[My apologies for missing yesterday’s tale. The kids shared their stomach virus, and it really doubled me over. I’ll probably miss tomorrow’s tale as well, so here’s a rare Thursday update.] The other day, while I was sick, J had an altercation with her youngest son. The two boys were swatting at each other, and […]

Several months ago, I was awakened from the depths of sleep by C calling out “Daddy! Help! Help Daddy!” Of course, I leapt out of bed and ran to his room. Flipping on the light, I saw that he had fallen in the little crack of space between his bed and the wall. He was […]

Of the two kids, N tends to be the “well-behaved” one. He does, however, present certain challenges. Lately we’ve been having a battle over him always needing to be carried. Having a child insist on being carried can be really problematical. Imagine trying to cook dinner, for example, while holding a playful 1 year old. […]

C goes to pre-school a couple days each week. This is primarily because we thought that he needed to learn how to act among other kids when his parents weren’t around. When we went looking at pre-schools, however, we discovered that they are primarily all run by churches and religious organizations. I’ll admit that this […]

A few weeks before Halloween, we went shopping to find costumes for the boys. I’m all for creative home made costumes normally – but not for toddlers. For toddlers, I want something we can just zip on and not worry about: quick to put on, quick to take off, and we can throw it in the […]

C goes to pre-school three days a week. He’s the youngest in his class, but not the most well-behaved. In fact, just the other day J went in to visit with the principal. She had some stuff to drop off, but they were also going to talk about C’s latest transgression and why he was […]

[Note for the non-parents out there: These days, "time-out" is pretty much the tool of choice for parenting. When given a time-out, the misbehaving child is sent to a corner where he or she must sit quietly for a period of time. After the time-out, you discuss why the child was in time-out and then […]

A few weeks ago we took the kids and dogs out for a walk after dinner. For us, "going for a walk" means loading the kids in the wagon. One of us holds the dogs while the other pulls the wagon. The kids jump in and out, sometimes riding, sometimes walking, sometimes even pulling. On […]

There’s a camp song that J used to sing when she was camp director: This joy that I have, the world didn’t give it to me.This joy that I have, the world didn’t give it to me.This joy that I have, the world didn’t give to me.The world didn’t give it – the world can’t […]

Well, this is it: my 100th tale. After much pondering, I’ve decided to depart drastically from my usual format. Instead of telling you a story, I’m going to give you a pop quiz. If you don’t know the answer to a question, just click the “Answer here” link to see the story – or at […]