If you’ve been following this blog for a while now you’ll note that there has been one major change over the past number of years to have taken place that has massively altered my day to day fatherhood: moving closer to family. For a number of years my family was quite literally hours and hours away from any family that might want to visit. As a consequence there were no random drop-ins by our families. There were no unplanned visits (in fact, there were very few visits at all because of the distance). So what happened? Well, for one, our … Continue reading →

As fate (or luck, or fortune, or something else) would have it, an aunt moved in next door to us. My sister-in-law, to be more precise. (I’ll leave it to the reader to decide whether this is good or bad fate/luck/fortune/etc. — I think it’s clearly in the “good” camp). At any rate, this situation has provided our son the ability to constantly interact with a family member as if they were just next door (because, you know, she is). After being away from family for so long we can really tell that our son enjoys knowing that at the … Continue reading →

Sometimes my wife outdoes herself. When our first child was on his way into the world we were certain we had everything under control. We thought we knew everything. While we ended up basically having things under control, we certainly didn’t know everything. We spent too much money on new clothing and not enough second-hand stuff we were given or could get on the cheap. We had too many ideas about what to do to our baby’s room and not enough money or time to really implement a fraction of it. He had furniture, to be sure, and bedding and … Continue reading →

Earlier I talked about the amazing painting my wife created for the kids’ room. It was an abstracted guitar in honor of our son’s fascination with that instrument in particular. The next time she painted our son was by her side painting with her, the two of them side by side. After that painting lesson with his mother our son got recognizably “better” at drawing. He intended to making certain marks on the page, in certain colors, in certain places. That whole situation taught me how much children learn from their parents. The things that are demonstrated to us as … Continue reading →

Last time I talked about my wife creating a wonderful painting for our son’s room (and it really is wonderful). It was a painting of a guitar and our son really enjoyed it. He’s always been a fan of music. Both Mom and Dad have a love for the arts. We’ve both dabbled in each of them more than a little, and I’ve gone through lots of schooling in the arts (theatre in particular). We play guitar and piano and tin whistle while grandpa plays drums. The one thing our son hadn’t yet gotten into was painting. Mom made sure … Continue reading →

Sometimes you get inspired. It can happen at any moment for any reason (conscious or not), and when the inspiration strikes you’d better get to work, or at least have a notebook handy to write down and record what particularly inspired you. I’m not sure our little son has experienced anything (at least outwardly) that we might recognize as “inspiration,” but it does seem that he gets hooked on an idea about something to try (maybe climbing something really high up and jumping) and he does his best to make it happen at that very moment. Mom did get inspired … Continue reading →

Living close to family has its ups and downs. After being away for half of a decade we were looking forward to being around family again. I’ve got to say: it’s mostly “ups.” One of the things that’s been ups is watching our son grow in what he wants to eat. Just yesterday he started eating spinach (really demanding it) in preference over meat, potatoes, peanut butter, etc. — you name it! Truly something amazing. His aunt has him on cheese. His grandmothers both have him on ice (something we don’t do much of at home). All around he is … Continue reading →

Some days are more interesting than others. Some objects are more interesting than others. In a world increasingly taken over by computers and screens (something I’m not opposed to) there remain simple toys and simple pleasures that can inspire the imagination and teach concepts far better than any interactive video ever could (especially for children young enough to be struggling with language). When we lived in Texas one of the primary things you needed in a home was a ceiling fan. The heat was very hot and a little moving air could work wonders. Since we lived in a rather … Continue reading →

When my family was living in Texas we very infrequently saw rain. This was not entirely problematic. It was certainly a change for us though. The climate differences were many and we had to adjust accordingly. My wife needed new hair product. Our skin was noticeably drier. We were subjected to previously unknown allergies caused by previously non-existent pollens. Time after time, though, the climate proved to be so markedly different that we found ourselves missing certain things: rain, trees, green grass, and more. Recently we moved back north closer to family and the places we grew up. We’ve been … Continue reading →

One of the things that constantly fascinates me about having a child is being able to watch them and sort of see how they learn things. Children progress at a very fast rate. It is as if their only job is learning (they’re not consumers yet). Recently our son has been learning about everything: fans, batteries, computers, door handles, toilets, light switches, toasters, real glass glasses, keyboards, guitars, and a whole host of other items. In watching him learn how these things worked I never quite expected (and this was short-sighted of me) for him to eventually have such a … Continue reading →