The DAD Zone

[jaedmc]

my wife and I are expecting ( her second and my first) 

Congrats on the lil one, bub. 

 

 

I've got two little girls, ages two and four. They're both pretty awesome, and smart.

...

The only real problem we've ever had is that they're both very shy. It comes from them only having each other to play with, since none of either of our siblings have any kids yet. 

I'm a weird actor guy who likes to play, so whenever I take my son to the park I'm always saying hi to kids and shooting Megatron lasers at them, while most parents(or nanny's) are on their cell phone. Or I play soccer and tell kids they can join in with us. My son was crazy shy early on, but after a while I think he picked up on what I was doing and just started talking to people and joining in. I guess I served as ice breaker until he figured out how to do it. But holy crap was I afraid he was going to be as awkward around people as I am. 

[JustJay]

So Phoebe is 2 months old and she is still growing huge. She's 25 inches and around 13-14lbs. Doesn't look chunky like our first was. Also, if this is any indicator, the docs would always say when Maddy was little if she kept growing like she is she'll be every bit 6ft, now Phoebe is way bigger/longer than Maddy was at this stage. I would have been tall but the arthritis stunted my growth but I am 5'10 and a half and my wife is tall for a girl at 5'9. The docs said if I didn't have arthritis all while growing up that I would have been every bit at least 6'3. So it looks like me and the wife produce big kids. Phoebe is starting to show more personality each and every day. She is very vocal and will try to lick anything that comes near her face. She also has been sleeping longer at night. Instead of every 3 hours up she'll sleep a solid 5 or so hours at night. It's awesome to experience this again, 7 years apart, especially when we thought we couldn't have anymore and that Maddy was a miracle like the docs said she was.

Edited December 22, 2013 by JustJay

[vikingsfan73]

My twins (one of each) turned four today. Seems like we were just bringing them home from the hospital yesterday. And don't get me started on my 13 year old son, who surpassed me in height this summer!

[Playa Shunna Ver 3.0]

SO my daughter is 13 months and we have been trying to get her interested in walking.  She takes a few steps and stumbles, then drops to crawl.  We go to my work X-mas party yesterday and everyone is asking if she walks.  We say a little, just a few steps.  I put her down on the floor and hold her hands to get her moving a bit.  She lets go with one hand and next thing I know she is just holding one hand and walking all over.  About 3 minutes later I feel her little hand let go of mine and all of the sudden she is off.  It was the single proudest moment of my life.  Just a great feeling   The rest of the day was her stutting all over.  Sure there were a few Flair flops, but I wouldn't trade that moment for the world.  

[offspring515]

That's awesome Playa.  My little dude is six weeks and just started laughing when Daddy does silly voices at him.  His Mom is just THRILLED by this development

[jaedmc]

Take advantage of it while you can, bub. They all eventually go from thinking "dad is hilarious." into "I hope I'm never like my dad."

[JustJay]

Yes my little Phoebe thinks I'm funny and smiles an coos at me. Maddy my 7 year old thinks I'm a big dork. The thing is I am a big dork and tell her all the time I am so hah.

[ultimoDANK]

Waiting for the kids to wake up and see the Santa spread. Good times.

[Craig H]

I spent the majority of the last couple days putting Lego sets together for my daughter. It was awesome.

[Lawful Metal]

I bought a 52 count label pack for all my gifts to my kids this year. I ran out if labels before I ran out of gifts.

[Red is Dead]

Baby c turned to me, squatted, stood up and said "poo" to me.

 

Cutest thing ever.

[Super Ape]

Re-hashing this thread because I have a story that's too funny not to share, and I really need a laugh right now.

So I pick my daughter up from her preschool and one of her teachers tells me what happened in the potty today.

We just succeeded (FINALLY!) in getting her potty-trained, and she's been using the can there without a hitch. Well, today she had to go and the teacher took her in the boys' room because the girls' room was full. She gets her situated, and gets called to tend to one of the other kids... and then comes back to the boys' room to see my kid, standing at the urinal trying (and failing) to pee standing up at the urinal.

Thankfully the preschool has washing facilities, so a change of clothes wasn't necessary, but still, that provided a much-needed laugh today.

[Red is Dead]

Can the terrible twos start earl? So many boundaries being pushed at the moment...

[JustJay]

Yes they can. Just wait until she is around 6-8 years old. Then you'll sometimes miss those years when she wouldn't ever talk back to you and make you seem like the worse parent ever. 

[J.T.]

Every kid will push the envelope now and again.   Sure, you want to be the fun parent, but you're still a parent and you have got to establish that relationship with your kid.  The child has to learn the consequences of blatant disrespect.  I don't tolerate that at all.  If you don't nuke that behavior now, you never will and I don't intend to be that parent that other people roll their eyes at when their kid goes apeshit in the mall and the parent either can't, won't, or plain ol' doesn't know how to get that under control.

 

Punishment only works if kids fear the consequences.  My daughter has a healthy respect for pain, but she wasn't afraid of spankings when she was little because she knew if she could endure, it would be over and done with.  Forgivenss is almost immediate after corporal punishment.

 

Nowadays, the punishment strategy goes towards nuking allowances and taking away the electronic devices and pleasure reading.  The last time I punished my kid was when she was nine (she's 11 now) and she was an emotional cripple after I took the Percy Jackson books away, enforced the television ban, the gaming ban, the money from the grandparents ban, and made her work on her schoolwork during her weekend with me. 

 

I haven't heard any backtalk since.  If she does harbor resentment for my decisions nowadays, she is smart enough to keep it to herself, show a convincing respectful facade, and (more importantly) does what I ask her to do..

 

One thing you have to make sure of is that the grandparents buy in.   No one undermines parental authority quite like grandparents do.

[Red is Dead]

Aint that the goddamn truth.

 

We're getting there - when its story time, its no longer "up" with the hands held up...its up......*log wait*......pease.

 

So we applaud the good behaviour, and ignore/take away the toy for bad behaviour.

 

Learning curve, lads. Thats all it is. We're getting there. Just need to make gentle and slow changes.

[Swift]

My son is turning 5 next week, and has been in pre-school for almost a year now, so his world has opened up. He's at an advanced reading age, so he's been getting some astronomy books from the library, and has been going back and forth through them discovering the universe. He's only learning that stuff in school now, and so is able to share what he already knows. It's amazing to me when he tells me something about Jupiter that I'd long ago forgotten, or something about trains that I never knew. And while that makes me happy, the lost knowledge and loss of innocence on my part makes me sad.

 

Do you remember when we were all kids, we were so amazed and interested in the world? And then we grew up and became lazy and cynical. I hope somehow my wife and I are able to foster his thirst for knowledge into something that will stay with him through life.

 

Basically, what I'm saying is that kids are awesome, and their curiosity about trains! and dinosaurs! and spaceships! and tigers! and volcanoes! and trees! and vikings! brings a smile to my face.

[J.T.]

Hey, now.  I still like dinosaurs and trains and spaceships.

[offspring515]

Honest to god looking at my 4 month old smile and realizing that someday time and circumstance and life will take this creature of pure happiness and joy and twist him into a broken, loathsome,adult kind of kills me inside.

[J.T.]

Kids know instinctually that they are responsible for their own joy.  Adults forget that shit and think that work or the love of another person or parenthood will make them happy.

 

That's bullshit.  Nothing brings you happiness or can make you happy.  It is on you to maintain your positivity.

 

My daugher is a happy kid but even at eleven, she is a bit more cynical than I'd like her to be.  The divorce has taken a siilent toll on her.  I hope one day she will be ready to talk to me about what is going on in her head, and if not me then her mother or someone else.

[Matt D]

So my 21 month old is the joy of my life, but lately, I spend half of my time doing a Gorilla Monsoon impression. Like right now when she's randomly opening and closing drawers.

 

[Ramsey]

I'm a dad twice over. Madelynne (my 13 year old) and Emma (my 9 old) are both amazing , brilliant, hysterical kiddos. I also firmly belive they are trying to kill me. Fatherhood is not for pussies. I for one like seeing a topic for dads. There aren't enough good dads in the world.

[Ramsey]

Kids know instinctually that they are responsible for their own joy.  Adults forget that shit and think that work or the love of another person or parenthood will make them happy.

 

That's bullshit.  Nothing brings you happiness or can make you happy.  It is on you to maintain your positivity.

 

My daugher is a happy kid but even at eleven, she is a bit more cynical than I'd like her to be.  The divorce has taken a siilent toll on her.  I hope one day she will be ready to talk to me about what is going on in her head, and if not me then her mother or someone else.

My parents divorced when I was 6 and I know it affected me in lots of ways. Even now I discover things that my parent's divorce touched that I wasn't even aware of and I'm 40 now. Just know that, in her head right now, she now knows that life ain't the Brady Bunch and that reality is a bitch. Trust me, that's EXACTLY where that cynicism comes from. Be there to be a superhero when she needs one. For me, that was my grandparents on my dad's side and they will always hold a special place in my heart because of that. When reality was shitty, they wer ethere for me to escape to and feel loved and safe.

 

I feel this has been a "very special episode" of DVDVR.

[Mike Campbell]

We're working on getting our two years old potty trained. She's taking to it somewhat well. My four year old seemed to respond to me telling her "move move move" when I was rushing her to the potty. I'd spent a few days trying to find something for the baby like that. Well, we got it yesterday, the timer went off and as I was rushing her there, she yelled "Follow the buzzards!"

[Red is Dead]

We've just started potty training with baby C.

 

four nights.

 

One poop.

Three pees.

 

It's a trial - cos sometimes she'll go and get it, then sit down on it - the next night its OH MY GOD ITS THAT THING GETITAWAYFROMME!

 

=-

 

We also had a letter from our nursery saying that their cook has gone off long term sick - so we're going to have to provide the lunches for c if she wants to eat...so we made an official complaint. lets see how that goes.