Big Day On Campus

The day after my dual-presentation nightmare signaling the end of my semester as a student (though grades still needed to be entered for my students as an instructor) my wife was tasked with taking her students to an event on my campus for the entire day. This meant I’d have to go back and spend the day in the place where just yesterday I had been anxiously preparing to pass or fail evaluations of my intelligence. I would have rather sat at home. That last day was exhausting. This was not going to be possible, though, because baby needed to … Continue reading →

High School Prom

My wife and I were chaperones for high school prom this year and we weren’t going to deprive our son of the experience. Weeks earlier my wife had picked out a baby-sized tuxedo for our little gentleman-in-training and we were finally going to see how he would look in it. Following every other experience I’ve had with my son, he looked better than I did. While both of us were wearing tuxedo’s Mommy had purchased a slick and shiny black dress to reveal her newly trimmed physique after lots of exercise. She looked like she could single-handedly solve the national … Continue reading →

Dad’s Work Chair

One of the few realms Dad has a good amount of control over is the desk. It is readily observed as Dad’s desk and everyone treats it as such. Proof of this can be found simply by leaving a mess of books around the house. Inevitably those books, when my wife finds their current placement angering, will end up haphazardly stacked on the desk. Shirts and sweaters left around the house will eventually be thrown either on the desk or in the desk chair. This small little realm is a joyous and necessary place for Dad. The rigors of graduate … Continue reading →

Discovering Rooms

It was unbelievable! Incredible! Shocking! On such an ordinary day (a Sunday), in such an ordinary place (my son’s bedroom), I couldn’t believe what was happening (a secret)! While sitting on the floor, studiously reading that large textbook I was to have absorbed the next day, I shared time and space with my son. It went like this: He was enjoying a large stuffed bear (that he originally feared) and generally enjoying his furry friend. I went back to my book. When I looked up again he was standing and balancing himself on top of a large box of diapers. … Continue reading →

Nursing Back to Health

After spending two days whimpering in pain, fever, and sickness with his Dad my son got what he really needed: Mom. I’ve said before that my wife does everything but it’s really true. A major skill my wife possesses that I do not is the ability to nurse our son. It’s not only about nourishment though. My son is significantly more calm and relaxed when he is with his mother. During the two days he was with me he was constantly looking around. He’d look to the sofa, look in the bed, look in the kitchen and the bathroom too. … Continue reading →

Amazing Sick Day

You know that you’ve angered someone, somewhere, when you wake up after a restful night of sleep and your child is whimpering with a temperature of 103. I’m not sure who I upset but my son was not a happy camper mid-week and this has certainly had its effect on the remainder of the week and my ability to do all sorts of things. There are lots of bad things when you have a sick child. Lots. You have to reschedule your life around the baby. You have to quickly figure out who’s going to skip work (or what babysitter … Continue reading →

Attack of the Scratching Baby

Yesterday when my wife picked me up I customarily dropped all of my many bags full of books into the back of the vehicle and checked to see if my son was awake or not. On many days my son will be sleeping in his car seat (that he’s quickly outgrowing). I’ll just take a breath and enjoy seeing him. I hold myself back from leaning in and giving him a kiss for fear of waking him during the journey home. He’s much happier sleeping. Some days he’s awake and I can earn a smile for a funny sound or … Continue reading →

The Crawling Monster

My son has finally figured out crawling. He’s figured it out in a big way and my wife and I are starting to see what a massive change that actually is for our small family. Our son has the ability not only to move but to move quickly and decisively. I’m sure that all of the veteran parents are kindly laughing at me but it truly is quite a shock. Somehow I had thought that we’d seen the worst with his inaccurate wiggling from place to place. Boy was I wrong. Now our son doesn’t just not stay were we … Continue reading →

Vocal Power

So… my son has figured out that he has a secret power over his parents and that power is the ability to produce a LOUD VOLUME in quiet places. He now happily talks to himself or his shadow as he plays with his toys or tries to fit something that had been discarded onto the floor into his mouth (his recent favorite is unused tissue paper). This babbling has broken into a new found vocal power that he unleashed at us while we were at church this past Sunday (while out of town). Luckily my son is cute. This stops … Continue reading →

Day with Dad (Part II)

If you missed Part I of this two-part blog you can read that here. For those of you already caught up we’ll start at the beginning: My son and I just looked out the door, staring blankly for a moment. Neither of us could believe she was gone… but she was. If memory serves I looked at my son who was still staring out of the front door before looking over at the clock. The clock itself told a somewhat terrifying story: We’d both be without mom for the next twelve hours or so. That’s a long time. Now, it’s … Continue reading →