As some of you probably know, some very good friends are in the process of moving. They’re following work to a distant country known as “Pennsylvania”. We have actually been to this country once or twice, and know it primarily as the land of chocolates, trains, and Hakeems. The neighborhood threw them a going away party last […]

Sometimes, I hate that all the good local pre-Ks are Church based. I’m as religious as the next guy, but in a religious school, it’s way too easy for the teachers to invoke God when they can’t handle things. It drives me crazy. In fact, I’ve told both my kids that if anyone ever tells […]

Yes, my wife hates this. I’m sure yours would to. I’m sticking to it, though! Today’s tale is in the chronicle.  Click here to read it. Keywords for searchers: gift, present, mixer

We went down to Epcot yesterday to see the Candlelight Processional. It was loads of fun – a great way to get into the Christmas spirut. On the way out of the park, I took my oldest (the five year old) to the bathroom. He started gigging almost as soon as he stepped into the bathroom. […]

Both the kids have been spending a lot of time playing pretend lately. Everything they sit on immediately turns into a train or a boat or a rocket ship. Once we even had a flying house boat with a seven story hotel on it. The other night, however, things took a slightly different turn. The […]

Working from a home office continues to present its little challenges. Yesterday, I was upstairs in my office when I heard what sounded like a whole troop of kids downstairs. I did what any work-at-home parent should do. I turned up the stereo. After a little while, I noticed that all was quiet again, so […]

A few Christmases back, it occurred to my wife that we should have a children’s manger scene for the kids to play with. The idea was to keep them away from the delicate grown-up one, and it worked really well. All the figures (Jesus, Joseph, Mary, shepherds, wise men, etc.) are made of hard plastic, as […]

Today’s tale is published in the Chronicle. Read it here. Every parent has those “what do we do now” moments. At least I hope so. Here was one of ours. In this case, we chose the wrong path – and I paid the price. I’m still not sure how I ended up in more trouble […]

For some reason, acorns fascinate N. I don’t know why. Wherever he goes, whatever he’s doing, he always stops in his tracks when he sees an acorn. He collects them, washes them, plays with them. I just don’t get it. The other day I noticed him clutching a ziplock bag of acorns as I put […]

For the past several months, N has been having fun experimenting with the different phrases that we use. Like all kids, he runs the gamut between understanding things we don’t expect him to, and not getting the ones that seem obvious. At times, I’ve felt as if he’s intentionally being dense just to get a […]