Review: The Faith Of A Child by Stefan Lanfer

BY 

CHRIS SINGER

Cross posted from His fantastic blog: http://bookdads.com/

About Stefan Lanfer – Stefan Lanfer is a dad, husband, master (woof woof!) blogger,author,playwright, foundation strategy guy, twitterer, and catcher of flying babies. He lives with Ashley, James, Maya and Scout the Dog in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. You can learn more about Stefan Lanfer, the dad and husband, from his blog Dad Today. The Faith of a Child is his first book.

About the book

(from www.stefanlanfer.com)

Preparing for fatherhood? Freaked out? Help is here.

When a woman prepares for motherhood, other women guide her on her way. Not so a dad-to-be, who gets pats on the back, corny jokes, or vague assurances he’ll do fine. Until now, his best hope was by-moms-for-moms baby books–a gap filled by Stefan Lanfer’s The Faith of a Child and other Stories of Becoming and Being Dad.

According to Lanfer, when his wife was pregnant, “I was STRESSED out, and the guys around me no help—until, just in time, I hosted a group of dads at our home. I fed them dinner. They fed me their stories.” As he listened, says Lanfer, “I got inside the dad head space. Finally, I felt ready.”

To pay forward this gift, Lanfer shares his stories in The Faith of a Child, which tracks tracks Lanfer’s journey to – and into fatherhood.  To dads-to-be, Lanfer says, “If you want tips, tactics, and advice for childbirth and parenting, you’ve got dozens of choices. But, if you want real stories that actually let you picture fatherhood, The Faith of a Child is for you.”

#fatherfolkis Haiku Winners!

The winners of our #fatherfolkis family haiku winners from our competition on twitter are:

@TheDaddyYoDude and @exhausdad! These are great guys to follow on twitter and they both write phenomenal blogs. They are fatherfolk!

@exausdad

once were two. alone. 

then came that september morn. 

forever changed. three.

@TheDaddyYoDude

Painted daughter's toes,

then i painted four of mine. 

Now we match so well.

Why Pointing Out What Sign You Are to People Who Don't Care is Maybe Not a Good Idea

Cross Posted from 

Bridget Calahan Is Your Best Friend 

 

Bridget's Interpretation of the Astrological Signs as aided by caffeine withdrawal, a twix bar for breakfast,
and general lack of respect for the whole damn thing. I don't believe this shit.
(due to certain conversations, I feel compelled to make this clear. I am making all this up)

Capricorn - The Goat

Capricorns are driven people. Driven to be intellectual snobs. Driven to be exclusive. Driven to be in control of their situation, even if that means staying in their house every day playing computer games because its the only thing they are good at, and if they leave the house they might have to experience this thing called an emotion, which frankly they don't see the point of. They love to talk to you if you're smart, but only as long as you don't admit to knowing more than them. If you don't meet their standards, then they will probably still sleep with you, but will not call you in the morning and probably won't enjoy it anyway. They like trench coats, IT jobs, and symmetrical pictures of nature. If you meet a capricorn with excellent social skills, it probably means they make a lot more money than you.

Star Wars, or How I Became a Real American.

Written By Gretchen Harwell

I told one of the vets at work today that I was going to watch Star Wars for the first time tonight, and he went from mild surprise to shock in about five seconds. I guess it seems so strange because most people my age, older, and younger feel like this movie and everything that surrounds it is so ingrained in our culture that people are born having seen it; like we must all have some sort of inherited cellular memory for it. We talked about it a little and I started to think back to see if I could remember my friends talking about it, or if any of them were Star Wars nerds/collectors, and I only came up with this story. When I was in youth orchestra, I had a friend named Anna who was smart, cool, funny, CULTURED (she saw movies!), and all around awesome. One year for my birthday, Anna gave me a Critter Catcher/Bug Habitat, complete with a worm and a couple of bugs she had named "Chewbacca and The Babies." I had no idea who or what Chewbacca was. I remember asking someone and they looked at me like I was an alien when they realized I was serious. Outside of that, my first real exposure to the Star Wars movies probably came in college, when I started dating a film student and hanging out with his friends. I married him, and he's such a good guy he never looked down on me because I hadn't seen it.

Amazon Music Deals

Good music at a better price


Illinoise - $5 - In the years after (and maybe before, I don't know) Sufjan Stevens released his two albums that were supposed to kick off a 50 album tour of the US he has become some kind of Indie Pop phenomenon / darling. And while his latest seems to have derailed from the state tour (maybe he got stuck in Indiana?) it continues the multi layered instrumentation and laid back vocals that make Illinoise a great album. The album is worth it alone for the finest song on the album, that also just happens to be about John Wayne Gacy, Jr.

Dispatches From Mongolia: A week away at Lake Khovsgol (part 3)

I went away for a week to visit Lake Khovsgol, located in the north western part of Mongolia. I've decided to break this week into three parts so as not to bore my readers with too many pictures

Of course I saved the best for last. In part three our amazing group of travelers stay at a ger camp next to three friendly UB police officers. They help me fulflil my Mongolian dream of killing a sheep the traditional Mongolian way (cutting it's belly and reaching in to snip the aorta) and then cooking it the traditional way of Khorkhog. Khorkhog is when you cook the meat with hot stones. Originally this was done inside of the animal but this is tough to do, especially with the time and utensils we had. Instead the cops helped us cook it over fire with stones inside. It was amazingly tasty. Also, this was my first animal kill. I was very worried about what would happen to me mentally and emotionally. Would I cry like a baby? Would I never want to eat meat again? Would I enjoy it? Would I paint my face with the sheep's blood?

Self Evident, Like Gravity...

Source: rie.org

I first learned about the RIE philosophy of childrearing when I worked as a graduate student at the infant development lab school at the University of Arkansas. When Carol, the head teacher explained it to me it was as though a light went on. As with all of the best philosophies, it made sense on such a basic level that it almost seems self evident, like gravity. You just need the right person to come along and give it words.

In the case of RIE, that person was Magda Gerber, a Hungarian early childhood educator who came up under communism under the guidance of her mentor, pediatrician Emmi Pikler. I've been told that if you went to a park in Budapest you would be able to spot the RIE children simply by the way they spoke, moved, and interacted with the world with confidence.

How To Listen To The TV Really Loudly While Your Baby Sleeps

By Adam (Dad)

Shhhh, the baby is sleeping! I am sure you have all heard that one before. Nothing kills the joys of thousands of dollars of stereo and tv equipment faster than a sleeping baby and a tired wife. The good news is that there is an easy solution that you probably will kick youself for not thinking of sooner (I did).
Say goodbye to close captions and lip reading, with a few simple audio wires and adapters that you can pick up at amazon or the local radioshack you’ll be back in business in minutes.

How the road warrior dad can stay connected

I'm lucky enough to spend most of my time as a work-at-home-dad, but on occasion work threatens to cut off the faucet if I don't make an appearance for at least a few days. That doesn't mean I can't stay connected to my family, even spending dinner time together.

Dispatches from Mongolia: A week away at Lake Khovsgol (part 2)

Written by Andrew Rosenstock
Cross posted from herenow-nowhere 

I went away for a week to visit Lake Khovsgol, located in the north western part of Mongolia. I've decided to break this week into three parts so as not to bore my readers with too many pictures

Part two, in which our hero ventures into local gers and eats various homemade cheese and curd products, and drinks traditional mongolian vodka made from milk. He also visits a hot spring, gets caught in a snow storm (in the middle of summer??) and takes control of a dance party on a boat. All this and more.. so read on for the exciting second part of this story.

One of the families we stopped off at on the way to the hot springs had these delicious cheese type cookies almost. they tasted like a faint farmers cheese. It reminded me of what is inside of blintze. Quite tasty but after a few I was in need of a break.