One of my big rewards as a teacher is being able to do community service projects as a teacher.  The last two schools years I was able to get a grant to take my students on a monthly community project.  The grant covers the transportation to get form point A to B and then back.  Some of my favorite projects have been packaging food for hungry kids in Haiti through Feed My Starving Children, organizing books for shipping at a place called Books for Africa, and doing fall and spring cleanup in the local community.

Today’s community service project was at a place called People Serving People.  It is place that provides homeless families with a place to live while helping them finding jobs and provides education to get them back on their feet.  People Serving People has a very good thing going on there.

Today, my students made poinsettia ornaments so kids could get presents from church families.  We put in our time for a very good cause.  It is very neat to see my students want to go on community service projects.  My students come from a variety of financial backgrounds.  Some of the students are filthy rich and some are very poor.  The neat thing is that they all like to give and make other people happy.

I was touched walking into People Serving People today.  I saw little kids without homes being given a chance to be warm.  As a dad, my heart goes out to them.  I am just glad the parents and the children have a chance to receive help to get back on their feet.

I am excited to share these same experiences with Rylan and my future children.  It is good to give time for good causes.   All dads can show their kids it is important to give your time to help people.  All people need a friendly hand.

I was thinking the other day what are some good qualities of a dad.  I want to make sure I show these good qualities to my children on a regular basis.

1. Strive to be a good dad – without motivation, you are lazy and nothing. Find motivation and you will have a happy fatherhood.
2. Learn from your mistakes and other people’s mistakes – Mistakes are great if you learn from them and try your best not to do them again.
3. Talk to your children – Yelling at a 2 year old?  They learn from you. Talk to your children about the rights and wrongs.
4. Read to your children  – A great bonding experience plus higher IQ’s!
5. Play with your children – Play has a lot of benefits like memories your children will have.
6. Tell the truth always – There is no reason to lie to your kids unless you want them to lie to you too.  My wife taught me that telling the truth is very important.  I live my life with honesty and feel better about it.
7. Treat your wife well – Your children must learn how to treat the opposite sex.  They learn the majority from you.
8. Treat other people well – Saying please and thank you and helping your neighbors goes a far way.
9. Promote good health – You are your child’s role model of what your kids eat and how much they care about exercising.
10. Want to be a dad – If you are not ready, keep it in your pants.  Children are a lot of responsibility and deserve good parents.

There are many more qualities of a good dad.  These are the first 10 I could think of.  I will be posting more good qualities of a dad in the near future.  Just remember that being a dad is an awesome thing.  Your kids deserve the best.

Baby First Time in Leaves

Real Dad Blog Version:  Sharing memories with your children is an awesome thing.  Watching your kids play in the pile of  fall leaves brings a lot of joy to this dad.

One of things I remember as a kid is raking leaves and playing in them. We would stack the leaves up as high as we could, jump in and out of them and try to bury ourselves so no one could see us.  Those were some good old days of playing in the piles of leaves.

Baby Popping out of leaves!

On Sunday, I spent some hours raking leaves into piles.   I was thinking to myself how much fun it would be as a dad to show my son the good times piles of leaves can be.  So, I decided to make a huge pile that my one year old could play in.

Baby Studying Leaves

I had to play the waiting game until my wife got home from the grocery store with our son.  When they got home, I ran up there to tell her that we have to have Rylan play in the leaves.  It would be so much fun.  She was then excited about it to.

Baby Hiding Leaves

We got Rylan dressed to play in the leaves with an old sweatshirt and sweatpants.  When we arrived at the leaves, I set him in there and the leaves were almost to his face.  He looked at me like, dad, what is going on.  He then got a huge smile on his face.  I knew that face was telling me thank you, this is the coolest thing ever.

He played in the leaves for about 20 minutes.  It could have been a lot longer, but we had a birthday party to get to and the Viking game to watch.  Having your child share in the joys you had as a kid is an awesome thing.  Seeing Rylan throw the leaves, crawl through the leaves and just have a good old time in the leaves, made me a very happy dad.

Swimming in leaves to get dad

Baby Gutting Pumpkin with Dad's Help

Real Dad Blog Version: This dad enjoyed his days of Halloween with his son.  I also give some Halloween suggestions.

Halloween starts weeks in advance for children and moms. Moms get the candy all ready for the big day and decide what costumes their babies should wear if their kids are not old enough to pick out their own. For dads, they probably do not really care as long as the costume their kids wear is pretty cool. We do get into a

Baby pumpkin puzzle

couple of things such as giving out candy to the kids, walking door to door, saying trick or treat, or bring our kids around the blocks with their pillow cases. We, also, do the pumpkin carving because we enjoy taking out the guts. The greatest joy is seeing the excitement of our kids faces.

Baby's Jack-o-Lantern

My Halloween started the night before as we carved out Rylan’s second Halloween pumpkin. It brought back the childhood memories when I got to take out the seeds and play with the gooey insides. Seeing Rylan getting excited playing with the inside of the pumpkin got me thinking about the future; the future of Halloween and children getting excited for their cool costumes and their creative jack-o-lantern designs.

Pumpkin Costume Getting Ready for Halloween

Our son was a pumpkin for his second Halloween. It was not this dad’s first choice but when it is a gift from my mother in-law and my wife just wants his kid to be cute, there is not much a dad can do. I just shrugged my shoulders and went along with the cuteness.

Back from Trick or Treating

Even though I wished he were something else, he still was a little stud in the pumpkin outfit. He enjoyed wearing his little costume. He also enjoyed going to trick-or-treating all around the neighborhood while seeing all the other children in the ghost and goblin costumes. My wife got to take him to all the houses while I got to hand out all the candy. It was an awesome feeling to see her so excited to have a cute little guy in a pumpkin outfit.

Calling it quits from a long night of trick or treating

When Rylan got back from the Halloween festivities, I saw a big smile on his face. He was so happy doing something fun and exciting. Even though he has to give all of his candy away and probably will not remember his first experience out tricking or treating for candy, I know it was a great learning experience for him. I am excited to share more memories of Halloween with him and our future kids. Bring on the pumpkin guts and ghostly costumes!

Look at my candy dad!

Dad Parenting Suggestions for Halloween

• Let your wife have her way with what your kids are for Halloween.  It is great feeling seeing them happy about their kid’s Halloween costume.
• Do not buy Almond Joys for candy or other weird candy.  Kids find that uncool. Whoops!
• Find a cool costume and not too scary.  I hate seeing little kids scared.   You can always find a scary mask for the older kids.
• Always make sure your kids are safe.  This comment is self explanatory.
• Your most important job is carving out pumpkins if your kids are not old enough.  A lot of wives hate the gutting of pumpkins.

Dreaming about eating candy in the Halloweens to come

Baby's first Halloween with Dog - The memories on how fast they grow!

A couple of weeks ago our baby started taking his first steps. We did not get his true first steps on camera, but we did the next day. As a dad, having your wife there with you to see his first steps is a blessing. We were so happy to see our little baby seem so grown up. While he is growing up and learning how to walk, I am trying to teach him a major life lesson.

We have been working on the walking for a while before he took his first steps. It started with a walker, moved into finger holding walking and then walking across the couch, to finally him pushing a little kid’s grocery cart. My son is now learning how to walk by taking more and more steps each day.

His first steps started when my wife and I were about to go on an errand. We got Rylan ready to go in the cold, jacket and all. My wife still had to put on her shoes. Rylan was leaning against her and I told him to walk to me. My wife got him standing by himself. Concentrating as hard as he could, Rylan took 6 steps right to me. It was one of the neatest things I have ever seen as a dad or in life in general. I saw my baby boy take his first steps! His mom was cheering him on too.

Now that Rylan is taking his first steps, we have been working on more and more steps each day. He walks to mom and then walks to dad. He is also walking to walk from one piece of furniture to the next. It is fun to see his progress.

What is the biggest lesson a baby can learn when they are learning how to walk? The biggest lesson is to pick yourself up and try again. Every time Rylan falls when we are practicing walking, I pick him right back up and tell him, “What do we do when we fall down? We pick ourselves up and try again!” He keeps on trying.

Too many people give up on themselves. They learn to accept failure and not care about success. Teach your kids to reach for the top and have them learn it is OK to fall as long as they learn from it and try again.

Dads, pick yourself up and try again.

Video note: It is awesome to see my son enjoy his successes in walking.  We cheer him on and he cheers himself on.

Flying Hamster is back to get Dad Loser #3

Real Dad Blog Version: This dad deserves the Dad Loser award for throwing his daughter’s hamsters for having a bad day.

I was searching across dad news on Google and discovered this headline, West Brighton dad flung daughter’s hamsters, cops allege. This article written, by John Annese, states that he had a bad day. He then came home and took his frustration out on the hamsters, by throwing them across the room. Then, he tried to get the hamster out of the girl’s wrists so he could stomp on them. Luckily, the hamsters were alive when cops came.

When I read this article, I was so frustrated at this dad. First, he traumatized his daughter by acting out of control. Next, he hurt something she cared for. Worst of all, he showed it was OK to take out frustrations on other things and people. This dad deserves the Dad Loser award making him Dad Loser #3.
Our job as dads is to be role models for our kids. I have repeated this throughout many of my blog posts. This dad needs to get some kind of community service helping kids and get his own role model on how to be a dad.

Here are some dad words of advice or parenting suggestions on how to control your temper when you have a bad day.

• Think of your kids: Kindness and innocence takes charge over anger and tempers.
• Do something appropriate: like go for a run, play a game, or even hit a punching bag.
• Talk to another adult: Talking does help, even for men. I do not like to do it too much but it feels good to be listened to.
• Take time to yourself: Sit back, relax and breath.

Just remember that I better not see you on the dad loser list. If you do something stupid, I am coming after you.

I am a die-hard Minnesota sports fan. I love the Twins, Vikings, Wild, Timberwolves and Gophers. Even if I miss a game, I need to know what happens when I wake up in the morning. The Minnesota Twins have been in the limelight lately. They came back from 7 games back to win their division over the faltering Tigers. It was the greatest comeback in Major League Baseball history. A team has also never came back from that far back to win their division or from 3 games back with 4 games to go.

Watching the Twins since they have been playing the Yankees has been very frustrating. It was frustrating during the regular season when the Twins lead every baseball game and then ended up losing them all. The same holds true during the postseason. They have been leading in all of the baseball games against the Yankees during the playoffs. They ended up losing the first two.

Right now, I am typing this dad blog to take the stress out from being a fan of the Minnesota Twins. They are losing 2-1 in the bottom of the 8th. Of course, they just made a stupid play when they could have tied it up. Swear words wanted to come out. I wanted to say every swear word in the book. It could have been OK since my son was asleep. Instead, I said swear alternatives like darn it and ugh. It is good practice so I do not swear in front of Rylan.

I do admit I have sworn in front of my son, Rylan, many times. It could have been from me stubbing my toe to swearing at the Twins. I do not have much a potty mouth but it can happen at times, especially at night like tonight when the Twins are playing.

• This dad’s suggestion on how not to swear in front of your kids…
• Practice alternative words like darn-it, ugh, shoot, ouch or no.
• Just don’t do it. It may be hard, but it is possible
• Think of your kids. Be a good role model.
• Practice, Practice, Practice
• Do not watch the Twins in post-season 2009.

Overall, it is disrespectful to swear in front of kids. It does make you look like the swear words you are saying. Thank you to the Vikings for easing my pain of watching the Twins, since the Twins just got swept. Ugh, shoot, darn-it, dang, shooty, squished bug, prune and ahhhh you stink Twins.

For a future post… How to act like an adult when playing sports.

Related Posts:  Baby and Kids Swearing

Baby Drinking Vitamin D Milk after Breast Milk Weaning

Real Dad Blog Version: When it is time to wean your child from breast milk, be a real dad, and help both your son and his mother.

My son is almost one year of age. There is a lot of debate when to wean babies from breast milk. Doctors say a mother should start weaning around one year of age. More extreme groups of baby experts may state even later. We have decided to stick with what the doctors say. We do not want to be one of those odd couples that have their kids breast-feed until the age of four.

There are a few ways to wean your child from breast milk. A breast-feeding mom can do it cold turkey, gradually, partially or have the child choose when to be done. I strongly suggest never to do a child led weaning. My philosophy is that it is good to give your children choices but they still need to know who is in charge.

My wife decided to do it somewhat gradually. We started supplementing Vitamin D milk after we ran out of the frozen breast milk. She just did a morning and night breast-feeding. As time went on, the night feeding left and then finally today, all breast milk has ceased. Rylan is fully on vitamin D milk.

We are lucky Rylan has had an easy time adjusting to the weaning. Today he tried to go after his mother’s boobs a few times. Those times were when he was tired. He handled the boob rejection just fine. It has been pretty easy on my wife, until today. Her boobs are now in pain. This pain is common among women who stop breastfeeding.

As a dad, there are things I can do to help my son during the weaning process. More importantly, there are more things as a husband I need to do for my wife.

For my son… I need to be there for the bottle feedings. Be patient with him when he wants his mother’s boobs and instead, he gets a bottle or sippy cup. Be understanding when he cannot fall asleep because he is used to breast milk.

For my wife…. I need to massage her back when her breasts are in a lot of pain. I need to not tell her moo (as I did when her milk was coming in) because her boobs balloon up. I will run to the store and get her cabbage because that is supposed to help reduce milk production and ease the pain. I will also get her ice packs when needed. I also need to be patient with her as she goes through this process.

If I do those things for my wife and son, I am a real dad. I better start with the massage.

You may find more parenting and dad suggestions in the dad / parenting suggestion category.

As time goes on, you may brush your baby’s teeth with a baby’s toothbrush.  Start this when your baby gets their first teeth.  Our son Rylan loves getting his teeth brush with a baby’s toothbrush.  We tell him that we are going to brush his teeth and he throws his hands up and down in the air with excitement.

When you watch the video of us brushing our baby’s teeth, you can tell Rylan enjoys it. We did things to help with his enjoy of getting his two baby’s teeth brushed.  We brush our teeth around Rylan.  It got him intrigued with us brushing our teeth and he then gets to join in on the fun.  We also have been doing this since he has born starting with the washcloth cleaning his mouth.  He has been exposed to good oral baby hygiene by having good adult oral hygiene.  This new dad likes to have clean teeth and a clean mouth.

Baby Zit

Real Dad Blog Version:  My son got his first big pimple at the age of 10 months.  I wanted to pop the zit but prevented myself from doing so.

There it was, a giant zit on our baby’s face.  It was a great big zit.  His first big zit.  This was like those big teenage acne zits.  It was one I so wanted to pop.  It would have oozed out because it was so big.

Since it was on my baby’s face, I could not see if it would pop all over the place.  I had to let it heal on its own. It went away in less than a day.  I wish when I got a zit it healed that fast.  Babies and their amazing healing abilities!

Baby Acne

Rylan never went through the baby acne stage because he has been breastfed. This was a real zit that came from his dirty eating habits.  The zit appeared right on the middle of his face.  The position could not have been any better.  It was in a place where it would have made a teenage girl cry right before her pictures.  Even though this big zit stuck out on our baby’s face, he still looked like a little stud.

A word of advice to parents with severe baby acne, please never put creams or oils on the babies face.  Just like I wanted to pop this big pimple, the best thing to do is leave it alone.  The pimples will go away.  The zits do not bother your baby so it should not bother you either.