It’s time for my monthly feature about what I’ve learned about parenting this month. This edition is about swings, wires and raspberries…
1. Our son loves trying to grab the lap top cable or any other wires he can. When I’m doing work at home, I now try to charge the lap top while he’s asleep so I don’t need to have it plugged in while he’s awake.
2. Dear almost one year old son, when mummy says ‘give daddy a goodnight kiss’ she doesn’t mean repeatedly hit daddy in the face. Thank you.
3. Dear son, even though you haven’t really got the whole idea of not getting up as early as normal at the weekends yet, thank you for leaving it until 7.45am before deciding it was time to get up one Sunday recently when I had a bit of a cold. I really appreciate your consideration.
Our son goes searching for the remote control
4. Our latest parenting challenge is hiding the television remote control from our baby son and then remembering where it is when we want to watch something.
5. We’re currently looking round houses with a view to moving to somewhere slightly bigger. Our son has developed a bit of a tendency to stare out the people who show us round the houses we view. I hope this won’t affect how we come across to the people selling!
6. Being from Scotland and living in Wales, our son’s probably going to realise that English and British do not mean the same thing. That said, I’m not sure that he’s got the difference between the United States and Canada sussed yet. When he and I were being interviewed by a US television crew for a programme about travelling with kids, he wore these maple leaf shoes (see picture below).
7. I recently had a raspberry blowing competition with our son. It was very close, but I think I won.
8. When you’ve got a kid who sometimes decides to start loudly blowing raspberries at 6.35am, you don’t always need an alarm clock. Maybe having raspberry blowing competitions with our son wasn’t the best idea.
9. I really enjoyed recently taking our son to have a go on some swings for the first time. Swings for little kids are great, but they can be a bit of a challenge for tall dads like myself when it comes to not getting a sore back after a bit. Anyone got any tips?
10. Our son currently likes taking things out of a box and then putting them back into a box. If this love of being neat and tidy continues, I’m going to bring him in to work to help tidy my office.
11. Last weekend, the clocks went forward here in the UK. A lot of people think that this means having an hour less in bed, but our son would like to point out that it meant that he can say that he waited until 8am before wanting to get up last Sunday.
12. We have some big family news to announce: the pitter patter of tiny feet… In fact, two sets of tiny feet! We’ve just got two new chickens!
It’s time to introduce Dorothy, Betsy and Myfanwy…
What do you think of this post and what do you remember from your first year as a parent? Please feel free to share your views in the comments section below or on the ‘Dad’s The Way I Like It’ pages on Facebook or Google+.
Remember that you can also subscribe to this blog by entering your e-mail address in the box on the right of the screen and also follow this blog via BlogLovin. There’s also now a Pinterest board for this blog as well, so please feel free to pin this post if you’ve enjoyed reading it.
Similar posts
Being a dad – celebrating the little things
6 things I’ve learned in 6 months as a parent
7 thoughts from my 7th month as a parent
8 thoughts from my 8th month as a parent
9 thoughts from my 9th month as a parent
10 thoughts from my 10th month as a parent
11 thoughts from my 11th month as a parent
I’ve shared this post with the following parent blogger link-ups. Click on the images below to see more posts from fellow parent bloggers:
Dad's the way I like it 
Mar 31, 2014 @ 20:29:22
its been 20 years but what got to me was the wake up at exactly the same time everyday….who needs a clock. There is no sleeping in until they reach 9 or so….I think one of the reasons I started lifewall.org and our global birth registry project was because of the time I spent as a stay at home dad… check it out, hope you decide to participate.
great blog.
Mar 31, 2014 @ 20:31:30
Thanks, I look forward to checking out your blog.
Mar 31, 2014 @ 21:28:38
We are on month 13 and I can relate to everything here. Kissing does equal a repeated doubled hand slap around the head, with added cheek grab and squeeze s hard as she can for good measure.
She started walking two weeks ago and has been doing the ‘take it out the box put it in the same or another box’ for a while. This, combined with the new found game of carry stuff and walk, means that the TV remote was in the toy box and I found a balloon in the washing machine. A fully inflated one that took me some time to get back out.
No advice on swings sadly, I’m only 5’4″.
Good luck.
Apr 04, 2014 @ 19:52:24
Thank you for commenting and sharing your experiences. Our son’s taking things out of boxes phase has extended to going into the spare room and pulling books off the bookcase. I guess this early interest in reading should be applauded.
Apr 01, 2014 @ 02:03:02
All I can say is that 12 months came up so fast!!
Apr 04, 2014 @ 19:50:19
That’s so true, I can’t believe it!
Apr 01, 2014 @ 13:26:39
I remember the obsession with the remote control. 14.5 years of parenting here and the kids still wake earlier on weekends than weekdays! (Yes, even the teen!!) We’ve also recently got chickens, 3 funny, silly, lovely fat chooks who currently give us one tiny egg between them about 6 days out of 7. If their production doesn’t increase soon it’ll be the pot for them!!!
Apr 04, 2014 @ 19:49:41
It’s great to hear that you’ve got chickens too. One of our ones doesn’t lay much but has improved since the arrival of the two newbies. I’m hoping our son’s going to start giving us a lie in or two thus weekend now the clocks have gone forward.
Apr 02, 2014 @ 07:00:26
I remember them waking up early every day – weekday, weekend or holiday! Hang in there! And celebrate every ten extra minutes you get here and there.
-Thereza
PS: Do the chickens require a lot of cleanup? More than the kids? 🙂
Apr 02, 2014 @ 08:53:59
Very funny! I miss my first year as a parent. The lazy mornings with a newborn and watching him learn so much everyday. There’s a lot I can identify with in your post…wire, remotes and first experiences. And we’re about to get our first chickens too!
Apr 04, 2014 @ 13:28:07
Thanks for sharing that, it’s great to hear that you’re about to get chickens too. Our son seems to be a bit scared of one our chickens at the moment.
Apr 03, 2014 @ 18:06:04
Funny! Has your son discovered the box of tissues yet? I love the Maple leaf shoes. I’m also glad that you understand the important differences between us Canucks and our neighbors to the south 🙂 What I remember most about my first year as a parent was the remarkable changes I saw in my boys. I also remember the mind numbing tiredness. I miss those baby snuggles.
Apr 03, 2014 @ 19:06:58
Our son has discovered the box of tissues and had quite a good time when he did! 🙂 It’s so amazing seeing big changes in a short period of time, and I can relate to what you say about the tiredness too.
Apr 04, 2014 @ 12:00:35
So jealous that you have chickens- how fun!!!! 🙂
Apr 04, 2014 @ 13:26:15
Chickens are indeed great fun. I’m tempted to do a blog post about similarities between keeping chickens and having a young child 🙂
Apr 04, 2014 @ 17:00:42
Aww! I miss my two being little…..Fab post!
Love the Chickens!!
Apr 04, 2014 @ 19:46:23
Thanks, glad you liked it!
Apr 04, 2014 @ 22:41:55
This was such a lovely round up, and your little guy keeps you busy, doesn’t he? Congratulations on completing a year of parenthood! #PoCoLo
Apr 05, 2014 @ 14:54:48
Thank you! He certainly does keep us busy, but generally in a good way!
Apr 05, 2014 @ 14:48:51
I love reading these and thinking of things to look forward to with our 5 month old daughter. Has your son seen the chickens lay eggs yet? I bet that will be fun! 🙂
Apr 05, 2014 @ 14:54:14
I don’t think that our son has seen the egg laying or really understands it. He has eaten a few of the eggs though!
Apr 06, 2014 @ 08:14:37
What a lovely post 🙂 it sounds like you are really getting into this Dad role! Thank you for linking to PoCoLo 🙂
Apr 06, 2014 @ 14:10:18
Jonathan, I enjoyed reading this- it brought back lots of memories! 🙂 #4- lol!! He will enjoy chasing after the chickens. 🙂
#PoCoLo and a new follower on Google+!
Apr 08, 2014 @ 20:52:56
Seems like you’ll have fresh eggs in time for Easter!
About the swing – I sit on a chair in front of it…but you need to get the placement *exactly* right!
Apr 08, 2014 @ 20:54:26
Thanks for the tip. If it goes wrong, I guess you can hope that someone you know films it and you end up on You’ve Been Framed!
Apr 15, 2014 @ 13:01:45
Baby’s first year in 12 photos | Dad's the way I like it
Apr 22, 2014 @ 18:08:12
13 thoughts from my 13th month as a parent | Dad's the way I like it
Apr 28, 2014 @ 18:02:41
14 thoughts from my 14th month as a parent | Dad's the way I like it
May 20, 2014 @ 19:22:21
15 thoughts from my 15th month as a parent | Dad's the way I like it
Jun 23, 2014 @ 19:05:46
16 thoughts from my 16th month as a parent | Dad's the way I like it
Jul 29, 2014 @ 21:13:15
17 thoughts from my 17th month as a parent | Dad's the way I like it
Aug 19, 2014 @ 18:20:21
18 thoughts from my 18th month as a parent | Dad's the way I like it
Sep 24, 2014 @ 18:04:24
19 thoughts from my 19th month as a parent | Dad's the way I like it
Nov 10, 2014 @ 18:29:50
20 thoughts from my 20th month as a parent | Dad's the way I like it
Dec 19, 2014 @ 21:13:42
21 thoughts from my 21st month as a parent | Dad's the way I like it
Feb 17, 2015 @ 19:08:15