The Inventor / Momtrepreneur

My son Patrick played on a baseball team this summer with another boy named Patrick whose mom, Grace Welch, started and runs a portable diaper changing pad company called Patemm Pads. There's more to say about her and their family than can fit in this blog post, but let's do a run through:

She invented a round diaper changing pad (it's round so babies don't squirm off of them) now made of natural/organic materials that is the coolest portable baby product and shower gift I've ever seen. It fits a few wipes and diapers and a quick change of clothes, whatever you need for short trips, and folds up like some miracle origami crane.

She and her husband Marty have four great kids they've raised in San Francisco (one of which, Patrick, just finished third in the world junior golf tournament at Pinehurst, putting the country clubbers to shame, and did it after cutting his finger and needing three stitches mid-tournament).

They make all these pads in San Francisco.

The pads are used by everyone from Tiger Woods to Roger Federer, Annika Sorenstam and Courtney Cox. (I know because I saw the letters from them on the wall. Not sure I'm supposed to say anything, but...)

They work like crazy but are completely involved in raising their kids and do everything with them. On most days they are pretty insanely busy, but the company and the family are a true American folk tale. (Grace's parents are from the Philippines, so there's also an immigrant success story in there somewhere.)

Pretty cool right? Go out and get one: patemm.com