News

What a week it has been!!

by Gavin Leonard Nov 02, 2019

What a week it has been... the launch, the site stalling, the printing started, lots and lots of interviews but for me the most magical of all was seeing Nora open the box with our newest title, Jade's Fan-tastic Athletic Adventure! I really feel that with all of our books "if they can SEE it, they can BE it".

Second to that was the moment that I was on a train, and in front of me was a older man looking after his grandchildren. His granddaughter was having a FULL on meltdown and there was nothing that he could do. I took a copy out of the bag and said... "perhaps this might help". As they read the story, his granddaughter stopped crying and started to ask questions about the story. "What is the Special Olympics?", "who is Hou Hou?" "is Nora going to be able to save Hou Hou?". It was SUCH a beautiful moment. I only WISH i had it on camera

So Please Please Please... LIKE, Comment and Share our posts so that we can raise much needed funds for Down Syndrome ireland and the Special Olympics.

You help means so much!

Interview with Top child Psychotherapist

by Gavin Leonard Oct 14, 2019

Joanna Fortune, a psychotherapist and author discusses the benefits of reading stories like ours to your little girls (and boys). She is a recognised supervisor, trainer and conference speaker in her field. In 2017 she delivered a TEDx Talk on the topic of child psychotherapy.

Watch the interview on Ireland AM with our very own 'Not Just a Princess' Dad Gavin and top child psychotherapist Joanna Fortune

My Daughter the Dentist!!

by Gavin Leonard Oct 14, 2019

I think most of us have a very real fear of going to the dentist - usually for good reason! Strangely, many of my good friends are dentists and I still have that fear myself, in fact, after talking to a few of my dentist friends recently, many of them also fear climbing into the dentist’s chair! Hahaha This got me thinking about why and how this fear manifests, so when I got my appointment for a 6-month check-up I called my dentist and told them about my little blog and my determination to spend more time with the family. I also explained that I wanted Jade to see the “fun” side of going to the dentist and prevent her from going into a cold sweat when the word “dentist” is used. As a child, my parents were very strict about the 6-month check-up… but whenever it came around the fear was unreal. Our dentist WAS Satan reincarnated in my eyes, his clinic was in an old, affluent area but the waiting room was ALWAYS empty (never a good sign!). The stench of burnt teeth was disgusting and he hated kids… (in fairness we hated him back!) Just thinking about going down to his clinic gives me the Heebie Jeebies, and I certainly don’t want that to be my daughter’s experience. Our new dentist is 3 Dental at the Red Cow, it’s a modern, purpose built facility and it has a bright and airy waiting room - with lovely staff who are great craic (and don’t scare the bejesus out of little children!) When Jade arrived at the clinic with me they were only delighted to see her and made her feel very special. Then we put on her little dental scrubs (seriously… you can get anything on the internet!) and the dentists, the nurses and just about everyone in the waiting area, made her feel like a superstar. She was high fiving everyone, blowing kisses and waving like a real Princess – but this little Princess had work to do! I chatted to the staff and asked them if Jade could be the dentist for 20 minutes – I wanted her to use the mirrors, try out the suction and brush my teeth!!! They were understandably intrigued by the idea and gave us the go ahead. She was too cute once she got going; poking at my teeth (with some amount of force I might add!), using the suction (nearly giving me a fecking tonsillectomy in the process) and brushing my teeth (and trachea! I nearly coughed up a lung!). Apart from the fact that I don’t want my daughter to have a fear of the dentist, I also want her to see that with hard work and dedication she can become whatever she wants – even in a mostly male dominated field! I hope that in her formative years she remembers these experiences and she will consider plenty of career choices, knowing that jobs are done by people and barriers exist only in the minds of those who don’t question the status quo! We had an awesome morning with the guys in 3 Dental, thank you all for indulging an embarrassing dad! Having the “craic” isn’t something that you hear much of in the dental industry so it was great to see the fun side of everyone in the clinic as Jade sank her teeth into yet another career opportunity!

When She Gets Bullied?!!

by Gavin Leonard Sep 02, 2018

With lots of youngsters returning to school this week I’ve seen plenty of posts on parenting websites about bullying. It is something that I’ve been thinking about quite a bit recently and, even though I think we’re a few years away from really needing to worry about it, I asked myself the other day… What would I do if Jade was being bullied? The conversation came up while at a wedding recently when a good friend of mine asked, “What are you going to do when she gets bullied?” My reaction was… “WHEN?? Why do you think she’ll get bullied?” His reason? Because “she’s mixed!” Now, I know this guy really well; he's a school teacher and a very close friend so I was taken slightly aback by the comment. For me, maybe unusually, I have never seen my wife for anything other than my wife! We met in China in a smaller town… (a million people but for China that IS a smaller town) and while we were there, even though we were just friends, we did get some sidewards glances occasionally, but once we moved to a big city it wasn’t an issue – at least not that we knew of! (I can be quite self obsessed!? haha) So, I had to ask my friend… “Why do you assume that she’ll be bullied?” His answer was that “Kids are cruel”. This made me questions, “When do kids get cruel? Where does this cruelty come from? How do we deal with this? And there was one answer to all of these questions; “I really don’t know!” Then I started to wonder, is it really inevitable that a mixed-race child will be bullied over their skin colour or their parent’s ethnicity? These are all questions that I’ve been thinking about recently and I’m struggling to find answers to any of them. After that conversation at the wedding I’ve given it quite a bit of thought but it wasn’t until Jade was in a children's play area a couple of weeks ago and an older kid was getting frustrated with her that I felt completely vulnerable. She was running the gauntlet of older kids in a play area and trying to “make friends” but they were too busy running and push things/smaller kids out of the way and I worried about how she would handle herself. It made me think, what am I going to do if she gets bullied? How do I teach her to stick up for herself? At what point does a parent get involved? What if she's the bully? I’ve decided yet again that I am wholly unprepared for parenting! So what’s my plan? To teach her everything I think she needs to know…

1. To be respectful of others and expect it in return.

2. That I am the person that she can always call and talk to (even if it is something you might not want to tell your dad! I'll be cool about it! Well I say that now anyway)

3. Teach her to be confident and to assert herself (help her with Kung Fu skills).

4. Discuss different courses of action with her in case something does happen.

5. Let her know I will intervene if necessary ( I just hope I don't have to kick a kids ass.... or worse the parent's ass! Heehee)

As usual, I’m not sure whether this is a good plan, a bad plan or an absolutely terrible plan, but I think that most parents are in the same situation. Aren’t we all just making it up as we go along?!

Flying with Toddlers!!

by Gavin Leonard Aug 25, 2017

In 3 weeks time my darling wife and little lady are going to undertake the 14 hour trip to China (we don’t actually think that is too bad… the flight used to be 18 hours and 2 connections!!). We have talked about the process, looked up all the things we could do for the flight, what clothes we need, whether or not we can take her bottles through security, what to do if she has a melt down - the list goes on. We have charts, action plans and sticky notes, it was getting a bit ridiculous so we decided that instead of all this prep we’d take a trip over the pond to the UK to see my great aunt for her birthday. This would allow us to see what the flight would be like with the two of us so we could gauge her reaction and boredom levels and what we would need to do in the future to keep her entertained.

I wouldn’t necessarily call us experts after one flight… in fact pretty much everything that could go wrong DID go wrong! But because this was just a practice run we laughed it all off and kept on going, after all a 60 minute Ryanair flight wasn’t going to kill us. EVEN if Jade cried for an hour… which thankfully she didn’t do. So here are a few tips that worked for us this time, or completely didn’t work for us this time. Have a look and let us know if you have more tips… 14 hours guys, we will actually try ANYTHING!

Give yourself the 2 hours you never need on a Ryanair flight. Even with your boarding cards printed, it only takes a leaky sip cup, a wet fart or a melt down and you can kiss 30 minutes goodbye.
Prepare for security, get EVERYTHING you can into the carry on cases! IF you are taking a pram, get one of the ones that folds like an umbrella… this travel system nonsense will ACTUALLY drive you nuts as they have to inspect EVERY nook and cranny! You know have a suspected drug mule in tow!
Get to the gate early and let them run around, wave at people, look at the airplanes, ANYTHING that wears them out and gets them sitting on your knee is a good thing.
I used to be a ‘hang back until the line is nearly finished and then in we go’ type of guy!. I wondered why people rush up and queue? Well if you need an arsenal of things to keep your child entertained, you need to have them close at hand and cabin crew telling you they’ll have to stow away your hand luggage will have you in tears! The downside is, you have to sit there longer and confined entertainment is tough.[ See # 6]
Ears popping? Sucky long lasting items are best… although, think about what you give them. We went for the organic option while the other couple near us went for sugary fizzy cola bottles and trying to keep that child strapped in was like watching something from an exorcism! But everyone to their own!!
Activities, Activities, Activities… I spent a long time online looking for different things that would keep our princess quiet and I didn’t just want it to be… “Here you go, try Paw Patrol for an hour” because a) I know it wouldn’t work and b) if it’s not the episode that she likes, the crying starts!
The Cabin Crew are your best buddies… they don’t wanna hear your kid crying so they also have things to keep them quiet – discovering this on your flight is like finding out there is a secret menu at your favourite restaurant!!
Ask for Help: If you are going to be carrying a toddler down metal stairs and you have to carry lots of other things and you are not comfortable or don’t feel safe doing it, just ask someone to help you out. People like to do good deeds now and then so give them the opportunity.
Stay calm. Some people are dicks, some people hate kids and some people have “very important” things to do. Your child is more important than all of them to you so don’t feel embarrassed or ashamed if your kids goes a little nuts, thats how they learn… and 99% of people get that and are cool with it.
(This one only really applies to me… but hey, it’s great fun!) Dress them up… Cute kids dressed in tiny costumes get less complaints than regular cute kids that aren’t wearing something amusing! (That may not actually be a fact but in my experience it works every time!)

PS... we were going to get a pic in the cockpit... but someone fell asleep! Never work with animals or kids! hahaha

The First Month... Chinese Style!

by Gavin Leonard Aug 11, 2017

The first month of having a baby in the house is supposedly one of the most difficult times that you can have as a new parent… or even as an experienced parent. This definitely WASN’T the case with us, for the simple reason that my wife is Chinese and we went the traditional route of having a YueSao. A YueSao is a magical woman whose sole job is to look after mother and baby in the first month of homecoming. In my case, she also looked after me! When I tell people in the Western World what happens during this month I usually hear loud gasps and see jaws dropping to the floor, firstly because of the madness that goes on in the month due to tradition and the other reason people are astounded is the sheer sense of relaxation that comes with the helping hand! So, what are these mad traditions you ask? Zuò yuèzi is the Chinese Term to ‘sit for a month’. In Chinese culture after a baby is born, you do as little as you can to help your body get back to full health, and in the case of a C Section it is a wonderful (for the Dad!) 2-month period. During this time the mother & baby can’t wash (yes, I said it… you CAN’T wash. Not even a little! Unless you bathe in alcohol but who has a gallon of Poitin just lying around!) While in Western culture, right after the birth (and even sometimes during the birth) hot/cold showers are what’s needed, Chinese culture is very different.

The mother is not allowed cold water (not to drink, not to wash with, she can’t even come into contact with it!)
She is not allowed Air Conditioning, either hot or Cold (because apparently ‘wind ghosts’ are a real thing!?)
No open Windows… See above (and feel yourself starting to become very concerned about what ‘wind ghosts’ actually are!?)
No leaving the house… also See Above (maybe we are supposed to be keeping the ‘wind ghosts’ company?)

So, what does this wonderful lady (I’ve never heard of a man becoming a YueSao, but would love to see one. However, I can see why women might prefer not to have a guy involved!) do for the couple…

Prepare the baby’s room
Prepares 3 meals a day for Mommy (nutritional with plenty of soup! There are soups that encourage lactation apparently)
Teaches you the nappy ritual (She was very Zen about the whole thing)
Teaches you baby massage (I was treating the baby like a canister of VX gas, worried she might break!)
Feed the baby bottles if the baby isn’t breast feeding… but if it is she takes the baby from the crib to the boob and back again!
Winds the baby after feeding (Again, very Zen, only upward stroking movements)
Puts the baby back down
Helps with ALL the night feeds (keeps a monitor in her room!)
Sends the husband to the spare room because… “We don’t all need to be up!” (Heaven!)
Bathes the baby and teaches you how to do it (covering the belly button at all times… those 'pesky wind' ghosts again!)
Massages the boob to ensure there is no blockage (on a serious note… I am sure she prevented a case of mastitis one night when she got the hot towels out and, like a plumber for boobs, had that milk duct clear in no time… although it doesn't sound serious we were very worried and she was amazing that night!)
Comforts the baby and shows the parents how to comfort a child
Moans that you are not doing it right! (Especially me… in fact ONLY me! I was only allowed hold a sleeping baby!)
Brings the baby in and out to see visitors (this was great for us… we got to chat to everyone, then Mary Poppins would dress the baby for guests, give her to you and then when there was a cry swoop in and take her out and in a few minutes bring back a relaxed baby!)
Sends the husband to work because he’s useless!! (that one might just be for me!)

Basically, a YueSao does all the things that a husband should do for his wife after she gives birth but these are the things his wife thinks he might slip up on… again, that might just be me!!

Is it worth it? Abso-fecking-lutely!! Hahaha When this Mary Poppins of the Chinese world left us we had a baby that took a boob or a bottle (this is when I started to be useful), she also ensured that my darling wife didn’t end up back in hospital with Mastitis, that our baby slept through the night, we were finally masters of the bath time routine, our bellies were ALWAYS full and we thoroughly enjoyed the first 2 months with Jade without the stress of thinking to ourselves “What are we supposed to do?”, “Are we doing this right?” or “How the F@£K does this work?” Instead, our own personal Poppins disappeared leaving behind 3 pretty cool calm and collected customers. Well, until the first bout of crying where Jade was fed, changed and burped with the confidence of two supercalifragilisticexpialidocious parents!

Oh the Nappies!!!!

by Gavin Leonard Aug 05, 2017

Today marks a bad day for me in the ole nappy department, upon seeing my little princess tense up and her face turn purple I knew that a nappy change was on the cards. I usually don’t mind nappy changes. especially during the first 10 months when my darling daughter lay there smiled and laughed, goo-ed and gaga-ed at me, let me clean her up, rub cream on her and close the nappy without a second glance! I was my own master, I’d have everything to hand and it was like a Formula 1 pit stop… then she started to crawl! Now, I have nothing against nappy companies but when you see the ads for the pull-up nappies preaching about how much easier they are to use than the dreaded tape nappies, what the sneaky promos leave out is the true misery of a wriggling child with a full nappy! They don’t show the nappy cream smeared on clothes and carpets and they definitely don’t show the melt downs that changing time can potentially cause! So, since we started using pull-ups and Jade discovered the joy of crawling, I’ve done some pretty drastic things to get attention. The first was a strobe ball (yes, something that with hindsight could cause an epileptic fit!) it worked for about a week, then I moved onto “Let It Go” from Frozen, after that there was Sia “Move Your Body” but recently only Silly Daddy will work. Silly Daddy means I whip off the trousers at speed and wear them like a hat while singing songs and dancing around with the legs of the trousers dangling down by my face – attractive, I know!

So, back to the purple faced child; knowing there was a nappy change on the cards, I did the proper recon and prepared the area. I had a changing mat, a nappy, wet wipes at the ready, tissues to dry the bottom, nappy cream and my phone ready to play Sia, just in case! Then to the routine – her black trousers were whipped off at the ankles, I grabbed the waist band and lash them straight up on my head, thankfully it’s working, she’s quiet and happy! Next, baby vest buttons opened, then I started to think something was awry, the changing mat had a sticky trail, suddenly her legs shot up and I saw some more, this was it, my worst fear – we had had an exploder. It filled the nappy so fast that it started to fountain out the sides. Nappy open, Silly Daddy on, Sia singing her heart out in the background and off came the nappy… Oh dear, the stench is what I imagine a corpse would smell like after a few weeks, the sight was just as bad but then my little crawler decided so had to stand up! Poo hits the mat at great speed and I try to wipe it up and save the carpet – and fail miserably! Jade’s foot finds its way into the offending nappy and she starts to fall backwards, I grab her and she puts that very foot down on my hand; lovely!!

Finally all clean, well she is anyway, and I throw out the nappy and go upstairs to get more clothes and wash up, but just as I pass the mirror, I see another trail of poo… The horror as I remember the trousers whipped from the ankles!! Well they just as filthy as the unfortunate changing mat, and YES, they were still on my head… Silly Daddy had just whipped a load of fresh excrement on his balding head!! I was absolutely devastated, and of course my wife just laughed uncontrollably (but still managed to find the time to take picture and NOT help her distressed spouse!) I removed the trousers very slowly to avoid the elastic flinging what was left of the sticky mess around the room – or worse still into my mouth!! I decided to retire Silly Daddy after THAT little incident!

5 Ways to Prevent Daddy Guilt

by Gavin Leonard Aug 03, 2017

While my wife was in hospital, just after having the baby, I was still getting calls from work, I went straight from the hospital to a meeting and while they bought me a drink to “wet the baby’s head”, it was straight back into work when the cheering was done! Running 3 businesses at the same time was so, so difficult, but there were bills to pay and bank repayments to be made – and my levels of guilt rocketed on a daily basis.

The first year of my daughter’s life was very very busy. I had my own business and I was running two other businesses at the same time. I tried to do as much of the work from 6am to 5pm and then from 8pm to 10pm, while keeping Sundays free so that I could spend some quality family time with my wife and child, but after a health scare, things had to change! I was getting dizzy spells and they started to get very bad. It was in a hospital waiting room that I finally asked myself if I was making the right choices in my life – if I didn’t wake up tomorrow would my family be looked after? Have I created enough memories with my little girl that she would remember me were something to happen? How would my wife cope without her life partner? Financially, could they get by without me? So, having talked and talked about spending more time with my daughter, about implementing a type of ‘family calendar’ and finding that work/life balance that is so important – I am finally doing it. While I know that I still have to work, my wife and daughter are coming first. Here are some of the rules I’ve been following lately and make it work… with a Disney Theme! (Disclaimer: I am still lapsing quite a bit, even this week my schedule went out the window, but I hope that this will be less and less in the future).

1. Let It Go

Daddy guilt, or mammy guilt, is going to happen! Yes, you are going to have days that you can’t leave the office until late, you are going to miss some family events and you are inevitably gonna beat yourself up over things, but that’s just life. I have learned that you can have your guilty moment but then you absolutely have to let it go. Move on, tomorrow is another day!

2. Hakuna Matata

“It means no worries for the rest of your days”; while I can’t quite endorse the full sentiment of that statement because we’d be in financial ruin, I’ve decided that I am not going to sweat the small stuff! I’m not going to worry about how things look to other people, how I dress my daughter, what we feed her (she likes tofu and so do I! Ha-ha) and whether I look stupid trying to make her smile because that smile is better than anything else in this whole world.

3. Can You Feel the Love Tonight

It is my job from now on to ensure that my little girl knows that she is loved every single day, whether she is moaning, screaming, irrational and throwing a lil tantrum or she is giving me an abundance of hugs and kisses and dancing around like a loon – I will make damn sure that she knows how much she means to me, and I am going to ensure that this is priority #1.

4. One Jump Ahead

Preparation is the key, being prepared for the next day means that the stress levels should come right down! So, whether it is meal prep, sending emails, organising a meeting, arranging an appointment or scheduling a conference call, get it done ahead of time so you don’t have to worry about it all week. Making a list doesn’t take long and it can save you a heap of time!

5. You Got a Friend in Me

Having a relationship with the missus and getting our friendship back is very important. We do everything together but at times we are so tired in the evenings that we don’t talk about anything but the baby! I want to have fun again so we don’t rely on our daughter to be happy. Our happiness is just as important as the baby because without that happiness, we wouldn’t have gotten married THREE times! (We'll get to these later!) (I don't own any copyright for the images shown)

Finding Out

by Gavin Leonard Jul 26, 2017

I remember the first few days when Shannon knew that she was pregnant, I was helping three guys set up one of the biggest clinics in Ireland so I was out and about quite a bit and not as home as much as I should have been! We weren’t trying for kids as we had resigned ourselves to the fact that we were going to have to go to an IVF clinic, we had even had meetings and were actively putting together a plan, so when my darling wife was grilling me about baby names (with the full knowledge that she was pregnant, by the way) my answers didn’t exactly put me in a good light!!

When we joked about it I instantly came up with names such as “Inconvenient” and “Ill-timed” Leonard - but I could see I was impressing no-one with my attitude!

It was right around the time we were due (pun intended, thank you very much!) to celebrate one of our many wedding anniversaries, this particular one was our Irish Wedding ceremony (We've had 3 but no divorce) which we were just about the have (we actively celebrate all three weddings, its great fun and I’d have another one but people are tired of my speeches at this point!) We were heading out to a nice restaurant to celebrate but for the days leading up to the milestone Shannon was constantly telling me how much she was looking forward to dinner – which left me thinking that I was severely letting myself down and not giving my wife enough attention! The day before the anniversary she told me that she had a surprise for me, and I LOVE surprises. So of course, I start asking questions… Can I eat it? Definitely not Can we enjoy it together? Yes, for sure. Can I drink it? Nope. Can I eat it? No… that really wouldn’t be good. Do I have to travel to get it? Yes, in a way you do… Is it expensive? More than you will even realise! Can I wear it? Mmm… I suppose you might? Do I need to pack a bag? Yes, you do. You need to pack one for me too! Will I get a tan? That would be highly unusual. Will I be tired? Probably for a very long time! Will it make me happy? I hope so because I didn’t get a receipt… Do I need to buy special clothes? Em... yeah I don't think you have the right clothes for this If I throw it against a wall will it stick to it? Em... no and that was a terrible present! (First thing I ever bought my darling wife was a 10p Spiderman that you throw at a wall and it slowly falls over itself to the bottom... she says it was terrible, but secretly I think she had great fun with it! hahaha) Are you sure I can't I eat it? You CANNOT eat it! Seriously! I was all set for a skiing holiday, in fact I had booked lessons on a dry slope so that we could hit the ground running (they got cancelled I'm afraid), I had snow boots in my amazon basket, I even organised cover for work. So, was I surprised when I opened the box, ready to see my skiing tickets? ABSOLUTELY!!! I hadn't seen a pregnancy test before I don't think... well not one that is packaged in a €20 piece of plastic - the Chinese ones are like a litmus test and they're only 20c!! She was going to tell me in the restaurant... thankfully she didn't we were so close together that the American tourists at the next table may have gotten the surprise quicker than I did! I remember telling a friend the good news actually & he said “It’s all downhill from here mate!” Now that I think of it, that ‘downhill’ quip was as close to the skiing holiday as we ever got…!

A Whole New World

by Gavin Leonard Jul 23, 2017

After making the decision to spend more time with my daughter and less time in the office, I have decided to start a blog to document our time together... Since having a daughter I certainly see things in a new light. Things that didn’t bother me before now cause me sleepless nights. Off the cuff remarks offend me a little more than they did previously and people calling my daughter a Princess 24/7 was cute for the first few months but now it is starting to seriously annoy me, especially when I say:

“She is NOT just a Princess, she’s gonna be a Kung Fu Master!” – something which has been dissed at every turning point! But my question is, “Why can’t she be a Kung Fu Master? Why can’t she kick ass and still be a Princess?”

Kung Fu is one of the most graceful hobbies I’ve ever seen and it is a part of her culture, yet all I hear is (*Irish women voice) “No No No, she’ll be an Irish Dancer with those high kicks!”

I’m not sure why this annoys me as much as it does, I mean I love the Princess thing. I love the cartoons, I love watching them with my daughter, I love Princess parties with Afternoon Tea but I don’t love what they teach about how girls should interact with the world (bar Mulan, she does kick ass! Ha-ha). Why do girls need to act a certain way, why do they need to wait for a hero… why can’t they BE the hero? Since my daughter was born I’ve told her she can be whatever she wants, and I sincerely mean that (even though she doesn’t truly understand that yet! Ha-ha). There are no barriers in front of her and if the world puts them there we’ll break them down together – but if I’m not around I want her to know with absolute certainty that I’m 100% behind her breaking them down with her mom or by herself. I lived in China for over 10 years and slowly as I got to know

more about the culture I was saddened many times when I’d say: “Congratulations guys, what a wonderful baby girl”, only to hear: “What’s wonderful? We will have to go again!” Then, when you have your own baby girl, you hear about the abortion rates and the male surplus (sometimes you even hear that nonsense from relatives!) and you think: “Man, China really needs to up its game!” A baby girl is a blessing that I never knew was possible; sweet, cute and makes me want to be a better man because I know that someday she’ll date, I’ll think he isn’t good enough, then we’ll fight but hopefully I’ll trust her to be the independent, clear thinking person that views the world with absolutely nothing in her way (and if he does turn out to be a b@£$tard, I hope that the fear of her ability to kick his ass will allow him to gracefully bow out and that she never has to use it!)

So, I guess what I’m saying is that I want more for my little girl than to simply think that beauty is the battle that she needs to win. I want to raise a happy, well rounded daughter that doesn’t believe she needs to be saved by someone else, that she can accomplish anything she sets her mind to, and above all else, knows that she is at NO disadvantage being a woman – in fact I honestly see it as a bonus!

Hoping to update this blog at least once a week, so I hope you guys will like, comment and share it - and spread the word that baby girls are awesome in any country!!