
Nate Klein (3:45.556)
They are tricky.
Andrew Saunders (3:46.292)
⁓ We cook together. And so ⁓ I know that sounds scary for some people to give a three-year-old a chef knife and be like, go after the chicken, have fun. ⁓ But yeah, not your fingers, right? If you see blood, let me know, we need to stop. ⁓ Yeah, ⁓ and so cooking is kind of one of my fun indoor activities. And ⁓ it really gets kids engaged in the food they're eating. They will try a lot more stuff.
Benjamin Brown (3:57.774)
Chop up and not your fingers.
Muamer (4:2.464)
⁓ Thank ⁓
Nate Klein (4:4.308)
gonna bend it for that.
Andrew Saunders (4:16.147)
And frankly, simple things like macaroni and cheese, they get to cut like, this sounds dumb when I'm gonna say it, but I'll give them the quarter stick of butter and a butter knife. And I will let them chop it into as many tiny pieces as they want. And then I'll throw it in the part because what do I care? It's just butter, right? Like, and so, but it gets them engaged. They enjoy it. And a seven minute macaroni and cheese can be stretched to 30 minutes.
Nate Klein (4:32.650)
Brinklet.
Benjamin Brown (4:37.272)
Hmm?
Andrew Saunders (4:45.371)
And frankly, it's really not that taxing on dad, but it is fun for all involved. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (4:50.412)
You also simultaneously limit the number of questions that are, when is my dinner going to be ready? Because they're in charge of it. ⁓ instead of dad, where's dinner, dad, where's dinner? It's like, no, you're, making it with me. Yeah.
Andrew Saunders (4:55.889)
Yeah. Yeah. No. Right. Or ⁓ what are we having for dinner? Yeah.
Muamer (4:55.891)
Mm-hmm.
Nate Klein (4:56.201)
because you're in charge of it. ⁓
Nate Klein (5:3.571)
right here.
Andrew Saunders (5:4.583)
Yep. ⁓ I get as I get as far as like, you want mac and cheese? All right, go get it from the pantry. Like, and they got to go open the pantry door and find it now it doesn't move. It's not like I'm hiding it. But every time it's like a three minute process for them to identify which shelf ⁓ and where Yeah, and I'm like, keep looking. Use your eyes like ⁓ so cooking with your kids. Yep. ⁓ We we were we were doing zippers on jackets the other day.
Benjamin Brown (5:10.638)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Benjamin Brown (5:17.838)
⁓ I can't find it.
⁓ use your eyes is my favorite line. Yeah, use your mouth, use your eyes.
Nate Klein (5:25.204)
Close your mouth, open your eyes, yeah.
Andrew Saunders (5:32.123)
And I looked my four year old in face and I said, stop what you're doing. Look at the zipper, close your mouth and zip your jacket up. And she went, okay. ⁓ And she did it. And she got it on like the second try. I'm like, see, if you just focus on what you're doing, you can do this. And she's like, okay, dad, we haven't had any zipper issues since that moment, right? It was a teachable moment and I nailed it. ⁓ Yeah. ⁓
Nate Klein (5:41.268)
worked.
Benjamin Brown (5:42.126)
Hmm.
Benjamin Brown (5:52.015)
how many times a day we have the focus conversation of like, stop asking me questions, focus on what I asked you to do. Like just put your left shoe on the left foot, your right shoe on the right foot and we can get out the door and everybody will be good. Now cooking is a good one. We do a lot of that in our house too. That's probably one of our favorite like weekend activities is cooking. We started doing, my son is like a pretty adventurous eater.
So one of our things is like, we'll, we'll try new restaurants. Like that's one of our like kind of winter time activities. So we did, ⁓ there's a, ⁓ a really good Indian restaurant right next to ⁓ our, where he goes to karate. ⁓ and so we'll go and he'll literally just sit at, at the bar and talk to the guy that, runs the place and ask him what, cause there's pictures of everything on the menu and he'll ask what every, what's in this, what's in this, what does this taste like? And so he'll try new stuff. like he tried.
Andrew Saunders (6:22.983)
Mmm.
Muamer (6:25.810)
Nice.
Andrew Saunders (6:30.003)
⁓ yeah.
Nate Klein (6:39.433)
Awesome.
Benjamin Brown (6:48.974)
⁓ cheese naan, which is not like super adventurous and then he asked me to get a goat biryani So that he could try it, ⁓ which was it's fantastic. It's like one of my favorite things they make there ⁓ He was not a huge fan little too spicy for him. Yeah, but he tried it He he did yeah goat was not not on my five-year-old's palette, but everything else was he enjoyed it But yeah baking cooking anything like that was is i'm a big cook. I love to cook
Andrew Saunders (6:55.246)
Ooh. ⁓
Nate Klein (7:1.866)
⁓ And he tried.
Andrew Saunders (7:3.251)
⁓ Goat wasn't on his palette,
All right.
Benjamin Brown (7:16.782)
⁓ Did it a lot with my mom and with my grandmother. And so that's one thing that we really enjoy too. ⁓ The other one is surprisingly our five year old really loves. ⁓ found this is like a behavioral thing. We found his behavior gets better when he feels ⁓ useful. ⁓ The more useful and helpful he feels.
Nate Klein (7:36.936)
Yep, I got that.
Benjamin Brown (7:41.197)
the better his behavior is, right? ⁓ yeah, the less like, you know, tantrums we have, the less like, you know, dad, come play with me and do this thing. So if I'm doing chores around the house, like, let's say we're folding laundry or doing whatever, like he gets to help. And so ⁓ one, he gets to contribute to the family, right? We tell him, this is how we contribute to the family. This is part of being in a family. We all do things together to help out the family, like picking up our things and doing laundry.
Muamer (7:41.586)
Keep keeping them entertained. Yeah.
Benjamin Brown (8:9.664)
And so, you know, he might fold a bunch of shirts wrong, but, you know, they might end up in a little ball in his drawer, but he helped and he can be proud of that, which is super like the cooking and stuff too. He can say, mom, we made this for you, ma, you know, roar and he'll bring it to his sister Rory. Try this. We made this for you. ⁓ which is super fun. But mom or mom or what about you? What, what's one of your favorite ⁓ indoor winter activities to keep your hooligans entertained?
Nate Klein (8:34.858)
Thank you.
Muamer (8:35.294)
⁓ So, ⁓ yeah, I sent the guys a video we were doing bedtime right before this and I referred to my kids hooligans because they were being hooligans in that video. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (8:48.206)
⁓ Always right as they're to bed too.
Andrew Saunders (8:48.529)
Where ⁓ do you know what that video the reason I sent you the people's elbow for that video was because I immediately realized that WWE is just two adult men playing the floor is lava in a hotel. ⁓ Like that's just all it is like. ⁓
Nate Klein (8:49.523)
Validated.
Nate Klein (9:1.266)
living that out.
Muamer (9:6.334)
⁓ man, it's fun. But usually to keep them entertained, I have to do one of two things, like high energy activities in the house. ⁓ So the way that our house is set up, they have like two areas that could be, I think like 30 to 40 foot, just like pure runways, right? They can go, they have a couple of toys that we keep inside and they will like ride on toys, ⁓ push toys, whatever. They will just go back and forth with those.
Benjamin Brown (9:18.030)
Mm-hmm.
Nate Klein (9:25.097)
Yes!
Benjamin Brown (9:26.766)
Nice.
Muamer (9:34.812)
And then what they'll do is they'll just do like a big loop because it loops like around the dining room in the kitchen and everything. So we'll go down the road, right. And loop. And so like ⁓ we they're still small enough. Like we still allow balls in the house. So like, you know, there might all this especially can like throw and kick like no other. But like nothing's broken yet. ⁓ So we'll keep that stuff inside. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it's good. He's almost like at the point where I'm like, buddy, you're going to break something like we have to take this away soon. ⁓
Andrew Saunders (9:52.623)
yet. The keyword there is yet. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (9:56.074)
It's coming.
Muamer (10:1.595)
So that's key because like we try to balance like the screen time and not screen time, but it's winter. It's hard. So when we're not doing it, like we're being engaged, we have like whatever they can just use to just run. Like that's what works for my kids. Like just let them run two boys or nuts. ⁓ and that they'll end up wrestling. Like that's what ends up happening. ⁓ and, then outside of that, when we, yep, they are, when we, when we,
Benjamin Brown (10:6.148)
Mm.
Benjamin Brown (10:13.667)
Mm-hmm. ⁓
Nate Klein (10:19.892)
Yes, we got that.
Andrew Saunders (10:22.548)
That's not exclusive to boys. Like ⁓ my toddlers will wrestle. ⁓
Muamer (10:28.733)
try to be a little bit more chill and calm and hang out together as a family, we've started to do the Switch. OG Dadverb, Andrew too actually just did a great video about this. You guys should go check out on the Dadverb social channels. But we have started to play Mario Party together. My kids are on a big Super Mario kick right now. So like we watched the movie on Prime Video.
Benjamin Brown (10:36.046)
Hmm.
Nate Klein (10:49.290)
⁓ Classic.
Andrew Saunders (10:49.396)
Thanks
Benjamin Brown (10:49.913)
That's all.
Muamer (10:55.677)
My oldest got this jacket with like a little toad zipper and everything on it. Like they're all about Bowser, Luigi and Mario. So my wife and I used to play this with our family and stuff. We're like, you know, they're getting old enough. Let's see if they'll play. And we tried playing around a Mario party and it was terrible. So we just got to go straight into the mini games now. But that's, that's it. So like we just, try to find things that are fun. Of course we'll do the occasional movie night and everything like that, but.
Nate Klein (11:0.212)
Coffee.
Benjamin Brown (11:14.500)
Mm-hmm.
Muamer (11:22.524)
Keeping them entertained when they can't go outside, especially when my kids at least just want to run wild is like how much space can I give them? They'll just let them be free.
Nate Klein (11:31.370)
Yeah.
Benjamin Brown (11:31.567)
.
Andrew Saunders (11:33.223)
Alright.
Benjamin Brown (11:34.252)
Nate, what about you?
Nate Klein (11:36.394)
⁓ We have strategically placed throughout our house, ⁓ even right here, didn't even plan this, ⁓ like board games ⁓ and like everywhere. So we have some here. ⁓ A lot of people in their basement have like a bar. ⁓ I don't drink. So we have a game nook. so we've got trouble is a big game right now for my three year old. Cause I think it's just so loud. He just loves to hit the thing. Yep. The popper every time. doesn't remember how to move it, but the popper.
Muamer (11:44.156)
Ugh.
Benjamin Brown (11:46.500)
Mm-hmm.
Benjamin Brown (11:58.127)
⁓ Yeah. ⁓
Andrew Saunders (11:59.740)
Yeah, the popper.
Nate Klein (12:5.906)
A lot of guests who know. ⁓ Sequence? ⁓ Yes. ⁓
Andrew Saunders (12:6.579)
doesn't even matter if it's his turn. He's just hitting it. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (12:8.491)
No, our three year old likes to slap it as hard as she can because that's the only way she can do it. And it just scatters the board everywhere. And then our five year old yells at her. It's always it devolves into chaos. The hungry, hungry hippos. Yep. We play a lot of board games too.
Nate Klein (12:18.506)
Yeah. Hungry, hungry hippos is big time. Yes. Yeah. So we're, big in the big in the games and just spending time doing that. we were fortunate enough to have a garage. So sometimes my kids will just get remote control cars and we'll take the vehicles out of the garage and shut the door. Um, but the best is the game of keepy upy. don't know if y'all like to play keepy upy, but the balloon in or.
Andrew Saunders (12:21.494)
my God, hungry hippos. ⁓
Muamer (12:44.155)
Mm.
Benjamin Brown (12:44.547)
Yep. ⁓
Nate Klein (12:48.188)
in the garage ⁓ can go for many, many minutes. ⁓ Good active movement activity as well. And ⁓ they love just listening to some music, jamming out and keep yuppie and try to get it the high as they can.
Muamer (13:1.133)
Nice.
Andrew Saunders (13:1.895)
wife absolutely hates balloons. I do not get to have that. She doesn't even hate balloons. She hates when they pop. ⁓ So it's like, ⁓ yeah, that's the that's the reason they're not in our household. And I lose that option.
Nate Klein (13:4.520)
And I'm just.
Benjamin Brown (13:5.856)
Hahaha
Nate Klein (13:9.128)
That's... that's fair.
Benjamin Brown (13:9.433)
Hmm.
Benjamin Brown (13:15.673)
just pro tip there is a keepy upy board game that you can get. Yeah, we have it. So there's a bluey keepy upy board game that you can get that like it has like a balloon that's attached. And so you have to like bounce the balloon from one side to the other. It knocks like there's coins that you knock down with it. Yes. I don't know where I think it was on an Amazon wishlist at some point, but yeah, we've got it. I think we've lost half the pieces to it, but we've got it somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. There you go.
Andrew Saunders (13:23.187)
⁓ mates out of a conversation till he finds this on Amazon.
Nate Klein (13:24.669)
Amazon.
Hold on, I'm gonna put it my kids' list. ⁓
Andrew Saunders (13:33.427)
All right.
Nate Klein (13:40.074)
right there, Amazon, on a list. ⁓
Andrew Saunders (13:42.515)
Does anybody else always lose at Candyland? Like it is the simplest game. I cannot win at Candyland. I get beaten by my four year old every time and I'm like, all she's doing is drawing the next card. How am I losing every time? ⁓
Muamer (13:48.219)
Yeah.
Nate Klein (13:48.668)
It is a simple, ⁓ it's the double purple. ⁓
Muamer (13:50.937)
⁓ hmm.
Benjamin Brown (13:56.439)
Yep. I lose shoots and ladders all the time. And it's like, it's borderline, like starting to make me angry. Yes. Yeah. I always hit that one ladder that's way at the top or like you get all the way around the board. You have that one ladder that's way at the end. You get zoomed all the way back to like the third space on the game. Yeah, it's awful. My son loves to, he also loves to like, when that does happen, he really loves to make a big deal about it. He's like,
Nate Klein (14:0.968)
that real long ladder to get up there. Yeah.
Andrew Saunders (14:9.780)
⁓ Thank you.
Nate Klein (14:12.062)
Yeah, the slide sucks.
Nate Klein (14:22.729)
Yeah.
Benjamin Brown (14:23.971)
He goes, ⁓ dad, that stinks. And I'm like, dude, come on. Like, I'm already kind of upset that I'm all the way back at the beginning of the board. He's just like talking trash.
Nate Klein (14:29.844)
Yeah, I'm down.
Muamer (14:33.307)
Emotional guilt ⁓ trips. ⁓
Andrew Saunders (14:33.968)
Do you understand that I am 30 years old and losing to a four-year-old? I yeah.
Nate Klein (14:36.138)
Board games are such good for life lessons too. Like, sorry, like, hey, I'm letting you know, I'm going to take you out. It's a part of the game. And then I'm going to move you and I'm sorry.
Benjamin Brown (14:38.850)
Yeah, seriously.
Mm-hmm.
Benjamin Brown (14:47.949)
Yep. He's so mad. ⁓ So mad.
Andrew Saunders (14:52.469)
⁓ Okay.
Benjamin Brown (14:54.937)
Yeah, I know another one for us to a big one is we do a lot of like art projects just like painting. So we have like a big we have a big like it looks like a drop cloth and it's got like those rubber dots on the bottom. So it doesn't Yeah. Yeah. So the big like big rolls of paper, they got big stacks of construction paper for Christmas, they get notebooks. ⁓ So if they ever really need to do something, we set them down with just like a
Nate Klein (15:1.032)
Omni-Crafts.
Nate Klein (15:6.932)
Come with ⁓ one of these bad boys. This is butcher block paper. Heck to the yeah.
Andrew Saunders (15:9.364)
⁓ you got the whole roll? ⁓ Nice.
Muamer (15:12.004)
Yep.
Nice.
Benjamin Brown (15:21.569)
gigantic box of crayons or some paints, put a drop cloth down and just let them go to town. ⁓ And then the or there was another. ⁓ this is a cool thing that I think I think my mom found it was either my mom or my wife, like one of them found it for my son for his birthday. He loves to build stuff and we're always getting boxes, right? And there's if you've never seen it, it's a thing called the make do kit. So
Andrew Saunders (15:26.708)
⁓ You know my
Nate Klein (15:44.702)
Yes.
Muamer (15:49.636)
Make Do Kit. Proceeds to Google.
Benjamin Brown (15:50.747)
make do. So what it is, ⁓ is it's like, it's a kit with kids safe, like, like saws, ⁓ and screws and screwdrivers. Yeah. And it's it's basically like, it's a build kit. So they can take like cardboard boxes and cut them up and build like there's like hinges and doors, there's all they can make like houses and stuff in out of them. They're really cool.
Nate Klein (16:0.874)
I've got it right in here somewhere. ⁓
Andrew Saunders (16:3.252)
⁓ God he's like I'm getting it
Benjamin Brown (16:18.211)
And like they these like blue plastic screws. Yeah, ours is downstairs. It's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, it's that. Super cool. So my son ⁓ for like a week and a half had this giant cardboard box and he made probably 10 different, of course, it's always weapons. He made swords and shields and ⁓ all kinds of stuff. It's always something to hurt somebody. ⁓ But he made a ton of stuff out of this giant box we had for Christmas that I think a mattress came in or something.
Andrew Saunders (16:18.278)
Nate just pulled this thing out of a closet. Like, that's cool.
Muamer (16:22.553)
That's awesome.
Nate Klein (16:25.444)
It's so legit ⁓
Nate Klein (16:35.998)
Yes. ⁓
Nate Klein (16:46.858)
Yup.
Benjamin Brown (16:47.225)
But that will keep him entertained for at minimum like an hour. He'll just go and start crafting and he's good to go. So if you're going to invest in anything, a Make-Do kit is it, and they make like expansion packs with like hinges and all kinds of stuff. They're amazing. No. Yeah, there's Kizzy kit, there's Make-Do, there's a couple other ones. Yeah. Yeah, they're all really good. So worthwhile for sure.
Nate Klein (16:52.980)
For sure. For sure.
Andrew Saunders (16:56.916)
Sorry.
Nate Klein (16:58.986)
Yeah. ⁓
Andrew Saunders (17:1.652)
They're not even expensive.
Nate Klein (17:1.930)
⁓ Kizzy kids, would recommend that. ⁓ If you are like us ⁓ and your family is sponsored by Amazon, ⁓ that is a great investment because there's boxes everywhere.
Muamer (17:3.617)
No, it's like, yeah, it's like 20 bucks.
Andrew Saunders (17:9.140)
Wow. All right.
Andrew Saunders (17:14.676)
⁓ So, so one of the cool things about Amazon is that paper that they send in the boxes to like filler. It's generally just a single sheet, like take it out, fold it up makes great crayon material, or like, ⁓ we save that stuff. And like we were throwing it away. And finally, one day I'm like, why am I throwing this away? Like, is it perforated? Like, ⁓ and I just, I must have had 12 feet of it out of one box. And I'm like,
Benjamin Brown (17:25.241)
Mm.
Nate Klein (17:30.302)
Yeah, also a good pro tip.
Benjamin Brown (17:31.023)
Mm. Yeah.
Benjamin Brown (17:40.100)
Mm.
Andrew Saunders (17:43.187)
I'm folding this up and it's going in the paper drawer. Yeah. ⁓ But if you can find it, that old LPT printer paper that's got the perforated edges in a box, that's ⁓ our favorite crayon marker stuff. they can pull it out. ⁓ At this point, it's old enough. They can rip the perforations ⁓ and ⁓ like it's dirt cheap at this point. Like you can find it at Goodwill. ⁓ Yeah. Now I'm gonna have to buy this
Nate Klein (17:44.458)
flatten it out, ⁓ steam it.
Benjamin Brown (17:47.490)
Thank
Andrew Saunders (18:12.977)
Make do kit. Man, like.
Nate Klein (18:14.376)
It is a good ⁓ investment.
Benjamin Brown (18:15.151)
Dude, it's awesome. It's a good one.
Andrew Saunders (18:16.712)
I'm glad we got birthdays coming up. This is going to be a great like.
Benjamin Brown (18:19.919)
And like I said, you can expand it too. So like for Christmas, he got more of like the make do kit. He got like the hinge kit and stuff. So you can build like, now he can build like houses, like doors and all kinds of stuff. But it's I played with it. It is very, it, it's kind of therapeutic because you're just like, you let your imagination run wild and you just like poke holes in cardboard and put the screws in. I will say taking them apart kind of sucks.
Nate Klein (18:26.986)
Yeah. ⁓
Andrew Saunders (18:31.070)
That's cool.
Nate Klein (18:35.818)
There it is.
Benjamin Brown (18:44.735)
like you got to take all the hundred screws your kid just put into the FISA cardboard out so you don't lose them. ⁓ But other than that, it's that's really the only downside.
Nate Klein (18:48.020)
test.
Andrew Saunders (18:54.388)
All right, that's fair.
Nate Klein (18:54.986)
⁓ Have y'all gotten into like pre-night either dance party or yoga at all? That ⁓ has been a big thing for our kids is like, I thought it was going to be like therapeutic, but the type, when you type in kids yoga, it's not always like yoga. It's like active running activities, but engaging. ⁓ Yep. Dinosaur yoga jumping off and on, but there's themed to everything. Like any movie that your kid loves tonight was.
Benjamin Brown (19:1.995)
a little bit, a little bit.
Muamer (19:2.284)
No.
Benjamin Brown (19:13.719)
Yeah, like the dinosaur yoga and stuff.
Muamer (19:14.136)
Mmm.
Nate Klein (19:24.196)
Zootopia yoga and my boys just love it and it's great for me because I ⁓ can't even touch my toes. So I participate just to be there as a dad, but I'm like, this is stretching me out.
Benjamin Brown (19:27.322)
wow.
Benjamin Brown (19:32.811)
Yep. ⁓
Muamer (19:33.783)
Ha! ⁓
Andrew Saunders (19:38.206)
gonna make it. ⁓
Nate Klein (19:39.240)
Yeah, kid yoga.
Benjamin Brown (19:39.479)
Yeah, any kind of any kind of like YouTube kids like active stuff like that stuff is fun. There's there's another thing we haven't gotten it yet. There is a controller list game console where your body is the controller. And it's basically like, it's like it, it reads your movements. ⁓ My wife sent it to me the other day. Yeah, I think that might be no, but I think I can't remember what it was.
Muamer (19:54.731)
Yes.
I what it's called. Yeah.
Andrew Saunders (19:59.113)
Yeah, Microsoft did this, it's called the connect. ⁓ It failed. ⁓
Muamer (20:6.517)
My friends just got this that live next door and it's awesome. Their kids love it. it's, my kids I think are too young, but we saw them. Yeah.
Benjamin Brown (20:7.044)
It's basically like a reverse projector. It looks really cool.
Benjamin Brown (20:13.711)
So it's like your kids get to play video games, but they actually have to move to control the character on the screen. They can't just sit and use a controller. ⁓ So that might be our next indoor winter activity. ⁓ Just follow along. Yeah. Yep.
Muamer (20:21.941)
Our version of this is just to put Danny Go on the screen. ⁓
Nate Klein (20:25.898)
There you go.
Just talk to a kindergarten teacher, like you'll find all the things.
Muamer (20:29.847)
⁓ Yeah. ⁓
Andrew Saunders (20:31.176)
Right. ⁓ All right, we've gotten distracted. How many are we on now? ⁓ Let's see. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (20:36.815)
⁓ We're like, we're a couple in. What? Mamrie, you another one?
Muamer (20:39.553)
Who say who had I think I did mine who's who's up next Saunders you do your list
Andrew Saunders (20:45.908)
I can do another one. ⁓ So one of the things that every parent in the world is gonna hate me when I say this, but Play-Doh. Winter is a great Play-Doh time. ⁓ And ⁓ if you don't have a recipe to make Play-Doh, look them up, they're dirt cheap. It's like flour, oil, salt. Like it's not hard. ⁓ And I've just gotten to the point where when it's on sale at like the dollar store, I buy a bunch of the little ones, not the... ⁓
Muamer (20:53.935)
⁓ yes.
Benjamin Brown (20:55.491)
Yeah, it was awesome.
Benjamin Brown (21:14.958)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Saunders (21:15.814)
micro party ones, but like the littler versions. ⁓ And it's like, mix them all you want kids. I don't care. You only get to play with two or three colors a piece. ⁓ And I think I have like eight yellows now because they don't like yellow as a color, but ⁓ winter play dough, ⁓ set an activity table, grab some of that Amazon paper ⁓ and ⁓ let them go to town and you can either throw it all away when you're done or we have a pizza making station. And so now none of the pizza crust is brown. It's all like.
Benjamin Brown (21:17.401)
Yeah.
Benjamin Brown (21:35.599)
Hmm?
Andrew Saunders (21:46.098)
Red, yellow, like it's been smashed so many times that it's like Chicago style pizza every time. Like, I'm not sure if that's crust or cheese, but go for it kid. ⁓ So, yep.
Benjamin Brown (21:47.201)
Yep. ⁓
Nate Klein (21:47.700)
Yes.
Benjamin Brown (21:52.708)
Yeah.
Muamer (21:56.032)
You
Benjamin Brown (21:56.175)
I will say that my daughter loves it, but the only downside is she will make us food. And we are borderline required to actually eat it for her to be happy. Because she'll like, yeah, I tried to do like the pretend like, oh, I ate it. And then I set it down. She goes, No, daddy, eat it. No, eat it. And I was like, baby, I can't eat like, I can't actually eat this play dough. No, daddy, it's your pizza. Eat it. No, I can't.
Muamer (22:7.454)
Hehehehe.
Nate Klein (22:8.234)
⁓ You can't do the like down the shirt thing
Nate Klein (22:15.668)
Eat it.
Read the label, ⁓
Muamer (22:21.015)
Hmm.
Andrew Saunders (22:21.086)
You know what you need, Ben? You need a dog because the first time a dog eats their Play-Doh chunk, they'll be like, no! ⁓ And then they will defend it from anybody eating it. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (22:28.276)
god.
Nate Klein (22:34.410)
I feel like playdough is also like the gateway to other of those things like ⁓ slime kinetic sand which I wish ⁓ man
Benjamin Brown (22:34.541)
No way.
Benjamin Brown (22:39.139)
Mm-hmm.
Muamer (22:41.130)
say kinetic sand as ours.
Andrew Saunders (22:42.612)
So ⁓ I love ⁓ if I had to pick Tamedic Sand ⁓ over Play-Doh, I would... ⁓
Benjamin Brown (22:44.761)
Kinetic Sand was invented by the devil.
Nate Klein (22:47.888)
I agree with that because it is in my carpet all over here. ⁓ Like keep it on the pan.
Benjamin Brown (22:49.579)
It's it gets everywhere and it sticks to everything and I can't get it out. Our outdoor carpet is blue from kinetic sand.
Andrew Saunders (22:57.522)
Yeah, you gotta, so, I mean, you gotta do it on a baking sheet. Everything stays in and you gotta do it on hardwood floor. Like there are some kinetic sand guidelines, but I would prefer kinetic sand over Play-Doh any day of the week because at least with kinetic sand, I can hit it with the vacuum and I'm not gonna kill my vacuum ⁓ and it's cleaned up. ⁓ If I hit the vacuum with Play-Doh, man, I need a new vacuum. ⁓
Nate Klein (23:1.012)
Yeah.
Nate Klein (23:5.066)
Sure.
Nate Klein (23:17.246)
Fair.
Nate Klein (23:22.953)
Yes.
Benjamin Brown (23:23.373)
Not if you wait until it dries. You just got to be a little bit lazier and you'll be fine. ⁓
Andrew Saunders (23:25.812)
⁓ yeah like six days later yeah ⁓ you missed the dog eats play-doh part of that story earlier yeah
Nate Klein (23:26.346)
⁓ Also true. ⁓
My dog does not allow that. Yeah. Yep.
Benjamin Brown (23:33.615)
⁓ Yeah, just let it dry until it's a bunch of little rocks and then it vacuums right up. You'll be fine.
Nate Klein (23:38.634)
Thanks
Andrew Saunders (23:40.005)
the guy just let the Lego sit until they get big enough you don't hurt your feet anymore. It'll be fine ⁓
Benjamin Brown (23:44.687)
⁓ It's fine. It'll be fine. that is that actually has become another one of our big indoor activities for my son as he's getting old enough to start doing like Lego kits. I think we talked about it during our Christmas episode. So he started and he did like one of those the big head ones. I think he got like a Luke Skywalker and I maybe did a third of it and he was like, no dad, I got this. And he went through the entire instruction book and did it every single piece, like built the entire thing by himself. He was super proud.
Nate Klein (23:54.824)
Yeah, my oldest is there.
Muamer (23:54.826)
nice.
Andrew Saunders (23:57.790)
We did.
Andrew Saunders (24:10.623)
Nice. ⁓ Nice.
Benjamin Brown (24:14.657)
It gets him to like sit and concentrate. ⁓ And he really enjoys those. that's ⁓ half of my bank account is probably going to be going to that relatively soon because they are seemingly expensive now.
Nate Klein (24:25.502)
Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew Saunders (24:27.765)
We started Duplos. So we got our three year old and our two year old are Duplowing now and she can finally like follow along with the Duplos and install. we're, ⁓ I'm growing them into Legos. They're gonna be. ⁓
Muamer (24:30.076)
⁓ nice.
Benjamin Brown (24:30.980)
Mm-hmm.
Nate Klein (24:39.754)
Yeah. My, my 10 year old is my introvert plus ADHD. And so it's like, Hey, when she gets the whole family, like six of us is a lot for her. And sometimes the door just closes and she is knocking out a Lego set. Like I got an apology Lego flower for my wife and I tried to help. And she's like, dad, go over here. I will run through this 17 step thing to build this, uh, peace Lily for you. I was like, thanks.
Benjamin Brown (24:51.503)
⁓ Thank you.
Nate Klein (25:9.565)
Thanks, babe. I appreciate you. ⁓ But it's great recharge.
Muamer (25:9.973)
That's funny.
Benjamin Brown (25:11.247)
⁓ Really appreciate it. That's gonna be helpful. Yeah.
Andrew Saunders (25:12.179)
I'll do it and come back.
Legos.
Nate Klein (25:17.822)
Legos, Highlight recommend.
Benjamin Brown (25:20.015)
All right, so we've got baking, Legos, Play-Doh, ⁓ Make-Doo, ⁓
Andrew Saunders (25:20.351)
Talk about a company that hooked all of us with an addictive thing as, ⁓ and then they're like, hey, watch this. Now that you have adult money, here's this thousand dollar set. Come on boys. ⁓ And we're all like, uh-huh.
Benjamin Brown (25:27.171)
We're still in it.
Benjamin Brown (25:30.979)
Yeah. ⁓ God. You know what my son asked for the other day? I ⁓ have a hard time saying no. Well, he did ask for the Millennium Falcon. really borderline him almost there on getting it. But we have a LEGO store in one of our local malls. And so I took him in there. Kind of a mistake, but it was super fun. ⁓ The thing they had on display was a LEGO Death Star.
Andrew Saunders (25:37.589)
The Millennium Falcon.
Nate Klein (25:50.164)
Oof.
Andrew Saunders (25:53.747)
Yeah, kind of a mistake.
Andrew Saunders (26:1.302)
that thing's amazing.
Muamer (26:1.412)
gosh.
Benjamin Brown (26:1.547)
It is, it's a thousand dollars and it has like the throne room. has like the reactor core. has everything. It's this massive, massive set. And he goes, dad, how many dollars is that? And I was like, too many dollars. ⁓ Yeah. All of the dollars. It's all of the dollars. I was like, do you want to eat this week? Like ⁓ if you want lunch, we can't buy Legos. ⁓
Muamer (26:4.917)
Peace.
Nate Klein (26:15.274)
It's all of them. It's all of them. ⁓
Muamer (26:20.478)
You eat.
Nate Klein (26:21.610)
He says, he says no.
Andrew Saunders (26:24.757)
I mean, ⁓ mad respect to whoever developed that at Lego, but they had no consideration for anyone's homes. There is no place in your house, except for your dining room table, where you can leave that thing assembled and on display. ⁓
Muamer (26:42.152)
You know what? That's that's part of the reason why I haven't dove in the Legos, because I'm like Ben, like ⁓ I would like hyper fixate on it be like, I want all of these. But I'm like, ⁓ I don't know where I put these. I know where I display them. Like, what do I do then? Like my kids are going to break them. Like it's ⁓ what happens.
Benjamin Brown (26:49.487)
Hmm.
Nate Klein (26:53.258)
You wouldn't.
Benjamin Brown (26:56.323)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Saunders (26:56.457)
I'm a big ⁓ Lego architecture guy. And so I have like a lot of the skylines and like the buildings. ⁓ They are on the tops of the bookcases around my house. like that, that like ⁓ eight to 10 inches ⁓ above the bookcase, like you'll just look up and there'll be like, that's falling water. ⁓ that's the Seattle skyline. Yeah. I can appreciate.
Muamer (27:12.853)
That doesn't fit into my wife's aesthetic decor.
Nate Klein (27:13.258)
Thanks
Benjamin Brown (27:15.855)
⁓ It doesn't fit into the decorating scheme. Yeah.
Nate Klein (27:16.916)
Same. ⁓ Same.
Muamer (27:18.354)
It's like, hey, honey, let me put this Lego here.
Andrew Saunders (27:19.317)
I hear you, but she's not tall enough to reach it and she doesn't want to get the stepladder, so I'm good.
Nate Klein (27:20.564)
belongs in kids rooms. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (27:22.702)
Yeah. ⁓
Muamer (27:23.816)
You know, you know what's funny? Like for the guys that are watching ⁓ the podcast on the video on YouTube, like you guys can see our background and kind of see the style. I don't have my lights on right now, but even I have my lights. I sent my wife a picture after I got like it fully set up and decked out. I'm like, look at this. Look at this. Looks like it looks like the room of a five year old. I'm like, it's rude. I was excited about the lamp. The colors like I thought it looked cool. ⁓
Andrew Saunders (27:43.797)
⁓ That's rude.
Benjamin Brown (27:44.331)
Hahaha ⁓
Nate Klein (27:44.934)
and true, and true.
Benjamin Brown (27:47.823)
I was like, I got a mushroom lamp. Those are cool. You got a fiddle leaf back there. It looks awesome. You got a cool block.
Andrew Saunders (27:50.389)
Yeah.
Muamer (27:51.366)
Yeah, she was like, she's like, looks like a ⁓ child's room. Like, okay, cool. We have different design aesthetics.
Andrew Saunders (27:56.118)
⁓ You're a child at heart, mommer. It's fine.
Benjamin Brown (27:56.655)
⁓ It's the same thing here, but you can't see I'm I face my art wall. ⁓ So like right now I just have this like plain wood background. But if I was to turn you guys around, I have a wall of just art and about 60, ⁓ 70 % of it is Star Wars related art. So that all stays in here. That's this is my space. This is I get to decorate it. I get to shut the door and it's that's it.
Muamer (28:17.523)
Nice.
Nate Klein (28:17.620)
No. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (28:26.403)
So if I got some more shelves, could definitely put some, ⁓ I could put some Legos up in here. Now you guys got me thinking about it. I think, I think I can make it work.
Nate Klein (28:26.570)
Yeah, I don't have any of those.
Andrew Saunders (28:30.261)
⁓ I ⁓ feel like we're going to have to do the like embarrassing nerd background day because right there off to the right, I have three six foot bookshelves, four feet wide. Yeah, it's nice except they're all full of D &D books. Like the entire wall ⁓ is like ⁓ four versions of D &D and eight or nine versions of D20s and like it's ⁓ like
Muamer (28:33.448)
You
Muamer (28:44.539)
Nice.
Nate Klein (28:50.474)
That's ⁓ next level.
Benjamin Brown (28:53.825)
Yeah.
Andrew Saunders (29:0.007)
It's there and it hides in my office off screen, like over there.
Benjamin Brown (29:3.725)
Well, someday you have another indoor winter activity that will take all of your time. ⁓
Nate Klein (29:4.778)
now it's known.
Muamer (29:8.113)
There you go.
Andrew Saunders (29:10.345)
That, yeah, when they're old enough, they will be addicted. ⁓ I showed you guys the giant foam dice, right? ⁓ Have I never shown you guys this?
Benjamin Brown (29:14.959)
There you go. All right, gentlemen, we're coming up. ⁓ I don't know if you did. Do you have the giant D &D dice?
Nate Klein (29:18.058)
⁓ great. ⁓ That sounds like a fun indoor activity.
Nate Klein (29:27.624)
I love how we've had multiple off screens.
Benjamin Brown (29:27.663)
can't think he's left, he's off rummaging. Oh wow.
Andrew Saunders (29:29.885)
So ⁓ I've got the giant D &D popcorn box, ⁓ but inside it, I have multiple sets of these foam, like kid size D20s. Like this thing's about the size of a baseball or a small, like fast pitch softball. ⁓ And then ⁓ I even have like all the D &D D20 transformers. So they all live ⁓ in their little house here ⁓ and they can transform into things. But ⁓ yeah, I've got a plushy one.
Muamer (29:31.282)
wow.
Benjamin Brown (29:57.933)
Cool game, nerd.
Andrew Saunders (29:59.488)
But my kids, I had to put them away. Like I had to hide these things because they loved throwing around the house and rolling them. Like the polyhedron, like, and so I think I've got four total sets of these. ⁓ And they started as a joke ⁓ for my D &D players because I had a guy who was cheating, rolling his dice, ⁓ and I caught him and I was like, here's the deal. The next time I catch you.
Nate Klein (30:7.060)
great indoor activity.
Muamer (30:7.599)
my gosh.
Benjamin Brown (30:9.177)
There you go.
Andrew Saunders (30:24.563)
you're rolling these things on the table in front of everybody and he never cheated again because he didn't want to be stuck with the giant toddler dice like ⁓ so you know motivation
Muamer (30:29.532)
Ha ha ha!
Nate Klein (30:32.650)
It's fair.
Benjamin Brown (30:36.887)
All right, gentlemen, any last thoughts before we wrap up the episode?
Muamer (30:40.722)
Do the best you can guys. is tough on all of us. ⁓ Yeah. ⁓
Nate Klein (30:42.152)
Yeah, be creative. ⁓ Make an effort.
Benjamin Brown (30:43.663)
⁓ Godspeed, we're all surviving. Godspeed, my friends. ⁓ Warmer days are ahead.
Andrew Saunders (30:44.117)
⁓ God's god speed. ⁓
Muamer (30:50.619)
Yep.
Andrew Saunders (30:50.677)
I feel like we're not all gonna just be like, oh, it's summer and it's pool time. Do you know how big of a pain in the butt it is to go to the like the six months from now episodes just gonna be us complaining about when will winter be here? Yeah. Yeah.
Nate Klein (30:50.783)
they are.
Muamer (30:58.930)
⁓ There's always something. ⁓
Benjamin Brown (31:1.429)
yeah, well there's something else to complain about when it's warm. It's too hot. Well anyways, thank you gentlemen for the conversation. It was another good one. We appreciate it. And everybody out there as a reminder, no matter what platform you're listening to us on, whether Spotify, Apple, some backroom ⁓ application that we don't know about that somehow we're getting distributed to.
Leave us a five star review. Leave us a comment, a question, any topic that you want to see or hear discussed here on the podcast. We would love to know about it because this is a podcast by dads for dads. And we want to be here to help you guys and have a have and build a great community. As always, thank you guys for joining us on this episode of the Dadver podcast. We'll see you in the next one. Peace.
Nate Klein (31:45.620)
See ya.
Muamer (31:45.874)
Peace.
Andrew Saunders (31:45.984)
please. ⁓
