Feeds for the new and improved version of my daddy blog (yes, you are currently looking at the OLD, OUTDATED version of my dad blog) have been updated (again). Nobody every said blogging was easy, right? LOL
Dad blogs are awesome. But they are even more awesome when you can do more fun stuff with them.
Since January, I’ve been blogging with the free version of WordPress. It’s been great, and I’m very thankful to Matt Mullenweg (the founder of WordPress) for giving me this creative outlet, this awesome online tool, this communication channel, this DADDY BLOG … for free!
But the more I learned about blogging (through attending conferences like WordCamp, reading various ’blogging tips’ websites and books, as well as networking with other bloggers), the more I realized how much I was missing out on by not having a self-hosted blog. So, I purchased a domain name, downloaded the all-the-bells-and-whistles version of this blogging platform via WordPress.org and moved my blog to a new website:
As far as I know right now, that URL will be the home of my daddy blog for a long time to come. However, I’m not sure how long I’ll stick with the background, or “theme” that I currently have installed (which is kind of ironic since it features an iPhone and I am a BlackBerry user, LOL!!!) but it will do for now.
I really apologize for the inconvenience (and I realize I might lose some readers because of this change) but if you have my site saved, or bookmarked, in your Internet “Favorites” you will need to update your link to my blog.
Toddler words are one of life’s great pleasures for a parent. I’ve written about some of Breanna’s hum-dingers in previous posts, when I told you about the mush patch, bloop bloops and helipopters and the infamous Chucky Larms.
There’s nothing funnier than watching Bre wrinkle her forehead, scrunch her eyebrows and emphatically point to a photo in one of her books as she attempts to convince me that my pronunciation of a word is incorrect and her toddler word is correct.
The latest example: Falingo. You know, those pink plastic birds that — according to stereotypes — apparently frequent the front lawns of retirees in Florida?
Sometimes, Breanna listens to me when I correct her pronunciation of a word, then attempts to say it “the right way.” But if she is convinced that SHE has it right and DADDY has it wrong, good luck convincing her otherwise:
[in her best "Teacher" voice]: No Daddy. Not FLAMINGO. It’s FALINGO. Can you say FALINGO daddy? Say FALINGO.
But here’s my question: How do I know she’s wrong and I’m right? I mean … think about it. Back in the caveman days, everything was arbitrary. Things were referred to in grunts, whistles and burps. One day, did someone stuble across a skinny-legged psychodelic bird with backwards kneecaps and a bloated belly and say, “That, my dear Watson … is clearly a flamingo” with an air of certainty?
Hogwash. If my daughter says it’s a falingo, it’s a falingo. Case closed.
Now, on the flip side of toddler words are parent words. This afternoon, I discovered a great list of Parent Words that you might enjoy. This is one of those blog posts where the comments people have added are just as funny as — if not funnier than — the original post, so don’t forget to scroll down. Here are a few great examples (the first one is from the post itself, the second is from someone who left a comment):
Booty call [BOO-tee kaw] noun: A shout from the bathroom letting you know it’s time to go wipe someone’s butt
Leg beards: what my 4 yr. old calls it when he notices that I haven’t shaved my legs in a couple of days. “Mommy, you need to shave your leg beards again. They’re getting really long this time!” I thought everyone in the doctor’s office would fall out of their chairs when they heard that!!!
So, what are your favorite toddler and parent words?
*Actually, the word “flamingo” has its origins in Portuguese, not Caveman. But I digress.
It’s a time of year I look forward to because I enjoyed Trick-or-Treating so much as a kid. I used to cover A LOT of ground in my neighborhood (and the surrounding neighborhoods) with my buddies Aaron and Greg when we were kids.
But there is one thing about Halloween that I truly DO NOT look forward to. It’s one of my biggest pet peeves:
It’s when kids (or should I say ‘young adults’) who are too old to be ringing doorbells and requesting candy handouts walk across my freshly manicured front lawn — instead of using the driveway and sidewalk — and show up on my front steps. Not only are they too old, they don’t have Halloween costumes on. Period. No mask. No cape. No effort whatsoever. Most of them aren’t even wearing a smile. They are just dressed in their everyday clothes, and they have the nerve to say with a straight face, “Trick-or-Treat.”
Here are the top 3 reasons Halloween is for KIDS (and teenagers need to get off my lawn):
1. Halloween is for children to dress up as their favorite character, hero or imaginary thing.
2. Halloween is for children to use their imaginations and marvel at all the other kids’ costumes.
3. Halloween is for parents to enjoy little kids coming by the house with high-pitched voices to excitedly scream, TRICK-OR-TREAT in anticipation of a treat their parents might not allow them to have on the other 364 days of the year.
So, if you are old enough to drive a car, you are too old to get candy at my house on Halloween. Get a job and buy your own candy.
P.S. We give out extra candy to ridiculously-cute kids and super-creative costumes. What is your favorite thing (or biggest pet peeve) about Halloween?
Parents have different ways of raising their children.
[Now that I've gotten the understatement of the century out of the way, let me climb up on my soapbox for a minute.]
My opinion: Violence belongs in movies and video games, not in parenting.
I cannot stand seeing parents beat their kids in the grocery store, in the parking lot outside the grocery store, in the car in the parking lot outside the grocery store … you get the picture. I don’t care what the kid did. That kind of parenting makes me want to put child protective services on speed dial.
That’s one reason Eva and I love the fact that Bre’s daycare has webcams inside her classroom and on the playground outside the building. We don’t have much time to check on her during the workday, but Grams and Mamaw (Bre’s grandmother and great-grandmother maintain a watchful eye).
Maybe your parents pulled off the belt and whooped you good when you misbehaved. Maybe you turned out just fine. Guess what? My parents didn’t tear up my bottom every five minutes. And I turned out just fine, too.
Trust me, I was no angel. I did some really, really, really stupid stuff. I can remember maybe one or two times that I got a spanking — and I deserved it.
Eva and I use a lot of non-violent tactics to keep Bre in check. I’m not sure where we picked up these strategies (probably from parenting books that we have read), but it’s nice to see them put forth in a simple concise list of 9 things to do instead of spanking. I found this PostiveParenting.com article via StumbleUpon a few minutes ago.
My favorite technique of the nine listed is #4: Give Choices. I use this one nearly every time Breanna starts to throw a tantrum. For example,
It’s time for bed. Do you want to turn off the light in your play room or do you want me to?
99% of the time her answer is, I want to turn it off (even if she is saying it as she blinks away her big huge tears*).
I’m sure you have an opinion on this issue based on how you were raised and — if you are now a parent or plan to be one someday – how you raised, are currently raising or plan to raise your own kid(s).
The comment box is open (see below). Type away. I welcome your thoughts, as always. (But keep it clean or your response will not appear on this family-friendly parenting blog. My email address is on the Contact the Author page on this blog, if you need to vent.)
[Sliding off my soapbox now.]
* When Breezy cries, she grows ENORMOUS teardrops that well up, then roll down her cheeks like bowling balls. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Beer? Nope. All you Dads who were hoping this post would have something to do with the “99 Bottles of Beer On The Wall” song can go ahead and leave now. Come on, this is a parenting blog.
Here is my Monday through Friday routine:
1. Wake up early
2. Work throughout most of the day
3. Pick up Breanna and try to cram as much fun and excitement as possible into the few hours that she, Eva and I have available to us before it’s time for Bre to go “moo moo” (her toddler word for bedtime, but that’s another story for another time).
Within this pattern lies two essential problems…
Problem #1: Most of the day is spent away from my wife and daughter, the two most important people in my life.
There’s really nothing much I can do about Problem #1 unless I am able to:
A) Hit the lottery
or…
B) Become a famous author and guest speaker.
I’m not holding my breath for option A, although I buy a ticket now and then. Option B is completely within my grasp, but it will take some time. So let’s move on to Problem #2.
Problem #2: There is a limited amount of time available during weekdays to experience the good stuff with Breanna.
Obviously, Problem #2 is closely related to Problem #1.
I started reading books about fatherhood long before Bre-Bre was born. Now, I primarily read daddy blogs to see what other dads are up to and what kind of fun parenting ideas I can get from them. Tonight, I found a blog post on the Natural Papa blog entitled, 100 Ways To Be A Better Father.
It’s a terrific list, and I hope you dads take a minute to check it out.
Like my own father, I don’t have a chance at #83 (so my list has been reduced from 100 to 99).
But it still gives me a great reminder of some key things to focus on during Breanna’s few hours of consciousness between me picking her up from daycare and her bedtime!
* Quick Note: If you are one of my family members or friends reading this because you’re searching for my funny stories about Breanna, you might want to skip this one and check out my other posts. This article is written as more of a resource for other bloggers like me.
Anybody new to blogging probably has a bunch of questions pertaining to how to get seen and noticed online. It can be frustrating to write what you consider deep and insightful things only to see that your getting 3 visits a day. Most people give up after a few weeks or a month. But, those of us who stick with it find, slowly over time, the tricks to the trade. It isn’t as simple as “write it and they will come.” You need a systematic approach. I’ve laid out here, the most basic steps to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) that every new blogger should know and that will make their journey much less frustrating.
Write posts that are relevant to people outside your immediate family. Your writing has to add to the enlightenment of the world in some way. It doesn’t have to be earth shattering; it just needs to be something unique. Eating Cheerios just isn’t interesting unless there is some insight. It is a good idea to write what are called Evergreen articles. These are articles that are relevant today and one year from now. Daily news of family events won’t be relevant one year from now.
Write well but not necessarily perfect. I see people all the time who have something interesting to say but who can’t put together a cohesive sentence. I give up on those people and never come back for a second read. On the other hand, there are the folks who agonize about using perfect grammar and who spend hours editing. They sound stilted and cold. I don’t read them either. Blogging is the essence of mass-market appeal. It might be literary genius to write like F Scott Fitzgerald, but it won’t gain readership on a blog. Besides, who has time for that?
Keep posts under 1,000 words (this article is a gross violation of that rule), and use bolding, bullets, and numbering. People who search the Internet are looking for quick snippets of information that fulfill two qualities, that they contain relevant information and that they do it without wasting much time. It’s for that reason that people love 1-3 minute videos. This goes back to the literary genius argument; a few people will appreciate long, highly edited writing, but most people just want to be entertained. Videos also get higher priority in search engines, too.
Top 10 lists. People love lists. I’ve written a bunch of top tens and other lists on my blog. My most popular article as a matter of fact is my list of most useless baby products. In fact, it was so popular that I wrote a part two. I have written Top 10 Video Games for Kids, Top Viral Videos that Kids Like, Top 20 Books to Read to Kids, Top 20 Chapter Books… it goes on. People like to be able to scan the article to find what is relevant to them. They might not read the whole thing because they don’t have the time. You can accommodate those people by making lists.
Choose an enticing headline. Just like the supermarket tabloids, you can arouse curiosity. Top X lists are the easiest way. If enough people like it, because you’ve put serious effort into one, then they’ll share with their friends and you might get a spike in traffic. Further, if people link to your post, then your blog gets more link juice and will start to rank on more terms overall.
Reply to comments. That is the first step to encouraging return visits. People like to know they are being listened to. Treat them well and they’ll come back. The second step in this same vein is the Auto-responder.
Auto-responder — When someone makes a comment you should have an automatic reply to that person’s e-mail that thanks him or her for the visit. The next step after that is to include what SEO experts actually refer to as an auto-responder; within this return e-mail you should provide an offer. For instance — “Thank you for visiting my blog and commenting on (fill in the blank). I would like to offer you my free 10 step guide to being a fit parent.” Then, you give them a syllabus of articles that they will get. An example could look like this:
week1: Preparing your body week2: Getting hydrated week3: Stretching week4: …
Continue to week 10. A ten week Auto-responder is pretty standard. The key here is that you can’t spam people. When you offer a product it has to actually provide value. It should be something that a subscriber will look forward to getting each week, not something that goes straight to the spam folder.
Once the person subscribes to this e-book they are automatically sent an e-mail every week for 10 weeks containing one of your 10 articles on fitness (I just made that up. It could be anything). The point of an Auto-Responder is to keep people active and participating. Auto responders are a huge deal because you can continue to build upon your audience. You’re coming to them now, instead of having to rely on them coming to you. And, it’s not spam because you never e-mail someone who doesn’t request it (they won’t get your offer until they sign up for it), and you’re giving people a real product that they can use. I am in the middle of designing one myself.
Tags. Tagging can be as important as writing the article in the first place. Use terms that you think people will find relevant to your post– and that are keywords you would want to rank on in search engines. If you write a tag that doesn’t fit your article then you will get a high bounce rate which will be punished by Google (your blog will slide down the search results and your traffic will die). Conversely, good tagging can improve organic search results and be the backbone of your traffic.
Pictures. So many of my suggestions have to do with making reading easier. Picture books are great for kids and they’re also great for adults who don’t have much time. They spice things up and can go a long way to telling your story for you. Every post should have at least one picture and probably two, three or more depending on the length. Pictures also drive traffic because you should title them so they show up in Google image search with a link to you. If you choose good pictures– preferably your own– then you may find Google image search to be the 3rd or 4th most popular source of traffic to your site. Check your Google Analytics and you might be surprised.
Consistency. People will return to your blog if you write consistently. That doesn’t mean that you have to write every day though. You could write every two days or every three days or even once a week. But whatever you do make sure to have a schedule and stick to it. If you’re a once a week sort of guy then make sure to do it on the same day every week. Once people know what to expect they’ll know when to come back. Same goes for every day people. Write an article every day. It’s okay to miss now and then, but don’t go once a day for two months just to drop down to 2 times a week for a while and then bounce back to once a day. That confuses people and they won’t return.
Comment a lot on other people’s blogs and engage other like minded bloggers. The sad reality about the Internet is that there is very little new traffic. Whatever traffic you get is going to have to be filched from someplace else. The way to do that is to get your name out by talking to other bloggers and by commenting on their sites. That is why I have the commentluv plug-in installed in my WordPress. It adds the commenter’s last post from their own blog into their comment. That makes it easier for people who visit me to also visit them (and don’t worry about link juice because commentluv uses nofollow tags). Everybody wins. I get comments and other people get more traffic. Commenting is a two way street. Return the favor to people who spend the time to visit you. Traffic is like money, it is not a zero sum game. There is plenty for everybody and the only way to get more is to give some away.
Try to get linked to by other blogs. The last thing you want to do is link out to a billion people or be involved with someone who links to a billion people. Google sees that as link spamming and penalizes page rank for that. The best way to get linked is naturally. By writing good posts that people want to link to. You want to get a mention on other people’s blogs in the main body of their article. You can do that by them linking to one of your articles and mentioning you that way, or you can write guest posts on other people’s blogs about something that you might be an expert at and that the other person’s audience could benefit by. For instance, I know a lot about fitness and nutrition, but I don’t know much about home improvement. If I wanted to talk about making a dollhouse or building a tree fort for my boys, I would probably ask someone I know to guest post for me. I win because I expand my article base and they win because they get a valuable link.
Migrate off wordpress.com and blogspot.com Those sites give you little control and don’t allow for much expansion. It’s better to have an independent domain where you have complete control. Dennis Yu (my best friend since 6th grade) used to run yahoo’s entire online marketing budget and currently owns his own SEO SEM agency. He can explain this little detail much better than I can, and I can ask him specifics if anybody is interested.
FIN: my stats for the last few weeks have been this: 400 visits per day, 1200 page views per day. Alexa 450k (but who cares about that anyway because I switched domains three weeks ago and had to restart at 20 million) and a Google PR of about 3. There are plenty of blogs that have more, but many many more that have less. So, I’m doing pretty well.
————————————
A Little Background About How This Guest Post Came About:
SEO is an abbreviation for “Search Engine Optimization.” According to Wikipedia, SEO is ”the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via ‘natural’ or un-paid (‘organic’ or ‘algorithmic’) search results.”
It’s something I first started paying attention to when I attended WordCampRDU and heard Andy Beal’s breakout session.
Sure, DADDY BLOGS are a lot of fun to for fathers like me to create and maintain, then step back from and say,
Look what I’ve done!” (as we beat our chests like … well … like cavemen).
But blogs are much more fun when family members, friends and others actually visit them — and exponentially more exciting when strangers discover them and then comment on them.
Over the past several weeks I’ve been on an online expedition, scouring the web in search of other, more established daddy blogs to try to figure out what makes them tick. What works and what doesn’t? What kind of headlines draw my attention (and which ones don’t)? What kind of graphic designs are out there on the bigger, badder dad blogs?
I found a couple of great local (Raleigh, North Carolina area) dad bloggers with cool sites, including Daddy’s Fish Bowl and Digital Paper Cuts. I enjoyed reading their posts, so I decided to look for more dad blogs.
I did a Google search for “top daddy blogs” to see if I could find a recently written list to use as a starting point. I noticed a post called Top Dad Blogs on a blog called “Almightydad.” The name of the blog was cool, the date stamp was current and the title of the post looked promising, so I decided to check it out.
I was impressed with the site design and the extensive list of dad blogs contained in the article.
Now you know I just had to see what THAT was all about, so I clicked on the link. Turns out it was a guest post on Almightydad. I thought it was funny and interesting, so I added this comment to the post:
This is the funniest post I’ve read in a while! LOL!! I agree with Scott that promoting our blogs without feeling like we’re spamming our friends and families is a balancing act. In my opinion, one of the main reasons it’s so hard to tell whether people like the way we promote our blogs is the sheer lack of comments people post. It seems like a very small percentage of people who visit my blog (the ‘hits’ that I see in the statistics section in wordpress) actually leave feedback comments. They read it and move on. Of course, my blog is less than a year old and I know nothing about search engine optimization, etc., so maybe the problem is me. Keith, do you have tips on how to make posts more likely to draw comments (which are much better than hits in my opinion, since I just blog to entertain, not to sell anything)? I used to email new posts to my friends/family, but now I just post links on my facebook profile and mention them on twitter. I appreciate the tips in this post and will keep them in mind. Thanks! (P.S. My kid is perfect. Hahaha!)
Much to my surprise, just two days later, Keith sent me a long email packed with some terrific advice for new bloggers. I was shocked! He actually took the time to send a bunch of helpful information to me in a personal email, just because I commented on his blog post. Wow!
I figured there were other new bloggers out there who could also benefit from these tips — after all, collaborating with others and providing useful content to your connections and followers is what social media is all about — so I emailed Keith back and asked if we could turn his advice into a guest post on my blog. He graciously agreed.
So this was it: the first-ever guest post on Raleigh Daddy 3.0 from a fellow dad blogger. I hope you found Keith’s 14 SEO tips as helpful as I did.
Keith and I welcome your comments. What advice do you have for the rest of us? Did you find this post helpful? Experienced bloggers and internet marketers, do you agree with these tips?
Last night while I was chasing Breanna around the living room, tickling her and making funny faces to make her laugh — you know, the usual – she suddenly stopped and stared at me for a second.
She smiled and walked right up to me, then put her finger on my forehead…
Daddy! You have STRIPES!!!
I have stripes? What do you mean? Daddy has stripes? Where?
Right THERE! You have stripes RIGHT THERE! [poking me in the forehead with her finger]
Eva wasn’t paying attention so I said, Look baby. Bre says I have stripes. She just smiled and shook her head as she gave me that knowing mommy look.
A few hours later as Bre snoozed away in her bed and Eva and I were watching TV, I started thinking about what Bre had said. Stripes. Daddy has stripes. Then, the old phrase ‘earn your stripes’ popped into my head. Here are a few explanations for the saying:
To learn by experience
To (literally) earn stripes on a uniform through hard work
To signify you have proven your diligence or bravery
To do something to show you deserve a higher status or position and have the skills needed for it
Think about it. A good father earns his stripes on a daily basis in a variety of ways. So does a good mother. Often, when a new baby comes into the world and current parents come to visit the baby and the newbie parents, they say something like, “welcome to the club!” But your responsibilities don’t end once you’re in the club. In fact, your duties are just beginning.
Here are 10 ways Eva and I try to earn our stripes:
We make her laugh.
We read with her.
We get down on the floor and play with her.
We teach her to be independent (but guide her along the way).
We play her sing-a-long music in the truck whenever she’s in it.
We take off work to participate in her daycare/school events.
We make sure she eats healthy and drinks lots of water. (No soda. Nope, never.)
We share the ‘work’ of parenthood (although we have so much fun it doesn’t usually feel like work).
We make sure she gets plenty of exercise.
We encourage her to be creative.
* I think this blog should count for at least one extra stripe, too. Don’t you?
What about you? How are you earning your parenting stripes?
Our good friends Natasha and Kyle gave Breanna a doctor set for her 3rd birthday. It has all the main tools a toddler doctor needs, in order to give a checkup to her favorite stuffed animal. But Breanna doesn’t use it on her toys. She would rather check out daddy’s vitals and make sure he’s in good shape…
The funny thing is that she calls the stethoscope a TELESCOPE.
Granted, stethoscope is a pretty tough word for a barely-3-year-old little kid. However, I’m sure Bre could say it correctly if we pronounced it to her a few times. But I don’t have the heart to do that just yet (no pun intended).
When Breezy comes running into the living room from her play room and says…
I love to listen to daddy’s heart with my new telescope!
…I can’t help but think to myself that it kind of makes sense.
This is because my heart really does feel like it’s floating around high in the sky … up there with the stars … each time I sit down on the floor to play with my little angel. So, if she really wants to listen to my heart … she should be using a telescope. Except for the fact that telescopes are for looking at things rather than listening to them. But we’ll ignore that minor detail for now.
Eva and I are pretty sure Bre-Bre loves this little doctor set so much because she gets such a kick out of the episode of Max & Ruby in which Ruby and Louise play doctor… and use little brother Max as their patient. For those of you who know Breanna, it will come to no surprise to you that she acts more like seven-year-old Ruby than she does Max, who is Bre’s own age. She’s determined, she’s independent, and she likes to be a little bossy with other kids if you let her. Just ask her daycare teachers if you don’t believe me! (She’s a real teacher’s pet, which is cute right now. But she might be labeled as a tattle-tale when she gets older … so we’ll have to keep an eye on that).
So, is this a glimpse into the future? Is Breanna destined to be a doctor? She’s only 3 and she already has the routine down. She picks up one instrument at a time and methodically examines daddy, all the while ensuring me that I’m doing a good job as a patient…
Let me listen to your heart [places stethoscope in her ears and puts the end of it on my chest].
Good.
Now let me look in your ears [holds the otoscope up to my ear and looks through it].
Good.
Now let me use this thing. [puts the blood pressure sleeve around her own arm and squeezes the ball to make the needle spin ... then looks at me and realizes she's not examining me, so she holds her arm closer to mine ... I can see the wheels turning in her mind as she tries to figure out what part of that device is supposed to be on daddy].
Good.
It’s easy for parents to start daydreaming about what their children will become when they get older. But here’s where I’ll offer a little parenting advice for new dads…
This is a bold new world. Some careers are around today that didn’t even exist when you and I were in school (due to recent advances in technology, for example). Try not to confine your kids’ dreams to your own. Maybe your kid won’t grow up to be a doctor or lawyer or attend an ivy league school. Maybe she won’t like sports like you did or be interested in any of your hobbies. But that’s the great thing about kids: Their opportunities have no limits. The important thing is that you support them in whatever they want to learn more about, study or practice.
Sure, it will be awesome if Bre one day becomes a great softball player like her mom or a bookworm like her dad. I’ll be thrilled if she enjoys fishing half as much as Eva and I do. But it will be equally awesome if she chooses hobbies and an eventual career about which Eva and I know absolutely nothing.
Here are 4 things to remember, as parents:
The most important thing you can do for your kids is to show them love and support. (Doing so will build their self-confidence, which is important for their personal development.)
Give them guidance and help them to learn from your mistakes. (Just because you support them, doesn’t mean you always have to agree with them. Don’t hesitate to give advice and let them know that you, too, were once young and made mistakes. And remember to let them know about the consequences of your own bad decisions.)
Don’t discourage your kids from following their dreams. (There is nothing more discouraging to me than to see parents who don’t fully support and encourage their kids. Constructive criticism is fine, but teasing kids and making them feel inferior or like they’ll never accomplish a certain thing they want to achieve is ridiculous.)
Discipline them when they make bad choices. (Sure, my parents supported me all the way. But that’s not to say they didn’t discipline me when I screwed up.)
The bottom line is that I always knew I had my parents’ support, and Eva and I intend to make sure Breanna always has the confidence to reach for the stars because she knows that her own mommy and daddy are on her side and have got her back 110%.
* And if anyone from the FTC is reading this: No, I wasn’t paid by Fisher Price or anyone else to write about this toy. Sorry, I’m just not that popular of a blogger… yet.
It was actually kind of difficult for me to ‘upgrade’ my parenting blog from Raleigh Daddy 2.0 (the title I gave it upon creation back in January 2009 to signify the dual purpose of this blog) to Raleigh Daddy 3.0 when Breanna recently turned 3-years-old…
But it had to be done.
Now, when I say it was difficult, I’m talking about the emotional change. Switching the actual title of the blog took all of about 3 seconds in WordPress. But making the mental transition from being a dad with a 2-year-old to being a dad with a 3-year-old wasn’t as simple as clicking a button. It meant that my little girl was growing up. It meant she was using bigger words and stringing together sentences. It meant she was potty-trained, out of diapers and wanting to dress herself. It meant she was no longer as helpless and no longer needed to rely on daddy for some of the little things that make being a parent with a toddler so fun. However…
Parents who use social media — and those who don’t — realize that change is good when it comes to our kids.
No matter how much we parents would love to ‘freeze’ our kids in their toddler stages when they are JUST TOO CUTE FOR WORDS, they will inevitably continue to grow and mature and develop and change. (Fortunately, I’ve got a long time before Breanna reaches the teenager stage and decides Daddies are no longer “cool” — or whatever the flavor-of-the-month slang word is when she reaches that age — enough to be seen with in public.) But I still say change is good. Growing up and developing into educated, contributing members of society is what it’s all about. As we each experience unique things in our individual lives, we are molded into slightly different versions of ourselves.
One thing I’ve come to experience is the great creative release that blogging provides. As a public relations professional working in an organization that still frowns on social media for professional internal or external communications, this blog has allowed me to keep my creative juices flowing in the current of the world wide information river we call the Internet. The more I learn about blogging and the online tools available to those who want to further develop this craft, the more my blog changes. For example…
You no longer have to type in the full WordPress address (http://raleighdaddy.wordpress.com). From here on out, just remember “RALEIGH DADDY BLOG.”
The new web address for this site is simply: www.RaleighDaddyBlog.com. (Make sure you remember the “blog” part or you’ll go to a completely unrelated local dating site that is in no way affiliated with me or my parenting blog. Yikes!)
Luckily, I’ve met lots of great Raleigh-area bloggers, social media leaders, graphic designers, public relations pros, members of the media and other outstanding people at local networking events like WordCampRDU, IgniteRaleigh, Meet the NEW Media and PowerPoint Karaoke RDU, as well as organizations like the Raleigh Public Relations Society, Capital City Toastmasters and others . Hopefully, I’ll soon be able to get help from some of my new local contacts to take Raleigh Daddy 3.0 (as well as future releases like 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, etc. each time Breanna has a birthday) to the next level.
Who knows, maybe one day I’ll become known as one of the premier dad bloggers in the U.S., write books about the adventures of parenting and do guest speaking at related events. I see social media as a terrific resource for dads (specifically blogging as a wonderful way for dads to connect with their wives, kids and extended family members and friends — as long as the dads are not worried about wearing their hearts on their sleeves), so maybe I will some day write some books and do some guest speaking on that topic as well. I realize that in order to be more widely read, I may need to start adding some wider-ranging parenting topics to this blog and to my posts about the silly things Breanna does. However, I do not want to lose the main focus of this blog: my beautiful, smart, very funny little girl. So, what I’ll probably start doing is trying to find ways to tie in what she does with bigger life lessons for parents in general. What do you think about that idea?
For now, I’ll just keep taking one step at a time. I would love to get your feedback on any of the items I brought up in this post. For example, are there local authors out there who might be able to give me some words of wisdom? How about local professional speakers? I’ve met several authors and pro speakers through the two Toastmasters clubs I’m in, but I know there is still a lot more I need to learn. I recently picked up a few books on blogging and writing books, and I’ve joined a few related groups on LinkedIn. And I’m searching for and reading lots of parenting blogs to try to figure out what works and what doesn’t. I’ve also found that Twitter is a great resource for locating online articles about public speaking, writing books and parenting issues. Speaking of social media (LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.), you might enjoy this humorous article I came across the other day, entitled, “How Daddy Bloggers SUCK At Social Media.”
I guess eventually I might consider allowing advertisers to promote their products on my blog via online ads, but I’ve been wary of that so far. Plus, the FTC’s new blogging rules (recently covered by BusinessWeek) that are getting so much press are yet more things to consider. My blog is not widely read (yet), so I’ve never had any companies offer me any freebies in order to get me to write about their products — therefore the new rules are not an issue for me at this point.
There are probably some popular mommy blogs I should be reading, to see how they relate to their audiences and promote their sites. Any suggestions on ones I should check out?
Hey, you gotta start somewhere, right? Any advice on what else I should be doing?
Breanna frequently comes home with artwork that she created at daycare. Now that she is 3 years old, she is trying to draw real things instead of just randomly scribbling on the paper plate, construction paper or other canvas. However, when it comes to painting it’s still kind of random. For example, she brought home this work of art the other day:
I noticed that the title written by her teacher was “Daddy.” I assume her teacher either suggested she paint a picture of daddy or Bre told her that she had painted her daddy. I thought it was sweet, but I didn’t really think much of it. I figured it was just a random splash of paint on the paper that came as a result of the fact that Bre hasn’t yet developed the skill to literally paint what she sees in her mind … a skill that many people never develop.
So, as with most of her artwork, this piece was destined first for the refrigerator, then for a box full of toddler art for us to one day pull out of the closet and admire. However, as I picked it up a few minutes ago while straightening up the house, something struck me … and I’m not sure why. But when I had originally examined this painting, I simply assumed that the top of the page was the side on which her teacher had placed the title. But as I held it in my hand just now — from a different side — I realized the side I had taken for the top was actually the right side … the side from which I now held it:
And I thought to myself … hmmm … that kind of reminds me of a person. I see a head, a body, legs, and outstretched arms. It almost looks like someone getting ready to give me a hug. The angle of the legs imply movement. OK, so it’s someone walking towards me, about to give me a hug. The angle of the arms makes it look like it’s going to be a BIG hug. Or maybe even a SPIN HUG. Not sure what a spin hug is? Well, it’s something that Bre and I do before she goes to bed each night. When she gives me a kiss goodnight, I ask her if she wants a spin hug. Her answer is always:
Yes! I LOVE spin hugs!!!!
I bend over to give her a hug, lift her off the ground in that position and ask her, Do you like little, slow spin hugs? (and I gently swing her little 30-some-pound 3-year-old body from side-to-side). She replies:
No! I like BIG, FAST spin hugs!!!!
And I start spinning around in a circle as fast as I can go. So fast, in fact, that as she hugs me tight, her legs shoot out away from me and she is nearly horizontal. Imagine a helicopter, with me as the frame and Breezy as the propellers, if you’re missing the visual. Many giggles ensue, and she usually gets the hiccups, as she tends to do when she laughs really hard.
Therefore, my interpretation of this work of art (aptly named, “Daddy”) is that it is a depiction of me approaching Breanna with outstretched arms and a big smile, getting ready to give her a nightly Spin Hug. Maybe I’m making up all of this and reading more into it than really exists. But then, isn’t that what all art critics do?
Is it just me or does Breanna seem to be hitting milestones really early? (hmm… Harvard or Yale … Harvard …… or Yale. So many tough decisions are ahead. ha ha!) Honestly, I didn’t think she would whip out the “everybody’s doing it” line until she was at least 11 or 12 years old. But no. Try age 3.
Here is what I heard when we drove past a small community center playground today:
Look Daddy! EVERYBODY is playing on the playground! EVERYBODY!
Then, as we passed by an apartment complex where a group of kids were playing together outside, she said:
Look Daddy! EVERYBODY is playing at soccer ball practice! Let’s go BACK there!
It’s been a while since I provided you with some of Breanna’s newest “Toddler Words of the Day” as my wife calls them. For example, she used to call helicopters “helipopters,” Lucky Charms ceral “Chucky Larms” and Fruit Loops ceral “Bloop Bloops” which I wrote about in an earlier post. (OK, time to be honest. Breezy still calls them Bloop Bloops but it’s not because her vocabulary isn’t advancing. It’s because mommy and daddy love her version so much that we still call them Bloop Bloops ourselves. I mean seriously, doesn’t it just roll off the tongue better? As in, ‘Hey Bre, do you want some BLOOP BLOOPS for breakfast???’)
Anyways, she pulled a new one out of her bag of tricks the other day…
She was sitting on my lap as we watched her cartoons. She looked up at me and smiled; and I thought she was smiling about something on TV. It was the weekend, so I hadn’t shaved (that’s one of my rules: no shaving on the weekends unless absolutely necessary, since I have to be clean-cut and dressed in a suit and tie most days from Monday through Friday). She reached up and felt the stubble between my upper lip and my nose with the tip of her finger, then said…
Daddy!
What, sweetie?
Daddy! I like your new mush patch, Daddy!
That was just too cute for me not to share with you. What’s really funny to me is that this toddler word kind of makes sense, since a moustache really is a ‘patch’ of hair — more or less — on your face! Hahaha!
So, what Toddler Word of the Day has your little one come up with lately (and what does it mean)? I welcome your comments, as always!
Eva and I have been together for a little over 9 years, but we’ve only been parents for the last two. Sometimes during the course of our conversations we ask each other what in the world we did before we had Breanna. We laugh about it because it seems like life must have been pretty dull (although we never realized it at the time) compared to the adventures that entered our lives when we became PARENTS.
Actually, we had a great time together both before and after Bre came along. But things definitely change when you have kids — or A kid in our case. Thankfully for Eva and me all of the changes have been welcome ones. Not to say that it’s always easy being a parent, but compared to a lot of parents we are VERY lucky. Bre has been relatively low maintenance so far (I’m sure this will change when she becomes a teenager one day, but THANK GOD we’ve got a long time before we have to cross that bridge).
Breezy likes eating healthy food (except for salad). She sleeps through the night and has done so for a loooong time. She doesn’t have any weird allergies. She never tried to put things in her mouth (pennies, marbles, magnets, etc.) that didn’t belong in there. She doesn’t try to play with electrical outlets (although we still have them all covered with safety thingies). She doesn’t even climb out of her “big girl bed” in the morning until we come into her room. (She could get down if she wanted to, although we have protective rails on the side of her bed that isn’t against the wall, so she doesn’t fall out of the bed at night. Eva and I both pitched in to potty train Bre, and she is out of diapers now. She can carefully walk up and down the stairs by herself (although she doesn’t go up or down unless we’re with her). She has only been sick a few times and got through the ear tube surgery without consequence. She loves to travel and is a TERRIFIC companion on trips (even long ones like the 8-hour-that-due-to-traffic-became-a-10-hour drive to Georgia and back that we recently took). Are you getting the picture?
As a side note, this is one of the main reasons we haven’t had a second child yet. We’re convinced that since Breanna is so easy, our next one is going to be a TERROR!
Anyways, one of the purposes of creating this blog back in January was to offer advice to other dads (for what it’s worth). I’m certainly no expert on parenting, child behavior or psychology or anything similar. But I did earn a B.A. in Communication (with a Public Relations Concentration and a Hispanic Studies Minor) when I was at East Carolina University, and strong communication skills are definitely a vital trait of any good parent — whether you are communicating with your wife or your child.
Breanna recently turned 3 (which is why I upgraded the title of this blog from Raleigh Daddy 2.0 to Raleigh Daddy 3.0), so let me try to relay to you dads out there a very abbreviated list of the things I learned during my first two years as a father:
Expect the Unexpected - No matter how many books you read prior to – and during – parenthood, it’s pretty much on-the-job training.
Quality Time Trumps All - If you don’t carve out time to spend with your wife and your child EVERY DAY (even if it’s by phone, text or facebook if you’re traveling for work), your marriage and your experience as a dad will not be as fulfilling. Besides, watching your baby or toddler experience the world is more entertaining than anything you can find on TV, in the movies or online.
Memorize Your Child’s Features - Take time to gaze at your child. Take lots of pictures and videos. Pay attention to the little things that make her who she is. Do it now, because she will look different tomorrow. They really do grow up fast.
Keep a Journal - I highly recommend starting either a paper or electronic journal. I actually keep both. I use this daddy blog to share things with the world that I think people might find interesting, and I write in a hardcopy journal my more intimate thoughts and experiences as a dad. Trust me … so much happens each day, you WILL forget the little things if you don’t record them. My family loves this daddy blog because they get the funny stories that I sometimes forget to mention when we talk on the phone. In fact, Mamaw (my grandmother) told me the other day that she wishes she had written down the funny stories about her sons and daughters over the years…
Take Other People’s Parenting Advice with a Grain of Salt - Yes, it’s great to read books and websites about parenting. Yes it’s great to talk to the pediatrician, your kids’ teachers, your family and your friends about parenting. But only YOU know what is best for your child and your family. Don’t second-guess yourself when it comes to being a dad. Share the parenting workload with your wife (including household chores) and talk to her about everything. Listen to her opinion, politely voice your own and make a joint decision on important parenting issues.
There’s truly nothing better than being a dad. “Daddy” is the best job title in the world. The little things that your child does to make you smile are more valuable than all the money, riches and material things in the world. For example, I would rather listen to Bre giggle and tell me she has “raisin fingers” after her bath than win a million dollars in the lottery.
Oh, and by the way: September is National Baby Safety Month, so I tried to mention a few related items in this post.
The great thing about blogs are that they are open for discussion. What have YOU learned in your two — or twenty — years as a parent? Please comment on this post. I’m sure you can think of something.
Wow, it’s been a super-busy summer for my family. So busy in fact that — as you can tell — I haven’t found time to update my daddy blog recently. Breanna got to spend some time with her grandparents (3 weeks!!!) this summer, so I asked my mom to let me know if Bre did anything funny. I promised to post it as my first-ever guest post on this blog if she emailed me a story or two. I’m a man of my word, so here’s what she shared… Enjoy!
We were reading Goodnight Moonand got to the part about the ”old lady who was whispering hush” and I asked Bre-Bre if she knew what hush meant. She replied in a very serious manner, It means Breanna…Go to sleep!
AND…
Now that Bre has learned all her letters, she likes to try to figure out what words they spell. She hasn’t quite gotten to the point where she can really read, but she uses her toddler logic to take a guess at what she’s reading. [I wrote about this previously in a post about a Hilton hotel we visited.] This time, she said…
P – A – M – P – E – R – S… That spells, “diaper change!!!”
I’m so glad Bre got to spend some time with my parents recently. And the really exciting news is that she is now completely potty-trained, so diapers are a thing of the past! Any parents out there can appreciate how exciting this is!
So all you parents out there, what kind of funny stories have YOUR parents shared about your kids’ visits to their house? I’d love to hear them. Simply post a comment to this post if you have time.
Highway underpasses and overhead power lines are a real source of amusement for my daughter when we’re driving down the street. I don’t know where she learned this little game, but each time we go under a bridge or an above-ground power line (yes, they DO still exist — at least in Raleigh, NC) she says we need to duck.
Back there in her car seat, she lowers her head as much as possible and makes sure I do the same.
Her routine goes something like this, every single time she spots a bridge or power line crossing the road up ahead…
“Duck, daddy!” (and we both duck our heads as we pass underneath)
Whoa, that was close!
There’s another one, duck! (and we do)
That was close!
Another one! DuuuuuuuuUUUUuuuck!!!
Good job, daddy!
And on it goes … all the way home. It’s her latest game for the car, and a much needed break (for daddy) from the “I Spy With My Little Eye” game.
It brings back great memories of the little games my sister and I used to play in the back seat of the car while driving to my grandparents’ house for Thanksgiving and Christmas. One that sticks out in my mind — and which I’ll definitely introduce to Bre once she’s older — was the one where we would see who could spot the most out-of-state license plates and the most unique customized plates…
What do you and your kids do to pass the time in the car?
There’s something funny about pulling up to an ATM machine and (before you even roll down the window) hearing your two-year-old daughter – who you don’t think has any clue what a bank is, much less an ATM - start yelling in her squeaky high-pitched voice…
“I need some money! I need that money please daddy! I want that money!”
Boy am I in trouble. I didn’t think the First National Bank of Dad was supposed to open until late 2024 at the earliest! (ah, who am I kidding, right?)
What have your kids said to surprise you with their knowledge lately?
It cracks me up that any time Bre wants to be held, she comes running up to me with her arms raised and says, I need to hold you! (instead of “I need you to hold me”).
The other day, when she said she needed to hold me I decided to take her words literally. I said “OK!” and squatted down, put my arms over her shoulders and leaned into her like I was ready for her to pick me up.
She didn’t think it was too funny. She just frowned at me with a confused look on her face. Then she said (with great emphasis), NO! I NEED TO HOLD YOU, DADDY!
Breanna learns a lot of fun songs at daycare, but my favorite right now is one called “Five Little Ducks.” Here’s how it goes…
5 little ducks went out one day, over the hill and far away,
when the mother duck said quack quack quack, 4 little ducks came waddling back!
4 little ducks went out one day, over the hill and far away,
when the mother duck said quack quack quack quack ,3 little ducks came waddling back!
3 little ducks went out one day, over the hill and far away,
when the mother duck said quack quack quack quack, 2 little ducks came waddling back!
2 little ducks went out one day, over the hill and far away,
when the mother duck said quack quack quack quack, 1 little duck came waddling back.
1 little duck went out one day, over the hill and far away,
when the mother duck said quack quack quack quack (gasp!!), no little ducks came waddling back….
(sing slowly) Sad mother duck went out one day, over the hill and far away, when the mother duck said quack quack quack quack…….
ALL OF THE DUCKS CAME WADDLING BACK!
It’s a very cute song when performed by a 2-year-old. But what makes it even better is that if Breezy is singing it to me and I don’t concurrently hold up my fingers to show how many ducks are left, she stops singing, looks me right in the eye and screams, “Get Your DUCKS!!!!!”
LOL
What is your flavor-of-the-month favorite song that your kid sings?
I’m not sure how many of you use twitter, but I have created a profile on that site to accompany this blog. You can find it at www.twitter.com/RaleighDaddy(or @RaleighDaddy in twitter lingo). I’m now using that account to post short reflections [tweets] on parenting and fatherhood and to re-post (or ‘retweet’) other people’s comments and links related to parenting. If you haven’t joined twitter yet, I encourage you to create a free account and see what it’s all about.
UPDATE:Mommy had to go out of town last weekend, so I decided to spoil Bre as much as possible. I’ll write more about that in a separate post, but one of the things we did was make an encore visit to Ice Age 3. We went to the 3D version again, and this time Bre adjusted much more quickly. She was still a little scared of the T-Rex and the “BIG BIG Crocodile Dinosaur” as she calls it, but she did great in the theater and got over those scenes quickly. I was glad to catch up on the plot of the story and had fun seeing the scenes I missed the first time around. Bre told her teachers at daycare all about this and our other daddy-daughter adventures on Monday.
[end of update]
——————————————————-
Yesterday, Eva and I decided it was time to take Breanna to the movie theater for the first time. But this was no ordinary 1st trip to the movies…
Bre’s first big-screen experience involved full-throttle sensory overload. Ice Age 3 was an action-packed Digital 3-D computer animated thrillride complete with mammoths, a saber-toothed tiger, a pterodactyl troop, a T-Rex, some kind of monster dinosaur that Bre named “the BIG BIG alligator dinosaur” and much more.
Disclaimer: I’m not really qualified to offer a full review of this movie because we missed the first half of it (due to a longer than expected meeting for parents at Bre’s daycare to explain the changes about to occur when she transitions to the next age-group classroom next week … important info that took priority over our movie plans, but that’s a story for another time). We didn’t think it was too big of a deal to get there late because we weren’t even sure Bre was going to last more than 5 minutes in the theater. We knew one of two things would happen: Either she would be terrified and we would be flushing the money spent on our tickets down the drain after a few minutes, or she would love the movie and throw a fit when the movie ended.
Granted, our timing couldn’t have been worse. According to my brother-in-law and his girlfriend (who got there on time), we missed a lot of the funny and less suspenseful parts of the movie by getting there late. And we came in at probably the scariest part of the movie for a child: A scene where the big T-Rex was chasing the stars of the movie and the theater sound system was booming and blasting at maximum capacity.
Bre was definitely startled (to put it mildly) in the beginning. For the first 5 minutes she was whining softly, although she never started actually crying. For the first 10 minutes, she jumped at each boom of the theater speakers. But after about 15 minutes, she settled in and started narrating the things happening on screen. Look daddy! Three baby dinosaurs! Look daddy! A squirrel! Look daddy, a lion bird! (That was my favorite, by the way). You remember that flying dinosar you learned about in elementary school called a pterodactyl, right? Well, they were in this movie, but there was also a meaner version of the pterodactyl dinosaur in the film. These bad boys had similar-looking bodies and wings, but they had razor-sharp teeth instead of normal beaks. Bre named these flying villians “Lion Birds!” I thought that was so cute, and it made sense to me. It’s amazing how kids use their limited knowledge to label new things that they discover, isn’t it? Maybe someone who reads this post can tell me what kind of dinosaur those were.
Don’t worry, we weren’t those parents who take their kids to the movies and let them talk through the whole thing and disturb the other guests. Since we were at the theater on a Wednesday night, there were fewer than 10 groups in the whole place, and all of them had small kids who were talking about the dinosaurs with the adults. So, no harm done.
As far as my advice goes, I do recommend this movie to parents with small kids, but with one disclaimer. For some odd reason, it seems like a lot of animated movies for kids include a few scary characters and scenes (think about the shark scene in Finding Nemo and Ursula in The Little Mermaid, to name a few). Ice Age 3 is no exception. There are a few scenes that I would have left out if I were creating this movie with 3-year-olds in mind. But of course, these are the same scenes that add to the entertainment for older kids and adults. Anyways, here is my advice:
* Note to Parents: Be ready to cover your kids’ eyes during the dinosaur chase scenes. Otherwise, nightmares might be in your children’s near futures.
But overall, I thought the 2nd half of the movie was funny and entertaining and the 3-D graphics were incredible. I think we might end up forking out some more cash to watch this one in its entirety before it leaves the theaters. By the time it ended, Breanna was loving it. We actually had to stay until the very last credit rolled and the screen went pitch black, because Bre wanted to see every last piece of 3-D artwork that accompanied the credits (probably because it looked like 3-D renderings of crayon art created by children).
Have you seen this movie yet? If so, please post your own review in the comments of this post. Thanks!
One thing I love about Breanna’s daycare is the fact that her teachers prepare daily written updates, to keep us informed about what she is eating, reading, singing and learning and what kind of art she is making. Here are a few of the reports we received this week:
Today I enjoyed making a popsicle stick flag! I painted the sticks red and white, and I glued on a blue square and a white star. I also enjoyed learning a new Independence Day song.
Today I enjoyed learning about America. I learned that Saturday is America’s birthday. We celebrate America’s birthday by having cook-outs and going to see fireworks.
Today I enjoyed making an American flag hand print.
Parents also receive a weekly summary sheet each Friday. This week’s paper said:
Happy Birthday America! This has been an exciting week filled with lots of fun and new things about our country. We learned three new songs about our flag. We also enjoyed making red and blue sparkly fireworks [using glitter paint and construction paper], a red, white and blue popsicle stick flag and a handprint flag. Hope each of you have a very safe and happy 4th of July.
How cool is that?!?!??
But I think America’s daycare system can teach us even more about the value of our country and the importance of Independence Day, which we’re celebrating today, Saturday July 4, 2009…
For example, our daycare system allows American parents with small children the FREEDOM to earn a dual income while having the peace of mind of knowing that their kids are in a safe and secure environment and that their little darlings are learning about important things that affect our lives. Breanna’s daycare has a curriculum — similar to those found in regular schools — which are tailored to each age group.
Many daycares today are also equipped with modern technology, including webcams. My wife Eva can take a peek at Bre’s classroom at any point during the day to see what she — and her teachers — are up to. She can also rewind the video, pause it, etc. In Amercia, we are protected by the police, the United States military, various branches of the U.S. Federal government, and many other entities. We are fortunate to have a widespread network of technology to assist those who protect us from those who would do us harm. It’s amazing to me that parts of this technology has filtered all the way down to our daycare system today.
I know I’m rambling, but I just thought I would share these random thoughts with you, since I’ve got some time to spare before our cookout with friends this evening. I hope each of you takes a few minutes to reflect on the reason behind today’s cookouts and fireworks displays … about those who are protecting us here on our own soil, as well as abroad in foreign lands … about how valuable this great land we live in truly is … and about how lucky we are to live in America.
I’m looking for the best Father’s Day quote or story. Tell me yours! I’ll post the winner on this blog! (spread the word)
Update: This was by far the most unique reply I received. It came from Twitter (@ncfarmboy): “My dad got message on battlefield–father dead. He went home and discovered message had been delivered to wrong soldier.” Wow! What a story!
It’s funny how Breanna picks up on things that make mommy and daddy happy. Even though Mother’s Day was last month, she still sometimes yells Happy Mother’s Day mommy! when Eva (my wife) gets home from work. I hope to still be getting Happy Father’s Day wishes from my little sweetheart when Christmas rolls around this year. I’ll let you know if I get any of these greetings after June ends. I’m betting that I will…
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. I hope you are blessed to be a dad to someone (like I am) and to have a great dad (like I have). Don’t forget to show love and appreciation if you get any Father’s Day wishes, cards or gifts today – no matter how small. Remember, that old saying about how ‘it’s the thought that counts’ still rings true today, in 2009.
And don’t forget to call your dad to tell him what kind of impact he has had on your life. Say more than Happy Father’s Day to him today. Tell him WHY he is special to you. Each day we have on this Earth is a gift. Don’t wait too long to tell your dad why you love him and how he has helped shape you into the person you are today.
If you have any funny stories about your Father’s Day adventures today and the funny things your kids say or do today, please tell me about them. I’d love to hear YOUR stories!
“When I got back from the store a few minutes ago, Breanna came up to me and said, “No nose. No nose please daddy.” I looked at her with curiosity because — as is common when you have a 2-year-old — I had absolutely no idea what my little princess was talking about. A little bit later, I realized that she had spotted a little bottle of saline nasal spray in one of the grocery bags. Although I had purchased it to help with my allergies, she thought the spray was intended for HER. I guess the sight of the bottle sparked a little memory in her mind about the last time she had a cold and the doc told us to give her a few drops of saline! Poor thing. “No nose for Breanna,” I reassured her. And she went back to playing with her new blocks that I brought home with me (because you know Daddy can hardly go ANYWHERE without getting her a little something — she loves surprises). I guess that’s why the first thing she usually says when I walk in the door now is “SURPRISE!”
Breezy was so sweet last night. Mommy was out shopping so I got to spend some quality time with my two-going-on-twenty-year-old daughter. We colored with markers, we played with Play-Dough, we watched cartoons, we even ate French Toast for dinner! Just getting to spend time with her is the best Father’s Day gift I could ever ask for. I can only hope and pray that we’ll still be this close and have this much fun together when she gets older and her friends tell her that Dads aren’t cool anymore… So, all you dads out there: What do you want from your kid(s) this Father’s Day?
When I walked into Breanna’s classroom at daycare this afternoon, she was playing with some bright red, blue and purple jumbo building blocks. Her teacher spotted me sneaking through the doorway and said, Breeeeaaaaannnnaaa … look who’s here…
Bre looked up from her vibrantly colored toys with a grin. She jumped to her toddler size 7 feet, pointed her tiny little finger at me and looked back at her teacher.
I’ll NEVER forget the words that came out of her mouth next:
Look! It’s my friend Daddy!
There are two main facts at play here:
Bre just recently learned what the word “friend” means
Bre associates the meaning of that word with her dear old Dad
I’m sure that the day will eventually come (probably sometime in her early teen years) when daddy will no longer be cool, hip, fun or whatever word kids will use for it 10-15 years from now. But for now, I’m going to sit here and love the fact that she thinks of me as her friend.
Words can’t express the love I feel for — and the deep connection I have with — my wife, Eva and my daughter, Breanna. There just aren’t any words in my limited vocabulary to put these emotions on paper (or online via this blog or any other form of social media).Today is our 4-year-wedding-anniversary. Without Eva, I wouldn’t be the man I am today. She encourages, supports and lifts me up in every way.
Also, without Eva, Breanna (our adorable 2-year-old daughter) would never have come into my life. I am so thankful for all of my blessings, especially these two angels in my life.
I’m convinced that I’ve got the sweetest daughter in the world.
Breanna and I were playing outside with a rope this afternoon after I got off work. We each had one end and were spinning it like a jump rope. The faster I made it go, the more she giggled, so I kept going faster and faster until you could actually hear a harmonic-like noise from the rope cutting through the air…
Suddenly, something else felt like it was cutting … my rotator cuff. Nothing major, actually. I just tweaked it a little bit and dropped the rope. Bre gave me a look that said, what happened?
I said, Daddy got a boo-boo as I rubbed my shoulder. The pain went away as quickly as it had come, but as I bent over to pick up the rope and resume our little game, I heard little footsteps running towards me. I looked up from my crouched position just in time to see Bre leaning towards my shoulder. She said, Kiss it, make it better Daddy. And she gave my shoulder a gentle little kiss. I gave the only response I knew how to give – the one that she always gives me when I kiss her ouchie boo-boos: All better!
And on we played…
What kind of sweet things have YOUR kids said or done that surprised your socks off?
Hmmm… This is one that made my wife and me scratch our heads.
Breanna said she was hungry. When Eva started naming some of the food we had at the house, Bre kept saying, No, I don’t want that.
Finally, Eva asked, Well, what do you want?
Breezy replied, PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY PIZZA!
And don’t even think about opening up your own PB&J Pizza franchise or pitching this idea to Papa John’s, Domino’s or Pizza Hut. We’ve already copyrighted the not-so-secret recipe.
So, what kind of crazy food combinations do YOUR KIDS ask for? (Kudos to anyone who can top PB&J Pizza.)
Bre has a strange fascination with strings. She can’t stand for anything to have a string on it. Whether it’s a string on her sock , a hair in the bathtub or a hangnail on her finger (both of which she also calls ’strings’), she won’t pay attention to anything else until the string is removed.
Bre’s grandma has started a nice little vegetable garden. We checked it out this morning and Bre said, “Look at all the planets in the garden, daddy!” (plants, planets … tomAtoe, tomAHto.) LOL!!
In an earlier post on this blog, I wrote about how Breanna used to call Fruit Loops cereal “Bloop Bloops.” Unfortunately, she now calls them by their FBI name: Fruit Loops.
Lucky for my wife and me, she is still coming up with creative toddler names for other things. For example, she now calls Lucky Charms cereal by its toddler name, “Chucky Larms” (which I think is too cute for words). But what is in a Chucky Larm? I decided to investigate:
I dug a little deeper and found that Chucky Larms actually has its own website complete with some fun and easy computer games like Horseshoe Hotrod for example. (These are the type of games that you get in online greeting cards … nothing too tricky here). It’s a great place to waste some time if you’re bored. In fact, as I was playing a few games just now, Lucky the Leprechaun popped up on my screen and said, “Staying active every day is important, especially if you want to keep up with Lucky. Would you like to take a break from your computer to get some exercise?” I was getting ready to go to the gym anyways, so I clicked Quit, wrote this post, and off to the gym I go.
I love the words that Bre (my 2-year-old princess) comes up with!
What are some funny words or phrases that your kids say?
Well, my worst fear was realized this weekend: Breanna climbed out of her crib. Fortunately, we’ve had pillows around her crib for about a month in anticipation of this milestone. She wasn’t hurt at all.
Normally when she wakes up from a nap, she yells for mommy and daddy: Mommy, Daddy, I’m awake! Come get me! This time, however, I heard the door knob rattling at the top of the stairs (I was in the kitchen) and Bre was saying, Daddy! I did it by myself! I’ve never flown up a flight of stairs so quickly.
I checked her over thoroughly, and she didn’t have a scratch on her. I wanted to see it for myself, so I put her back in the crib and asked her to show me how she did it. She slung one leg over the front of the crib and pulled herself up onto the rail (belly-down, so she looked like a Navy Seal or a special ops soldier who just scaled a wall), then she shifted her weight towards “the outside” of this mini-baby-prison and was left hanging with one arm and one leg hooked over the rail at her elbow and knee. She kicked her leg off and was left hanging by one arm (hooked over the rail at her elbow). Then she lowered herself slowly to the ground.
If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I probably wouldn’t believe that a not-yet-three-year-old could pull this off. In fact, I don’t know if I could pull it off if I was in a crib that was sized to scale for my size.
So I put together her ‘big girl’ bed last night and joined a gym today.
I don’t think I’ve fully grasped the fact that this is just the first of 1,000,000 things she’ll eventually do to scare me. But this crib event made me realize why parents freak out when their kids get old enough to drive. Can you IMAGINE?
We recently took a trip out of town and stayed at a nice Hilton hotel. Breanna has learned all of her letters (already, and she’s just 2-years-old, which is pretty cool), but she hasn’t figured out exactly how they work yet. When we pulled into the hotel parking lot, she looked up and said “look Daddy, it’s a castle!” I looked up at the high-rise and could easily see how it could look like a castle in her eyes. After unloading the car, we walked towards the building. She saw the sign above the rotating doors and started saying the letters (and then provided my wife and me with the translation):
Tonight as Breanna was helping me eat some of the fresh strawberries that she, mommy and I picked at the Raleigh Strawberry Farm the other day, she came to a realization: she likes the strawberries but she doesn’t like the tiny little yellow seeds on the outside of them. I know that this was an epiphany for her because she stopped chewing mid-bite and spit out a half-eaten slice, looked at it for a moment, shifted her gaze to the rest of the strawberry slices in the bowl between us on the couch, and said, Take the yellow polka dots off, daddy!
If you have small children and haven’t been to the pumpkin patch during the fall and the strawberry patch during the spring, you’re really missing out. These are great chances to get outdoors with your kids, take in some fresh air, and have lots of fun watching the little ones run around and pick their favorite goodies from the farms!
The other day Eva came into the house after playing with Breanna outside. She said, Daddy, Bre has something for you. Bre stepped from behind her with a big smile on her face. Then she extended her arm towards me, and in her tiny little 2-year-old fingers was a baby flower. As I took the flower from her hand, her eyes grew wide with expectation of my reaction. I swept her up in my arms, gave her a big kiss on the cheek and said, Thank you sooooo much! She asked, like it, daddy? I replied, I LOVE IT! IT’S BEAUTIFUL! Don’t ever tell me guys don’t like getting flowers. That heartfelt gift from my daughter (which is now resting on top of a bowl of potpourri) meant as much to me as any expensive gift I’ve ever received. The old saying that ‘it’s the thought that counts’ is so very true.
Something that truly amazes me is Breanna’s ability to memorize the lines in the Dr. Seuss books we read to her. She has a pretty large book collection for a two-year-old, but there is usually one that we read to her each night before bed. Although her bedtime books rotate as she gets bored with them, she’ll usually usually stick with the same one for at least a month or two. For a while it was The Foot Book, then Ten Apples Up On Top, and now she has settled into Hop on Pop. It blows my mind when she catches me skipping a line here or there (in a weak attempt to try to get her to go to sleep faster). She will immediately interrupt me and recite the line that I missed! I decided to put her memorization skills to the test by reading only the first line on each page (with a brief pause to see if she could say the next line). Sure enough, she was able to tell me what the next line was. I would read one more line, and she would speak the last line on the page. We completed the whole book this way, with me reading every other line and Bre filling in the blanks by memory. I’m convinced she’s a genious — just like every father of a 2-year-old is convinced that his own child is the sharpest tool in the shed. LOL
One of the many things I love about Breanna is that even at the age of 2 she loves to share her success with others: namely, her parents. As I mentioned in a prior post in this blog, my wife and I are going through the challenging and exciting potty-training phase of parenting. For positive reinforcement we have a sticker book that we keep at the ready. When Bre does what she’s supposed to do, we let her pick out a sticker to put on the back of each hand. Every time we do this, she insists that the person helping her (mommy or I) also gets a sticker for each hand. If she maintains this policy of sharing her success with those who help her, she will do well in relationships and business later in life. We can all learn from the kind and generous acts of childhood once in a while. After all, few of us reach our goals in life without help from others.
OK, here’s a funny one (at least in my opinion, since I studied public relations in college). My two-year-old daughter was eating some Lay’s Barbecue Potato Chips for a snack — not the healthiest I know, but she’s got a cold and isn’t feeling so hot so we’re spoiling her — and she kept repeating the same phrase over and over. After a minute I figured out what she was saying: Paint the potato chip. Look daddy, paint the chips. Paint the chips, daddy.
Here’s the funny part for someone interesting in public perception, marketing, advertising and the like. Take a look at the graphic they selected for the front of the bag. I don’t know about you, but I can definitely see why she thought they were painting the chips! (A little advice for graphic designers everywhere! ha ha)
I love the way Breanna’s vocabulary is growing so quickly! One of my favorite things is the way she uses adjectives as soon as she learns them. For example, one section of her current flavor-of-the-month bedtime story (Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss) has a character named Pat who keeps sitting on things (a hat, a cat, a bat — and I’m still not sure that page’s picture is appropriate for a kid’s book, but I digress — and finally, a cactus). Each time I get to the page showing Pat about to sit on a cactus (with the caption, “no pat, no, don’t sit on that!”), she interrupts me and says “it’s a cactus, Daddy.” I respond, “that’s right, Bre.” And she says, “it’s a ouchie cactus.”
You know how your fingertips get that wrinkled look after they’ve been in the water for a while? Breanna just realized this the other day, and she thought something was wrong (if you think about it, this conversion from regular fingertips to 10 raisins at the end of your fingers really is a strange human occurrence). After playing in the bath for a while she just stopped and froze, staring at her hands. Then she held both hands up to me and said Got a boo boo, daddy. Got a boo boo on my fingers.
For some reason I find it hilarious that my daughter is convinced that chicken nuggets (the kind we buy frozen in the grocery store and cook in the oven) are actually cheese. No matter how many times I asked Yummy chicken, Bre? she ALWAYS replied with No, it’s cheese. So I stopped arguing with her. Now when I give her chicken nuggets, I ask if her cheese is good. And really, how do we know if half the processed food we eat really is what we think it is? I’m not a vegetarian (and never will be), but thinking about this does make me feel like I should eat more natural foods — the kind where there’s no doubt what it is or how it was made. Just a little food for thought…
It’s potty-training time. At Breanna’s daycare they’ve started this thing where they have an egg timer and every 15 minutes or so it goes off, indicating to the 2-year-olds that it’s potty time. Eva decided to try cranking up our toaster oven and immediately turning it back to zero, causing it to ‘ding.’ And it worked perfectly. Now, whenever we want Bre to try to go potty (and avoid an accident) we run to the kitchen and set off the toaster oven timer. Every time, Bre drops what she’s doing and makes a V-line for the bathroom yelling ding! go potty! hurry! hurry! in a high-pitched voice all the way to the bathroom door. Cracks me up every time. Except that now Bre wants to go to the bathroom every time I fix an Eggo.
Most of the time, we make sure Bre eats healthy. But we’re not dictators, so we do let her indulge once in a while. These occasional detours around the food guide pyramid usually come in the form of a cookie (PawPaw slips her an Oreo once in a while) or a few M&Ms. Like daddy, she also loves cinnamon – especially when it’s on raisin bread or Taco Bell Cinnamon Twists.
Yesterday I let her have a few Cinnamon Twists after dinner. She finished them and started saying Want more dirt, daddy! Want more dirt!
My first thought was, does she really think that those cinnamon sprinkles are dirt?!? Does my daughter actually think I would feed her dirt? She continued on, Want more dirt, please! More dirt please, daddy!
Then it clicked. I suddenly remembered that right after she finished her meal, I said Guess what, Bre? Daddy’s got a surprise for you! Want some dessert?
That’s what she was asking for: more dessert! I just about fell in the floor laughing.
It’s been a while since my last blog post. The reason? Ever since I got back from the Bahamas, I’ve had a hard time getting back into ‘the technology thing.’
I’ve been spending as much time OFF the computer as possible, playing with my daughter and spending time with my wife after work (focusing on quality time instead of computer time). Plus, we started seriously working on potty training after we got back from the trip. If you haven’t been down this road yet, it’s a very time consuming yet rewarding experience!
But enough with the excuses already. At least I finally figured out how to add an RSS feed to my blog the other day (although I can’t get the icon to appear). If you want to subscribe to these updates, click on the link to the right. And I’ve been brainstorming ideas for future blog posts. More to come soon… (Patience is a virtue, right?)
Daddy and mommy are hitting the high seas on a Bahamas cruise tomorrow! Bre Bre will be spending some quality time with Grams and Grampa (her grandparents) and their little dog Leo, Mamaw and Daddy-Bob (her great-grandparents) and Auntie Kristen and Uncle Nat this week. Should have some interesting stories to share when I return. I sure am going to miss my little girl!!!
Today marked the first major historical event of my daughter’s life. I got some great video of Bre playing with blocks in front of the TV, as Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States.
The cutest thing was that each time the enormous Washington D.C. crowd started applauding and cheering, Bre would look up and yell Yeeeah!! and clap her hands. That is, until she realized that I had the video camera out. Then she started her usual chant of Bre Bre’s camera, Bre Bre’s turn, My Bre Bre’s camera, Bre Bre’s turn, daddy! For once, I decided to give in and let her hold the camera (I would advise my family against watching this portion of the video unless you have a healthy supply of Dramamine or some equivalent motion-sickness medicine on hand). After mashing the LCD screen against her cheeck and saying Cheese, she steadied the camera and — much to my surprise — she actually figured out that if she pointed it at the TV then she could see the TV on the little HandyCam monitor, and she got some decent footage. I’m sure when we go back and watch the tape, we’ll enjoy the audio more than anything else. But I digress.
Surely Obama’s incredible speeches will be in her history books when she becomes older, and today will be marked as a major turning point in our nation’s history. But this is how I will express to her the experience of watching this event unfold: with an image that brings new meaning to the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words:
Last night, the weather forecast predicted a few inches of snow but I wasn’t going to believe it until I saw it with my own eyes. This morning I woke up to a winter wonderland. My first thought was Bre is going to see REAL snow for the first time! She has seen plenty of snow on TV and done various types of winter-related artwork at school (and she is especially fond of snowmen and snowflakes), but she had never seen the real deal … until today.
When I walked into her room this morning she was already awake. As expected, she said Hi Daddy! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! (this has become her standard morning greeting, even though it’s January 20th — how cute is that?!?) Eva and I opened the window blinds and said Look Bre, it’s SNOWING outside! Look at all the snowflakes! It’s WINTER outside! She looked outside and gasped, then said I see a SNOWMAN! (although there was no snowman out there, except in her imagination).
We took her outside and let her stomp around in the snow while we captured the moment on our Sony HandyCam. This will definitely be a morning to remember. She had fun chasing me around. We only had probably 4 or 5 inches of snow but it seemed like it was up to her knees when she was hopping around in the snow-covered grass.
Then she fell forward and got snow all over her and realized that snow is REALLY COLD. She started crying and we brought her inside. We warmed her up, watched the presidential inauguration and put her down for a nap. What a morning! I sure am glad my office was closed today due to the weather — otherwise I would have missed all the fun!
I stumbled upon these quotes tonight from Simran Khurana (About.com):
“I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.” – Harry S Truman
“It is much easier to become a father than to be one.” – Kent Nerburn
“Noble fathers have noble children.” – Euripides
“One night a father overheard his daughter pray: Dear God, Make me the kind of person my Daddy is. Later that night, the Father prayed, Dear God, Make me the kind of person my daughter wants me to be.” – Anonymous [I changed this one from 'son' to 'daughter.' I hope Mr. Anonymous doesn't mind.]
UPDATE: One of my co-workers (a devoted mommy) recently told me about another very cool ‘educational’ website for kids: Starfall. Make sure you check that one out, too!
[end of update]
———————————————–
My daughter is starting to put sentences together now. The most recent ones are “put the phone away daddy” (talking about my BlackBerry) and “put the puter away daddy” (referring to my laptop). Needless to say, she only has to say it once and the technology gets put on the backburner real quick — unless I’m working on something urgent for work. Then she might have to say it twice.
Daddy + 2 year old daughter = she has me wrapped around her little finger
If I am working on something and I’m not at a good stopping point, I’ve figured out a way to make a truce with her. I’ll save the document I’m typing up, minimize it and then pull up the Internet and head to www.noggin.com (here’s the daddy tip). Click on Videos and your daughter can watch a wide range of online kiddie videos that regularly air on the Noggin channel (Moose and Zee, David Weinstone, and my personal favorites: The Laurie Berkner Band and Hot Peas and Butter). The only problem is that you can’t maximize the videos to full screen (if you know of a way to do this, please let me know in this post’s comments). But you can go straight to the Video page here. Not familiar with Noggin? Other than a few shows on the Disney channel it’s pretty much the only TV we let her watch. Make sure you also check out Noggin.com’s section for parents.
So, if you’re really under a tight deadline, keep on typing. If you can take a break, let your daughter watch a little Noggin online (we like to dance, stomp, play drums and air guitars during the videos). And if you want to be #1 in my book “put the puter away daddy” and pick up a book — and read to your daughter.
Today my 2-year-old daughter walked into the room where I had the football game on the TV, and she started yelling “Go! Go! Go!” at the screen. It was hilarious. That’s my girl!
The other day, we got a phone call from our daughter’s daycare. It was one of those calls you never want to receive as a new dad: “Your daughter got hit in the head and we think she needs stitches – you need to come get her.” Both my wife and I left work and rushed her off to the doctor. Her daycare has webcams so we were able to rewind and see exactly what happened (which was great because otherwise we would have wondered if we were told what really happened or if her teachers weren’t paying attention or someone was being abusive). When we watched the video, we saw that Bre was just in the wrong place at the wrong time when a little boy (who wasn’t even facing her) was swinging around a plastic toy toolbox.
Trust me on this one. Sending your daughter to a daycare with a webcam is a no-brainer.
One of the most exciting (and sometimes stressful) things about becoming a new dad is deciding on a name. Plenty of sitcom episodes have been centered around this theme. If you’re like me, there are a few main criteria for a name to avoid a quick “veto”:
Doesn’t remind you of anyone negative from your past ( like people in high school you couldn’t stand)
Rolls off the tongue smoothly when said along with the last name
Sounds intimidating when said along with the middle name (for use mainly when she’s in big trouble)
Doesn’t rhyme with anything that the mean kids will be able to turn into a cruel nickname
Forms a cool set of initials – which doesn’t form a 3-letter word (don’t overlook this one)
My wife came up with our daughter’s name: BREANNA [pronounced bre-AH-na, not bre-ANN-a] and believe it or not she isn’t named after me – if she was, we would have spelled it Brianna. But that’s a different story for a different time). It does sound a lot like my name (Brian), which is cool. These days, our daughter actually has 4 names that she answers to:
Breanna (legal)
Bre (for short)
Breezy (a cool one coined by her teacher)
Bre Bre (version most commonly used by mommy & daddy)
According to the all-knowing Google, her name means “noble / strong / virtuous” (not bad … not bad at all). Are you wondering what your name means now? Click here to find out.
One hilarious thing about the 2-year-old brain is that everything is in the third person. For example, if she’s pointing out something that’s hers, she says “Bre Bre’s applesauce!” or “Breezy’s blocks!” Even crazier is the fact that my wife and I find ourselves using the third person when we talk to her, too (if she bumps her head, I’ll pick her up and say “tell Daddy about it”).
In my 3 decades on this Earth, I’ve heard some interesting names. When naming your daughter, there’s nothing wrong with being creative. But you might want to consider the fact that there IS a chance that she may one day choose to become a professional (doctor, lawyer, accountant, public relations professional, whatever). I’ve heard some kids’ names that I can’t imagine seeing on a business card. But each to his own. Just my opinion…
Of course, the most important thing is that you and your wife LOVE the name. Because you’ll be saying it a lot. Over and over and over again.
If you’re about to become a new dad, your wife is likely reading a lot of books and online articles, most of which were written with the mommy-to-be as the target audience. My wife’s favorite was What to Expect When You’re Expecting, but the one that I most enjoyed was Father to Daughter: Life Lessons on Raising a Girl by Harry H. Harrison, Jr. Here’s a little blurb about it from Amazon.com:
“Filled with short, sweet, inspirational words of wisdom, FATHER TO DAUGHTER is a book of guidance for Dads on loving, shaping-and learning to comprehend-their inscrutable little girls. Divided into stages from infancy on up, it offers a pithy lesson on every page. Helpful reassurance: “Tickle her, play with her, give her piggyback rides. She’s not breakable.” Advice on passing down skills: “Show her how to climb up a tree. Also, how to climb down.” Your role: “Be home for dinner on time. This is very important.” “Make sure she knows she can call you at any time and you will go get her. This is why the cell phone was invented.” Guideposts, both material and spiritual: “Give her a piggybank when she’s little. She’s never too young to learn the value of saving.” And, “Help her understand that there’s more to life than wearing the right jeans.” And finally: “Prepare for the day when you’re not the most important man in her life.”
Guys, this one is a must-read. And the great thing about it is that the quoted advice follows a chronological progression, from “the wonder years” to “the mystery years” and on to “older girls,” with specific advice on the way, such as “girls & sports,” “girls & money,” and “girls & cars.” If you’re like me, you’ll keep this one on your nightstand and come back to it again and again. (ISBN-10: 0-7611-2977-4)
Thanks for visiting my new blog, Raleigh Daddy 2.0! You might be wondering, “what’s the 2.0 mean?” Well, it’s my silly way of telling you that my wife (Eva) and I have a beautiful two-year-old daughter (Breanna). I’ve been thinking a lot about starting a journal lately, to chronicle the interesting, cute, strange and hilarious things that my little girl does and says. Instead of writing down my thoughts in a notebook where few, if any, will ever see, why not start a blog that my wife, friends and family can enjoy? So, here it is. I’ll try to make this a funny place for you to visit (considering my daughter, that shouldn’t be hard!), but I’ll also try to make this site a good resource for new and soon-to-be dads (especially dads who have little girls — a relationship that is more special than I could ever explain with words). Since this is my first attempt at blogging, I will welcome any technical advice that you have to offer (I would like to give this blog an eye-catching appearance and add buttons where people can share my posts on other social networking sites, but I’m not yet sure how to do that). I’ll also welcome any comments (positive OR negative) on my posts, and I hope that you will share some tips on good books, websites and quotes related to fatherhood in your comments. So, thanks again for visiting, and please tell your friends!
Raleigh Daddy 2.0 had to upgrade the name of his blog to 3.0 recently because his daughter celebrated another birthday. He shares his thoughts on fatherhood thus far on his blog, including this list of five things he has learned so far:
Raleigh Daddy 2.0 blogs about a new game his daughter has started playing with him in the car. Whenever they drive under power lines or bridges, they have to duck. He explains how the game works, and why it’s better than “I Spy.”
Do you remember the first time your child asked you for money? It happened to Raleigh Daddy 2.0 a couple of weeks ago. Guess how old his daughter is? 13? 10? Nope, much younger.
You know those tasty cinnamon twists you get at Taco Bell? Well, the blogger behind Raleigh Dad 2.0 fed his daugther some of those the other night, prompting her to beg for “more dirt.” Was she mistaking the cinnamon for dirt? Not quite:
BRIAN
