Ziggy Marley, son of the late Reggae superstar Bob Marley, has already had a great deal of success as a musician. He has won four Grammy awards and has had chart topping hits as part of the group Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers. Now the singer seems to be changing gears just a bit with the release of a children’s album called Family Time.

Marley was quoted online as saying of the new project, “This record is something kids can grow into. It has good, strong messages that kids can have fun to, and there’s something in it that will translate to everyone.” Some of the songs from the new album were performed at the White House’s annual Easter Egg Roll.

According to reports, a number of well known figures contributed to the album, including Jack Johnson, Paul Simon and Willie Nelson. In fact, actress Jamie Lee Curtis narrated the story on one of the tracks. Marley says the conversation with Simon came up after Simon called him asking for help in finding a drummer. He refers to country icon Nelson as on of his “grandfathers” on a spiritual level. His mother Rita Marley and his daughter Judah also contributed vocals to the album.

One of the songs I Love You, Too is based on the first time his daughter told him she loved him when she was two. Marley says his daughter would like to have a career in music eventually. Marley and his siblings made their first recording in 1979 with their father. It was titled Children Playing in the Streets. Their first release as a group was Play the Game. After this they moved on to Virgin Records and major success with the albums Conscious Party, One Bright Day and Jahmekya among others.

Marley is married to Orly Marley, who currently manages his career. He has five children, and divides his time between his homes in Jamaica, the Bahamas and California. He started a charity called U.R.G.E. which means Unlimited Resources Giving Enlightenment. The charity seeks to meet the educational and other needs of children in his birth country of Jamaica. The kids-centric album Family Time was released on May 5, 2009.

So now that we have covered the fact that my wife will be having a scheduled c-section, we can move on to the next topic at hand: the birth plan, or more specifically, how our three year old daughter fits into the birth plan.

Before we begin, we need to cover some basic numbers:

• 5 – the number of minutes, by car, to the hospital from our house
• 45 – the number of minutes, by car, to the hospital from my in-laws’ house
• 4 – the number of hours, by car, to the hospital from my parents’ house
• 0 – the number of other family members and friends in a position to assume temporary full time care of our daughter during the delivery and the subsequent days post partum

Up until I got involved in the discussion, everyone automatically assumed my daughter would stay at my in-laws’ place. I immediately balked at this, for several reasons:

• I wanted the option of quickly stopping in at home to see my daughter while my wife was in the hospital
• I didn’t want my daughter to feel like her new brother temporarily evicted her from her own room/house/space
• I wanted the option to bring my daughter for a visit without my in-laws around to promote a sense of family for the four of us
• I wanted my daughter to have the most familiar sleeping environment so she wasn’t completely wiped when we came home with the baby

(This seems like it should be titled “The Post Of Bulleted Lists”.)

Without going into details, after some convincing cough… MIL’s control issues… cough…, we arrived at the decision to have my daughter stay at our place with my in-laws watching her (and sleeping at our place, since I will either be sleeping at the hospital if we can swing a private room, or I will be staying at the hospital until the wee hours of the morning and returning in the early morning).

My plan is to call the house when I am in recovery, awaiting my wife, and ask my in-laws to bring my daughter. Then, once my wife has a chance to see our son, I will fetch my daughter and the four of us will take some time to bond. (And, if they behave themselves, I might let my in-laws see the baby… eventually.) My hope is that over the next few days I will take opportunities to retrieve my daughter and bring her for little visits while my wife sleeps to re-enforce the fact that she is a member of our family, and is equally important to us as her new brother.

(A small footnote about my in-laws: I do not plan on completely excluding them from the process. However, they have a long and well-documented history of not respecting boundaries, and in this case I believe that my daughter’s feelings and rights supercede theirs as grandparents, and I have taken steps to ensure this is handled accordingly.)

For those of you with multiple children, what did you do with older siblings during delivery and post-partum? Did you try to emphasize family time as much as I plan to, or did you not consider it similarly? What were the results?

It’s difficult to find time for yourself, much less for you and your partner, once you have a baby. One fun activity you can do with a young baby is go to the movies.

Little ones tend to sleep through a lot of the show. If she gets fussy, cuddle her, nurse her, give her a bottle, or give her a pacifier. If you need to, it’s easy to duck out of the theater in hurry. Just be sure to sit near the entrance.

Ask your local theater if they have discounts for seeing more than one movie in one evening, or buy tickets for 3 or 4 movies and have a movie night. Just don’t forget to pack extra diapers and a changing pad.

What fun things have you done for yourself, even with your baby at your side?

73 Ideas to Spend Time With Your Family at Christmas
by Patty Getz

Christmas is about so much more than presents and parties, and yet, each year, that is the focus that we as a society place on it. Christmas has become a stress for some, and financial hardship for others. Where there used to be a holiday, to celebrate Family, we have some how lost touch with our roots, and a meaningful soulful Christmas. Following is a list of of Ideas that cost little or no money, that you can do with your family this Christmas for a more meaningful Christmas. Set aside some time, and lets all get back to the basics of Christmas. Take this list, and let each family member choose one, and then set aside an evening, for each activity, you will be surprised and amazed how much this will Change your and your families outlook on Christmas.

See the full list…

1. Make a popcorn Garland
2. Make garland with construction paper
3. Watch Christmas shows together with hot chocolate and popcorn
4. Make decorating the the tree a family event, serve hot chocolate and play Christmas music
5. Make your own Christmas cards to send to people
6. Go Christmas shopping at the the Dollar Store and donate to a charity for Christmas gifts
7. Donate clothes or toys for needy children
8. Make a snowman
9. Have a snowball fight
10. Make a ginger bread house out of graham crackers and what ever you have in the house
11. Paint Christmassy pictures on the windows with washable paint
12. Make a game out of hunting around the house, for things to make Christmas decorations out of
13. Build a fire, and have a slumber party with your kids
14. Bake and decorate cookies
15. Have a wrapping party
16. Plan to share a plate of goodies with any elderly or young parents in the neighborhood
17. Go caroling
18. Go for a drive and see who wins for the best lights in town — make an award for the winner and present it to them
19. Attend a live Nativity
20. Take a special drive at night to enjoy others Christmas lights
21. Invite your children’s friends over to make cards or gifts for their parents
22. Go collect pine cones and use them to make ornaments
23. Make bird treat with peanut butter and birdseed
24. Sing Christmas carols
25. Have the kids write and act out a Christmas play
26. Go to the library and borrow Christmas videos and books
27. Have a game night
28. Take a walk or drive around a neighborhood that has their houses all lit up and decorated
29. Shovel the snow for your elderly neighbors
30. Read one Christmas short story each night before bed
31. Write Christmas letter to all the relatives with the kids all telling what they have been up to in their own words
32. Go sledding (a personal favorite) and come back to the house for hot cider and hot chocolate (we do this and invite the kid’s friends to join us)
33. Take a picture of the kids in front of the Christmas tree, and make it a yearly tradition
34. Visit the local nursing home and present some of the residents with homemade Christmas cards
35. Do a random act of kindness for a neighbor that you know is sick or feeling down, like take them a plate of cookies or some homemade ornaments
36. Attend a church service together
37. Invite an older person/couple for a holiday meal

See the full list…