MOMS on DADS: Darlene O of the "Tales of a Young Mamma" blog!

Hi guys I'm Darlene from youngmammatales.blogspot.com I'm honored today to be here today to talk a bit about an awesome dad in my life, my baby daddy, Drew.

Drew and I started dating senior year of high school, after being friends since 5th grade. It became pretty serious and I ended up transferring out to Denver to be with him Soph. year of college. 

When I got pregnant, he was a 19 year old college kid, with no thoughts to being a dad anytime soon. Even though we had been together for 2 years, I still didn't count on him sticking around to be a father. I didn't want to tie him down at 19. I gave him an out, many, many times throughout my pregnancy. And he never took it. From the day he found out he was going to be a father, he 100 percent stepped up. He switched to a full time job to support our son and us, while going to college full time. 

For the first 3 years of Jasper's life, Drew worked 50+ hrs a week, was in class another 18 and still managed to be a great dad. He was up with me for middle of the night feedings, diaper changes, park and playdates, doctors appointments, he was there through it all. 

He found a way to make our dream of studying abroad in Sweden happen, with our son. Countless people told us it wasn't doable with a child, that they wouldn't be able to find proper housing for a child, and he kept pursuing and making it happen. He Never gives up on a dream.  And he is teaching our children to be the same.

He is the dad who gets up with our son and lets me sleep in while he makes us a huge breakfast on a Saturday. He's the dad who knows all of his sons teachers and friends names and goes along to every birthday party. He is the dad who actually plays at the park, not only with our son but somehow gets all the other kids involved as well. He is the dad who hasn't missed a single soccer game in the two years Jasper has been playing. He is the dad who won't stay for happy hour after work with everyone else because that would mean not being home to tuck his kids into bed at night.

Now that we have a daughter as well I can see how much he has changed even more for the better. Having a son, and now a daughter has made him become such a loving, caring person, and they are so lucky to have him in their life.

Thanks for letting me share a little bit about one amazing dad, can't wait to hear all about the other great dads out there!

Hello! My name is André.

Hello! I'm Andre, one of the newest additions to The Hipster Dad. Let me tell you a little bit about myself (without tying to sound like a singles ad)...

I met Craig through our friends from American Authors. We became good friends because 1- we are both art geeks/MassArt graduates and 2- we both have crazy adorable daughters. We set up our first family date almost a year ago where my wife Liz and Craig's girlfriend Lauren hit it off right away. We've all been hanging ever since and I feel really luck to have made good friends as an adult (which is tough to do) and to have a dad friend to swap stories with.

I've written maybe .004673% of the posts over at Husband Wife Baby, a blog my wife started shortly after finding out we were pregnant.  I'll share more about trying to get pregnant/dealing with infertility at some point, let's just say that sticking your wife with needles in order to try to get pregnant is NOT fun. 

And just to prove how parenting always keeps you on your toes, we have baby #2 on the way through NO medical assistance (and this one was a definite surprise!). We are due in late May and can't wait to add another kid to the crew of cuties here at The Hipster Dad. As for my daughter Eila (14 months), this was her reaction when she found out:

Well, that's it for now. Looking forward to hanging out here!

-André

GUEST DAD: Pete Fazio (of DadAnd.com)

Hi everyone, I'm Pete. I write a blog called dadand.com with my buddy Marty. Our blog is a mashup of all things dad-, and dude-related. DIY, repairs, cars, gadgets, whatever. We like to teach our kids about the way things work and how to fix stuff and explain the world as best we can.

While we ARE a "dad blog" we're not really a get-really-sappy-about-our-kids-so-the-mom-bloggers-get-all-weepy kind of blog. We normally leave the sap to the other 6 million dad blogs, BUT NOT TODAY. Today is a worldwide internet exclusive.


Today I AM going to get sappy about my little bean, Julia. She's called peaches, bean, burger, turkey, tofu burger, J, J-bird, JJ, the list goes on. But after 4 years it's sort of landed on "J".

"Julia sitting on me. No joke, she peed on me like 10 seconds after this pic was taken."

On being a single dad

I've been a single dad for over 2 years now. Time is split 50/50 with her mom. She has no recollection of her me and her mom being married or being in the same house at all. One time after telling her that mommy loves Elvis she actually asked me "Why do you know so much about my mommy?". It's brought Julia and I so close that it's not even funny. We're best buddies, she completely trusts me in every aspect, and she also knows that even though we're buds, what I say goes, and when it's time to get serious and listen to dad she does it without (much) question.

"Hanging in Cape Cod. Photo by mom."

Daddy/daughter adventures

She's a great traveling buddy. We're always on some kind of adventure, it could be anything from going to plays, music shows, to our favorite: friday night trips to the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, NY to something as simple as a trip to the store. We make it fun and make it a mission. She also loves helping me build and do DIY projects, like this treehouse I made from reclaimed deck wood.

"Going whale watching. yes she puked everywhere."



I've seen her grow in so many awesome ways. She loves art, music, nature, bugs, toads, everything. She's fearless. She loves food and trusts that if I ask her to try something that it's worth it. She'll at least give it a shot.

Any dad rants?

YES. Dads, stop yer bragging.

It  kind of bugs me when dads pat themselves on the back for doing stuff like doing tea parties and painting finger and toenails. It's just stuff you do when you love your child. It's expected. I'd almost go as far to say if you're pointing that stuff out then you're kind of saying it should be "woman work" and you're some great guy for "helping out the wife".

Any advice?

I always hesitate to give others parenting advice but If I were going to (and UH OH, it sounds like I'm about to right now), I'd say:

1. Let your kids make mistakes, get dirty, and get a bump on the head once in a while. I think of J like a little lion cub. She's going to poke around in the yard and explore and get dirty and pick stuff up she shouldn't and climb on stuff she shouldn't and fall down. GOOD. I try to be as poised as possible to let her explore freely and swoop in when my spidey-senses start tingling.
2. Don't baby talk to your kids. We've talked to J like an adult since she was born and the kid has an amazing vocabulary and can have a conversation.
3. Make them try new things every day. Food, music, games, toys. I know kids love routine and listening to the same CD over and over, and could eat chicken fingers every day, or tofu fingers, or whatever people are eating now-a-days, but damn man, break them out of that mold. There's nothing more annoying than an adult who won't eat this and won't eat that and picks the tomatoes out of their salads.

Oh, I'm tired of reading my own words and quite frankly I zone out when reading other parents write about parenting so I'm going to peace out. Of course we're always available for any kind of manly advice over at dadand.com and always would love some followers on twitter.com/dadandblog, or likes on FB: facebook.com/dadandblog.

Pete