The old lady’s question seemed innocent enough: “Can I take a peek at your cute baby?”
Under any other circumstances, I gladly would have welcomed the bitty into our lives and invited her to come and admire L. I might have even engaged her in small-talk about the weather.
Today, however, considering I was changing L’s diaper [...]

I learned the hard way today that they don’t make many infant-sized onesies in black. Unfortunately, the lesson will cost L a critical part of her bumblebee Halloween costume tomorrow when she makes a festive appearance at Powergirl’s work.
The scene of the epiphany: Target, of course. Powergirl dispatched me to pick up the last remaining [...]

The last few weeknights have been doozies in the sleep department for all of us humans at TDD headquarters. Powergirl has had trouble shutting down quickly enough to get a good rest. L has had trouble staying shut down for more than two or three hours at a clip.
And—whaddya know?—when Momma and baby aren’t sleeping [...]

As if this new dad weren’t neurotic enough, a friend told me today about her daughter’s recent experience with a toddler’s fracture. Essentially, this condition amounts to bone fractures in the lower shin. It usually occurs after low-energy trauma, like, say, a fall or a hard kick.
Great!
So now, in addition to worrying that I’m going [...]

Never mind that I pitched the very same story to the very same section of the very same paper six months ago—this story by Douglas Quenqua in today’s Sunday Style section of The New York Times is a must-read for parents who insist on putting pictures of their kids up on Facebook.
The story, titled “Guardians [...]

The random stranger smiled at me and gave me the “what’s up” nod as he walked by.
“Oh, sorry,” he said, suddenly realizing I wasn’t who he thought I was. “You look like the guy who works at the gas station.”
This was not exactly a compliment. We’ve got five gas stations here in Healdsburg, and while [...]

Four days into this whole all-day-with-L thing, I have identified the most challenging part of the experience.
It’s not diaper-duty, keeping the baby occupied or even the whole bathing/cleaning thing. It’s also not the whole changing thing—after some initial debacles, I’ve pretty much mastered the process of administering onesies.
No, the toughest part of my time with [...]

As if L’s teething, drooling and near-talking all aren’t enough proof that she’s growing up, tonight we received further evidence: the baby officially has become too big and strong to be swaddled.
She’s been heading in that direction for the better part of the last week. Every night, Powergirl wraps L up in her Halo SleepSack [...]

Today was Powergirl’s first official day back at work after ten weeks of maternity leave. That meant I was home with L for the majority of the morning and afternoon. Thankfully, all of us survived.
For my wife, emotions of the day were tempered by the trial run she did on Friday, which gave her a [...]

News flash: though yours truly has been known to throw tantrums at inanimate objects, fatherhood is making me a calmer, gentler guy.
Evidence of this transformation occurred tonight before dinner. I was preparing part of our meal, sautéing some spinach with bacon and a bunch of other goodness, when I grabbed the handle of the pan [...]