As I may have mentioned before, we do a lot of singing with the kids. Part of the reason for this is J’s camp background. Her years as a camp director left her with quite a collection of camp songs. Some of these songs, strangely enough, are converted spirituals. So it was that I found […]

The only big “fear” that the kids really have is fireworks. They’re generally okay with a lot of traditional scary things – dark, spiders, snakes, lightning, etc. Fireworks, however, set them to screaming in fear. From a parent’s point of view, this is actually not too bad. I mean, fireworks are fairly easy to avoid. The […]

When it comes to pretending, the kids have gone through several phases. They’ve always loved trains and pretending to ride on them. There was also a rather long Tarzan period, and, of course, the rescue heroes. One of the recurring themes, however, has been pirates. Pretending to be a pirate has one serious advantage over […]

During our last vacation, we visited Chatanooga. One of Chatanooga’s primary attractions is its aquarium. It’s been so successful, in fact, that they built another one right next to it. One is fresh water and the other is salt. They are really quite impressive – even for someone who lives just up the road from […]

N is in an interesting phase where he’s identifying his emotions and trying to display them. If he gets hurt or upset, he’ll tell you that he’s angry, sad, or whatever, and then do his best to maintain the appropriate facial expression. You may remember when his older brother went through this phase. The other […]

Just in case I might have been starting to think too much of myself after the last tale, N provided me with a little reality check the other morning. Most mornings, he wakes up very early. By early, I mean around 5:45 to 6 am. Since I try to get up between 6 and 6:30, […]

As you may remember, I’ve been trying to acquire a good nickname for myself with the kids. I’m not alone in this problem. J has one that she’s not terribly happy about, either. The other night, I may have finally made some progress. You see, over the past several months I’ve been working hard on developing “Daddy […]

C is one of those kids that likes to be active. Sightseeing is fine, as far as he’s concerned, as long as it is done at the same time that you’re doing something else – preferably something involving running, jumping, singing or dancing. So, on this past vacation when we rode on the riverboat in […]

Our regular bedtime routine ends with me taking the N to bed. Over the months, this routine has evolved into a pretty well-defined thing. After we read Good Night Moon, I pick him up, turn off the night light, sing Rockabye, and then put him in his crib. I tuck the blanket around him and he […]

One of C’s closest friends is a girl who lives just up the street. They play together every chance they get, and one of their play activities is dress up. C has a whole bunch of costume type things that we’ve accumulated over the years: hats, old jackets, bits and pieces of halloween costume remnants, […]