Posts

Daughter Window

Oh, The Places She’ll Go

/1 Comment/in , /by

When the doctor informed my wife and I that we were going to be having a daughter, a wave of panic came over me. It wasn’t that I didn’t think I would be a good enough father, it was more the fact that I had spent so much of my life around guys that I wasn’t sure how different life would be with a little girl around. You see, it had been well over 70 years since there had been a girl born on my father’s side of the family. My grandfather had four sons, three of them had two sons each and then two of us had boys as our first children. To say the odds were against us having a daughter would be a giant understatement.

Still, there she was, a beautiful baby girl staring back at me, wrapped in a pink blanket and wearing a pink knitted hat. She has been in my life for just over five years now and I can honestly say that having a little girl has changed the way I think about almost everything. Just when I think I have her figured out she never fails to throw me a curve ball. She fell in love with princesses and ballet so I assumed she was going to be a girlie girl. Next thing I know she’s running Spartan Races, destroying rock walls and bowling kids over at her soccer games.

Kids Spartan Race

Just this past weekend we went camping at the KOA in Cardinal and they have a gigantic inflatable water slide. If I’m being completely honest, I’m a bit of a scaredy cat when it comes to rides and heights in general so I was hoping my kids wouldn’t be interested in the water slide. I got off the hook with my son because he was preoccupied with the Kids Bingo event but I could tell by the daredevil look in her eyes that there would be no denying her this adventure. Due to her lack of height she needed a parent to go up the ladder with her and, after my wife vanished in a puff of smoke, I ended up drawing the short straw. Here is an example of what we were going up against, although the picture does it no justice.

KOA Cardinal Water Slide

A funny thing happened on the way up to the top of the slide. My fear of heights vanished and was instead replaced by pride at watching her fearlessly climb her way to the top. As it turns out, her fearlessness helped me conquer one of my fears, which was a lot to process afterward. As we conquered the slide together I was reminded of the new Quaker video, The Recital (shown below), from earlier in the week and have since vowed to do more crazy and goofy things with my kids going forward. Life had gotten a little too serious lately and when that happens it can be easy to lose sight of what’s important. Let your freak flag fly, people, and enjoy the smiles that follow!

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Quaker.

Children Telling Stories #1 – The Princess and the Underpants

/0 Comments/in , /by

 Something I have noticed about my children is that they love performing for a camera. Whether it’s dancing, singing, telling stories or making up new languages, they always ask to be taped and then come running to watch and laugh at the playback. I’m guessing they get their narcissism from their dad and I think it’s great! I’m always happy to let my kids express their creative sides and these stories have become an important part of our bonding process. That said, I have decided to publish some of them in a segment called, Children Telling Stories, and will hopefully be posting one story a week.

In this week’s story, my daughter tells the story of the magical princess, who ends up in a waterpark after taking a magic carpet ride and needs to clean some underpants. Enjoy!

How Princesses Provided A Fairy Tale Ending For One Little Girl

/29 Comments/in , /by

Official Princess Parties

The opinions on Princess culture run from those who love everything about the fairy tale stories, to those who think princesses are ruining our little girls and driving us further into debt with all the commercialization. I have always been in the middle. I love how much my little girl adores the princess culture but I don’t think it’s turning her into anything more than a little girl who has found something she loves.

I had a change of opinion this past week, however, when something amazing happened. My friend Christine, who blogs for “Life on Manitoulin”, was forced to take an emergency helicopter ride with her 4 year old daughter, who was experiencing severe stomach pains. When they got to Ottawa and were released from CHEO, following the little one’s surgery, I got the chance to spend some time with them. Her little one, tough as nails by the way, started telling me all about her favourite princesses, as little girls do.

Christine had asked me if I thought we would be able to hire a princess on such short notice and seeing as how I am no stranger to hanging out with and writing about all things princess, I decided to try to help out. I called Official Princess Parties, a company that has already impressed me in the past, and I definitely wasn’t prepared for the kindness that followed.

I explained why I needed someone on such short notice and the owner mentioned that they were all booked up for the next couple weeks, but would send out a feeler to see if anyone was interested in the extra work. Not one minute later, while we were still on the phone, she had already received 3 messages back with people saying they wanted to help out. That would have been enough for me to sing their praises but the owner then mentioned that she wanted to provide this visit, to cheer up a scared little girl, on the house, and my heart exploded. Our princess showed up that night and had everyone mesmerized and smiling from ear to ear. She was perfect and it is exactly the thing that little girl needed at that moment.

Long story short, you can think whatever you want about the effects of princess culture, but this single event and watching the joy on that little girl’s face was enough to convince me of the overwhelming positives that can come from it. At the pace life is moving these days, sometimes it’s just nice to let kids be kids, and when it comes to princesses, I am fine with doing just that. Thank you to the amazing staff at Official Princess Parties for making this little girl’s pain a little more bearable.

Princess Funny Faces

Princess Beauty Julia

Princess Tiara

Potty Training Success with the Pull-Ups Big Kid App!

/8 Comments/in /by

Pull Ups Big Kid App

I was surprised to get a call from the folks at Huggies the other day, asking if I wanted to work on their newest promotion with them. There has been a little bit of friction between Huggies and Dads over the last year, so it was nice to have a chat with them and to hear that they are committed to showing Dads as the caring parents that most of us are.

Their newest product, called The Pull-Ups Big Kid App, has come along at the perfect time in our house. My daughter is in her Pull-Up years right now and is slowly making her way towards potty independence! Something else she has taken a liking to are princesses. When I say, “taken a liking to”, I am being extremely generous as she loves all things princess related.

That’s why the new app is such a huge hit in our house. Once I told my daughter that Rapunzel would be visiting upon her next successful trip to the potty, she lit up with excitement and couldn’t wait to tell us that she had to go. I thought the Pez method worked well but the Pull-Ups Big Kid app has made potty training fun and exciting for all of us. I would love to explain exactly how everything works but this Pull-Ups video does a way better job than I could do!

About the Pull-Ups Big Kid App

* The Pull-Ups Big Kid App (available for Android and iOS devices) is the perfect tool for today’s highly mobile life – offering a wealth of content to enhance the potty training experience.

* Special identifying markers inside packages of Pull-Ups Training Pants can be scanned with the Pull-Ups Big Kid App to activate the interactive Pull-Ups Big Kid 3D Celebration, where Disney characters including Rapunzel and Mickey come to life.

* Fun games featuring Disney characters that are unlocked through stars collected as the child makes potty training progress.

* Calls from kids’ favourite Disney characters help surprise and motivate toddlers to use the potty and keep trying.

* Customizable potty timer to help parents remind their child when it’s time to go take a potty breaks.

The Pull-Ups Big Kid App is available as a free download via the Apple iTunes App store and Google Play for Android. To learn more, visit pull-ups.com.

Deeder Dodder Date: Princess Edition

/13 Comments/in , /by

Daddy Daughter Date

“Daddy, is tomorrow Deeder Dodder Day?” she asked.

“You bet, honey!” I answered.

“Yay!!!” she squealed excitedly.

If I could have frozen that moment forever, I would have. You see, “Deeder Dodder Day” is actually my 2 year old daughter’s way of saying “Daddy Daughter Date“, and to see how excited she was to be hanging out with me was enough to swell my heart with pride.

When I asked my daughter out on the date a few days before this exchange, I had just secured tickets to the Official Princess Parties “Royal Ball” and I knew she would love it. My only concern was whether she would say yes or not! Luckily for me, she said yes and I was able to keep the event a surprise until the big day came. I had been eyeing this event ever since our chance run in with an awesome Snow White earlier in the year. The fact that we had met Rapunzel and Minnie Mouse at later events were icing on the cake. Knowing that the proceeds were going to the Children’s Wish Foundation and that these particular characters were going to be there were just added bonuses.

Snow WhiteSnow White Belle

 

 

 

 

 

The magical day arrived and we were off to meet our favourite Disney characters. It’s hard to pinpoint my favourite part of the afternoon because there were so many. From seeing my daughter’s face light up as we were greeted in the parking lot by Mickey Mouse, to the moment the princesses were introduced, the entire event was amazing and well put together. They had a candy bar, nail painting and lots of interactive things for the little kids to do with the princesses (and two princes). Oh yeah, did I mention the chocolate fountain?? That one was for Daddy.

I loved watching the emotions that ran through my little girl’s brain that day. She was excited at times and shy at others. She participated in all the activities, even though she was the smallest one there by quite a bit. We danced, sang, ate candy and laughed the whole time. We had pure unfiltered fun and it was a perfect afternoon.

I want to say a great big Thank You to all the wonderful employees and characters at Official Princess Parties. You made a wonderful impression on my daughter and gave us a Deeder Dodder Date that we will remember forever.

PS – Funny story. While we were talking to Rapunzel, I brought up that my daughter had asked to have a princess birthday party. She had asked for a Rapunzel party at home but when Rapunzel herself asked, my daughter said she wanted an Ariel party…awkward. If Rapunzel is reading this, as soon as we got in the car, she again asked for a Rapunzel party. Followed by a Snow White Party. Followed by a Belle party…No hard feelings??

Cheers!

Princesses