So grab a beer in your favourite beer stein, or a glass of wine in your favourite long-stemmed glass, sit back, relax, and enjoy… hope you get a good laugh out of them… laughter is the best relief for your parenting stress!

These are a bit more geared toward you dads out there, but moms, I’m sure you’ll find these funny too.  Cheers!

And, last but not least, one of my favourites……..

Hope you enjoyed them!  Leave a comment with your thoughts…. agreement/disagreement… or your fave one!

Until next time…

Return to Parenting – The Dad Jam Home

With Christmas just gone by, and New Year’s fast approaching, ’tis the season giving and sharing.  In that spirit, here at The Dad Jam we have an awesome contest for you to take part in, with an awesome prize to win!

Before you read any further… this contest is open only to residents of Canada (excluding Quebec)… so if you live anywhere outside of Canada, or live in Quebec, you won’t be able to enter.  Feel free to read on though, to see what you’re missing

And now, onto the contest!  First and foremost, the prize… what’s in it for you:

One [1] Unlimited To Go Bundle Package from Mobilicity (includes HTC Snap Smartphone+ 3 months of the $35 Unlimited Talk, & Text Holiday Plan) for FREE.  See photo.

That means, you get an HTC Snap Smartphone that is yours to keep forever, even after the free 3 months of calling are over.   You get three months of free talk and text on the phone (sorry, Data is not included in the plan), and when the three months are over, you are under no obligation to continue the plan, and you will not encounter any charges at all for the phone nor for the three month period that you used the plan.

Its a great deal, I hope you enter!

To enter to win this prize from The Dad Jam, simply tweet the following from your Twitter account:

I entered to win a free Smartphone & 3 months of free Unlimited Talk & Text #mobilicityjam http://wp.me/pjaVc-kS

And leave a comment here with your twitter ID (this will also help me to contact the winner).  The winner will be chosen at random from all eligible entries.  That’s it!  Note: this contest closes on January 7, 2011.

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At the same time, I would also like to encourage you to go to Mobilicity’s Facebook page and “Like” Mobilicity’s page.  Mobilicity will donate $1 to the S’Cool Life Fund for every “Like” they get, up to $10,000.  That means if you, and 9,999 other kind people “Like” Mobilicity’s page, they will donate a total of $10,000 to the S’Cool Life Fund.  Now that’s pretty amazing.

But wait, there’s more!

If you “Like” Mobilicity’s Facebook Page, you will also be entered to win one of the following 10 prizes:

One [1] Grand Prize – An Unlimited To Go Package (HTC Snap smartphone + 3 months of the $35 Unlimited Talk, Text and more Plan) and $1,000 cash from Mobilicity!

Nine [9] Unlimited To Go Packages (HTC Snap smartphone + 3 months of the $35 Unlimited Talk, Text and more plan).

Note: the Facebook “Like” contest is a separate contest from the giveaway we are doing here at The Dad Jam, but I encourage you to enter both, for your best chance to win.  That means, to enter both contests, you must tweet the above tweet and leave a comment (to enter The Dad Jam’s contest), and “Like” Mobilicity’s Facebook page (to enter Mobilicity’s contest and effect the donation to the S’Cool Life Fund.

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Additional info:

S’Cool Life Fund is a national non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing Canadian elementary public school programs.  Visit http://www.scoollifefund.ca/ for more information.

Each year the S’Cool Life Fund supports on average 100 projects across Canada. This year however they will be funding 232 projects… their highest ever.  They support DREAMS – Drama, Recreation, Extra-Curricular, Arts, Music, or Sports.  S’Cool does not look to fund core academic subjects, but instead those areas that fall outside of the core curriculum but are no less important for a child’s development.

Prize Eligibility:
Only legal residents of Canada (excluding Quebec) who are at least 18 years of age can enter.

Facebook Mobilicity Sweepstakes Starts:
December 23 @ 1:00pm (EST)
or sooner

Facebook MobilicitySweepstakes Ends:
January 22 @ 8:00pm (EST)

The Dad Jam Twitter Contest Ends:

January 7 @ 8pm (EST)

Disclaimer: This post and contest are part of a Mobilicity promotion organized by Matchstick Inc.  The prize will be issued by Mobilicity.  For hosting this giveaway and sharing this contest with you, I will also receive a phone and plan!  Yay!  So head on over to Twitter and tweet the following to enter now!

I entered to win a free Smartphone & 3 months of free Unlimited Talk & Text #mobilicityjam http://wp.me/pjaVc-kS

Return to Parenting – The Dad Jam Home

Let me just say that the kitchen renovation is going well, and preparing a wall for painting is a lot more work than I thought and I am not patient enough to do it properly, ahem.

But we’re almost there – holes are filled and sanded, and the primer is on.  Just a few more touch-ups and we’ll be ready to paint.

I am SO glad that we hired pros to install the cabinets and lay the tiles though.  Otherwise you wouldn’t be getting a proper jam from me until next Christmas (being optimistic).

I should be back in full effect later this week, brand-new kitchen and all.  I might have some photos for you too.

Stay tuned, and in the meantime, scroll down to the “Random Posts” section of this page and pick a random jam to read!

Return to Parenting – The Dad Jam Home

Flickr Photo courtesy of massdistraction

So I just wanted to thank the team at the Waikato Home Birth Association for putting The Dad Jam into print and spreading the good word all the way to their base in New Zealand.

The Jams that were printed were:

Thoughts on how to help the wife

Rediscovering another calming baby hold

What would we do without our Didymos? and

Thoughts on Home Birth

Thank-you Waikato Home Birth Association for putting the Dad Jam on hard copy!

Return to Parenting – The Dad Jam Home

First of all, I added a new Jam Archives Page.  I used to have links to my archives in the sidebar, but now you can find my archives by clicking on the Jam Archives link on the menu bar at the top of every page, just underneath the logo.  The cool thing about the Jam Archives page is that you can click on any month to expand and collapse it.  Expanding any particular month will show all the Jams we made in that month, with the date, title and link to the Jam.  It looks pretty snazzy, check it out!

Secondly, I added a Press page.  On the Press page, you can find all the places where The Dad Jam is receiving or has received press.  This includes where the Dad Jam is listed on other blogs and sites, or where particular Jams from The Dad Jam have been mentioned or referred to on the web.  It is very swanky and was created using an idea the I got from Jessica Knows, from her 15 days of Marketing Series… in particular, her Day Seven tip. It is a great idea that greatly simplifies Press page creation, so give it a read if you are interested in creating something similar.  If you have mentioned the Dad Jam on your site and you don’t find it in my Press page, please contact me with a link to the site where you mentioned the Dad Jam.  If you mention the Dad Jam on your site, you can be sure I will link to it on my Press Page.

Third, I added a bunch of About pages.  These include “About My Ads,” “About the Head Jammer,” and “Site Navigation.”  Each of these pages is intended to give you more information about me and this site, so please peruse them at your leisure!

The Official Jammer Badge

Fourth and finally, I added some nifty badges to the Media Page.  If you are interested in including a Dad Jam badge on your site or blog, please feel free to do so.  The code needed to add the badge is given on the Media Page.

I hope these upgrades help make this site more interesting, useful and easier to navigate for you.

Please leave a comment with any feedback that you have on these changes!

Return to Parenting – The Dad Jam Home

Is there hope for me with a diaper bag like this?

I must be really tired, because somehow I just managed to let my wife, who I will now call Love Buns in this and all future posts, buy a glammed-up diaper bag.  What is the problem with a glammed-up diaper bag, you ask?  Well, nothing, except that I will most likely be the one sporting it everytime we go out together or I take Sweet Cheeks out by myself.

Take a look at the photo.  Now read the description of the bag as per the site where we bought it:

“The DUO diaper bag…all glammed up!
The DUO Glam is the perfect diaper bag for stylish moms who want the DUO design in a gorgeous, multicolored dot pattern and lightweight laminated cotton canvas.”

Key words:  glammed, stylish, moms, gorgeous, multicolored

How am I ever going to pull this one off?  It is hard enough for me to look cool with my current clothing and accessory pool (or lack thereof).  Now I have to try and pull off a “cool and laid back dad” look while toting my gorgeous, stylish, glamour bag.  Any ideas how to make this work?

Need to find a way to offset this and detract attention from it.  Maybe a really cool hat would do the trick (maybe that is where the term “Hat Trick” comes from…).

At least it has a lot of pockets… maybe I can fit my Archos 605 Wifi in one of them and try and look like I am making a fashion statement with the bag.  Or maybe if David Beckham starts sporting the same one it will suddenly become cool and I will be the hottest dad on the block.

Let me know if you still think there is hope for me!  Will definitely let you know how it is when we get it and maybe post a picture of me with it… if I am not too embarrassed!

What type of diaper bag do you use?  Did you compromise to get a unisex bag, do you have a man-bag, or do you just use a glamour bag, like I will?

P.S.  Love buns, if you are reading this, I love you and please forgive me!

I will do a poll next week to determine the best caption of all the captions submitted, and the winning caption and winner will be featured in a special future blog post.  So take part and submit a caption for this photo!

Cheers!

Looking at this photo makes me feel so poetic. Wishing you a relaxing Friday and weekend.

I thought I would share a couple of poems to celebrate the last day of the week and the iminent start of the weekend. I made these up (just in case you couldn’t tell ):

A Friday Haiku for my six and a half week old daughter:

Summer turns to fall
You are getting bigger now
Less projectile-poo

And for my two and a half year old boy, a limerick:

It was five o’clock in the morn,
I was feeling tired and worn,
You woke up and said “eeee”
“I have to go pee!”
I was happy you didn’t eat corn.

Not sure if I will be able to post this weekend, as my father-in-law is now in town and staying with us (will let you know how that goes). But if I get a chance, I will.

Next week should be a good week… expecting a special guest post and plan on sharing another baby calming technique that we rediscovered recently that has been working magic for us.

Have a great weekend, and feel free to join the jam and share your own Friday Poetry!

Baby in sling while flying a kite... how's that for multi-tasking?

On a windy labour day holiday weekend in Vancouver, what better outdoor activity can one undertake besides flying a kite?  This was the thought running through our heads this morning, so we set a plan to fly a kite in motion.

Of course, we don’t have a kite, so our first stop was the Granville Island Kid’s Market, where there is a pretty cool store that sells all kinds of kites.  Bypassing the “beginner” $100 models, we settled on an “easy to fly” version with a pretty dolphin on top, with a price tag that was reasonable enough that we could let our boy fly it into a tree with minimal regret or guilt.  Our son chose the one with the dolphin… I had taken quite nicely to one with the skull and crossbones, but I was overruled.  Actually, we gave our boy a choice between the dolphin one and an octopus one.  “That one..” he said, with absolute certainty, pointing to the dolphin one.  And so the dolphin one it was.  We forked over the 22 bucks and headed on our way (not before stopping at Pedro’s for a coffee and a cookie, of course).

After a short walk (that seemed rather long) through a goose-poo-peppered path, we arrived at our destination.  Vanier Park.  The wind was blowing well, so we were set to go.

A few failed attempts at flying the kite later, we managed to get some decent elevation.  We were all stoked.  Except for our boy of course.  He held the string a few times, but was more concerned with the amount of goose-poo on the ground.  I pondered the mystery of the goose-poo for a bit.  “There is a $2000 dollar fine for dogs to poo here,” I thought, “yet these 10 or 20 geese here can poo all around to their heart’s content (and they do), without so much as having to drop a dime.”  Who’s fining the geese?  A mystery that may never be solved, but a real cash-cow that is not being capitalized on by our Parks Board.

So I held our boy in my arms (he refused to stand amons so much poo), sweet wife held our daughter in the sling, and we were having more fun flying the kite than the kids.  At least it let me get in touch with my inner child again… it had already been a few hours since I had done that.

“I want to go to the playground” exclaimed our boy, amid complaints of the abundance of goose-poo on the ground.  So we packed it in and started heading back.  Shortly after, he was asleep on my shoulder.  Now he’ll probably be up till 10pm tonight.

It was a fun time overall and we all really enjoyed it, despite the small hiccups along the way.  And what did our boy say when I pointed up at the kite earlier, asking him to take a look at the pretty kite?  …..  “I want the octopus.”  Argh.