This past Earth Day, I blogged about how I felt that having kids was just about the worst thing you can do to be ‘sustainable’ or ‘green’. I still feel that there are a lot of things about the way we currently live that makes it increasingly hard to stay green when kids are a part of your life.

When you have kids, you look for any way to make your life easier and more convenient, because, let’s face it, as much as we love our dear little ones, they are not very convenient!

When Calli was first born, I was amazed at how much longer it took to just get into the car to go somewhere. I had to buy a set of matching luggage just to make sure that she had enough changes of clothes, snacks, drinks, blankets, etc. to make it through a trip to the grocery store. So anything like single serving chips, yogurt, cheerios, etc. is welcome. Now that we have Tristin, doubly so.

But what about the planet?

I’ve come to realize, mostly because I can’t imagine a life without my kids, that it is our responsibility to teach Earth stewardship to our children, so that by raising them right, we are leaving the planet a better place.

Well, I Don’t Believe In Your ‘Climate Change’, Treehugger! It’s all a Bunch of Nonsense Invented By Al Gore!

Yeah. Like the internet.

Look, regardless of how you sit politically, there are reasons for getting involved with caring for your planet whether you believe in global climate change or think that Global Warming is just another way of saying ‘good weather‘.

How many times has this scenario happened to you?

You wake up early in the morning, mentally preparing for a great day. You wake up the kids because you promised to take them hiking. ‘We’re going to get back to nature!’ you had said.

You breathe in deep as you hike. It feels good to get away from civilization. Away from cell phones and computers. Back to nature. You see a stream and tell the kids to kick off their shoes and explore!

You kick off your shoes as well, and realize that you have to be careful not to cut your self on the broken bottles and half-rusted cans…

That should be enough incentive right there. I don’t care if your hobby’s burning fossil fuels for fun, don’t you get irritated that the planet’s just junked up?

I live in the Rocky Mountains, ‘Where the air’s still clean’, as my employer that brought me up here from Missouri advertised. And even here, you can’t help but notice the effects of man on the planet. Strip mining is big business, and as much as I try, I can’t avert my eyes from seeing the devastation we cause.

At any rate, this post was supposed to be about what we can do as parents to teach our kids the effects we have on our environment. So here’s some ideas:

1. Don’t pass it up…

When you do go out on that nature walk with the family, after getting over your disgust at your fellow man’s reckless behavior, go ahead and pick up a little. By all means, take the proper precautions. Don’t let your kids cut themselves on glass or metal, but show them that even if you didn’t put it there, it’s OK to pick it up. In fact, it’s encouraged.

2. Remember the 3 R’s

It’s pretty much rote by now, right? Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. I can’t think about them without getting Jack Johnson’s song stuck in my head. But how much do we practice it? Try to make every attempt to buy products with less packaging. Reuse everything. I’ve been known to save my sandwich bags for the next lunch, as long as it’s not sticky with jelly… And recycle. The recycling center I use is close to my work, so it’s not even inconvenient. Plus, most items are comingled, so I don’t even have to separate my glass from my plastic! Score!

3. Do you really have to drive EVERYWHERE?!

I wish I lived closer to work. I used to live roughly 2 miles away, so I rode my bike a lot. Not only was that the Earth-Friendly choice, but it was great for me! I had more energy on my bike days, and I knew I wasn’t helping to murder the planet. Walk, bike, use (shudder) public transportation, carpool. Find something you can stomach or possibly even enjoy in order to avoid using the car every now and then.

4. Buy local.

I have gotten addicted to visiting Farmer’s Markets. They’re just fun. You get to meet some great folks, and a lot of them entertain you with live music or food demonstrations as well. The best part is, the food you buy there is fresh because it didn’t have to travel, and better for the environment because, well, it didn’t have to travel! Plus, more than likely, that local food was organically grown. Better for you AND the environment!

5. Discuss being stewards of the planet with your kids

Be open and honest and come right out with it. You know how you feel about Climate Change, but do you know how your kids feel? Do they possibly disagree with you? One thing I’ve discovered is that kids learn things at school that you may not have thought about. Don’t get so caught up in your job as mentor to learn from your kids every once in a while. They might just surprise you…

I’ll be quiet now and let you get back to surfing the web. Just remember: we only get one Earth. If we don’t take care of it, who will?

Looking for more ways to take action? Visit Blog Action Day’s Take Action page. There you can sign a petition that calls for the U.S. to be a leader in reducing greenhouse gases, as well as other ways you can take action for the planet!

Al Roker and Deborah Roberts will join Elmo in talking to kids about these tough economic times. Photo by Gil Vaknin from sesameworkshop.org

In a previous blog post, ‘We’ve Heard the Talk of Wall Street and Main Street, But Who’ll Help Sesame Street?’ I talked about how the Sesame Workshop was laying off some of it’s staff as a result of these dismal economic times. Wednesday night, the Street takes to Prime-Time to help children understand what parents already know.

In an interview on NPR‘s Marketplace, producer Dr. Jeanette Betancort had this to say, ‘It deals with job loss, as well as tight times, as well as when you lose a home due to economic situations. What we’re hoping that families take away from this is how to talk to children about what is happening and also explaining how these tough times are affecting the entire family.’

Sesame Street is not one to shy away from difficult subjects that even as a parent it’s sometimes hard to discuss. Recently, the federal government teamed up with Sesame Street to create public service announcements to teach children about health and hygiene. This is to try to combat a resurgence of swine flu. I remember mourning the loss of Mr. Hooper right alongside Big Bird. When the actor who played him, Will Lee, passed away, the writers faced the issue head on, rather than just telling kids that he ‘went away’.

So using Elmo and the rest of the Sesame Gang to explain the recession makes perfect sense. Not only will it help us parents be able to talk about it with our kids, but maybe it’ll shed a light on how this is affecting us as well.

The Sesame Street primetime special, entitled ‘Families Stand Together’ will air Wednesday, Sept. 9 at 8Pm ET. Check your local listings. You can see previews of the special here. To read the project overview, click here.

If you would like to hear the entire Marketplace interview or read the transcript, you can find that here.

To donate to the Sesame Workshop and all the wonderful things that they do here and around the world, please click here.

So I got my new landline telephone and super-fast internet connection, and I decided to once and for all completely stop using my cell phone for internet. I then decided to spend the evening vegging out with Hulu and free video podcasts. Then it hit me: Crap! I should be writing a FatherHood Friday post! All this vegging out has melted my brain. I didn’t think ahead! What will I write about?

Leave it to the guys over at Dad-Blogs to solve the issue for me. They are now trying to theme the FatherHood Friday posts, and the next two weeks we will be discussing ‘Back to School’.

Well, my two youngest are still too young for school, and the teenager is too old to take the big-toothy-grin-clutching-a-lunchbox-with-the-heaviest-backpack-ever-strapped-to-her-back first day of school picture, so I’ll go at this from a different angle: i.e. my return to school. (The School of living with an infant, that is.) Since the theme runs for two weeks, maybe I’ll have a more traditional Back To School post next Friday.

I have essentially been a father for eleven years. Kat was four when I met her, she is now fifteen. I used to joke that I got to be a father and miss all the dirty diapers.

She's gonna be a star!

Fast forward eight years, and the birth of my daughter, Calli. I didn’t get out of diapers after all. Three years later, she’s still in them. (We just moved and had another kid, so we’re waiting for things to normalize. But when the dust settles, that kid’s using the potty if I have to duct tape her there myself!  ;)

Wait, did I just mention a third kid? Why, yes I did, which brings us to the meat and potatoes of this post.

So I’ve been changing diapers for three years now. No big deal. Stinky diaper? This looks like a job for Super-Dad. Robin Williams once joked that Super-Dad’s weakness was baby ca-ca. Well, I’m the new and improved version. So bring it!

With Tristin? Whole. New. Experience. (See last week’s post, ‘Boys. Are. Gross.’ … if you dare!)

Calli can't get enough Baby brother!

So life with baby has gone on now for (at the time of this writing) thirteen days. I have a three year old, so the whole baby thing’s still fairly fresh in my mind. No worries, right? I should be an old pro. Not even close. Not only does your brain quickly forget how tiny and helpless these little guys start out as, but in three years a whole heck of a lot can change…

1. You don’t have to swab the gross black umbilical anymore. I remember with Calli it was recommended that we swab her umbilical cord with alcohol in order to ward off bacteria. They now say leave it alone! Turns out the alcohol kills off the good bacteria as well as the bad…
2. Get that kid vitamin D! They didn’t say this when Calli was born, but now they recommend that you give your kid vitamin D drops because breast milk tends to not have enough. You also get vitamin D from the sun, but you wouldn’t want to accidentally give your baby a sunburn, so the drops are much safer.
3. A baby screaming at you at two in the morning is neither cute nor fun. Actually, I’m lying. It would be against Tristin’s nature to not be cute. As for fun, I actually do look forward to baby tantrums because I…
4. Remember the 5 S’s. Coolest thing ever. The pediatrician came in to check on Tristin while we were still in the hospital. He asked us if we knew the 5 S’s. No, we didn’t so he picked up Tristin and went through them:

• Swaddling Make sure your baby is swaddled good and tight, just like his old womb.
• Side/Stomach Hold him so that he’s on his side and stomach. (It’s still best when he sleeps to lay him on his back.)
• Swing them This one you probably have to see in action. Obviously, this doesn’t include shaking the baby (that’s bad), but it does include  a slight swinging/jiggling of the head. This simulates the motion in the womb as Mommy walks around or goes upstairs.
• Shushing This isn’t a quiet shush, this is a loud shush. You want to shush them as loud as they are crying. The baby has lived next to his mother’s aorta for nine months, so the sound of blood rushing by is a lot like this loud shush. You can also use white noise such as a TV or radio tuned to static, a hair dryer, or vacuum cleaner.
• Sucking Let the kid suck on something. A pacifier, your finger, etc., can calm them very quickly.

Before my doctor even got to the last S, Tristin was quiet and looking around like, Wow! This guy really gets me! The doctor laid Tristin down in his little clear bassinet, and said, ‘Yeah, they should have a video of that somewhere…’

As soon as the doctor left, I called a nurse and asked for that video!

The video is called ‘The Happiest Baby on the Block’, and it was created by Harvey Karp, MD. You can see some clips of Dr. Karp in action at thehappiestbaby.com.

Dr. Karp claims that he’s found the cure for colic, and it seems like this is true. It is truly magical to watch the babies in the video, and then your own baby, turn from a screaming little monster back into your sweet angel within minutes.

This time around, Daddy is schooling the infant!

So I guess the bottom line is, no matter how many kids you have, things change. As much as you think you know, there’s always something else you can learn. Keep an open mind, and enjoy your new baby!

So here’s the deal: you need to head over to Go Graham Go RIGHT NOW and enter to win a $50 gift certificate from JoJo Designs.

JoJo Designs make some truly cool bedding for toddlers and kids. You can also find accessories and clothing there!

But you can see that all for yourself when you visit JoJo Designs and Go Graham Go!

Get going!

This doll will help Calli learn to potty ... right?

OK, I’m pretty sure around the time that Calli was born I read somewhere that girls generally start potty training at 18 months. ‘Woo-hoo!’ My inexperienced father’s brain cried. Only a year and a half of foul-smelling, foul-colored, unidentifiable, unexplainable messes in diapers? I can handle that!

Nearly three years later, I’m still changing diapers. I’ve failed. You can see pictures of the wife and I in the parenting Hall of Shame. There’s a failed potty-trainers wing, and we’re the star attractions.

Then again, maybe not!

I came across an article on WebMD called ‘Potty Training: Seven Surprising Facts’ tonight that gave me some encouraging news. They quote Dr. Andrea McCoy of Temple University as saying:

“Children can’t stay dry at night until they start producing a hormone that signals their body to stop making urine at night, that doesn’t happen until it happens.”

A hormone. A hormone that ‘doesn’t happen until it happens.’ A blessed hormone controls my child’s ability to use the potty! Handel’s ‘Hallelujah’ playing in my head, I can now relax. It’ll all happen when it happens…

That shouldn’t keep me from using all this potty training gear I’ve littered around this post, right?

We would love to achieve potty trained status for Calli before her brother’s born in August, but if that doesn’t happen, it won’t be the end of the world. Our theory for the moment is that she just enjoys being a baby. If she gives up the diapers, she won’t be a baby anymore. Especially with the new baby on the way, I’m sure she’s wanting to hang on to that for just a little longer. We won’t push it or hold our breaths. Well, maybe we’ll still hold our breaths, when appropriate…

Anybody have any ‘tricks of the trade’ to share? I’m always willing to follow the advice of those that have been there, done that!

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Calli achieving warp velocity within an inflatable castle...

We had another adventure at the rec center today. We decided to wake Calli up at the wee hour of 10am (we’ve gotta do something about her sleeping pattern…) and took her to Tumble Tots!

Tumble Tots is a time when toddlers can have free play in the gymnastics area! We had a blast! Calli got to jump into a hole in the floor filled with foam blocks, into which her daddy promptly got stuck, much to the embarassment of her mommy. She bounced on trampolines, swung from rings, and achieved at least Warp 3 running around an inflatable castle.

And of course, got the necessary social interactions with other kids her size. Or close to. There was another girl smaller than Calli, and they followed each other around the entire time. It seemed like they were taking turns deciding what to do next.

Near the end of tumble tots, the smaller girl must have fallen inside the aforementioned inflatable castle and knocked her noggin, because she began to wail. Her mommy scooped her up and rocked her, doing her best to comfort her daughter.

Calli rushed past us, pointing to the crying baby. “Baby Kying!” she said in explanation. When she got there, Calli started gently rubbing the baby’s back and saying, “Oh, baby. Oh, baby!” The baby’s mother pulled Calli closer and the two of them consoled the now whimpering baby until it was time for her to go home.

My wife and I swelled with pride. Calli’s new baby brother can not come soon enough! Calli will be a great big sister. I can’t wait.

I am both proud and humbled by my little girl’s behavior today. I can’t imagine a world without her in it!