Powergirl and I are off with L early Monday morning on the baby’s first major vacation: ten days in Hawaii. While I am certainly not stoked about enduring heightened security measures at OAK on our way west, I’m actually looking forward to seeing how L does on the plane. Here are five other random thoughts [...]

Powergirl and I like to extol our little baby for her mysterious good-natured approach to life. She hardly ever cries. She’s more agreeable than most grown-ups. And she can adapt to pretty much any new situation.
Imagine our surprise, then, when she couldn’t get to sleep Christmas Eve (at my inlaws’ house), and proceeded to cry [...]

My favorite part of every day comes around 8:30 p.m., when it’s time to put L to bed for the night. The process of shushing her and rocking her until she passes out is—and always has been—my job.
It is, quite frankly, the only aspect of fatherhood with which I’ve never needed practice.
I’m not sure why [...]

It’s no secret that these little babies grow up quickly. Still, from my vantage point as a father, there aren’t many moments in an average week that make me stop and wax nostalgic for the days when my nearly seven-month-old daughter was, well, younger.
I had one such moment today. The inspiration: L’s first grown-up turd.
Not [...]

Before L came along, back in the time of my life I like to call B.F. (Before Fatherhood), I used to rail against the coffee-shop drive-thru, going so far as to label it as one of the dumbest inventions of all time.
To me, these seemingly unnecessary amenities fostered laziness, facilitated American obesity and contributed to [...]

After a bunch of late nights this week, I woke up this morning feeling sick and gross and all-around blah.
Naturally, I completely wigged out about the dangers of being sick around L. Panic reached a fever pitch this afternoon, when I found literature from our doctors that included one of the most untenable suggestions ever: [...]

Zach Galifianakis, the hairy dude in “The Hangover,” had nothing on me this afternoon, as I somehow managed to (avoid stealing Mike Tyson’s tiger and) do most of my holiday shopping with L on my chest in a Baby Bjorn.
It was the first official time I’ve used the Bjorn with L facing outward. To my [...]

It’s no secret that diapers are up there with plutonium as some of the least environmentally friendly objects on Planet Earth.
As quoted in a recent TIME magazine article, the Real Diaper Association, an advocacy group founded in 2004, estimates that 27.4 billion disposable diapers are used each year in the U.S. According to the EPA, [...]

Tonight is a big night in L’s personal dietary history, as she will graduate from rice cereal to food we grown-ups actually eat (the rice stuff is gross; I know because I tasted it). On the menu: Zucchini.
Not just any zucchini, mind you; organic zucchini. Why? Because her dad (that is, yours truly) has been [...]

It’s no secret that I’m a bit of a neat freak.
When I was a kid (an only child, of course), I used to forbid friends from sitting on my bed for fear of messing it up. I’ve been known to re-tie my shoelaces four or five times before a long run. I also usually burn [...]