Can I brag a little this morning?

My 7-year-old daughter Delaney was recently accepted into the TAG program at school (Talented And Gifted). We received a letter from the school indicating that she scored 99.5% in math and 98.5% in reading!

One of her nicknames is Laney Brainy because she's very smart and has a great memory. We also call her Laney Goose because she can be such a crack-up and always keeps us laughing.

It's really fun when our kids excel, but we also make sure they know we would love them regardless of their accomplishments.

I walked into the lunch room at work today, and as usual was the only American in a room of about 5 other contract employees - mostly from India.

I work in a large IT department for a major truck manufacturer in the Portland area. They hire a lot of contractors - often from other countries. They each have distinct accents and different cultures than what I normally experience in suburban America.

It struck me that my kids are growing up in a typical suburban community, with primarily white American neighbors, and they have little to no exposure to someone with even a slight accent... let alone a completely different culture or life style. This may not be the case in your neighborhood, but it made me ask myself what I'm doing to expose my kids to other cultures.

My two daughters are ages 7 and 9, which is about the start of what I'll call the "Sleep Over Phase". Their friends invite them over to spend the night for birthday parties or fun occasions. In fact, both of my daughters are having sleep-overs tonight, one here at our house, and the other at a trusted friends house.

The first time is always the scariest, and for good reasons. You won't be there to protect your child overnight, and you certainly don't want anything permanently damaging to happen to your child.

Bottom line, no matter how awkward you may feel about saying no to one of your child's friend's parents, it's your JOB and responsibility to protect your child - and this is one area where it's definitely better to be safe than sorry!

Almost every day when I come home from work, one or all of my kids will ask me "Dad, will you play a game with me?" I think kids love the undivided attention they get when playing games with their dads (and moms too).

I took my 5-year-old son, Regan, to the Bullwinkles Family Center a couple nights ago and we had a complete blast. We played miniature golf (yes, 5 year olds can putt too... although they have more fun "sweeping" the ball into the hole ), and then blew about $40 on video arcade games.... lol, man was that fun!

My daughters were out that same night with my wife seeing the broadway production Annie, so this was just pure "guy time" for my son and me.

Looking for some fun activities to do at home with your younger kids? Here are some downloadable games and activities that you can print on your home computer:

Games are also a great chance for kids to learn how to deal with conflict. Inevitably there will be a disagreement about the rules, which can be especially frustrating between competitive siblings (and even for married adults too)!

Helping your kids learn how to work through their frustrations without spazzing out at each other is priceless.

Last week my mom called to tell me that my dad had been rushed to the hospital for chest pain and possibly a heart attack. He has been working on a high-stress project in Longview and had been complaining of chest pain throughout the week.

This was the first time in my adult life that my dad has been hospitalized for something potentially fatal, and it really caught me off guard. Even though my dad is only in his early 60s, I realized that I might only have a few minutes left to talk with him. I also realized how un-empathetic I was towards my wife when her father passed a few years ago, especially when compared to the rush of emotions I was experiencing on the drive up to the hospital.

It took me about 40 minutes to drive up from Portland after letting my boss know I'd be taking the afternoon off. I was the first to arrive at the hospital, which gave Dad and I a chance to talk for a half hour before Mom and my brothers arrived.

As parents we sometimes make mistakes - some of us more than others. How we handle those mistakes sends a message loud and clear to our children.

This evening after dinner my wife and I took the kids to the YMCA to see my 5-year-old's new swimming abilities (he's been taking swim lessons for a few weeks now and was dying to show off his stuff).

Regan had climbed up to the top of the 30-foot water slide, and had started his descent. I was at the bottom of the slide in the 5-foot deep end to catch him, since he's not able to swim more than a few feet.

At the same time Delaney, my 7 year old daughter had swam out to hang onto my arm. She can swim about 20 feet or so, and had already used up her energy getting out to me.

Just as she reached me, Regan came off the slide, and I instinctively let her go to grab him - since I knew he wouldn't be able to stay afloat very long. But then I forgot about her momentarily as I pulled Regan up from his downward plunge.

Yesterday afternoon, I was just getting set to leave from work, and my wife called. I could hear my 4 year old son crying very loudly in the background as my wife asked if I was on my way home yet. She told me that he had injured his finger pretty badly on his bike somehow, and wanted me to meet her at the emergency room. I wasn't sure if insurance would cover the one we wanted to go to, so I had to call my agency to find out if it would and call her back (it did, so we were okay).

It sounded like he had really injured the tip of his pinkie. While on the way there, she told me that she had put a washcloth over the finger, but when she had pulled it off to look at it, she had seen something come off of the tip. She wasn't sure if it was just skin or if it was more, but he wouldn't let her keep the washcloth off long enough to see (plus, she was too squeamish to look for too long). She asked if she could call an ambulance, but I said no way. When I was doing my ER stint while I was getting my EMT-B, AMR brought in a kid who had sliced his finger, and the paramedics had made a comment about how there was no way that required an ambulance. Plus, as an EMT and firefighter, I've taken waaaay too many people to the ER who didn't need an ambulance, and I knew one wasn't needed this time.

Those of you who know me, know that I have a passion for computers.

I've been a professional software engineer for over 12 years, have taught computer programming for over 4 years at Portland Community College, and have about a dozen web sites that I maintain - with another few in the works.

I try hard to keep it all in balance with my family life, but I haven't been doing as well as I should lately.

In fact, last week my kids confronted me with "Dad, we think you love your computer more than us". They were dead serious too!

I brushed it of at first, but eventually realized that I needed to listen to them and make some changes. I even agreed to pay them each a dollar if they caught me on the computer.

The most frequently expressed frustration from my kids is hands down "it's not fair!" - Do you ever hear that from your kids?

My parents did a good job of trying to make things fair growing up, and we try hard with our kids as well. But there's a finite amount of attention that we as parents can provide to each child, and siblings naturally compete with each other for our time and attention – that's something I can certainly understand, having grown up with two younger brothers (and a sister who passed at an early age).

What really gets under my skin though is the continual "it's not fair" comments over every little thing that doesn't go their way! They didn't get to stay up late, or watch the movie they wanted to see, or get the treat they were craving after dinner… and the list goes on and on.

I was inspired by Todd's earlier post titled "MySpace = MyNightmare" to build a safer alternative, where my kids can get on the web without being exposed to so much adult-related content, and without me having to worry about them being approached online by another adult with inappropriate intentions.

After a lot of work and testing to ensure security and privacy, I'm proud to announce MyFamilySpaces.com. This new site provides a way for family and friends to safely connect online.

MyFamilySpaces is based on private "groups" that are invitation only, and web pages created within that group are only visible to members of that group. This ensures that your kids won't see objectionable material - they'll only see the pages that you create.

Membership is free and provides you with up to 5 free web pages and a free blog - and only people who you invite will be able to see them.