This will be one of my last dad blogs at real dad blog.  I will be having a new domain and new dad title.  I am excited for the change as my new blog will be bigger and better.  Stay tuned and get ready for a new journey!

Dad Loser - Bad Dad

Real Dad Blog Version: I think William T. Hurley might get the dad loser of the year for this incident.

A few days ago, a dad got mad at his 10 year old son for who knows what. What happened next was a child’s worse nightmare. His dad started beating him with his fists and burned him with a hot iron. The boy escaped from his father and sought refuge in the oven. The dad, in his not so brilliant moment, decided to turn the oven on. Luckily, the boy got out when the oven started getting warm. The cops finally came and the boy was rescued.

The police arrested the dad. To make this story worse, the man told his police that he would beat his son again and then actually tried to beat him in front of the officers.

This dad does need some serious help if he ever wants to see his child again. William T. Hurley, you get the dad loser award and probably should never see your son again. Know matter how bad your 10 year old son is, he doesn’t deserve what you gave to him. A spanking is one thing, but burning him and beating him? Then you have to go and turn the oven in when he was so scared of you he was hiding in the oven.

Your son is my prayers. I hope he gets the reform he needs so he will never be like you.

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!

Tonight we bought our son a larger toy box than we had before. We were in desperate need of a toy box for all the new toys he has received in the last few weeks.  One year olds have a lot of toys!

We bought him a Winnie the Pooh toy box from Toys R Us.  I was all ready to put the toy box together.  I pulled out the directions to take look at how easy it was to complete.  Unfortunately the directions were the worst directions I have ever seen.  Instead of it taking 20 minutes to put together as any man would think, it took me a little less than an hour.

With my son’s birthday a couple of weeks ago, I am starting to realize what my dad went through with six kids.  I am seeing the joys and frustrations of putting toys and other kids things together.  The toys Rylan has received have been very easy to put together.  Now his toy box was more of a chore than it should have been.

I have realized this is just a warm up for the years to come.  As more children come, I will be putting even more difficult things together than a toy box. I love the learning experiences I am getting as a new dad.

I see myself as a very frugal dad. I am so frugal that I cut my own hair.  I grab that number two razor to shave my sides.  I then grab a number 5 and 7 razor and the deed is done.  The only problem I have is that I can never get the back the way I want it.  I cannot get it even.  The last time my wife tried to help with cutting the hair on the back of my head, it was like I was cutting it, uneven.

What is the answer?  My dad still cuts the hair on the back of my head.  I am 31 years old and I still have my dad cut my hair!  Thinking about it, it makes me sound like I am that 30-year-old guy that still lives in my parents’ basement.

I would not have my haircuts happen any other way.  I enjoy my dad cutting the hair on the back of my head.  He does a good job.  It is a good father-son bonding experience.  As the years go by, I will always cherish these memories, even if they happen at 31 years old.

As I grow older and my son and future kids get older, I hope to share memories with them.  It could be taking the kids to the Twins’ game with my wife, to playing soccer with them in the backyard.  It could even be cutting their hair when they turn 31.

Read more about My Dad

Man Joins Army for Wife and Health Insurance - What a great dad

Real Dad Blog Version: Sometimes a man has to do what a man has to do. A husband and dad joins the army for his wife to have health insurance.

When I was reading the article about Bill Caudle from Watertown, Wisconsin, I was so impressed that he would give whatever it takes for the good of the family. You may read the article here.

Long story short, Bill Caudle a dad of two children and a loving husband to his wife Michelle, made a choice to join the army at the age of 39. Many people may think this is kind of old to join the army. I think it may be a little old myself.  However, he had a very good reason to join as his wife has stage 3 ovarian cancer.

Why doesn’t Bill have health insurance for his family?   Bill lost a factory job he held for 20 years a few months back.  He has been trying to find a job  since he was laid of. He was doing what every responsible man with a family should do.  He had no luck. There was only one thing he could do to get health insurance; he decided to join the army.

I am not going to get into a whole health care debate in this blog because that is way too political.  This blog is about being a dad.  I will say this though, every man who is married and/or is a dad, has the responsibility to do what it takes to help his family.   That is a dad’s job.  If it takes joining the army to help pay for the hospital bills, so be it.

Bill Caudle is not only a husband hero to his wife and country; he is also a hero to his son and daughter. He is showing his children that sometimes a man has to do what a man has to do.  He is making the ultimate sacrifice for his family.

Bill Caudle, you get a real dad blog Dad Hero award. You make this dad and husband proud.

Read about more dad heroes here.

1 year old baby cake

Real Dad Blog Version: This dad’s baby boy turns one! This is a dad rambling about his son’s birthday and first year as a baby boy.

Our son, Rylan, turned the big one yesterday. We threw him a little party that involved a lot of his family and friends. The day flew by like a blur because we were hosting a lot of people. At least we have pictures of the memories of the big day of our first child turning one.

Baby Eating Cake

His birthday involved eating of sloppy joes (easy to make for a lot of people) and a lot of other food. Then came the birthday cake. The fun part of the birthday party! I was thinking he was going to make a bigger mess than he did. He sure enjoyed the cake.

One Year Old Baby Birthday Party Friends

If you are a dad and have never experienced your child having a really sugary substance for the first time, just get ready for a child that will not sleep. That was our son! He had energy like he never had before after he ate his birthday cake. Watch out!

Our Baby Boy is One!

Our son’s first year flew by. I cannot believe he is already one. This has been the most rewarding year of my life. One year as a dad is beyond words. Being a dad or a new dad is the best job in the world!

A special thanks goes out to our baby boy’s mom for helping make being a dad the best job in the world.

He is starting to play more and more games with us from out of the blue. He will play peak-a-boo with his hands or blankets. He will even play it around people’s shoulders when they are holding him. Rylan is also playing other games that do not make us very happy as parents like dropping his sippy cup on the floor and then laughing about it! That laugh just melts a dad’s heart, though. How could I get mad at that?

Today the peak-a-boo game came out when I was driving home from Sam’s Club with Rylan. We were at a stoplight and when I look back, he put his hands right above his face and then put them right down. Then there came a huge smile on his face. Too bad that light turned green. I could have had played peek-a-boo for hours with him.

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