g: the early years...

gBillboard?

No folks, don't worry, we haven't taken all the proceeds in our account and bought billboards. But if you are in New York City or Los Angeles you may see billboard ads for The Sundance Channel's "The Green". Click on the image to the left and then imagine it 1,000 times bigger. That's big for a little brand next to The Sundance Channel, Lexus and Citi Smith Barney. The channel called us after our 'Hero shot" (that's the little one in the green g's crawling away on the front of our package...) a week or two ago. So thrilled to have the little guy blown up and on skylines in two big cities. We can't wait to let the little model's parents know!

Don't forget to watch the show too!

Play + Work V

Off to the "work" part of the trip. We have seen Ricki Lake's movie The Business of Being Born twice now and it is just a great story. I really hope it gets broad distribution. It reflects Kim and my view on the state of Birth not just in the US but also in Australia. Ricki and Abby Epstein (Producer) were there to do a Q&A session afterwards and Kim MC'ed that part of the evening - great for Kim and gDiapers. On the celeb side of things, Camryn Manheim (The Practice, Ghost Whisperer) was there as was Anthony La Plagia (Without a Trace), Josie Maran (a gMum, ex model ], actress and now runs her own eco-cosmetic line). Great meeting customers at the after party. There was a silently auction of some great products that have synergies with gDiapers. Kim bid on everything (!)but only got up on one cool piece of art.

And that was our Play + Work + Play weekend. All up a success for the kids, Kim & I. Only Mohican our pup missed out...

Play + Work IV

Today I was back to work remotely via the iPhone as we roamed Disneyland for the last time. Mondays are a great day for Disneyland that's for sure. Buzz's Astro blaster got another run through with Kim high scoring. The result is still under a steward's investigation after a questionable sample was taken. The boys then wanted more Jedi training so off we went. We then wrapped up and headed back to the hotel.
We arranged a baby sitter for the boys for the afternoon and evening while Kim and I attended the LA premiere of the "Business of Being Born".

Work + Play III

Day two closed with some wins and loses. We stumbled across the street parade which was very good. Fynn then decided he wanted to be a Tween so we HAD to see High School Musical II which was fun. There were no queues for the 3D "Bug's Life" show. We soon figured out why as a 3D creepy crawly flew into our collective faces spraying us with DDT I think...Fynn ran, Harper was intrigued...!

We recovered by watching the best of all the theatre shows - Aladdin. Then to another overpriced dinner and the 9.00pm riverside show "Fantasmic" - a laser show featuring all of Disney's stories. It was the story of good (Mickey's imagination) vs Evil (every evil character Disney has thrown up over the years). Man he did evil well.
Scared the heck out of me that's for sure. The laser show was brilliant though, using a light mist of water to project old and new Disney animation. Bus to bed,

Work + Play II

Day Two in Mickeyville and now we have hit our stride. Alaska Air had a neat deal with free flights for the kids, accommodation and 3 days in both Disneyland venues, plus one morning where you can get in an hour before opening. That's what we did this morning, arriving at 8 am. We scored two strollers (lesson from yesterday) and then proceeded to beat the crowd for an hour. With no conventions next door and the fact it is not school holidays makes it a great time to be here. This is how the first five hours rolled:

1. Buzz light year space ship: two goes back to back - there was no one around!
2. Nemo submarine: Aussie accents were a nice touch
3. Alice in Wonderland ride: Was CS Lewis the pioneer of stories inspired by hallucinogenic drugs?
4. Canal Boatride: Floated by lots of teeny tiny buildings
5. Carousel: Giddy up
6. Peter pan ride: London at night never looked so good. That present-day Millennium merry-go-round is a farce.
7. Dumbo flight: What's not to like about flying elephants?
8. Mark Twain cruise: Huckleberry Finn...Fynn Graham-Nye - get it?
9. Pirates of the Caribbean boat adventure: Probably would have been good to know that after the first bit down the dark tunnel we drop off Niagara Falls. Good way of knowing the kids don't get queasy. Kim is another story!

We then had lunch in New Orleans. Who knew you could deep-fry PB&J, cover it in icing sugar...and still call it nutrition?

Back to the hotel at 1.30 for compulsory naps - even the kids. Back at it at 4pm. Makes running a business look easy!

Work + play...

Kim and I are representing gDiapers at the LA premiere of Ricki Lake's film "The Business of Being Born" on Monday night. It is a terrific film, looking at birth choices and where we are heading as a society. gDiapers sponsored the film's Tribeca Film Festival after party and now it has national distribution, we wanted to continue that support.

In the past, we would fly together to an event, do it and jam back straight afterwards. This time we thought we would bring the boys and take the weekend to breath a little and see the sights of LA. So we bugged out of work Friday afternoon and headed to LA.

Today we took the boys to Disneyland for the first time. It took just four hours for us to hit the wall - not too bad for a first effort. We took a Buzzlight year flight, were trained in the ways of the Jedi and visited a "Small World" (unchanged since 1977 when I was last here). The Jedi bit demanded we buy light sabres. And even as exhaustion hit and Harper got horizontal, he was still up for a duel!

Our neighbour had a baby...

In a strange twist of fate, our neighbor back in Sydney is Toni Collette, star of such movies as "Little Miss Sunshine", "About a boy" and "Japanese Story". While in Sydney last month, I decided to drop by, say hello and give her some gDiapers. I was expecting a large gate and an intercom. What I got was a Prius in the drive way and a Toni at the door. She was just delightful. And today, her little one Sage was born. So congratulations to my new BFF.

Time management?

I sent an email to my team before Christmas letting them know in 2008, I was only checking email at 11 am and 3 pm each day. So if the matter is urgent please call. Sure enough a colleague set up a conference call today at 11 am. I didn't know about because I hadn't check email! Ugh. There has to be a better way.

Herewith an excerpt from a recent article about time management that resonated. The stats and research are real eye-openers.

Get a handle on email: Are you being emailed to death? I know sometimes I feel I am. Indeed, lately it seems like I send and receive email for a living, and that is not a good thing at all.

Apparently I am not alone. Check out these statistics I recently read:

• 66% of people not only read email every day, most also expect a response the same day.

• 41% of us check e-mail first thing in the morning.

• 61% of us check it while on vacation.

• "Crackberry" was named the 2006 Webster's New World Collegiate Dictionary New Word of the Year.

Here's my favorite email stat: In 2005, a psychiatrist in London gave IQ tests to three groups: The first group was distracted by e-mail and ringing phones, the second was stoned, and the third was the control group with no impediments.

Of course the third group scored the best on the IQ test. But the surprise is that the stoners did better than the e-mailers by an average of 6 points. Now that's sobering.

So just how do you get a handle on email? Here are a few ways:

• Get a good, nay great, anti-spam program. This saves so much time it is amazing. Personally, as the last one I had ended up flagging a good 10% of legitimate emails as spam, I spent just as much time sorting through the spam folder. What a joke.

• Set aside time, once or twice a day, to handle email, and stick to it. And no, not everything needs an immediate response.

• Outsource it. There are plenty of services that can sort though and deal with a lot of your email and prioritize the rest.

New year and a beaut new gBub

We are so blessed with a great (and growing) customer base who are so engaged with us. In our first two years we have received hundreds of gorgeous pictures of our gBabies. And to kick off this year, we have this little one sporting her giggle pink g's observing the Pacific coast.

An Army of Gingerbread people...

Baking brought to you by Kelli - the Queen Baker at gHQ. Yummy!