A NEW BABY GIFT

My Doo-Wopp Collection: The Black Group Sound, Volume Two

Song list: 1. Take It Easy Baby-Love-Tones, 2. Rag Mop-4-Kings, 3. My Hearts Crying-Flairs, 4. Is It Too Late-Morris Wade & The 4-Pharohs, 5. Darling Patricia-Artie Wilkins & The Palms, 6. Moments Like This-Baltineers, 7. New Love-Baltineers, 8. Baby-Bachelors, 9. Silly Willie-El Vieros, 10. Say That You Me-Del Chords, 11. My Baby Dearest Darling-Monogram, 12. Let's Make Up-Flamingos, 13. Love Me Girl-Flairs, 14. Lock My Heart-Sharps, 15. Charlie Chan-Sounds, 16. Magic Kiss-Keystoners, 17. Teenagers Love Song-Pharoahs, 18. Someone Like You-Monterays, 19. The Chickie-Goo-Metronomes, 20. Love You Till The Day I Die-Heartbreakers, 21. Everyone Should Know-Jayhawks, 22. Right Now-5-Vets, 23. Do You Love Her-Impressors, 24. Here Those Wedding Bells-Rommels, 25. Hy Wocky Toomba-Mighty Jupiters, 26. Honey Love-Crowns, 27. Delores-Bachelors, 28. Angel Of My Dreams-Sonnets, 29. A Man Is Not Supposed To Cry-Masters, and 30. White Cliffs Of Dover-Pharoahs

Lets say you are a man. Say, a youngish man, who discovered that, with your beloved, have created a life that you're both surprised about and thrilled to be bringing into the world. Still with me? Good, keep up. Say you're sitting around freaky-deaking under the burden of realizing that holy shit, you've created a life. The kind of thing you had to nervously wriggle through in 5th grade when you had to watch those how our bodies are changing filmstrips with butterflies and happily pollenating bees. Yep, that's you now.

You're having a kid.

It's sinking in, yah? It's okay. Breathe.
BREATHE.

You don't have to be a fabulous father. You don't have to be a cool father. You don't have to be a hipster father. Sometimes you will do really really stupid things after that kid is born and you might consider castigation a fine way to deal with the guilt but y'know what? SO not necessary. It's not, trust me. All it does it divert your attention from the real matter. Because if you start getting all guilty-feeling about the possibility of making dumb mistakes that you, like each of us, are bound to make, I'm pretty sure you're going to have an asspain of an adulthood to mire through. But there is hope! There's hope if you can learn to pick your battles. Choose the hill you're going to die on. Choose the battle cries you're prepared to repeat loudly and often because lemmetellya, I don't care how great a child's hearing is, nearly all of them can turn on that switch to "selective" instantly rendering you a younger and more XY'ed version of Charlie Brown's teacher. Mwahmwah mwaaaaah wahhhhhm. Don't stress about every little thing, just find the important points and winnow those to death.

Really though? I think you could ask any woman her opinion about what is important in a child's development and, regardless of her status as a breeder or non-, I can good gollywelldarn promise that nearly all of us will tell you this one important thing:

Children, like the rest of us, require much less than one might expect if they can simply be offered the love of a good man.

Your kid's future is golden, brother.

The Guitar Man
Sung by Bread

Who draws the crowd and plays so loud,
Baby it's the guitar man.
Who's gonna steal the show, you know
Baby it's the guitar man,

He can make you love, he can make you cry
He will bring you down, then he'll get you high
Somethin' keeps him goin', miles and miles a day
To find another place to play.

Night after night who treats you right,
Baby it's the guitar man
Who's on the radio, you go listen
To the guitar man

Then he comes to town, and you see his face,
And you think you might like to take his place
Somethin' keeps him driftin' miles and miles away
Searchin' for the songs to play.

Then you listen to the music and you like to sing along,
You want to get the meaning out of each and ev'ry song
Then you find yourself a message and some words to call your own
And take them home.

He can make you love, he can get you high
He will bring you down, then he'll make you cry
Somethin' keeps him movin', but no one seems to know
What it is that makes him go.

Then the lights begin to flicker and the sound is getting dim
The voice begins to falter and the crowds are getting thin
But he never seems to notice he's just got to find
Another place to play,
Fade Away. Got to Play.
Fade Away. Got to Play.

Steve Harvey can’t count the number of impressive women he’s met over the years—women who can run a business, keep a household with three kids in tiptop shape, and chair a church group all at the same time. So when it comes to relationships, why can’t these women figure out what makes men tick? According to Steve it’s because they’re asking other women for advice when they should be going directly to the source. In Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, Steve lets women inside the male mindset; introduces concepts such as the ninety-day rule; and reveals the five questions women should ask a potential partner to determine how serious he is.
Sometimes funny, sometimes direct, but always truthful, Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man is a book you must read if you want to understand how men think when it comes to relationships, intimacy, and love.