The joys of parenthood....

When they get a bit older try Phineas and Ferb on the Disney channel. I love me some Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated!

Signing helps immensely. We taught our daughter some basic signs (more, eat, play, all done) and a few others. Same as you we started doing it early and really picked it up once we started to introduce the idea of meal time. She is a very happy baby, unless you are trying to take her bottle away or put her to bed, to begin with but being able to communicate before she could speak helped a ton. She never really got frustrated as she could tell us what she wanted for the most part and if not, she would point.

Also baby speak is helpful, but simply talking to them and interacting with them in an adult way helps them learn also. We don't allow the TV on around her so regardless of what we are doing no matter how boring we explain it to her, we describe every detail and object and it really helped her. It may seem like she was just staring blankly, but by 6 months she could follow along. If we mentioned an object she would look at it, and could recognize and point to pretty much everything in her surroundings when prompted. She was starting to speak by 8 months and now at 13 months she has an extensive (for a baby) vocabulary.

I am by far an expert on the subject of child raising, but I think the three best things you can do for your child are turning off the TV so the interaction is not interrupted, read to them and teach them signing to get the communication process started early. It is not about building a baby Einstein, simply giving your child a solid learning foundation to build upon as they grow. It seems like by doing those things it has helped many other things click into place much easier.

Nothing can replace the joys of being a full-time parent. I hope to share other parenthood posts with members here at http://www.jetcareers.com

Matt we used basic signs too with our youngest as she has a speech delay. It helped a fair amount until she started talking.

Our 2.5 year old does 1 & 2 fine, makes it through the night, but, often can't be bothered to go. When it's worth it to her, she will do it by herself ( no pull ups, she just takes off her diaper)

UPDATE / she's using her little potty and even uses the child sized seat adapter for the "big" potty now and usually we can put her down for her nap in a flannel reinforced cotton thing my wife made and she'll wake up dry. This little firecracker knows what's up!

When our daughter was born my wife and I decided we would write a parenting book as we became experts on child rearing. Our daughter's first words were "Please" and "Thank you". She never wandered off. She potty trained on her own at about 2 years. Then... our son came along. We decided to shelve writing the book for a while as we dealt with someone who wandered off the second you turned your back. I remember one time I was non-reving with my kids when he was four and talking with the gate agent about the standby list. Someone taps on my shoulder- I turn and it's a cop with my son in tow. I'd noticed him at the phone bank looking for money (learned that from big sister), and I guess he figured out that if you call 911 a nice person will answer the phone. So he'd been going up and down the line dialing 911. The first night I was home after demobilizing he comes into our room that night and says, "Mommy, what is Daddy doing in MY bed." We had a little talk about the sleeping arrangements now that I was home. Girls? For crying out loud... how can a four year old be girl crazy. He is 12 now and we are not looking forward to the teenage years. My daughter's friends keep telling her that he is soooo hot- they wish he were older so they could date him. Boy, that goes over well.
Of course now that my daughter is a teenager we look back at those times with our son fondly. Her parents are the dumbest people in the world. Her life is SOOO hard, we have no idea how hard it is. Like OMG, her cell phone is six months old. It's ancient. We did not send her to Europe for the summer. Why does her little brother need to go skiing with us?? Dad, why are you skiing with me and my friends? Go away. One hour later a text from her (why do teens never just call you), "Dad, you forgot to give me money for lunch and I forgot my wallet at home." Speaking of wallet, "Dad, what's the big deal about losing it. So Mom has to write a letter to her commander explaining why I lost my military ID. What's the big deal?" There should be a "ditzy blond teenage daughter" clause in the military for lost dependent ID's.
She use to love having me come in her room and lie on her bed before she went to sleep so we could talk. Now it's "What are you doing in my room?" We got tired of her attitude once and took the door off the hinges. She threatened to call CPS and Amnesty International. That book we were writing? We burned it. Our hope is that whatever we did is never passed on to other parents.

I am going to delete this post from my memory so I can live in ignorance for a few more years. I am not looking forward to the teenage years what so ever.

What's really cool is that my daughter and wife are going through their respective hormonal stages at the same time. Yeee haw!

I hope you have a basement or garage you can escape to.

hahahaha oh to relive my teen years

Been there, done that.

How old is she? Use sign language.....it's a great way to get them communicating and they enjoy that you understand them

She will be 2 in April.

Anyone have the joy of your kids getting a Norra type virus this year? I can't tell you how may blowout diapers my wife and I changed and how many times the bedding went to the wash at 2am. Ahh the joys of parent hood.

I take consolation from the knowledge that some day she will meet a boy, they will fall in love, get married, and she can torment him instead. Maybe even have a teenage daughter of her own... no, not one. That would not be enough punishment. Several teenage girls at once. Yeah. That's it.
I asked her once why she seems to go out of her way to PO Mom. She responded that it's kind of her hobby to her and she gets a level of satisfaction from watching Mom get spooled up.

So I have that going for me....

Yeah, not before you're expected to shell out for that wedding....one final insult.

Had a lot of fun the other night with my 4 & 6 year old daughters....The wife and put them to bed in our room for the night then setup their new bunk beds.

Sending them down in the morning to see the new bed set was like watching Christmas all over and/or a MC commerical

Bunkbeds .....a bunch $$$
Aleve for the sore muscles $8
See the kids so excited...Priceless

BTW after a month the youngest is finally over the Norro virus...