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 […]

This has been an interesting year for me, filled with lots of upheavel. The biggest change was in my professional life. I left my position at Brentmark Software to focus on Live Oak Games and my writing. Instead of commuting, I now work out of an office in my home. Needless to say, a change […]

Our morning routine has evolved over the years into a pretty nice little sequence. The kids come running into our bedroom to get us up, typically just a little earlier than we would like. They climb into our bed and start trying to wake us up to get them breakfast while we struggle to convince […]

Today’s tale is in the Chronicle.  Click here to read it. Words for searchers: swing, glider, tummy, rule, bad idea

When it comes to getting kids to sleep in the car, parents will try just about anything. We have a “Sleepy CD” that works wonders. It’s one lullaby after another. The only problem is staying awake while you drive. Unfortunately, we used that CD a little too much, and the kids figured us out. Now […]

Have you seen children’s cartoons lately? When it comes to those aimed at the 2-5 year old set, they’re actually quite well done. Backyardigans and Little Einsteins both typically have pretty interesting little stories, given their target market. There’s one, however, that creeps me out. The characters in Higgleytown Heroes are all modeled after the […]

My father-in-law is what you might call a successful man. He’s both a doctor and a priest, and has been blessed with success in both his professions. I’m not saying this to brag, but simply to put this story into context. He’s also not exactly what you’d call the skinniest of men. Again, that’s only […]

We have a couple of large black labs that the kids have a love/hate relationship with. The “hate” part of that relationship comes in because the dogs used to have no compulsions about knocking them over to steal their food. We’ve mostly remedied that situation, but the kids still get nervous. I don’t blame them. Each dog […]

I’m sure you’ve played duck, duck, goose before, right? We’ve played it a lot. Too much, one could say. The kids played it so much, in fact, that a couple months ago they became bored with the game. This is stranger than you realize, because it’s not a case of the adults making them do […]