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 >>

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 >>

Thrusting your stick in between a woman’s legs can lead to all sorts of trouble. This wisdom struck me for a second time as I foolishly tried to assist with the pregnancy test kit and received a golden shower for my troubles. It turns out that a pregnant woman’s urine stream can be rather powerful when targeted at a small plastic object. Nevertheless, it was a fairly magical moment as we both stood there – Dawn laughing uncontrollably, me wiping piss from my face – and began to see the little ‘+’ sign appear in the indicator window. We’d done it! We were going to be parents, and our lives would never be the same again. ... read more >>

I thought I’d tell a quick story about my son’s 6th birthday party last weekend. He wanted it to be a themed Eurostar party which was a bit of a challenge.

We started off by making the invites look like a Boarding Pass which went down well with the kids.

For the main event we’d made a Eurostar in the garage out of cardboard and painted it. The two boys just loved helping make it, that in itself was just a great activity for dad and sons. I’d also made up a video and soundtrack of a drivers-eye view going along the tracks and into the tunnel.

Once everyone had their tickets clipped and was aboard, I made it dark and played the video. The kids just thought it was great.

So it’s amazing what you can do with some cardboard, poster paints, You Tube and a projector borrowed from work.

- Jamie

So I was helping Mr. Z with his math homework, this afternoon, and it mostly consisted of converting metric measurements from one size to another, like kilograms to grams or millimeters to centimeters and shit like that. At first I was like, "ah, no fucking problem," but as I was trying to explain it to him, my withered synapses fucking seized up on me and I found myself rapidly spinning down some bottomless numerical vortex, and I began second-guessing every answer and well, frankly, it got pretty ugly pretty quick.

We made it through to the other side with only a few tears (and he was pretty upset, too) and then we closed the book and I let him watch some Spongebob so that any trace amounts of understanding he may have gleaned from our little study session were instantly erased and replaced with "GAAAAHHHHHHH!" ... read more >>

The other day I was somewhat a little surprised when my wife, came back from work and goes straight to Pyper and said “give mummy a kiss” – I just about died – usually I have to pry a kiss off of my wife, rather than actually being told to give her one instead if you get my drift!
Anyway I decided to play the game as such and really listened to what she thought was what Pyper wanted. So Pyper gives her a kiss and Im there thinking ok honey “why don’t you come over and give daddy a kiss” I mean why should Pyper just get a kiss.

I think this seems to be the norm, when we have a child both parents go hard out to make sure their child is looked after, cared for and loved. I think we sometimes actually forget that both parents actually need the same from each other also.

- Scott

I just recently signed up to Facebook ... you won’t find much on it - now I’m there, I actually don’t know what to do with myself.

I mean, I say ‘yes’ to people I know who ask to be my friend and have popped a few pictures up for the world to see.

But now what? I mean, what’s so great about this peer-to-peer or social networking that has, as far as Google can tell, two hundred million people worldwide facebooking, My Spacing, You Tubing or Beboing every single month ... have I missed something?

To call it social networking is really pulling the wool over our eyes, because there’s not a great deal of socialising going on at all.

In the first 2 days, around 25 people miraculously appeared at the door of my Facebook page, asking to hang out ... ... read more >>

Thank you to Jeanette from www.homebirth.org for obtaining this story, and a special thank you to Brent for allowing DIYFather to publish his beautiful and touching story.

On 20 September last year Emily gave birth to our beautiful daughter Tui Suzanne. She is just the calmest, sweetest baby I have ever known.

Tui was born at our home in a birthing pool in the same room as her beautiful sister, Maia, who died inside Emily’s womb (at 10 days overdue) in late July 2006. We heartbreakingly buried our baby Maia at Taita Cemetery, close to a rangy gum tree where tui keep watch over her grave.

To start with it was hard not to call Tui, Maia, even though she already had her own name. Tui is so heavenly though that I’m sure Maia’s hands have woven some magical threads into what she hears, sees, understands and will become. Tui’s eyes and face shine with some deep understanding of what has come before.

So much has happened in the last year and a half, which has just rushed by... the arrival and departure of our baby Maia, already more than her lifetime ago, the joy of the safe arrival of Tui and an endless longing for Maia, our beautiful, feisty Maia, who had other plans. I want Maia to be with us too. ... read more >>

Military men and women sacrifice much for their country... and so do their families. It’s been said that freedom isn’t free – and that’s true. Even the children of soldiers pay the price, as they experience the absence of their dad or mom, who is serving overseas.

As you watch this touching video, take a moment to remember all of our military families who sacrifice so much for our country’s freedom and safety.

Posted with permission from www.allprodad.com



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Well seems to be a common occurrence when you have a little person – that is visiting the doctor. I took Pyper to the after hours medical care to get her ears looked at, she was very unsettled grumpy and kept pulling at them.

So we waited and then saw the doctor, I recalled in my mind how many times I had taken her to our regular GP and as this was a Saturday our family doctor wasnt available. I counted it was her fourth time in what seemed like 3-4 months.

The doctor said yes her ear drum was inflamed but wouldnt be prescribing any antibiotics – OMG i just about cried it was one of those shall i say something or will I just listen to reason??

Yep i just listened to reason this particular time! This is weird for me but I thought ok there must be a good reason for this diagnosis?? ... read more >>