On account of the baby shower (see the last post) we had lots of guests spending the night in our new home. This wasn’t a problem and was even welcome! It was great to see so many people we hadn’t seen in a very long time. There was, however, an issue. It’s not a negative thing by any means but it did have clear repercussions: our son was extremely excited about having guests over too. So excited, as it turned out, that he was going to put on a major show for everyone. Not only that, he was going to … Continue reading →

Eating is sort of a tradition in our family. I suspect it is everywhere, but somehow it feels like it’s special to us. From my earliest days on this earth I liked eating. My whole family likes eating. If we were to really think about it (which we tend not to) we probably eat to a fault. At any rate, eating is an activity that brings us together. We share food as well as stories. We laugh, we smile and we pass along a sense of family to the next generation. The dinner table is about much more than food, … Continue reading →

When I was a young lad I had great times with my cousins. Particularly, I had great times with my “other brother” (as we lovingly referred to one another). While my family generally stayed in the same town, his moved from place to place all across the country. While we didn’t see each other very often (once a year would be a treat… maybe even just for a funeral) the times we spent together cemented our friendship well into adulthood. Even though he’s currently on another continent we’d pick back up in an instant through a simple text chat. The … Continue reading →

One of the joys of being around family is the amount of humor that generally results. I’m not certain from where this quality derives (be it an amount of relaxation, no need to impress, or something else), but it is certainly an ever-present situation with our families. There is a general feeling that people don’t censor themselves very much. This results in humor for obvious reasons. People are more likely to say or do things that others would find risky in other situations. As my father has said many times, “If you can’t make fun of your family, who can … Continue reading →

Today my wife and I took our son to see some ducks. We didn’t go to the normal park I’ve been writing about recently. While they certainly have ducks there it would have been very busy being Saturday evening on a holiday weekend. Instead we went to a public park with no playground. Our aim was to get our son in front of what appears to be his favorite animal. We wanted him to be able to get up close to a real live duck and feed it something to eat. We specifically went out and got something to feed … Continue reading →

Alright — So the big gift our son received this year was a child-sized plastic basketball hoop (with inflatable mini-ball). He likes balls a lot and recently he’d been becoming quite adept at throwing them across the room and handling them with confidence. One of the sports I grew up playing (and truly loved) was basketball. This simple game has a deceptively simple premise (if we ignore many of the complex rules that have grown around it): put the ball in through the hoop. I realized that our son was already playing this game while picking up his toys: put … Continue reading →

2am: Christmas day was supposed to start here but our alarm didn’t go off. More at 3:42am. 3:42am: This is not when we were supposed to wake up to put the brisket in the crock pot but that is when it happened. Our big meal will happen at 1:42pm now. Oh, well. 6:30am: My wife has been awake for 30 minutes and our son just started crying. Waking up quickly I wished him a Merry Christmas and we began our day with 30 minutes in the bed relaxing, talking and nursing. He was happy. I was still asleep but there … Continue reading →

Last time I wrote about the trials and tribulations of getting a Christmas tree into the house. This is the first time we’re decorating for Christmas. This is for the benefit of our son as he was quite young last year. We want him to be able to identify that something special is going on by virtue of the decorations that, we hope, will occur year after year for the rest of his life with us during the holiday. My wife and I both remember these types of decorations being special memories with our own families. To that end my … Continue reading →

Natural elements are always interesting. They are particularly interesting to children. Whether it is their first bath, the feeling of dirt, or the wind blowing through the trees the elements are fascinating things to behold. Just as our anscestors rejoiced when they discovered the ability to harness fire so too do children rejoice in that magical element flickering in the distance. Something amazing takes place when viewing those bright, colorful, moving flames for the first time up close. This past week the temperature dropped enough for us to rationalize lighting up the fireplace. Our son was thrilled. He eagerly stood … Continue reading →

The weekend after my big test my family and I took off for a local apple orchard. My wife was excited to finally reclaim her husband (at least temporarily) from the trials and tribulations of what has become the “testing semester.” Our son is so young that he doesn’t really get excited about something that is going to happen but rather about what is happening. Needless to say he was very happy to be spending some quality time outdoors with his parents. We arrived fairly early on but soon found that lots of people were out and about grabbing breakfast … Continue reading →