I take Pyper to day care just about every time she has to go, we love it – I “dress her down” and “why is that” my wife asks?? Well I don’t want the other kids to feel inadequate because she is so beautiful I say in a half joking, cavalier attitude type voice!! Now my wife is very beautiful – well to me anyway, and I think because of her we have a beautiful looking little girl also. We have some polorfleece type material clothes for Pyper and they keep her warm when she is at daycare, but what i have noticed lately is that we haven’t actually ever cut her hair, we trim her nails and they grow like wild fire, and because I dress her in the same clothes everytime she goes to day care, I kept getting asked why don’t you dress her in the cute clothes that we brought for her? I usually do when I know we are going out,but apart from that then we just we the same stuff different day. ... read more >>

You will never need clothing again — or not until you're four or five, at least.

Our good friends Scott and Lesli called yesterday to say they had some clothes for you. This was exciting. A good portion of your wardrobe already comes from their beautiful daughter, Zoe, who is growing like one of those little sponge dinosaurs and has recently busted out of another set of clothing.

We knew we'd be getting some good stuff — all of Zoe's clothes are super cute — but we really had no idea that we'd be leaving with an entire truckload of baby gear.

No, really, it was quite literally a truckload.

Here's the deal: Scott and Lesli have multiple friends and relatives with little girls, just a bit older than Zoe, who handed stuff down to them. Add that stuff to all the other stuff that Zoe has accumulated from grandparents, other relatives and friends and you've pretty much won the baby hand-me-down sweepstakes. ... read more >>

Buying clothes for a baby can be for most dads – damn stressful especially if you’re buying for a girl!

But what I have found are some handy hints that will mean that you don’t have to worry too much about getting it write or is that right?

I have found personally that what is easy for me is finding baby clothes that are safe and comfortable and hold a few of the following attributes:

* Wide necked pieces to slip over little heads easily – putting on and taking off especially if they have an accident

* Don’t spend $40-5o per item they grow out of them so quickly and you will be disappointed that they only got to wear it once or twice if you’re lucky.

* Domes are easier then buttons and faster even if there are 3 of them usually.

* Easy materials such as merino and cotton they are more elastic for getting around elbows, feet and heads and tough wearing. ... read more >>

OK, I'll get up on my soap box now and would like to start a "dads against useless clutter in the house" campaign. First one on my list is shoes for newborns. Is it possible that these fashion items are the most useless things in the world?

Just to clarify my point here - I'm taking about proper shoes (with laces and all), NOT socks or knitted shoes. So I'm proud to say we didn't buy a single pair of newborn shoes but we got given about 30 pairs (I'm not kidding). Naturally we tried them and I found some obvious problems ...

1. Can't get them on because our baby moves his legs a lot and trying to tie the laces is hard work
2. They fall off (even with laces tied)
3. They never have the right size and our baby outgrew most of them in a matter of weeks.

Oh and I nearly forgot ... NEWBORNS CAN'T WALK! ... read more >>

When "Made in China" goes wrong ... have you checked the labels of kids shops recently? I'm struggling to find anything that's NOT made in China. I think that's quite sad for a number of reasons (supporting local brands, product miles, etc.) but now we've got the formaldehyde problem. Read up here if you haven't heard yet.

Formaldehyde in children's clothing
Formaldehyde (gas) is commonly used in the manufacturing of clothes to make them wrinkle and stain resistant. The problem is that clothes from China have been found to levels up to 900 times higher than considered safe by the World Health Organisation. ... read more >>