Baby's First Dip in the Pool

I was a total water rat when I was a kid. My son loves the water, but is a little apprehensive about it still. But the baby - just 6 months - can't get enough.

The water might still be in the low 70s (relatively cold, actually) but she squealed with delight as she got wet. First her feet, then her hand, then her tummy and torso, all while holding onto mom. But when she holds on, it's not a tight grip like my son has (and has had since infancy), it's a loose grip . . . one of someone who can't wait to kick her feet and swim off.

Paige is just a polar opposite of her brother -- the boy who screamed bloody murder when I dipped his little toes in three years ago.

What was your child's first reaction to swimming?

Be a kid, 1986 style

We took Joshua to Chuck E. Cheese over the weekend and it's amazing how little the place has changed since I was a kid. They still have mostly the same video games as well as the same horrible animatronic shows. Sadly the pizza still looks like it's a piece of cardboard topped with cheese and sauce. They did eliminate the urine soaked ball pit, which I consider an improvement. Joshua seemed to like it even though half the games don't work very well and the ones that do aren't really that fun.

Daddy, who's Barack Obama?

My son seems a lot more interested in Iron Man than the presidential election, but should he ever ask about the campaigns I can use these tips from MSN parenting to help explain it to him. I figure his major campaign concerns would involve which candidate would allow him to eat more jelly beans and he might be concerned about any issues that impact Tigger & Pooh. Realistically, four might be too young to care about politics, but I suppose it's never to early to learn just how screwed up our political system is.
Bring the Presidential Campaign Home - � MSN Lifestyle - Family & Parenting

There is no safe place for my pets

Once you have a kid your pets become decidedly less important. Of course, eventually the kid gets old enough to want to play with the pet and that can lead to disaster. In our case, we have two cats, a friendly one and a deaf one that you have to approach slowly. Joshua does not really understand slowly, so he tends to scare the deaf cat and treat the friendly cat like a stuffed animal that moves. This article might help a little.
Save your cats and your kid

Is there really a "best" musical instrument for a kid?

The idea of having to listen to my son learn how to play an instrument pains me. I know kids are supposed to learn musical skills and that all sorts of good things happen when they do, but have you ever actually listened to someone learning how to play the trumpet? Can't I just get Joshua "Guitar Hero" and be done with it? Since, my desire for my kid to develop properly usually outweighs my desire for peace and quiet, I did look at this article from Babble and will probably cave in and get him something. He's not playing drums, however, even if there's a connection between playing drums and becoming a Harvard-educated doctor. Of course, given Tommy Lee, I'm guessing that connection does not exist.
Never sleep again

Dads have computers too

It amazes me that nearly all of the reputable blogs on parenting and parenting sites pretty much ignore the role of the father. I realize that there are still plenty of lousy dads and even more who work so much to keep the family afloat, that they don;t have much to do with the kids. Still, there are lots of fathers who have equal, if not greater, roles in raising their children. I see very little online for working fathers who actually pay attention to their kids. We're out there, but it seems that in the world of creating content, "daddy" does not rate with "mommy."

Parenting requires a little booze

Any other who mixes parenting advice with drinking tips works for me and Stefanie Wilder-Taylor has made a career doing this. Too many parenting books focus on just how wonderful having a kid is and not enough of them spend any time on that fact that being a parent can turn you to the bottle. Anyone who has ever had to watch the same episode of "Dora the Explorer" a dozen times in a row, knows that a bottle of wine might be a good idea. Wilder-Taylor is interviewed here about her new book and answers why nobody buys books written by fathers.
Drunken parenting

Fix your bad parenting habits

As a parent it's easy to teach your kid bad habits by doing what's easiest for you. I've fallen victim to this as it's way easier for me to pick up Joshua's toys than to go through the process of having him do it. We often find ourselves making the decision that benefits us in the short-term even if it does long-term damage. This happens because if your kid is screaming and will fall asleep if you lay down with him, well, sleeping that night is on your mind, not the bad message you are sending. This article has some useful strategies for those of us who have taught our kids bad habits.
Aren't all habits bad?

Kid loses war with cat

I woke up this morning to the sounds of Joshua arguing with our cat. The cat, an older calico named Calamity, tends to whine for food in the morning. Usually she does this in our room, but this time she was outside Joshua's slightly open door. The cat, of course, has no idea that a four-year-old can't feed her, so I don't really blame her. Joshua, on the other hand, did not realize that yelling at the cat was not likely to quiet her down. I ended up having to get up and feed the cat, then the child (different things, of course).

Check your toddler's emperament?

I don't actually need a quiz to know my kid's temperament, but iVillage offers this one for those that day. My kid is just sweet enough to offset his innate sense of wanting to cause mischief. He also has a healthy dose of being ill-mannered along with a complete inability to ever be wrong (that he inherited from me).
Know your kid

How do you make your kid take eye drops?

Joshua, our four-year-old, has horrible seasonal allergies and his face blew up last week like he had gone 10 rounds with Lennox Lewis. One of the medicines prescribed over the phone, before he saw his doctor, was eye drops. He has had drops in the past and didn't like them, but we were able to bribe him into taking them. This time, he flipped out completely and would not let us go anywhere near his face. Other than holding him down and prying his eyes open, does anyone have a solution for this?

Gymnasts not the best source for nutrition advice

Though she once did an excellent job flipping around or whatever exactly it is that Olympic gymnasts do, I'm a little skeptical of Mary Lou Retton's new role as a fitness and nutrition for kids advocate. At least Retton wasn't as skinny or stuck in pre-puberty as today's Olympic gymnasts, but still, if i had a daughter I' be a little skeptical of getting my advice here.
Gold medal in parenting?

Baby versus career seems obvious to me

For my wife, the choice was never baby versus career as much as it was career versus having a baby at all. Celine actually cut her maternity leave a little short to get back to work. Realistically, neither one of us has ever understood staying home with a kid and what you're supposed to do all day. I can't imagine not working and while Celine does not derive as much of her self-worth from work as I do, she still has a hard time imagining being home all day. That's part of why we never had a second kid, because once you have two, it makes financial sense to not work. Of course, we also didn't have a second kid because the first one was a lot harder than we could have imagined.
I pick work, some pick kid

The "Electric Company" returns

TV programmers love nostalgia but seem to have little ability to distinguish between good old shows and bad old shows. That might explain the decision to revive the "Electric Company" a program that I watched as a kid because we had four channels and there were very few shows for kids. Though the original show did give us Morgan Freeman and Rita Moreno, I still can't see how something I didn't watch when nothing else was on can possibly compete with today's ocean of kids shows. Still, I hope they bring back those badly animated Spiderman cartoons.
It's electric

Uh? Oops? Stupid Parent Mistakes

Ever done something colossally stupid with your kids? Everybody has (though not everyone will admit it). Me? When Will was just under a year and I used to work at home, he didn't always want to nap. One day, he was calling me and I decided to give him just a few more minutes to try and fall asleep. By the time I got in there, he'd spread the poop everywhere -- from the walls to the crib bars (YOU try cleaning that up. EW!).

I felt like the worst mother.

Now, I just laugh about it.

Check out the Chicago Tribune for some really funny stories of stupid mom (and dad) decisions.