Children and Gender Roles

When Ethan was born I had visions of him growing up to be an NHL player.  Or maybe an NFL star.  Whichever he wanted.  I was flexible.

Point was, when my boy was just days old I'd already decided that he should grow up to be one of the manliest of men out there because that's a dad's job; to mold their sons into lumberjack cowboy astronaut pit-fighters that rip phone books in half and intimidate grown men with but a glance and walk off broken legs like they're just minor inconveniences.

Right? 

How We Became Four: The Story of Kaeleigh

The story of Kaeleigh is a long and not especially funny one.  Oh, it had its humorous moments to be sure, but by and large it was a very difficult time for us.

Nowadays we can look back through the lens of time, which has a tendency to soften memories, and laugh at things, but it was a very trying time for our young family while we went through it; something we were only able to do thanks to the help and support and generosity of our friends and families.

Kaeleigh was born with a CHD, a congenital heart defect.  Actually, what she has is a condition known as heterotaxy syndrome which, due to her irregular physiology, caused her heart, among other things, to develop incorrectly.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  The story begins about 26 weeks earlier at the 12 week ultrasound.

The Top 5 Most Frequently Spoken Words in Our Household

If you were a fly on the wall in our house you'd probably be dead right now.  I'd probably have already smacked you with a rolled up magazine because I really hate flies, and also because killing things with more than four legs is a part of my job description.  If you did manage to elude me for long enough, the sheer repetition around here might just kill you instead.

Bang your head into the window screen as many times as you like, dirty little insect, there's no escape from this list.

The Meltdown

Yesterday the family went to a graduation party.

When I say we went, I mean we drove an hour to get there and, if the title of this little essay hasn't given away the ending yet, we didn't get to stay very long.

If Babies Were a Computer

....zzzz....

....sleep mode interrupted....

....sliver of light and/or barely perceptible noise detected, begin: start-up sequence...
.................................................

Yoga

At some point this past weekend Ethan got it into his head that he wanted to try yoga.  I'm not sure where it came from, but if you've ever talked to him for more than five minutes you'd understand how random and seemingly out of the blue some of the things that fall out of his mouth can be.

He rarely follows up on his random ideas for activities, but sometimes something triggers in his mind and he latches on like a pit bull and won't let go.  Typically, you'll know when it's the latter case because he'll mention it a few times... every single moment he's awake.

How We Became Three: The Story of Ethan

Ethan was born because we had dinner at Outback Steakhouse.  At least, that's what we tell everyone.

He was born 8 days early and we credit it, only half-jokingly, to the large steak dinner my wife had earlier that night.  He simply just ran out of room!