I did a Naming Ceremony at the Church Of Scientology in Clearwater Florida, for my daughter Layna. The purpose of the ceremony is not only to welcome the baby into her family and into her community, but also to publicly delineate the roles of the parents and god-parents for all to witness. I decided […]
I wanted to share with the community our naming ceremony that we did at our Church of Scientology in Nashville, as I feel it’s an important window into our philosophy of how we welcome our children into the world, and our thoughts and hopes for their future. The various naming & christening services for our […]
When I started this website nearly 5 years ago, my wife was pregnant with our second child. We knew that we were winging it as parents (aren’t we all?), but somehow had gotten through our first pregnancy with a minimum of fuss and stress. Midway through our 2nd pregnancy, my wife & I […]
Confession: Before I had my first child, I was factually petrified that my children wouldn’t really bond with me. Would my kids actually like being around me? Would we get along? When I first started dating my wife at age 22, I never really had a second thought as to whether or not I […]
Yesterday I had a parent ask me a very interesting question that I had to think about for a bit. The question was about baby swings. It was about the hypnotic sound they make and were there any references regarding the use of baby swings. Well honestly I don’t know of any references regarding baby […]
As a mom, I sometimes have a tendency to second guess the decisions I make about how I’m raising my kids. Especially when I’m confronted with another’s parenting choice. When you’re expecting your first (or second or third child), you can be faced with all sorts of choices: Am I going to have a natural […]
In responding to folks on our Google+ page and Facebook pages regarding breastfeeding, I just realized that I neglected to mention that for a second time, my wife was selected as a cover girl for the IBFAN Breastfeeding Calendar, this time for their 2013 calendar. She had made it on the cover of the 2011 […]
With all of the media attention now being given the subject of Scientology & parenting, I thought it pertinent to post this – a little missive my mother wrote for me, detailing a part of her life I actually had no prior knowledge of: how it was that she ended up in Scientology in the […]
Baby 365 Project 2.0, a set on Flickr. Seeing as both of my kids were born in the Internet Era, I figured it would be fun to keep track of both of their first years with a daily photo log in Flickr. It’s actually been easier than keeping a daily journal like my mom did […]
Getting through “teething babies” is a basic rite of passage for any parent. Two simultaneous teething babies is the higher-skill-level version of that. In my household, we just got through two weeks of some of the most abyssmal sleep imaginable while my 2-year-old daughter worked on cutting her molars, and my 8-month-old son worked on […]
After writing earlier articles about how much I’ve been consciously trying to allow my daughter to help around the house, and to allow her to contribute – even when we’re nervous about the “help” she may provide, the strategy is obviously paying off. As you can see from the video above, even though she’s just […]
I just got the following story from Alisa D, a Portland-area mother who recently had her second boy. As part of her preparations for the baby, she and her husband did the Having a Happy Baby Course at her local Church of Scientology of Portland. Here’s what she had to say: My husband and […]
I’ve had a number of questions, on this site, on our Facebook page, and on various other forums, about Barley Formula. A number of direct questions came from my earlier post on my wife as a breastfeeding centerfold model, but I wanted to answer some of these questions directly here. Barley Formula vs. Breastfeeding I […]
Climbing the Couch to the Music, originally uploaded by tadnkat. Had to share this because, well, it’s a bit too cute. This is my 7-month-old, climbing the couch in a way which is almost perfectly choreographed to the music in the background. Astute listeners will no doubt recognize the soundtrack in the background as the […]
This is, I think, the most epic bout of cute baby laughter on the entire Internet. Perhaps I’m only saying it because I’m the daddy, but I think it at least ranks up there: Other laughing baby movies – for your viewing pleasure: No need to weep or rant or rave Or grind your teeth […]
This fantastic story was submitted by my Aussie friend Sonya, a fellow Scientologist who just had her first child. Okay so here is my story. I was past my due date by about one and half weeks. I was freaking out a bit as they wanted to induce the labor which I was not […]
Mackenzie by Months, a set on Flickr. I think it’s officially when kids turn two that you’re disallowed from saying how many months old they are, and instead just say, “They’re Two” or “She’s two and a half.” But until then, I’ve decided to keep a running set of my favorite photos of my daughter, […]
I swear, my wife has one of the most enviable jobs on the planet. This summer, while we prepare ourselves for our daughter to start attending preschool this fall, my wife has been being a stay-at-home mom, whilst also trying to jam in some other various projects like helping our local church. As such, she […]
Nearly all of my posts last summer were related to a single topic: preparing ourselves for the new arrival so that we would give our baby the best start possible. The aim was fairly simple: we wanted to have a happy baby. Now, like so many expecting parents, we went a little overboard, trying to […]
Celebrating International Kids Snuggle With Daddy Day, originally uploaded by tadnkat. My wife & I have been asked pretty constantly whether we’re experiencing problems with our daughter now that our son is around, due to our focusing attention on the baby or something. We have no such problem – there’s always enough snuggles to go […]