Did I REALLY Just Say That?
Apr 24th
Happy Fatherhood Friday!It happens to all of us (maybe). You swear and promise yourself that you will never sound like your parents. You will never say the same things that you heard growing up. Then, out of nowhere, all of those old sayings and clichés start rolling off of your tongue along with a bunch of new things that you would never think could come out of your mouth.
A perfect example of saying things you never thought you would say is the other day we had to calmly explain to our 3 year old that she should never push her little brother’s face into a pillow. And in return I got the super sweet and happy, “OK daddy.” It’s always this kind of stuff that makes being a parent one of the greatest jobs ever. Some other classics include:
- That tiara looks good on you. – to my son
- Bend over so I can clean your junk.
- Let me smell your hands.
- That is not your bebo, it’s your penis.
- Is that breast milk in the fridge or regular milk?
What are some crazy statements that have come out of you since being a parent? Boy I hope I’m not the only one. 
I also found a few good ones on Strollerderby as well for your enjoyment. Have a great weekend!
b
Connecting Families Via Webconferencing
Apr 22nd
This is a quick post meant mostly for those out there who may need a little push to help them decide if webconferencing is something they would like to use. My wife and I both come from divorced parents so we have family members all over the country. I don’t have to tell you that trying to physically visit everyone just doesn’t work. It’s far too expensive and we just don’t have the time. We have incorporated Skype to help us keep connected with those we love and it works perfectly. A great example is when Grammie sends the kids a little something for Easter or just out of the kindness of her heart, we can open the package with her and she can then see the kids’ joy in real time. Considering she lives almost 2000 miles away, this is pretty amazing. We have also started using a protected Twitter account that both of us update constantly to let everyone know what we are doing on more of a micro level. It also works as a kind of diary. It’s a great help to keep our family close.
For those who don’t even know where to begin I have found a great link to give you everything you may need. It will give you a nice overview of the hardware and software that you will need. Have fun!
b
Fathering and Grandfathering from a Distance: Webconferencing – via About.com
Technorati Tags: parents,parenting,dads,fathers,fatherhood,grandparents,technology,webconferencing,skype
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Help Me Choose A WordPress Theme
Apr 21st
I’d like to talk a bit about the blog again if I may. I’ve already ranted about my issues with WordPress and now that they seem to be fixed (mostly) I can’t help but think that maybe a theme change might help even more. While all indications seem to point to a WP issue I can’t help but think that a more efficient theme would take care of things once and for all because quite frankly, I’m not a fan of being back on WP 2.6.5.
Presently the site is running Atahualpa 3.3.2 from Bytes For All. Overall I absolutely love it. It looks good, it’s clean, it’s very easy to customize with tons of options and you never really have to touch code if you don’t want to. Having a “control panel” for the theme itself is a tremendous help. I’ve used themes in the past and if I ever wanted to do any sort of customization you had to go in and edit the code via WP Admin. Not with this theme though, I have yet to touch code. Also, whenever a new version is released all I have to do in drop it in, all the settings stay.
So what I’d like to find is something that has the same “control panel” for changes and customization but maybe a bit lighter and is a bit more efficient. I have thought a lot about Thesis but I’m not too sure that I am ready to shell out cash for a theme yet. I guess I would if I really saw the value and it made sense. Also, I’d like it to be similar format/style, 3 columns etc.
If you have any ideas or suggestions please let me know. I’d love to hear what you have to say.
b
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To Dog Or Not To Dog
Apr 17th
We are not there yet but we are getting close. Our kids haven’t brought up the idea of getting a dog or some other pet but it’s coming. I can feel it. Our oldest has mentioned pets briefly in the past but we were able to quickly diffuse the situation. I must also preface this by letting you know that I’m not the biggest fan of animals in the house anyway. I’ve had some bad experiences. It’s not that we are totally against getting a pet of some sort but we really want to wait for both kids to get a little older so they can have a say in the decision. The biggest issue however is what kind of pet to get. That’s where we get into trouble.
What They DIDN’T Tell You
Apr 14th
Here is a truthful, sobering and mostly humorous list of things that no one usually tells you when you are going to be parents. You always here about how changing diapers is so disgusting and you will never sleep again, but these are the hidden goodies that you never realize or find out about until you are in the game. Some wonderful examples include:
3) You have no time
This seems obvious, but you can’t believe just how little time you have. You start to measure things out in minutes and seconds. “If he watches Curious George for 20 more seconds, I can go to the bathroom,” or “If his nap lasts another 10 minutes, maybe I can get in a shower today.”4) Not going to the bathroom by yourself
When your kids are babies, the bathroom is the only place you can get your head together. It’s also one of the only places you can actually read. I read ESPN’s Bill Simmons’ entire book over the course of the week in the bathroom when my youngest was a baby. And then he turned two. If he’s not forcing his way in to watch “how it’s really done” he’s banging on the door screaming “lemme in!” or sliding all his books underneath. There is no peace with toddlers.
What is really great, in my opinion, is that these are usually the things that make parenting amazing. Discovering new things about your kids and yourself is the best part. Although, I’m not sure that I really EVER want to find out about pin worms. Not really my cup of tea.
b
10 Things No One Tells You About Parenthood – via MSN – via Strollerderby
WordPress Frustrations
Apr 13th
The past number of days have been extremely frustrating for me with regards to this site. The loading speed of the overall public site as well as the admin page has come to an excruciating crawl. While it has gotten better (slightly), I’m still not even close to getting it to where I want it and where it needs to be. I thought that I’d share what I’ve been dealing with both for your benefit, (if you have a WordPress blog) and to hopefully get some helpful tips from some of my terrific readers.
Feedburner Change
Apr 13th
Sorry folks, I had to make a slight change to the Feedburner address. If your subscription doesn’t update itself please re-subscribe using the new address. I hate to do that to you but it needed fixing. Thanks!
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/smartfathers
b
Easter As Non-Christians
Apr 10th
I’m going to go a bit out of my comfort zone here for a while and talk about something that I normally keep to myself because that’s exactly how I think it should be. Religion. This tends to be one of those topics that almost seems taboo in certain arenas but I’d like to dabble a bit if I may. Mostly because I can be an antagonist sometimes but you’ll learn that soon enough.
