Between life as a full-time parent and full-time freelance writer, blogging has sunk on the list of priorities this week, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all.
The bad news: this scenario likely will occur more frequently in the next year, so get used to it.
That’s my crass way of notifying you faithful readers that [...]

Thanks to an unexpected turn of events this morning, I am suffering from what I like to call PTSD, also known as Post Tantrum Stress Disorder.
The tantrum was a doozie, a 30-minute episode that started out of nothing (she didn’t want to brush her teeth) and ended only after I gave L a long while [...]

Today was one of those days that makes being a work-at-home dad difficult.
In one corner: Dreaded deadlines, many of which had piled up after extensions and other various schedule adjustments. In the other corner: L, all cute and eager to come into Daddy’s office to listen to “Frosty the Snowman.”
I anticipated how challenging it might [...]

Though our delivery boy neglected to bring us Sunday’s copy of The New York Times, a number of friends have tipped me to a story that ran in the Travel section about the growing movement to segregate families on airplanes or elminate them from some flights all together.
(The story’s headline, “Passengers Push for Child-Free Flights,” [...]

One of the biggest upsides to being busy in my professional life: Cold, hard cash. One of the biggest downsides: Long days without the opportunity to kiss L goodnight.
Such was life for me on Tuesday. After spending the first three hours of the day together, the baby I parted ways when the nanny arrived. Then [...]

Generally speaking, L has been a maternal mood of late. This doesn’t mean she’s ignoring me completely, it just means she’s gravitating toward Powergirl and the other women in her life. This weekend, for instance, whenever the baby wanted something, it was “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy,” or “Grandma,” her name for my mom.
Daddy, it turned out, [...]

It’s been five days or so since we switched back to Daylight Standard Time, and despite the dwindling amounts of sunshine, these have been the five longest days of my year.
Never mind I’ve been working crazy hours. Forget, for a moment, that we’re refinancing.
Really, the parachute-sized bags under my eyes (and the Olympus Mons of [...]

L’s independence is growing as rapidly as her fingernails these days. Before we went to Vegas for the weekend (to see the resulting story, click here), she was going through a clingy phase. Now, however, she’s perfectly content doing stuff on her own.
When we “meddle” in her newfound solo-living, she’s also content expressing her frustration [...]

Since the day L was born, I’ve envisioned myself as a “cool” Dad, the kind of guy who’d escort his kid(s) to a Taylor Swift concert and allow the purchase of the same silly-but-trendy stuff that all the other kids are wearing (those new Silly Bandz bracelets, for instance).
Especially on the subject of language, because [...]

Our family’s first trip to Disneyland is complete, as the three of us returned to Healdsburg late last night. In general, I’d say it was a successful trip. Fun, however, might be an overstatement.
Sure, there were highpoints: L’s smile of wonder when the Dumbo ride took flight; her excited pointing at the ducks in “Small [...]