Are you wondering which milestones you can expect during your baby’s first six months?  It can be an exciting time, watching your baby develop, sometimes much faster, than you expected.  All babies are different, so keep in mind that even the healthiest of babies will develop at their own pace.  Use these milestones only as a guideline.  You can help your baby reach milestones with a lot of love, patience, and understanding.  If you are concerned about your baby, please contact your pediatrician.

Month One:  During the first month, your baby will begin to lift their head.  They can focus on faces and objects about a foot away from their face.  Your baby will begin to turn its head from side to side, maybe even to look at you or to respond to a sound.  Encourage your baby to strengthen neck muscles by giving them some tummy time.

Month Two:  Baby’s eyes are developing and they will begin to experiment with their voice.  Reinforce your baby using sounds by smiling and looking excited when they do.  Help your baby learn to track objects with their eyes to encourage development.

Month Three:  Baby will begin to develop leg strength.  They will begin to reach and hold toys.  This is a fun time because baby may begin to smile purposefully when they see or hear you.  Encourage leg development by letting your baby stand and jump in your lap while you hold them.  Encourage eye/hand coordination by letting your baby grab objects and pass them from one hand to the other.

Month Four:  This is when your baby may begin to get mobile.  They may learn to roll over and sit up.  They will also begin to communicate more through crying.  Make sure that you respond to all of your baby’s attempts at communication and help them learn to sit up so that they can begin to entertain themselves.

Month Five:  Month five is generally when a baby begins teething and you may notice your baby chewing on everything.  They can also see further by five months and you may catch them trying to roll or pull themselves across the room to get to people or toys.

Month Six:  After six months, your baby may copy small words.  They can sit with little or no help and purposefully plays with the intention of seeing cause and effect.  Six month olds can hold their own bottle and should be able to roll over both ways.

After six months, you should be encouraging your baby to learn how to pull up.  Learning toys, preschool toys, and things like an activity table can be motivating for babies to learn how to get around.  Be patient and encouraging.  Remember not to get into too big of a hurry to help your child grow up!

Jim Ford is the President of KinderMark, a family owned and managed business which sells waiting room toys and waiting room furniture used in doctor’s offices, hospitals, auto dealers, dentists offices and libraries. Preschool toys such as an activity table and learning toys are favorites for pediatric offices. For more information, visit www.kindermark.com .
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With the country’s current financial situation presenting a challenge to many families, there has never been a better time for fathers to use their parenting skills to teach their children some money basics.

If your children are very young, you can start by helping them discern between necessities and wants. If they are dying for a new toy, help them save up for it slowly by giving them a small regular allowance.

Most experts say that you should let kids have the freedom to decide how they spend their allowance. However, don’t forget to use your parenting skills to show them how to assess value and compare prices on various items.

Piggy banks are still a great tool for encouraging saving before your children have their own bank account. Consider matching any contribution your child makes to their savings, or dole out a small amount each month to introduce the concept of interest.

Your parenting skills can also be used to illustrate financial lessons in stores or at the supermarket. Whether you are single parenting or co-parenting, sitting down with your kids to work out a budget before shopping is a useful experience for all involved. Kids can check each item off the list as it is purchased.

Once you’re in the grocery store, challenge your kids to find the best deal on food and household items by comparing price by weight or volume. You can also task them with clipping coupons from the Sunday circulars each week. Kids will love to see how their actions are helping the family save.

When kids get older, they can start their own savings account at a bank. Consider asking relatives to give a savings bond as a present once in a while and, if appropriate, develop a system in which your child helps put money away for college.

Once your child reaches their teens, they may have the opportunity to get a part-time job, which can help them learn about checking accounts, taxes and more extensive money management.

James Dunsford is a single parenting and parenting skills specialist for greatdad.com.

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Whether you’re expecting your first child or your kids are grown and on their own, being a dad is a new experience.  When my wife was pregnant, we decided to have a homebirth.  We hired a doula and two midwives.  I won’t tell you how much it cost.  According to them and other experts, labor was going to last 10-12 hours.  My son had other plans.  My wife’s labor was so short that the only other person in the room when he was born was – guess who? – me.  After nine months of preparing to support my wife in the birth of my first child, there I was, with no medical training, serving as midwife, doula, and doctor.  I fought off the strong desire to run out of the room as fast as possible.  When I caught Joaquin, I experienced pure exhilaration and love.

After only 2 days into Joaquin’s life, I told my wife, “it’s amazing how something so little can make me feel so inadequate.”  For the next few months, I experienced periods of intense anxiety.  Realizing that I needed to grow just as Joaquin was growing, I started looking for resources to support me in what was sure to be an emotional journey.  To my dismay, I found very little.  Sure, there are father’s advocacy groups and organizations dedicated to maintaining the traditional family structure, but as for resources that addressed the personal development of fatherhood – nothing.  This was a sharp contrast to the wealth of resources for moms.  I found magazines, support groups, books, blogs, and newspaper articles for new and expectant mothers.  What I found for dads was mostly re-packaged how-to guides originally directed to mothers.

Even as a new father, I recognized that failure to acknowledge the inner work that must accompany fatherhood could have dire consequences on my personal and family life.  This is not, of course, a new idea.  In a recent article in Newsweek, a father shared that his wife had to parent him as much as his children, which led to a painful divorce.  My own father told my mother that he wasn’t ready to be a father after I was born.  If we fail to understand, acknowledge, and do something about the emotional challenges that we experience as fathers, we run the risk of alienating our partners, our children, and, most of all, ourselves.  We may end up leaving our loved ones and our emotional well-being behind.  The logistical aspects of fatherhood aren’t what tear families apart through neglect and divorce.  No father ever abandoned his child because he couldn’t figure out how to change a diaper.

The path of fatherhood has never been more rich or challenging.  Provision of shelter and food are no longer acceptable as the standard by which fathers are measured.  Our children, our partners, and our own innate intelligence dare us to be more – to be nurturers, companions, guides, and counselors.  The dramatic increase in stay at home dads proves that the model of fatherhood is changing rapidly for the better.  The fatherhood paradigm shift should not be underestimated.  Without recognition that change requires inner work, we run the risk of missing out on all the opportunities that fatherhood provides to become a better man, a better partner, and a better global citizen.  A fellow new dad once told me that fatherhood was wonderful because it burns up all of your bad habits.  I don’t know if I’ll ever shed all of my negative patterns, but I know that I owe it to myself and my son to be as available as possible both emotionally and physically.  If I don’t, I might just give in to the urge to run out of the room the next time he decides to do something wonderfully unexpected.

Born as a father on the same day as his son was born, Lome helps dads on the journey of fatherhood through workshops and one-on-one coaching. He recognizes that fatherhood is a personal journey for fathers as well as their children and strives to balance the more traditional responsibilities of bread-winner with more recent models of father as care-taker. To learn more about Lome’s work, visit www.newdadforlife.com
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Being a dad is great and has many benefits. Some of these are not as obvious as the love of a child and the happiness of a family.

Here superdads look at the not so obvious factors that recent research has unearthed. If you are currently on the verge of fatherhood or even if you’re already a dad check out the benefits it will have on your life:

Your health: Researchers have discovered a man who is a father will make better choices. The structured form a mans life takes when he becomes a dad encourages this as a decision is usually made in the best interests of the family not just the individual anymore. Getting in touch with the feminine side: The Minnesota Fatherhood Initiative found that men who succeeded as fathers became more in tune with their ability to care for people and show compassion. You may expect that this would be the case for their children and even their partner but apparently it extends to friends and work-colleagues too. Job Satisfaction Improves: Research supports the fact that fathers feel more comfortable in their occupation and feel that they perform well at work more often than men who are not fathers. It is also common for men to appreciate the need to go to work to support their family and are inclined to go to work with that in mind. Sex Life Will Improve: This is not a myth – as many new fathers will probably think this is a wind up. Committed fathers married to their children’s mother have more and better sex than men not in such a family relationship. Life judgement: Research shows that committed fathers are less likely to become involved in crime, are likely to make less visits to the hospital, are likely to live longer and have a reduced risk of becoming drug or alcohol dependant. Exercise Increases: A mixture of exercise and additional activities make you more active as a dad. Your stint on night duty with junior means getting up, entertaining the kids whether it’s walking in the park, taking the kids into the garden, playing with a ball or going for a ride on a bike, they all make dad more active. Reduced Risk of Depression. It is statistically proven that men who have a family are less likely to be depressed or tempted by suicide. Stress reduction. The National Institute of Mental Health found that men who are in healthy family relationships are less likely to suffer from issues such as insomnia, stomach problems and fatigue which can be stress-related health problems.

For more fatherhood information visit www.superdads.co.uk

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Fathers interested in ensuring their children lead happy lives may need to give out a couple of lessons in gratitude, according to new research.

Todd Kashdan, an associate professor of psychology at George Mason University, has found that the act of gratitude is “one of the essential ingredients for living a good life.”

However, fathers who want to instill these lessons in their children may have to use some extra parenting skills with their sons, says Kashdan.

According to the professor’s most recent paper, which was published online at the Journal of Personality website, men are less likely to feel and express gratitude than women.

In one of Kashdan’s studies, he interviewed college-aged students and older adults, asking them to describe a recent experience when they received a gift. The researcher found women felt greater levels of gratitude with the gifts, while men reported feeling burdened and obligated to return the favor.

“The way that we get socialized as children affects what we do with our emotions as adults,” said Kashdan. “Because men are generally taught to control and conceal their softer emotions, this may be limiting their well-being.”

Some researchers have suggested children as young as 18 months can grasp the concept of gratitude, even without any verbal skills.

Fathers may be able to teach gratitude by incorporating the idea of thankfulness into regular conversations with their children. One way to foster this is for fathers to have their children talk about the good things that happened to them that day at dinner.

Also, charity may be a way to teach a child to be grateful. With keen parenting skills, fathers can talk to their children about donating some of their older, under-used toys to other children who may not have as much.

However, perhaps the best way is to lead by example and fathers who thank their children after they complete a task or help around the house can instill a lesson of gratitude.

James Dunsford is a single parenting and parenting skills specialist for greatdad.com.
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