Posted on November 4, 2024
Seeing a Divided World Through the Eyes of My Teen
Although news, podcasts, blogs, and conversations with friends, family, and coworkers have led me to believe the country is at a breaking point through our divisions, distrust, and uncertainty, I see the tiniest hints of hope when I… Read More
Posted on March 5, 2017
On Grieving
After our son was born I called friends who already had kids and apologized to them for not being more excited for them when they became parents. I didn’t know until I saw our own son how awesome… Read More
Posted on March 2, 2017
Teaching Irony through Sarcasm
I have the luxury of working weekends and being able to pick up our son from school most weekdays. I watch with joy as he bounces down the steps from his school happy to tell me all… Read More
Posted on August 26, 2016
Avoiding the Dad Stereotype
Mr. Mom (1983) Directed by Stan Dragoti Shown: Michael Keaton It’s been nearly seven years that I became a dad.Seven years and I’ve done the best I could to avoid being the bumbling dad stereotype on tv shows…. Read More
Posted on November 21, 2015
Rambling With Flashcards
We recently upped the ante on our nightly single sight word flashcard routine. After recognizing the word on the card before him the boy has to use that word in a sentence. At five and three quarters old… Read More
Posted on April 3, 2015
Time… According to a Child
How amazing it must be to have no concept of time? How liberating. Plotting our sons growth alongside the chart of mankind’s evolution, he is close to understanding that as the sun settles near the horizon… Read More
Posted on November 15, 2014
Future Daddy Blogger Support Group
The meetings are held in the basement of a church near an all-night donut shop. Although both are helpful, the location is more about the donuts than the man upstairs. The chairs are arranged in a circle. The… Read More
Posted on November 11, 2014
His First Joke
For the first time in his life he has come up with something funny. Months later he still calls back to it. And it is funny.He’s had funny moments before. He’s pulled some physical gags and laughed at… Read More
Posted on September 2, 2014
My Son. My Chronological Yardstick
Every memorable event in my life that happened before the spring of 2010 is filed away in my brain with a five-year buffer. My mental calendar from the era before I had a child is ordered in half-decade… Read More
Posted on June 12, 2014
On Father’s Day
I used to give lip service on Father’s Day. Cards were sent and thanks were given and the love was spread around as abundantly and efficiently as I could spread it. But I’m not sure I really meant… Read More
Posted on April 8, 2014
The Beat Poets Taught Me How to Talk to a Four Year Old
Many days during my college decade were spent studying the Beat Poets and experimenting with stream-of-consciousness prose. We turned words cut from the newspapers into dialog and had nonsense talks over wine. We verbally riffed and let our… Read More
Posted on March 23, 2014
He Already Thinks He’s Smarter Than Me
He’s only four and he already thinks he’s smarter than I am. He’s learned how to give the look that says, “Seriously? I wasn’t born yesterday you know?” I give him the look back that says, “In the… Read More
Posted on February 26, 2014
On Fatherhood: Almost 40 With a 4 Year Old
How different his world is in 2014 than mine was when I was his age in 1978. This is the blessing of the late blooming father. Had I begun the child rearing phase of my life a decade… Read More
Posted on October 28, 2013
I Fear My Son Will Think I Don’t Read
I fear my son will think I don’t read… or listen to music… or vacuum since that task has been assigned to the robot. It’s been years since I bought a physical book and I can count the… Read More
Posted on July 24, 2013
Though We May Not Share Blood
Since his birth in 2010, I’ve wondered when we would start seeing our traits in him. Without the blood bond biological children share with their parents I’ve been anxious to see us in him in ways that must… Read More
Posted on June 12, 2013
It Puts the Lotion on the Skin or Possible Parenting Fail.
For a few years now (well, specifically since January 2010), I’ve been quoting a particular scene from a particular horror movie during a particular time in the post-bath pre-story time portion of my son’s evening. I realized today… Read More
Posted on October 9, 2012
Eight Years Ago We Wed – Since Then, I Became an Adult
For years now (more than a decade of them) a friend and I have been playing the “who’s the first to become an adult game”. It started in college and was simply a game that would define the… Read More
Posted on March 6, 2011
Pacita Jugo Ladd… “Nana”
My Nana passed away on February 13th, surrounded by her family, after being diagnosed with cancer just a few weeks before. She passed very peacefully and kept her wit until the very end. Hours before, when people were… Read More