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.

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.

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.

Master of the Remote - This Dad lost his title!

There is a time in a man’s life when he gets the TV of his dreams.  My TV is a 65-inch DLP.  I love the thing.  It is perfect for watching football on Sundays and baseball games throughout the week.  As I kid, I envied my dad, as he was the master and king of the remote control.  He got to watch what he wanted to watch.  He came home from work, ate dinner with us, sat himself in the recliner with the remote glued in his had and then he clicked on the news.  As a younger kid and even into my teenage years, I found the news dreadful and boring and wined about it.  It was a loosing battle on getting the remote.

The last 10 years I have been living on my own or married.  I have been able to be the master of the remote.  For the first few years I was able to watch a fair amount of TV especially with the release of high definition.

I do not watch much TV now, even with the big TV in the house.  When I do it is usually football, baseball or movies.

Dad's little baby with remote

During the TV show season I do enjoy watching Lost and 24.  Let’s get it right though, kids should not watch too much TV.  Melissa and I rarely have the TV on when Rylan is awake.  I honestly can’t remember when we’ve had the TV on besides sports shows and Wheel of Fortune when Rylan is up.

But tonight, I saw myself loosing the master of the remote title. I didn’t think I would lose it for a long time.  Let’s be honest, I didn’t think I would ever lose it.  Look at the pictures!  He is ready to own the remote.  He already knows the buttons work and can do magical things such as turn the TV or make the remote light up. Oh no!  Soon will come those learning TV shows such Barney, Sesame Street, Bob the Builder and Dora. I give it two years and my title of the master of the remote control is gone.  Thanks Big Bird!

Taking the remote away from a baby - Temper Temper temper!

Suggestions for New Dads:  If your wife hasn’t gained the title of the master of the remote control, your kids sure will.  Get ready to lose your title!   The little one has got their eyes on it.