“Our daughter will never take a pacifier!”  ”There is NO way she will sleep in the same bed as us.”  ”I don’t care, I will just let him cry himself to sleep.”  These are all phrases that I have said or have heard a close friend of mine say.  In every instance, we were wrong.

Candidly, I thought raising my daughter would be a cinch.  I figured she would be “trainable” like one of the military members I taught or even like a pet (I know that sounds terrible).  However, it turns out they have minds of their own and…

I hear the piercing screams of my daughter through the speaker of her monitor.  She is sitting up in her crib, and something is really bothering her.  What can it be?

This happens a couple of nights a month for us.  The moment we go in there and hold her, she stops.  However, her face is soaked with tears, and she is struggling to catch her breath from all the screaming.  After rocking her for a few moments, her eyelids begin to shut ever so slowly until she is once again dreaming of whatever babies dream about.

She is most likely…

Visions of my seven-month-old chasing down my dog and knocking over chairs and decor along the way raced across my mind the other day as I was assembling the Chicco DJ Baby Walker my wife purchased.  Although I am against it in principle, I think this is a great toy.

From day one, I told my wife I am against walkers.  I personally think they are great and help to build essential leg muscles but fear the path of devastation. The Mrs. is a bit of a perfectionist and I was scared of scuffs on the wall and the scratches…

For the first three months or so, the milestones were slow rolling.  Her first car ride.  Her first walk down the street in the stroller.  All were big deals.  It was major news when my little one noticeably began to recognize us.  Now, just a few months later, none of these things even make us think.

All of these milestones we have read about in the baby books are coming to fruition very close to when the experts predicted.  She started rolling over around three months.  She gained control of her head even more quickly than that.  All of these…

When it comes to our children we want the best for them.  Often the “best” are things we didn’t have as young ones.  Maybe they’re even the things we valued the most.  Either way we want to give our children the best lives and prepare them for the future the best we can.

Two things I want to pass on are, first, love and, second, the knowledge to become financially secure.  My parents and family gave me more love then I knew what to do with.  We weren’t an affectionate family and with three brothers, emotions were not shared as…