The kids and I have developed a pretty good routine for spending relaxed time together. C has a bunch of wooden trains in his room that he loves to play with. I sit by the bed and read stories to them while he and his brother switch between playing with the trains and interacting with […]

Before starting this little tale, I have to introduce you to one of Connor’s godmothers. Her name is Joan, but she goes by the title "Baran". Joan has roots in New Orleans, and the French for godmother is "marraine". C mispronounced this "Baran", and so that’s what we call Joan. We had J’s birthday party […]

A couple of weeks ago, we went to Cypress Gardens. Cypress Gardens is a strange place. It used to be a set of large decorative gardens, with animals and a water skiing show. Now, it’s an amusement park – with decorative gardens, animals, and a water skiing show. Since the kids are way too small […]

Those who have been following daddy tales have undoubtedly started to notice that I am frequently uncertain as to what to do next. Being a dad seems to involve a ridiculous amount of confusion, guesswork, and improvisation. Aggravation, frustration, and fatigue are every day occurences when you’re dealing with a couple of toddlers. This is […]

One thing about being a parent – you get to rediscover all the oddities of our language. For example, Monday of last week C rode with some friends to school. This isn’t really a new thing, but it’s the first time anyone referred to it as a "carpool". C heard he was "going to car […]

Foir those who don’t know, Raffi is a children’s entertainer who sings folksy songs – both traditional and original. He’s got one of those voices that is easy to sing along with, and most of his songs are well within the range of an untrained male. Keep this in mind as we go forward. Currently, […]

[In honor of her birthday, this daddytale is actually a mommytale. In fact, I wasn’t even there for it until the very end] The other day, N’s mom had to wash his stuffed tiger. It’s actually Tigger and is about a foot and a half tall. By quirky circumstance, however, N was with her when […]

This past weekend, we had the most amazingly bad luck at Red Lobster. To start with, while we were waiting N fell and bumped his head on the concrete sidewalk. He developed the largest goose egg that I’ve ever seen. I mean the thing stuck out from his forehead farther than his nose did. It […]

Any dad will tell you that kids mean drama. And by "drama", I’m talking about over the top no holds barred bad acting. The kind that I’m told you see on soap operas from time to time. Let me give you an example. A few months ago, N (who is now about 15 months old) […]

C has been practicing his expressions lately: sad, happy, angry, and so forth. Of them all, he seems to focus the most on "angry", and I must say he’s really gotten it down. He brings his eyebrows way down and tilts his head slightly forward. Then he scrunches up his mouth. And just in case […]