Read to Your Baby

A BBC article from April 10th called Dads Don't Read Bedtime Stories cites a new poll that found that only 42% of dads read to their kids before bed. In the Baby Bonding Book for Dads we tell dads it's never too early to start reading and we even suggest you read to your nearsighted 3-month-old! But reading to older kids is where the real fun begins. When our son was 3 he wanted us to substitute the name of all the main characters with his name. We no longer read Curious George, we read Curious Etani. The Runaway Bunny was The Runaway Etani ... you get the idea.

You get to re-read your childhood favorites when you read to your kids, and also discover some of the books you missed as a child (The Light Princess, anyone? A strange chapter book by a contemporary of Lewis Carroll's; Chronicles of Narnia; The Hobbit. Kid lit is so rich and amazing, how could you not read to your kids just to have an excuse to read it yourself?!).

Maybe it's an English thing? Hey American Dads, it's time to stop surfing the net and go read a book with your kid(s).

Win a Free Book

BostonMamas calls the Baby Bonding Book for Dads:

"a sweet little gift book that – in a gentle, friendly dad voice - offers simple, straightforward ideas for how dad can bond with baby at home and on the go. Interspersed throughout the book are artful photos. Yes, there are a couple of buff, bare-chested daddy shots, but otherwise the photos are – like the text – representative of what many of us feel joy seeing at home; regular dads enjoying time with their babes."

They are giving away five free copies of the book!

You can win one by:

1) first visiting our blog (you're already here--hooray! Please leave us a comment to tell us you stopped by!)

2) then emailing contests@bostonmamas.com (with ‘Baby Bonding’ in the subject), and naming another place – other than Amazon – where you can buy the book.

One entry per person, US only, and you need to email them by midnight EST TONIGHT

Join us This Sunday in Woodstock, Illinois

This one is a live event, not just in cyberspace.

Jennifer Margulis will be giving a reading with two other writers: Meagan Francis and Toni Klym McLellan, at Between the Lynes in Woodstock, Illinois (outside Chicago) THIS SUNDAY, APRIL 27th at 11:30 a.m.

129 Van Buren St.
Woodstock, IL
815-206-5967

A write-up of the event is on their Website: click here to read about it.

Baby Bonding Blog Book Tour Starts April 28th

Stay tuned for the Baby Bonding Blog Book Tour, which starts April 28th. We'll be visiting Red Sox fans, snarky dads, nice dads, working dads, stay-at-home dads, some Mom-oriented blogs, and cyber readers as far away as South Africa. We've got more than 30 bloggers lined up to be "stops" on the tour.

See you soon in unexpected places in the blogosphere!

Keeping a Journal for Your Baby

You don't have to be a writer, or even like to write, to keep a journal for your child, even before he or she is born.

Christopher Briscoe, the photographer for our book, writes letters to his son every year. That's a nice way to do it.

Another wonderful way to chronicle your child's life is to keep a family journal -- a collective journal that you, your partner, your friends, and your family contribute to. When your child gets old enough, he can write in it too. In the meantime, you can put in scrapbooky things like:

first footprints and handprints (this is fun to do with a stamp pad and a cooperative newborn!)
birth announcements
photos of the baby
updates on world events
hair from a first haircut (put it in an envelope and tape the envelope in the journal)

We keep our family journal in the bathroom. The rule is whoever spends a lot of time on the john has to write in it! This almost never works but the idea is a good one.

To read an entire article by Jennifer Margulis, from the Medford Mail Tribune, on family journaling, click here.

Don't fall for this scam!

While James was on a field trip to the art museum with Athena's class, he received a call on his cell phone from the credit card company. His card had been defrauded and someone was trying to make $1,000 purchases all over the country. They cancelled the card and issued him a new one. What's worrisome is that he only used the card once, to make an on-line purchase at a secure site.

Yesterday morning we received another call: our other card from the same credit card company had also been defrauded and the thief (or hacker?) had tried to make a $500 purchase that morning that was picked up by security screenings and blocked. Twice in one week, and this has never happened to either of us in all the years we've both been using credit cards.

Identity theft aside, here's a much more serious scam that lady readers of our book should make sure they don't fall for! Thanks to Tertia Albertyn at So Close for sending it our way. What would we do without Tertia to watch out for us?

Food and Sex

Since sex is the way we make babies, we figure articles, news, advice (tee hee), and anything else about sex is relevant to the Baby Bonding Book for Dads, right?

Among our favorite sex videos, check out this Dad Labs rerun from season two.

And then there's The Midwest Teen Sex Show...

Wondering why you were so randy after eating that strawberry shortcake the other night? Read Jennifer's column about food and sex in this week's Tidings, "Can Food Really Put You in the Mood?". Here's an excerpt:

Annie told me that she fell for her boyfriend over a plate of fish. "He seduced me with catfish," she laughed, ""...this great meal of delectable juicy catfish with Thai pepper."

Though they broke up eventually, Annie still makes that recipe.

At 38, Annie's recently realized how food enhances her sex drive. "As I get older I've definitely had times of not being in the mood, where I've just gone, 'What's wrong with me?! I haven't even thought about sex!' Then I started eating healthier, and it got me more in the mood."

Annie "went on a health kick," eating mostly organic fruits and vegetables, cutting all the refined sugar from her diet. She also stopped drinking caffeine and alcohol. Two months later she perceived a big change. "It all hit at once. Not only did I feel sexier but I noticed men looking at me more too."