Have you realized the most important thing in a young girl’s life? It is her FATHER!

A father carves the way for their daughter’s lives, and when a father strengthens and rebuilds his bond with his daughter, it shapes her life and his for the better. But how ever much a father loves his daughter if he doesn’t realize what a girl child usually expects of him, his relationship would be strained.

Girls seek for a sense of protection and safety from their fathers. They feel that fathers should be available when needed. The real value of a father in a girl’s life is that it is from fathers that girls learn about males in the world; ... read more >>

I have days that I feel like i could just stay in bed but with a little one two words come to mind – “good” and “luck”! So when I get home no matter what she is doing I will make sure I go and play with her, unless she is sleeping or eating. Like most little ones she loves to play with her food but I’m not allowed to play too much with her at this time as we seem to both get loud and get in trouble.

So once she has finished I make she gets down on the ground and then I will call her down the hall way and we will play “racing” and what racing is, is I will throw one of her toys 10 M in front of her and then will start crawling next to her as if it was a race and she absolutely loves the challenge, she races with me as we are both crawling flat out, and she has her little head down and snorting like a “little piggy”, I’m smiling just thinking of it as I write. Funnily enough she always seems to win and then we turn around and do it on the way back. ... read more >>

I take Pyper to day care just about every time she has to go, we love it – I “dress her down” and “why is that” my wife asks?? Well I don’t want the other kids to feel inadequate because she is so beautiful I say in a half joking, cavalier attitude type voice!! Now my wife is very beautiful – well to me anyway, and I think because of her we have a beautiful looking little girl also. We have some polorfleece type material clothes for Pyper and they keep her warm when she is at daycare, but what i have noticed lately is that we haven’t actually ever cut her hair, we trim her nails and they grow like wild fire, and because I dress her in the same clothes everytime she goes to day care, I kept getting asked why don’t you dress her in the cute clothes that we brought for her? I usually do when I know we are going out,but apart from that then we just we the same stuff different day. ... read more >>

I have been a little bit worried after being told by my wife that we need to make sure that we are doing all we can with Pyper, and so sometimes as a male I forget things to do with her, or activities that I plan get pushed to the back burner because of weather or a change in events etc. Now this might look like for example taking pyper to the indoor pools and taking her swimming, or playing with her inside or giving her pegs to put in the box, no matter what we think everyday is a new adventure and they love everything. My problem is letting her do anything, and by this basically I will let her try most things once, except playing with a python, knives, grenades, or other such death defying instruments. ... read more >>

This week I found it completely challenging – I had some urgent business work that needed my attention and then on Wednesday my wife went into hospital for surgery, luckily we had Renee’s parents come down to help look after our little girl Pyper, they love her to bits but without their help I would have been absolutely stuffed to be honest. I had a lot of problems going on that I had to make sure that Renee and Pyper would be looked after also.

So what happens when you know your going to be caught out and you just don’t have anyone to look after your little one, when your partner is either sick or cant help. Well call on friends is the biggest one, I make sure that i can lend a hand with some of our other friends and their children, because I am going to need to ask for the favour very soon.

Secondly don’t be afraid to look for a baby sitter, its stressful enough without thinking your the “Lone Ranger” ... read more >>

Well nappy rash isn’t a very aesthetic looking thing and the only problem being it must be painful rubbing up against her skin and the nappy! So we have a few options, and since we found out that Pyper like most little people get nappy rash.

We had a product called sudocream and this is an zinc based product that treats the affected area well ,but we still found after a few times it still didn’t clear up the infected area.

But we came across a new Nappy rash cream called Weleda Nappy Rash Relief Cream, of which it has worked a treat.

It’s hard to give it a real rating with pros and cons but compared to Bayer Bepanthum which is also another relief cream, then it’s fantastic. ... read more >>

This is an area that i struggle with – cooking for a 10 month old and a couple of 30+ year olds. Its a little easier with a 10 month as Im not going to cook an Indian Vindaloo of some sort but surely veges just don’t cut the mustard anymore!

So what I have is a recipe that I believe Dad’s can cook and make not only for the adults but their little ones also!

Meaty Hot Pot
Suitable from 6 months

Ingredients
• 500g diced beef or lamb casserole meat such as beef chuck, blade steak or boneless lamb
• 420g can baked beans
• ½ small swede (or kumara), peeled and cubed
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• 2 Tbsp tomato purée*
• 1¼ cups water
• 2 large potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 tsp oil

Method
1. In a large casserole dish, mix together the meat, beans, swede or kumara, carrots, onion and tomato purée.
2. Stir the water into the casserole mix. ... read more >>

When I look back at how far we have come with Pyper from a defenceless little baby to a little lady who is just about walking I keep thinking and saying “she is growing up sooo fast” her latest trick since we have a split level home is what we call “backing up. Which we think is great before she use to go to the top of the stairs grunt and make funny noises to let us know that she wanted to come down but then found out that she couldn’t.

So we showed her to go down backwards its only 2 stairs which I think is great, and to her she is proud when she knows all she has to do is back around and then slide down the 2 stairs it’s great for us as if we don’t always see her go down the stairs we know she will be safe and not have to worry about her too much. ... read more >>

My little girl is becoming vastly progressive with her toleration for foods, or rather her intoleration for some foods. We have a very basic foods strategy which is make sure she tries as much as possible within reason and hopefully she will like it, I think there is too much pressure on both parents and child to like all the things that they give!

So what are some tips that I have found work for us when you have a 10 month old who thinks all food is not equal and will eat what she likes.

• Offer a variety of different food’s
• Keep them on a particular food for a few days so that they know what they like and don’t like
• Fibre comes from fruits, vegetables, breads and cereals
• Children do like fat in their diet and burn it off quicker then adults do
• Water is a great thirst quencher at all meals – avoid fruit juice and carbonated water drinks
• From 12 months on children can drink cows milk or toddler milk. ... read more >>

My daughters, all of two and three years old, think it's the height of comedy to walk up to me, point at my face, and insult me. Really. I'm getting insulted by pre-schoolers, and I blame Bill Cosby.

The girls like to watch Little Bill, a cartoon that Bill Cosby created (and, coincidentally, my cousin Shauna animated for. Shauna was the talent behind those beautiful pictures of Clara and her toy trains last year.) In one particular episode, a new kid who likes to toss around insults comes to Little Bill's school. He walks up to Little Bill and says, "You're a peanut-head!" As an objective observer, I'd have to agree that Little Bill's head is shaped just like a peanut, but that's neither here nor there. Little Bill gets his feelings hurt and his dad shows him how to deal with mean kids. ... read more >>