One of the most special times of being a father is when your child is an infant and they sleep on your chest or right next to you in bed during nap time. The best part is when they partially open their eyes just to make sure you're there, and then close them again knowing they're safe and secure and can go back to sleep.

It doesn't change when they get older. You don't nap with them anymore, but that doesn't mean they take their eyes off you for reinforcement. They need your steady hand, your wisdom, your encouragement, your love.

Watch this outstanding video and reflect on this amazing privilege.

Huddle up and ask your kids tonight: Do you think I'm a good role model for you? Why or why not?

Posted with permission from www.allprodad.com

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

Miss O stayed home today with her Caesarlandococci virus, and it looks like she's gonna be home again tomorrow. It's one of those weird-ass viruses where she's fine for like five hours, then her fever jumps up to 100 and she rolls into a ball on the couch until I can mainline some Children's Motrin into her.

She was doing great at bedtime, tonight, and I thought she'd be going to school for sure tomorrow. Then, about five minutes ago, after she'd been asleep for a coupla hours, she woke up and called for me:

MISS O: (whispering loudly but not screaming) Dad! The ants! The ants!

ME: Whuh? What ants?

MISS O: The ants are crawling all over the house!

[at this point I took her temp with the ear thermometer and it read 100.4]

ME: Miss O, you're dreaming. I'm gonna go get some Motrin. And there are no ants in the house.

MISS O: There are... I just saw one!

Michael Grose is Australia's leading parenting educator. Michael shows you what it takes to be a great Dad. Visit Michael's website www.parentingideas.com.au for more parenting tips on bringing out the best in kids.

Great video really enjoyed listening to it, great for the new fathers out there. Michaels main tip is establish Sleep Patterns.

Thanks Michael

- Eric

One of our blog readers and dad Matthias Wichtrup has told us about his solution to the problem of making babies go to sleep: compose music and play it to them. Here's his story:

I am a musician and I have a little home recording studio. So I created for my son 10 CDs with slow-moving sound collages which is the perfect way to put him to sleep. On each CD I put 80 minutes of this very relaxing music and I have to say it really does work - and not only on babies!

Sweet Dreamy World - Soothing and calming bedtime music for babies

Listen to a sample of Sweet Dreamy World here:

OK dads ... share your secrets with us! I wish it were always as easy as this:

Here's our TOP 10 list:

Getting some (any) sleep after the arrival of your new bundle of joy can be a real tricky one for new parents. Dads of couples who have decided to breastfeed are in an interesting situation in that most males just can't do it (breast feeding) and often there is not enough bottled milk to last the whole night. So our usefulness for night feeds is limited to emotional support or nappy changing. So I've decided to go the other way and have made sure I get a full night sleep. I use ear plugs for that - works for us.

OK so we have stuck with a more traditional model of parenting in that my partner stays home and looks after our son, whereas I go earn some money. After the arrival of our first baby I quickly realised that getting up at night and working during the day is not great. I ended up being pretty ineffective during the day at work as well as with the little things I could help with at night. Even when we agreed that I should stay in bed I would still wake up a couple of times every night and it took me a wee while to get back to sleep.

If there's one thing I know about what works with kids it's keeping a routine. I remember someone telling me a few years ago that kids really love routine. Without knowing all the ins and outs of the psychology I guess they feel safe and secure in routines because they think mum and dad have life under control.

If they only knew!

So a few months ago our son starts staying awake later and later at night. Regardless of putting him to bed every night at 7.30pm he started staying awake longer and longer till finally hes dropping off at around 11.30! Ok he's happy enough reading, and playing cars and generally turning his room upside down.

The other night when asked why he wasn't sleeping this cute four year old says “Daddy I cant sleep because there is dancing in my head”. Talk about a conversation stopper?!? "Dancing in my head!" has he all of a sudden caught ADHD. I'm told by his mum don't worry most parents at some stage think their kids have ADHD.

Have you got a little champ who is really not keen on going to bed? Big dramas, tantrums and a lot of crying at bed time? Here are a few different strategies you can try out:

* Options - give your little one a range of options about what order they want to do things (before going to bed) such as reading a book, brushing teeth, putting on the jammies, etc. Also ask them to choose a book, etc. It's essentially a distraction technique and is aimed at getting you out of a deadlock situation.

* No sleep - tell your little on that she doesn't HAVE to sleep ... she just needs to have the lights off and stay in her bed. Get some "glow in the dark" stars or animals which can present the perfect reason for switching off the light. Chances are once they are lying on the bed for 15 minutes (trying to stay up) they'll be asleep anyway.

I just finished writing my first kids' book. I won't be looking for a literary agent, however, because I wrote this book just for Alleke. In fact, she is the main character in the story, and the book is about her new bedtime routine.

Discipline as training (not punishment)
I made a significant breakthrough in my thinking as a parent this summer while reading Ross Cambell's book How to Really Love Your Child (recommended by Lisa). Campbell suggests that discipline and punishment are not the same thing. Punishment is one form of discipline, and one he uses only as a last resort. Instead, Campbell redefines discipline as training (my words).