We’ve had an eventful weekend here in Healdsburg, dominated mostly by the emergence of L’s molars—and the subsequent havoc that new teeth can wreak.
The poor thing is in agony. Her nose is running, pretty much non-stop. She’s got serious ear pain. And on top of all of that, our prize eater has been almost completely [...]

L’s been babbling for months, but today, on the eve of her 15-month birthday, the girl really started talking up a storm.
This morning, she picked up an animal flashcard with the letter G and said, “Gecko.” Then, while Powergirl was making coffee, L looked up at the coffee machine and said, “coffee.” While counting grapes [...]

Look out world, after about a month of fits and starts, L now ambulates just like the rest of us.
She took the, er, leap tonight, staggering/shuffling from her toy chest in the living room, past the coffee table, to her high chair in the kitchen. Thirteen steps in all, confident as ever she’d reach her [...]

L reached another major milestone today: She started saying her own name.
In the scheme of things, this wasn’t much of a surprise; the kid is adding three to four new words to her vocabulary every day. But, as her father, the fact that she now knows what I and her mother chose to name her [...]

Fatherhood has changed me in many ways, but perhaps none of these transformations is bigger than how it has inspired me to dance.
Allow me to clarify. First, I’m about as stiff and White as we dudes can come; it took me months to learn steps for our high school musicals, and my wife has likened [...]

Yours truly returned to Healdsburg late last night after three days of reporting some stories in Western Washington State. Tuesday night, Powergirl is the one to take off—she’ll be in our hometown of New York City for four days starting Wednesday morning.
This, of course, means that L and I will be flying solo for pretty [...]

I previously have documented in these (virtual) pages my alarming spatial ineptitude. To reiterate: I pretty much suck at anything considered handiwork.
The challenge, of course, is that in my new role as father (on top of my old role as husband), I’m tasked more now than ever to perform Bob Vila-like tasks around the house. [...]

Heading into this week, perhaps my biggest shortcoming as a father had been my inability to perform every component of L’s pre-bed sequence by myself. Sure, I had managed each of the tasks adequately, but never all of them in succession, and never in the same night.
That is, until Wednesday.
Tonight, while flying solo with the [...]

Powergirl and I took L to the doctor for her one-year check-up today, a ritual that has become stressful and exciting at the same time.
On the one hand, we eagerly await news of the baby’s height and weight (before some visits, we actually bet burritos on the outcome). On the other hand, we always remind [...]

Here’s an important question for fellow dads out there: How will you celebrate Father’s Day next week?
Plans among dads I know are mixed. Some are psyched to spend the day engaging in “me time,” whether that means 18 holes at the local golf course, three hours in front of baseball or NASCAR on TV or [...]