Thursday 28 June 2012

Bad Habits

We all have them.
Some are worse than others. Some are bad for our health like smoking, some are not, like biting your nails, and then there’s some that are really gross, like picking your nose and eating it.
Not that type of bad habit!
Benjamin, it would appear has already developed a couple of bad habits.
One of the little games we play is that I steal his dummy, place it into my mouth and he catches me, takes it off me and places it into his own mouth. This seemed so innocent and it turned out a good way to help develop his crawling and eventual walking and boy did it!
So when we began our tour of Soft play gyms (3 different ones in 3 weeks), it turned out this little parlour trick of ours may end up not being as innocent as I thought, because as calm as you like, he made his way over to a beautifully cute little girl and proceeded to remove her dummy and place it in his own mouth!! Way to stay cool with the ladies Benjamin..NOT!
Luckily it was attached with a cord to the little girl so he couldn’t do a runner with it, but it did make me think, what other bad habits do babies and toddlers develop because of their parents.

I know the use of dummies/pacifiers can be an interesting subject between parents and we try and limit the amount of time he has his dummy as I think it can lead to dodgy teeth and obviously a dependence, so we only really allow him to have it when he actually needs soothing; sleeping, if he is upset, or when we are going on long car journeys. So to me it’s one of those less harmful habits, but a habit that we allow our kids to have from an early stage.

One habit he DIDNT get from us, was his woody woodpecker impersonation. It appears he decided a teething ring wasn’t good enough, he wanted a teething cot.

As you can see he has really gone to town on his cot. This is the end of the cot we always find him, stood waiting for us when he wakes up on a morning.

What weird and wonderful habits have your little ones developed from an early age?

Hopefully Benjamin will develop a habit of writing incredible software (to make millions of course), or reading encyclopaedias for fun (to be highly educated....so he can make millions of course).

As always thanks for reading.
FTD(ot)!

Saturday 23 June 2012

I'm a loser!

Well, not exactly as I didn't technically lose anything.


This past friday, 500 of the countries best parent bloggers got together darrrn sarrrf to meet, greet, network and of course learn from each other and the many speakers that graced the stage of Britmums LIVE!

One of the biggest parts of the Britmums LIVE! are the Brilliance in Blogging awards which were held on Friday night.

As most of you know I was lucky enough to be a finalist at these prestigious awards.
I missed the initial announcement as I was bathing the little man, but when I finally got round to checking twitter, I learnt that the award was won, by someone much more deserving than me.

So congratulations to Ben over at Mutterings of a fool, who won the DAD BLOGGER category at the awards.

Ben is a great blogger who's blog is a commentary on life as he sees it, the ups and downs of raising a family and the challenge of using public transport every day to commute to work. Most likely there will be some mention of food, fitness and politics plus definitely a few adventures of their crazy English Springer spaniel Bracken.

Although I didn't win, I can't say I was disappointed. I genuinely didn't expect to win. Not because my blog isn't good enough, but because the other finalists were better. I was happy to simply be grouped with some awesome dads and be in with a chance. Hopefully it has helped my little corner of the net gain a few more followers.

One other cool thing is that as I read the winners of the other awards of the night, I realised how many of these amazing bloggers I already follow and who follow me, so I really am in good company. Click HERE to see all the winners from the awards.

Once gain, thanks to everybody that voted from the first vote to the last, thankyou and congrats again to you all and maybe I can meet you all at Britmums LIVE! 2013.

Thanks for reading
FTD





Thursday 21 June 2012

Sleepy, sleepy, sleepy.

I have never been a great sleeper. It probably started when my mum worked shifts and didn't come home till 10pm. I would come home from school, make myself something to eat and eventually fall asleep far too early while watching TV.
Then my mum would come home, I would wake up and we would talk about our day and chat about this and that, then she would go to bed, ready to do it all again tomorrow. Problem was, I had already slept.
This developed into a terrible sleeping plan, that included always falling asleep with the TV on, watching baseball on channel 5 till 4am and generally knackered my sleep clock for the rest of my life.

So, its nice to see, that Benjamin seems to have inherited Christine's sleep clock. He loves his sleep.
At nearly 1 year old, he sleeps pretty well MOST nights. He naps at roughly the same times during the day and sleeps from around 7:30pm to 7:00am without too much waking.

So, just as I am about to go to bed, I see that Christine has added some photo's to her facebook pictures of Benjamin and it prompted me to write this post. Mostly because I love the pictures and I am sure all who read this have their own version of this little gallery...

first-time-daddy presents..

Benjamin at bedtime

   


       
      


 Have you got pictures like this, or is The Mrs, just crazy?

Thanks for reading!
FTD













Sunday 17 June 2012

Silent Sunday

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Inspired by...
Love All Blogs

Tuesday 12 June 2012

No more first-time-daddy?

It's not a definite decision yet, but I am seriously considering closing down this very blog, although I still love posting here, I just don't feel it reflects me as it used to anymore....



You see, if all goes to plan, by December 2012, i will be SECOND-time-daddy!
Coming in December 2012, the sequel to the cutest little boy in OUR world at least!!
And of course
Go on, click play!



That's right!
In December our little family, becomes a little less little!

So, now you see my predicament.
Do I keep the name I am currently known as, or do I change it and hope my few little followers, well.....follow?

Answers in the comments!

And of course any suggestions for a new blog name?

Saturday 9 June 2012

Uncle Brian?

When I was a kid (A looooooooooooooooong time ago), I had loads of aunties and uncles.
My mum was one of 14 children, So I grew up referring to auntie so-and-so, or Uncle whatsisname.


Aswell as the REAL aunties and uncles, I also learnt that many of the people I referred to as Auntie and Uncle were in fact simply friends of my parents. I'm not sure that this happens now-a-days? Good friends of mine are simply labelled with their name, not automatically made an auntie or an uncle.

So it was quite a surprise, that I became an 'Uncle' to a friends kids today.

I arranged with an old friend, to spend the afternoon, with him and his 2 young children. (we will call them J aged 3 and JJ aged 4). We decided as the weather wasn't great, that the easiest and safest option would be to take us and the 3 kids in tow, to a close by Play Gym.
This play gym was frequented by J and JJ quite often and although it was the first time BB had been there and only his second ever visit to a soft play, they all had a good time.

So when my friend gave J and JJ their 10 minute warning that we were going home soon, J surprisingly asked his dad the little question; "Is Uncle Brian coming to our house?"

Now, which tooth did ya say was hurtin'?
Now, I don't mind being known as 'Uncle' to kids other than my actual nephew, but I was puzzled as to why I was Uncle Brian! Unfortunately, J couldn't give a reason for calling me Uncle Brian, even if I have only ever been introduced to them by my real name.

His dad couldn't think of a reason for the funny name either, but I have been called much worse and I actually quite liked it. Even if I do look more like Uncle Buck!

So, did you have 'Uncles and 'Aunties' when you were growing up?
Have you had a similar, strange nickname from other children?
What are you known as by your friends kids?

Answers on a post card..... or in the comments box below, either is good.

As always, thanks for reading
FTD

Monday 4 June 2012

Why? A Meme Double Feature!

I have taken part in Meme's before. Some funny, some informative and some probably very boring to you all.


Why? Part 1
Part one of this meme is courtesy of my ever funnier name sake Lewis over at babberblog.


Anyway, this meme is called "why". It's dead simple. Kids like saying why. Why? Dunno. But they do. It's an indisputable FACT. Actually, my kid's only eight weeks old, so I'm going to have to assume he will, at some point, like asking why. 
The meme is our chance, as parents, to ask some questions back, so here I go:

Why is it that you always wait until I have JUST changed your nappy to fill it again?


Why don't you understand that kicking me when I am trying to fasten your baby grow, actually slows the process you are obviously trying to stop me from doing?

Why is it, when you are falling asleep on my knee, I take you to bed and you scream and refuse to sleep? You're obviously tired!!

Why have we spent all this money on toys for you, but you seem intent on stealing the dogs toys?

Why does a bottle of warm milk help you go to sleep on a night, but it doesn't when you have it for breakfast the next day?

Why is that when mummy puts you to sleep, you sleep for 2 hours and when I put you down for a nap you sleep for half an hour and are grumpy as hell because of it?

Why when we make no plans, you sleep and wake around the same time, when we make plans to go out, you oversleep and we end up being late?

Why, when I sit you down at home, you just want to crawl about, but when I take you to soft play where you can go where you like, you stay in one spot chewing a ball? 

Why do you wait until I smell your bum to see if you need changing, do you insist on unleashing an unholy fart, right in my face?

Why when you go to give me a kiss, do you open your mouth, like a great white shark attacking a boat?

I feel I could go on but instead...


Why? Part 2

I have done a Part Deux is because I was ALSO tagged by Darren over at onedad3girls.com/ with a more general themes of why?


So here goes...


Why do I never fancy, what has already been made for tea?

Why do I never notice myself looking at the time, but the day I don't wear a watch I keep glancing at my bare wrist and swearing when I realise I'm not wearing a watch!?

Why is that I always have these sort of questions, until somebody tags me in a meme especially  about these sort of questions?

Why does something that takes 5 minutes to do on a morning, knock my routine out and make me 10 minuted late?

Why do people still watch standard definition TV, when they get the HD channels free?

Why does my very loud shouty voice, scare some, but it makes my 10 month old laugh?

Why, when I have a couple hours spare time, is there nothing on telly, but when I am busy, there is always something on I want to watch?

Why can somebody tell you something important, you forget it, but the moment they tell you it's a secret, you want to tell the world and cant stop thinking about it!? 


Well, that's lot of why's?
Give me a few more months and I am sure I will have more!

As always, thanks for reading!
FTD


Saturday 2 June 2012

Silence WAS golden!



Only a couple of months ago, we would  welcome the silence of him playing with his toys or 'reading' a book to himself but now silence simply means he is up to something! He's either attacking the TV, the laptop, the dogs toys or his current favourite? The back door! Every chance he gets, he makes a break for it! (I'm sure you have all read my previous post.)

Only a couple of months ago, we would welcome the sound of silence when he eventually settled into a slumber of sleep, but now when we hear a break in crying we don't assume that he has settled, we play a game of sleep or stand.

When the screaming stops we try to decide if he has fallen asleep or is simply standing up. If he stops for more than 5 mins, we know hes found sleepville, if he stands, he simply carries on screaming until we press the reset button and we get to play again!

I'm sure you have all played the game, but I warn you, if they decide to create an event in the upcoming Olympics...I'm pretty good at it!

Have you got a similar game you play with your little one?

PS. I know that picture has nothing to do with this post, just thought it was waaaaaay cute!

As always, thanks for reading.
FTD