"Like father, like son." That was my wife’s comment as our 20 week scan revealed the sex of our baby in a rather gratuitous fashion. The guessing game was concluded by the graphic image of our boy’s manhood dangling in between his wide-open legs while both his hands were resting casually behind his head. Yeah, that’s my boy! Now we can finally begin to think of the baby as a little boy rather than an ‘it’, and my mother in law can finally stop knitting an endless supply of pink cardigans. ... read more >>

Getting to her fifth ear infection just wasn’t fun for her or a great way to spend time taking her to the doctor for a little lady, so basically we had 1 option left which was taking her to a specialist. We took her to a specialist a few weeks ago and the doctor was nice enough but really within 5-10 minutes and $200 later (I’m in the wrong business) it was decided that within the space of 5 months she has had 5 ear infections so with my mathematical ability – that is well lots really! The prognosis was either have grommets inserted or she could go on for another year and a half having ear infections. Hmm I’m sure that is beneficial for her, so we threw caution into the wind and decided on the lesser of two evils – grommets.

“What are grommets” I hear you say! Well think of a very small tube that gets inserted in to the middle ear, and is generally used when children have ear infections and therefore cant drain away excess fluid! ... read more >>

Remember that when it’s all said and done, your kids will accurately reflect many of the things you’ve given them.

They’ll reflect your joy, your enthusiasm, your anger, and your love. They’ll see how you treat your wife, and how you treat women in general. They’ll see how you respond to stressful times, and how honest you are. They’ll see how you take care of yourself, and how you nurture others. And they’ll see how important your family is to you.

You give it to them, and they reflect it back.

What are you choosing to give your children?

Warmly,

Mark Brandenburg

Mark Brandenburg MA, CPCC
mark@eqnow.org
www.markbrandenburg.com
www.eqnow.org
Phone (+1) 651-766-9976
"Helping Men Succeed" ... read more >>

A great old-school lullabye from a Danny Kaye movie "Five Pennies"

What has happened to these great movies and entertainers???

To save my little girls ears, I tend to just hum along :-)
Singing is a great way to interact with my little girl, the sound of my voice (trying to sing) sooths her.

Warm Regards

Eric

My wife works as a hairdresser and so therefore we have very crazy eating habits, She might go all day without eating because she has been busy, and then she is straight into dinner then off to bed – especially as she has at least 2 late nights per week and they can have her finishing at up to 8.30pm/9pm.

Now on the days that Renee isn’t around I will cook for the household – including Pyper and she is relatively easy because it’s the same food different day, just a variation on the selection as such.

So this week because we are such budding chefs, I have been personally sick of the same boring food, and we wanted something a little different and healthy. Something that could be prepared in a smallish amount of time with minimal amount of ingredients. Well we managed to come up with a new system, and one that didn’t include chilli mince in either tortillas or taco shells. We seem to have a hundred weight watchers menu books or healthy menu books lying around gathering dust so we got them out and did what most smart people would do and read them looking for good recipes of which 95% of them are it was fantastic to see. ... read more >>

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.”

-Henry David Thoreau

As I came through the door after a challenging day of work, the tornado began. “Daddy’s home!” My kids wanted to share their day and their artwork, and my wife wanted to share how difficult her day had been.

I wanted to lie down on the couch and be left alone.

And this same scenario is happening all over the country with fathers (or mothers) and their families. Families are converging on each other at the end of the day with wildly different needs and moods. The result can be hurt feelings and distance between family members.

Working parents often come home filled with stress and problems from the workplace. They’re in a “fix-it” mentality and they’re looking for some time to unwind before facing the brunt of their families. ... read more >>

I was recently invited to my first Bar Mitzvah ever. I had heard about these events but didn’t really know what they meant. Fortunately, I got a little briefing from my dear friend (who invited me in the first place) beforehand and the whole event was also blessed with and by a Rabbi who explained what was happening throughout the proceedings.

In the Jewish religion when children reach the age of thirteen they become responsible for their actions, and "become a Bar or Bat Mitzvah." The Bar Mitzvah ceremony is like an ordinary Sabbath service however the boy or girl attending as an adult for the first time is expected to run the service and is also called to read from the Torah. So it’s obviously a pretty special event in a teenager’s life. ... read more >>

For all the adolescents who are overweight and really want to do something about it, the first suggestion is: try cutting out one calorie-full but nutrition-poor food that you're crazy about. If you can't stop eating chocolate candy bars or big dishes of ice cream or those wonderful cookies—or whatever is your favorite bad-habit dish, you're probably not ready to do very much about your weight.

Another help in the direction of self-education is keeping a diet diary. Doing this in any notebook or scratch-pad for a period of at least two weeks will give you more of an idea of what you really eat than just memory will ever do. To be of the most help, such a diary should be kept closely, itemizing what was eaten at each meal and for each snack. Addition of those items not put down during the day can be done at night. Then, when the study of your eating habits for that length of time is completed, each item can be checked for nutritional value and calorie count by using any of a number of nutrition or cook books. Of even more value would be the discussion of such a diary with a nutritionist or physician. ... read more >>

DO YOU HAVE A STORY ABOUT A SPECIAL MOMENT OF INTIMACY, LOVE OR TENDERNESS SHARED WITH YOUR BABY?

Would you like to be part of an inspirational new book for parents and caregivers and help neglected and abused children at the same time?

Research has shown that less stress and more fun is best for baby's brain development and that parents and caregivers who spend time engaging in lots of loving touch and relaxed interactions with their baby are actually helping their child’s brain to develop. Following the success of her first book, ‘Move Baby Move’ www.movebabymove.info which links early exercise with brain development and learning, author Sophie Foster has started work on her next book, ‘Love Baby Love,’ which links parents’ experiences of intimacy, love and tenderness with their baby, with brain development. ... read more >>

We saw a flyer at our local day-care centre that Pyper goes to that asked for any household items, you know the ones that you would have otherwise have thrown out, like boxes or drink containers – general packaging and junk – and it comes back disguised as artwork by your precious child aghhh

So we started to put drink containers, cans, little boxes and the like in there, now just a small bit of background on us, we don’t RECYCLE at all. It’s not that we don’t want to its that we don’t have that on the top of our list, or actually on our list of things to do. ... read more >>