Apparently, I didn't start off as "The Natural". I had my fair share of goofs with the kids early on. For instance, is it really necessary to deceive fathers with the "buttons on the back" shirts to this degree? The apparel manufacturers got me a couple times on this. There's just something instinctive about buttons that scream "Front of Shirt!!". I've shown up on more than one occasion, proud that I dressed Kevin and had him all ready to go only to be met by laughter that his shirt was on backwards.


That's not as bad as when I put his diapers over his leggings though, I was real tired that day.



For my first son's Christening, I accidentally rammed my elbow right into the letters just before we served the cake. Whoops! I caught flak for the rest of the party. But I feel that I recovered with flying colors...










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Now, tell me this wasn't landing right on my feet, nothing a few blueberries can't fix:

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Finally, I used to take the kid out to get the mail or go for a quick ride in the car dressed a little skimpier than this. This is how my wife dressed Kevin in the winter. Remind anyone of Ralphie from "A Christmas Story"? I really got it when she caught us outside in the winter in tee-shirts.
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So, the question is...Are dads really that clueless and moms just instinctively know what to do? Or do moms kind of gloss over these goofs and not publicize them? Are you guys really that good?
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So Ryan, our 11 month old just started to crawl. About a day or two after starting, he's already pulling himself up and exploring. We have an adjustable crib that was set at the lowest setting for our older son when we moved him out. Once Ryan went in, I moved it back up so we wouldn't have to bend down so far in order to pull him out all the time since he was essentially immobile for the first several months of his life. Now that he's crawling and pulling himself up, I have to adjust the setting to bring it back down so he doesn't come tumbling out one night. I thought that with him in the sleep sack at night, that might buy me an extra few days to slow him down, but he's determined. This is a reminder to you dads to lower that setting if your crib is set up as such right around when they start crawling. I'll be doing mine tonight. Until next time...

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My wife is emphatic that everything we did for our first son must be duplicated exactly or the second son will feel short-changed. I can hear it now at 18 years old, "Mom, Kevin had a picture done every month for his first year and I only had 10 months of the year done, now I get the bigger car". She's definitely very thoughtful in that way, I have to respect it as much as I bust on her. That being said, today it was time for Ryan's 11 month picture. Since I never make it to these, I made today's and did a shot or 50 with him. I thought the shoot would never end, but after about 30 minutes of him teetering between laughing and crying, we got enough shots to sort through and pick out for his "official" 11 month shot. We strategically used his older brother Kevin as the jester to make him laugh with his fake sneezing and fancy footwork dance moves. The "tickler" the photographer was using actually freaked him out.







We used Picture People in a local mall. They actually have some sort of deal where if you join their club for $39.95, it ends up being cheaper if you go there at least 3 times a year, as opposed to paying each time you go as a non-club member. The photographer was great with the baby, very patient, and in the end, helped us pick out a shot to go with. If so desired, they'll walk you through a ranking system to eliminate the other 49 or so shots. Following our shoot, they needed about 30 minutes to upload the shots. If it's something you haven't done with your kid as a dad, it's not a bad gig at all; something you might regret not having done years later. Just find something to do while waiting; I had dinner with my older son Kevin while the wife shopped (surprise!). The pictures are essentially treated as intellectual property. You can't just have them email you the shots or buy them for what they cost to print obviously; their costs are available on their site below. If you decide you want to purchase more shots later instead of buying a bunch at the shoot, you can do so through the internet, but watch out, they remove them after a month or two if you don't purchase. All in all, it was a good experience and worth the wait.


http://www.picturepeople.com/clubs/portrait_club.asp?m_1=5&m_2=1&m_3=0&f=

Disclosure: This IS NOT a Pay-Per-Post advertisement. This is simply a link to their site. To date, I have never posted anything as Pay-Per-Post on any blogs.

Dan

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About the Everyday Dad:

I thought I'd take this opportunity to introduce myself, my family and the intent of my blog, Everyday Dad. I'm a regular guy in my 30s with a wonderful wife, two highly energetic boys of 3 and another about to turn 1, a dog and a cat. Kevin is our 3 year old and Ryan is about to celebrate his first birthday party. These two have provided us with endless laughs and enjoyment and I've pulled enough "stupid dad tricks" like dressing the kids wrong, forgetting to put that plunger in the sippy cup and putting my son's shoes on the wrong feet, that I thought I'd share some of these funny experiences with whoever's interested.

Why did I start this blog and where'd the title come from?

I've had some mild success over the past few months with my first blog, Everyday Finance (http://www.everydayfinance.blogspot.com/). I happen to enjoy personal finance and investing (possibly because I don't work in the field, so it's continually new and exciting) and had some ideas and investment strategies that I utilize personally that aren't generally covered in the mainstream press or relayed to investors by financial advisers and the like. As several of these strategies provide diversification and meet or exceed the returns of the major U.S. indices, the traffic and revenue have accelerated to a point that it's been rewarding and enjoyable enough to continue to post.

From there, I started a little bit of a network of different "everyday" type topics, from websites and health to starting your own blog, outlining the success factors that make it worthwhile. Of late, I've been questioning, "Do I really like these other topics that much, especially given the time commitments and paltry income from these secondary sites?". All along, I've thought it would be rewarding to start up a Dad blog, but continued to focus on the finance site and the more closely linked secondary sites. Well, although the two have very little in common and I probably won't get much cross-traffic, I've decided to just move forward for the enjoyment part. What I've observed with the finance site is that if the content's truly good, your intentions and information are legitimate and you get the word out, the ad revenue, links, networking and general enjoyment from interacting with others sharing similar experiences and stories will follow. So, here goes nothing, welcome to Everyday Dad!

Dan


Say Hi to Kevin and Ryan:

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