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Am I a New Dad?

May 14, 2012 by 1 Comment

I consider myself to be a new dad (parent), but the other day I was talking to Lucy and we started asking ourselves when do you lose the right to  use the title new mom, new dad, and new parent?

Is there something like an old parent?

For me an old parent is one that has had too many kids about 12 and has proven himself as a true veteran or old parent in my mind also translates to grandparent (which I like more).

New makes me love the title more

As humans the word new can be enchanting. I remember getting my 1st Palm Pilot back in 1999 or 2000. I was so happy with it, a few years later I decided to upgrade to Palm 505 which was a color PDA, then two years after that I bought myself a Palm Tungsten T3, and so the story continues to my first smartphone a Palm Treo 650 all the way to now where I have an iPhone 4. I would love to get the iPhone 4s but wanting to upgrade is a bad addiction many people have. The same goes when you buy a car and months later  you stop seeing your car as a new one.

Since objects don’t evolve it is easier for them too lose the charm fairly quickly. The experience of being a parent and having children is different since they continue to evolve into new stages with different needs.

Your always a New Parent

I am so attached to the new parent title, I want to keep it for a while and I might have way to do so. Maybe by creating different stages (since each kid is so unique many things will be new):

Newborn → New Parent

Toddler → New Toddler Parent

Teenager → New Teenager Parent

Going through school where you are a freshman in High School and then In college so why not be a new parent at each stage.

Seeing that my mom sees me as her baby I think that after 32 years she is still holding on to the title giving me another excuse to keep the title.

How do you feel about the term new Parent?

 

Filed Under: New Dad, Papá Heroes Tagged With: , , ,

Importance of Healthy Communication

January 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment

One of the key factors in keeping our children safe is having good communication with them.

My daughter is a few days over 1 year and as the days go by I can clearly understand some of her requests.

Putting a Lot of effort in Attempting to Talk

She is working on her pronunciation and learning new words. Thanks to one of my parenting mentors Rob Hatch, he  helped me understand part of the thought process babies go through when they are attempting new things like talking.

Mom Does a Better Job at Understanding her

Since mom spends a bit more time with Daniela she does a better job at identifying what she is trying to say. I do my best at interpreting most of her sounds that occasionaly turn into words.

Basic Needs Come First

Since Daniela is being breastfed she has been able to pronounce the word breast in Spanish. I guess the necessity of her getting breastfed has put that word as a priority in her vocabulary. Their are a few other words that she can pronounce like “cat” which she uses to identify all animals except for “dog” which she tries to pronounce JuanGa’s name.

Understanding Toddlers a lot easier than Teenagers

As a new dad I am enjoying every step and milestone she accomplishes. I know that as a baby misunderstandings can come from lack of words but in the future those misunderstandings can come from other factors. I guess it would be a waste of time for me to talk on the aspect of understanding teenagers but since it is important that all Parents especially those that are part of the Papa heroes Alliance can have good communication with their kids of any age.

The Clapper and the Listener video by Aaron Manley

Browsing Google + I found this video created by Aaron Manley from Motorphilia . I was introduced to him via my good friend Chris Brogan.

By coincidence Chris had shared the video on how people in general sometimes have miscommunications.

I recommend watching the video so you can easily understand the concept.


Can’t see the video click here…

I have to say that this exercise is one you can practice with kids and adults alike. The best point Aaron makes is  how people get frustrated because they are trying to understand you which may lead to even bigger frustrations.  I will keep this in my head so when my daughter is old enough to talk, I can teach her how she needs to facilitate the understanding of any message she wants to get across.

On behalf of the alliance I want to thank Papahero Aaron and his Sidekick Olivia for creating and sharing this thought provoking video.

Are there any practical and neat exercises like the one Aaron shared with us via YouTube that you do with your family?

Feel free to share comments and ideas in the comments area!

Filed Under: Family, New Dad, Papá Heroes Tagged With: , , ,

Key Milestone – First Year as a Dad

December 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment

 

As humans we are constantly working on reaching new milestones. I have to say that all of us have some sort of competitive nature embedded in our DNA. For many individuals like me a key milestone is becoming a parent. A year as of today I became the proud parent of a healthy baby girl.

The Fastest 12 Months of my life

It has been one year that has gone by faster than I could Imagine and going back just 12 months I can see the progress of how quickly my daughter has grown and most importantly how much.

Simple things like the length of her hair, the changes in length and thickness of her extremities, her face, and many other factors that unless you look back in pictures you might not even notice.

One Year as part of our Parenting Team

Today I mark another milestone as a parent along my other half Lucy. We are celebrating 1 year of becoming parents. I never pictured myself as a parent but I have to say that I am very grateful of this awesome blessing.

Getting Things Done

Something I have found extremely interesting is how efficient I have become at getting things done. Being a parent puts you in the situation that procrastinating can set you back in many ways. It makes you enjoy and get things done at your first chance. If I look at the many projects I have done this past year I see an increase in productivity given the many tools I have opted to use and the advice I have received from many of my mentors on the personal and business side. This project Papaheroes.com was an inspiration of being a new dad along with launching Veglatino.com that is another outlet where I might cover my views on nutrition as a vegetarian.

Don’t Wait Till Tomorrow

One thing that I have learned seeing how my daughter quickly grows up as the Days go by is to make sure I spend as much time as I can with her every day.  Time just moves by so fast if we miss out on something we can rewind and go back.

More of an at home Dad during 2011

Given how poorly my business did this year kept me at the house most of the time, which I really appreciate because I was able to capture many of my daughter’s, own milestones during the first year?

When most parents are waiting to get home to spend time with their kids I have to say I got Paternity Leave in some sense. It made it worthwhile to work as much as I could in 2010 to the point I have been able to enjoy and use some of the savings I had from 2010 to spend quality time with my new family.

What Milestones have you hit as a Parent? Which Ones are you waiting to hit?

Any advice on what I should be expecting in the next 12 months (or 17 years) that I did not experience in the first year as a parent?

 

Filed Under: Fathers, New Dad, Papá Heroes Tagged With: ,

Getting Treated Like Clark Kent

July 11, 2011 by Leave a Comment

I guess we all have had a bully or two in our life and have been pushed around much like Clark Kent. My concerns now are how do you teach your children to engage with those who are not going to hurt them or even better yet ignore and stay away from those who are already hurting them.

In my case, my Dad gave me the security to fear no one. He also gave me the privilege of letting him know if I feared someone so he could take care of the issue. My dad would tell me to stay away from violence but to stand up for myself and fight back if needed.

I remember on one occasions, a student who was a lot older and bigger than me, was bullying me and had picked me up through the throat. He usually got his way with other students, until he made the big mistake of marking my throat with his nails. I got home and my dad asked me what happened. I have never been a good liar so when I told my dad the truth he gave me a piece of advice I would never forget. He said “Raul if you are scared of this guy I can take care of it for you, It’s ok to be scared. I have been scared many times and I have asked for help but if you are not scared then you better stand up for yourself because if this guy hurts you again I will be very disappointed”.

I told my dad I could handle it. Just the fact that my dad said it was ok to be scared made a huge difference in building my confidence to stand up to this bully. That was good enough advice for me. When that bully came to me mess with me again, we got into a fight. I confess I got my butt kicked but the Bully was so surprised that I fought back that he decided to bully other kids and left me alone. (Just in case I am not promoting violence. Each and every person handles the situation in their own way. In this case it was pure self defense).

From that moment on I realized that other kids (and later on people) would try to force things upon those who appeared afraid. Till this day my Dad is always there for me and I am there for him. I have never used my Dad to defend me but I know he has my back. That feeling of conveying to your children that someone is behind them while letting them make their choices, where some of the lessons I learned from my Dad.

I guess now with cyberbullying the game completely changes.There are so many ways of approaching cyberbullying. For those parents that choose to let there kids use them, it opens up another channel of bullying for your kids and log of what messages are being sent to your kid. So it brings the good with the bad. Just a few days ago @lucymfel was able to catch some strange behavior on a family member’s site. The kid that was bullying our family member was doing the same at the recreation site they visited. I guess pre-internet we would not have been able to make a correction and take action unless the kid spoke up.

Hopefully here in Papaheroes.com we can help you tweak your monitoring skills to make sure you are at the top of your game when it comes to protecting our children.

Have you had any experiences dealing with Cyber Bullying? How do you think it should be handled?

photo credit by lovstromp

 

Filed Under: New Dad, Online Safety, Papá Heroes Tagged With: , , ,

Healthy Online & Offline Relationships for Children

July 4, 2011 by Leave a Comment

I see how curious my daughter has become since she is 6 months old. She looks at everything that breaks a pattern. I wish I had the power of Aquaman; the ability to read her mind. She loves engaging with people and gives a smile to everyone at near proximity. I guess that by being a new dad and studying my daughter I can see how early in life people want to engage. I observe her especially when she sees herself in the mirror and is trying to reach out to touch her reflection.

Most of our time is spent trying to engage with others. We meet many people where we either connect or don’t connect. With the today’s social platforms, everyone wants more friends and a larger network, but as adults are we evaluating who we have around ourselves and family? Are we making sure we have quality people over the quantity of people?

As a kid, I use to always mix myself in with a different crowds. I have never tried to make anyone happy just to have them around me, I guess it is not in my nature. Even though I had a high probability of rejecting people who I thought could harm me, I still ended up with a good share of bad relationships. With the help of certain individuals who had the foresight to pick out the bad apples, their advice was an integral part of filtering out the toxic relationships.

How do you guide your children into creating healthy relationships?

I guess children learn what their parents teach them. How is it that sometimes adults have issues picking the people around them and children have better radar when choosing relationships.

The internet brings new opportunities and threats into parent’s busy lives. There is very little advice that we can get from our parents and grandparents because they did not have to deal with the interconnected world.

It is even more important to set those rules of using the internet and guide our children in learning the meaning of relationships online and offline as early as possible. There is a communal effort that has to occur between parents today. Even the Papaheroes don’t have the capability that Professor Xavier from X-Men has of reading people’s mind or the intentions they have whether online or offline.

What new issues do you think have appeared in this new world that our parents and grandparents did not have to deal with in regards to relationships?

How do you deal with them?

photo credit by bradley j

Filed Under: New Dad, Papá Heroes Tagged With: ,

Be Part of the #PapaHeroes Alliance

June 28, 2011 by 2 Comments

As a new father I think about the proper use of technology for my daughter and her future friends. There are so many tools being created as we speak; it is tough for everyone to keep up and stay on track for our own purposes. If sometimes we don’t even have the time to read up on the gadgets, software, and other tools, we have even less time to go and check what tools our children are using.

Given that Daniela is almost 6 months old I don’t have to worry about her using technology for a long period of time. But in actuality I do. We decided to create a website to share pictures and unique experiences with family and not post on Facebook where strangers can have easy access. So right off the bat we made sure to share very little or nothing about Daniela online (and you can’t imagine the complaints we have received) and I if you read my friend Tommy Walker’s post we can clearly see how I am not the only one.

The reason why we created papaheroes.com was to answer those questions and identify which tools might pose a threat to your kids and what you have to watch out for.

Having had various experiences in life from serving in the U.S. Army where I enhanced my knowledge in physical security to moving into the IT Security field for various years safeguarding the information of large and medium sized companies. I want to apply those same skills towards identifying threats and vulnerabilities that might harm our children.

At papaheroes.com we are here to become better parents! Along the way we can also become better human beings and  share our super powers as parents. We want you to become part of the alliance of protecting our kids!

What gadgets, devices, software, or technology tools worry you?

Which ones would you like us to address and make sure your kids are using them right?

Overall what tools do you need to mitigate the risks of being victims of Cybercrime?

Are you up to the challenge of being part of the Alliance?

Filed Under: New Dad, Papá Heroes Tagged With:

Morning Motivation

June 27, 2011 by 1 Comment

photo credit by *L*u*z*A*

A few days ago I woke up thinking it was late although I still felt a bit tired. I did wake up very early considering I went to bed late (like always) I should have slept a bit more but knowing how much work I had I was fighting to get out of bed. I have always been an early riser although I tend to go to sleep a lot later now so it translated into a late wake up.

That day  I really wanted to stay in bed but something magical happened. When I was fighting my decision to get up. I looked to my side and my daughter Daniela was smiling at me and greeting me. I guess at almost 6 months old she has enough energy to convince me that having the opportunity to wake up and enjoy her is motivation enough to get up and start producing.

I had always heard how people would say that their kids motivated them. I guess hearing about  it and really experiencing it are two different things.

I have always been very loyal to my close friends and family and I would do anything for them. But being a new dad makes me understand what everyone was trying to convey and if I would do something for them I can’t imagine what I would do with my Daughter.

My daughter fills me with energy every morning when I see her smile, giggle, or make baby noises.

So overall being a dad is an incentive to help me produce better work for my clients at CIMA IT Solutions and to do a better job sharing my thoughts with you here and on raulcolon.net.

What things motivate you?

How do your kids play into your daily motivation?

I really want to read your thoughts and experiences on how your kids get you motivated.

Filed Under: New Dad, Papá Heroes, ParentHood Tagged With: ,

Filtering the Answers to My Questions

June 25, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Being a new dad I sometimes try to find questions to many of the daily situations I encounter. One thing I learned is that there is so much information regarding many subjects. This can create an overwhelming situation when it is time to make a decision regarding the well being of my daughter. Thankfully I have an incredible partner who along her we decide the best options for Daniela. I have to say that most of the time she is taking the heavy load of taking care of Daniela and finding solutions to most of her problems.

Since the idea of creating Papaheroes.com started forming I have been thinking on how we can find reliable sources that can provide you and me information can benefit our kids. There are so many sources for one specific subject that it can be overwhelming to have to get a quick  and correct answer to even simple problems.

These days Daniela is teething and we have looked for many solutions to make her more comfortable and take away any possible pain. @Lucymfel has experimented with many options (that made sense) like frozen carrots to make her feel better. But on the other side she had some suggestions by people which we thought where playing a prank on us. One of the solutions offered was giving a bit of liquor which we quickly discarded.

Thankfully I have a great friend who is a pediatrician who quickly handles most of our questions at any time, he is one of the many angels looking out for us and Daniela. Since many of you might not have a pediatrician it would be great if we could create a group of individuals like you who can share their experiences as parents regarding many of the issues we will continue to encounter.

I know we have some great parents as writers on our papaheroes.com but you are also key in helping us provide great content and solutions. So this is an open invitation to either suggest ideas by contacting me directly or asking about becoming part of the alliance.

What sources do you recommend us researching or using to get quick and reliable answers?

We have a few in mind that we will bring up in a future post (don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter) but since you are part of the papaheroes team also we wanted to hear and include your ideas?

Filed Under: Choices, New Dad, Papá Heroes Tagged With: , ,

5 Ways I Keep Myself Ready for Unexpected Events

June 23, 2011 by Leave a Comment

by Tim Green aka atoach

A few days ago I realized how easy it is to have a planned day become a very unplanned one in a matter of minutes. As a new father I am always ready to shift from one task to the other since I have to become even more flexible than I was before.

Juanga as a Puppy

I have always been flexible with my clients and now I have to add another factor to my business plan “Family Interruptions”. My four legged son #Juanga got hurt more than a week ago. I had to change that day’s tasks and goals and make sure I took care of what was critical first. Some people may call it putting out fires I called that specific incident going to the Vet. Yes I know this site is Papaheroes and we should be talking about how we are good dads and parents but I consider myself to be Juanga’s dad (since I am not sure if Juanga knows that I am not his biological father I prefer you to keep this between me and you).

The experiences we had with Juanga as a Puppy really prepared me in some way to get ready for my daughter Daniela’s arrival. As a puppy, Juanga was sick for the first few days and then we were house breaking him for weeks.I wish we could teach Daniela to go to the bathroom as quickly as JuanGa but eventually everything comes with time and many boxes of diapers).

I personally love my dog and I try to make him as comfortable as possible. So trying to look out for Juanga’s well being has really taught me a thing or two these last 18 months.

Being a father to Daniela for almost 6 months has really fined tuned those other areas and things I learned when taking care of Juanga. Some of the things I make a priority are making sure we are always ready for an emergency just like last week.

As a small business owner and a new father I leave space for those occasions where I might need to leave work on the side and get a situation under control similar to Juanga’s visit to the vet.

I am Always Ready for Emergencies in the Following Way

  1. I work every opportunity I get to be ahead of the game and never fall back on any projects.
  2. I always have enough gas in the car to drive me around the Island and get me anywhere I need to last me a few days.
  3. I have my laptop and my iPad with full charge and a mobile broadband internet connection which allows me to set up an office anywhere.
  4. I have a packed bag with my critical tools; all I need is to pop in my computer and my iPad and I am on the go.
  5. I try to place things in the same places to find them easily in an emergency ( I still have to work on this one a bit better).

How do you prepare for emergencies?

Have you created a list in your mind or even better a physical list to make sure you can react as quickly as possible?

So as Juanga Recovers by taking a break in grass I am thinking of how I can be well prepared for the next unexpected event.

Filed Under: Family, New Dad, Papá Heroes Tagged With: , ,

Welcome to Papá Heroes

June 20, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Photy by: GingerPearl on Flickr

Awesome that you’re here! We welcome you with open arms! This new adventure we’ve embraced has come with great expectations and lots of butterflies in everyone’s stomachs. To put it simply, we wanted to pass along our experiences of being parents. So we asked ourselves: What would be the best day to begin Papá (Dad) Heroes? Father’s Day!, we all sang.

If you are a parent yourself, you know that every day, brings new challenges and lessons. Not always do we endure and pass the test. In fact, lots of times we really don’t know what to do! So because of this the PapáHeroes team decided to create this space. To give you advise and tell you what happened to us and how we endured, or failed. When you comment on our posts and exchange your views, you’ll be helping us also. So, this way, everyone learns along the way.

Shaped by Super Heroes

I was shaped by many super heroes growing up. The one that played the most important role, was Kal-El of Krypton. Superman, taught me lots of things. The most important one, was to protect and care for those around you.  With that in mind, you can be sure that in this blog, our children will be saved, protected, pampered and most of all: loved.

If you have concerns, questions or comments and you’d like one of our heroes to save you from your ordeal, don’t hesitate! contact us and we’ll help you in your hour of need! Great to have you here, and would love if you return again and share your experiences with us.

Filed Under: New Dad, Papá Heroes, Parental Advice
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