After our most recent time spent with grandparents, uncles, aunts, and other close familiy members our son got used to being around other people. Luckily for him there was also a healthy dose of time he was able to spend with his cousin who is less than one year older than him. This close proximity in age was great. There is something different about seeing other kids. When we were vacationing with his grandparents we noticed a remarkable change in him towards wanting to do what the big kids were doing. If they were playing then he wanted to play. … Continue reading →

So it happened. Our son turned 1 year old. So crazy how fast this has gone. I’ll join the chorus of voices telling you how fast it goes (and it’s only been one year). I have a small (very very small) taste of how fast babies turn into adults. That first year of life is amazing. They learn so many new things. They learn to eat, sleep, grab, crawl, walk, talk, drink, laugh, smile, cry, play, and pout. They learn so much in such a short time that it is truly hard to comprehend. When we took our son to … Continue reading →

We recently took our son to an amusement park. This was part of a dream my father had of having his two grandson’s at the park together (along with their parents). This would put the whole family in one place at one time. The amusement park would also provide a child-centered event where the kids could spend time together, see some new sights, and have all of the attention on them. I later learned that there were other reasons to have the whole family there. Unfortunately this was not possible. An illness prevented my nephew from attending. Since we had … Continue reading →

If you’ve been keeping up with the Education section here at Families.com you know I’ve been working a lot this summer. I’m in the final testing stage for my doctorate. I’ve passed all of my classes over four long years and I’m now preparing to be re-tested over a significant percentage of them. This is taking a lot of time and while I’m certainly taking needed breaks in between my long hours of reading and wriitng these breaks are rarely for anything more glamorous than food or drink. To be quite honest I feel like I am missing out on … Continue reading →

My mother recently revealed a secret she uses to entice our young son to spend time effortlessly in her arms (and, subsequently, away from his parents). Part of the reason she plots for such assurances of holding her grandson is that she feels like she is a stranger to him. As I’ve said before my wife and I live near 1000 miles away from family. The distance between Grandson and Grandparents is a great distance only closed (partially) by video chat via the internet. My mother was tired of being “digital Grandma.” She revealed her secret to me and I … Continue reading →

…and then we got into the swimming pool. I handed the boy over to his mother for a quick spin in the water. This would be the moment of truth. Would he be happy with this giant pool of fun or terrified by the possibility for horror? As my wife completed her spin in the pool we realized that our son would end up liking the water as he had already started giggling. Once he saw me at the other end of the pool (still trying to convince myself to take the plunge and suffer the brief second of lung-stopping-shock … Continue reading →