If you're not into singing to your baby or with your child (which is actually a really good thing to do but let's not go into this ...) you WILL appreciate the following song which I think has got to be the best dad and baby sing along song in the history of the world (ever)!

Words you need to know to sing along:

Dad: Mahnah Mahnah
Baby/kid: Do doo be-do-do
Dad: Mahnah Mahnah
Baby/kid: Do do-do do
Dad: Mahnah Mahnah
Baby/kid: Do doo be-do-do be-do-do be-do-do be-do-do-doodle do do do-doo do!

You can also switch roles if you like ... play the following to your baby/child and see what happens:

Did you know?

It's Friday and the weekend has nearly landed - time for some vintage comedy from Monty Python's Meaning of Life. If you haven't seen this in a while - turn up the PC speakers (especially if you're are work) and sing along! Here it goes ... a great song for dads - "every sperm is sacred"! :-)

-Stef

Great news for our joint parenting eduction programme with Plunket which was specifically put together to get first time dads together to "talk shop" about parenting from a male perspective. We got awarded a grant by Sovereign Sunshine to help with the nationwide expansion of the programme. YAY!

The following story was covered by several publications yesterday. The text below featured in the NZ Herald yesterday:

A training and support group for new fathers has been given a $15,000 hand-out from charity fund-raiser Sovereign Sunshine.

OK - 5 days to go to Father's Day and here's a little clip from the youtube archives. Def Jam's Shihan on the very topic ...

-Stef

Hmmm ... some bar owners these days are getting very clever about getting their message through to parents.

Sign of the times?

(as seen on Marc Serena's blog http://www.lavueltadelos25.com)

-Stef

Who would have thought that the story of how fathers managed to get into delivery suites is documented in a book called “The Trouble With Women”. The book is the story of NZ’s Parent Centres put together by Mary Dobbie. As a dad who recently had the opportunity to exercise the right to be present during my son’s birth I am grateful for the numerous people who fought bureaucracy and ignorance so that fathers could be present during labour. No doubt this story is replicated the world over with many unsung heroes paving the way. In Wellington where I live, it wasn’t until 1972 that fathers were finally allowed in the delivery suites.

-Stef

Over the past few weeks I have noticed how our little man started leaving bread crusts behind on his plate. At first I didn’t take much notice but after a while a realized that he does it on purpose (and not because he can’t bite it or isn’t hungry any more). It struck me as odd that he would this though since nobody in our house leaves bread crusts behind or cuts them off. Well – it took as a while to find out what was behind this new habit.

Call me a pedantic but for me there's something fundamentally wrong with not eating bread crusts (or even worse: cutting them off on purpose like some people do). It's like wasting food and the crust is a perfectly good part of the bread that can be eaten just like anything else. Especially when it's actually the healthiest part of a slice of bread (see research article here).

Do you feel like you need to reserve a little "me time" in your busy day as a father to stay sane? Well - you're not alone! Comedian, radio-blogger and father Ryk Goddard let's us peak into the secret world of his shed where he plays out the naughty things dads do to stay sane. Listen to a podcast with Ryk where he talks about his ideas for the show and the sneaky stories he received from other dads (like "I dressed my daughter in spots and stripes just to annoy my wife").

Here's the trailer for the series: