At the park



1000th Page View!

I launched this blog on August 15th with the aim of writing about being a dad and staying positive about the unexpected twists and turns life takes. Yesterday the site got it's 1000th page view. Thanks for the support. Finn has a smelly ball on a plastic shovel for you too.
T

Nastalgia for the REALLY Simple Things

Lately I have been noticing some things that I miss only now that I am a dad that I never new I was taking for granted. I'm not talking about the things you expect, like lack of sleep, lack of money and lack of time. I'm talking about the really simple things you never thought you would miss because you never knew you had them. Sort of like civil rights in Iran before Facebook.

Essential skills you never thought you'd need

I am constantly reminded of how the skills needed for parenting are totally different than anything I learned in school or at work. No algebra or American history needed here. A little psychology and some civics maybe. What parents need are a whole different set of totally unexpected skills.

My list of the 5 most important unexpected skills after the jump.

Mommy groups are the new daddy groups

I've been jonesing for a daddy group. To me, spending a day with Finn while talking about craft beer, fly-fishing and the Packers with a couple of dudes sounds like a perfect Sunday. If I could find a way to do this everyday, I would have the perfect work week!

Plus, you just can't do this stay at home gig all on your own. I don't mean in the single parent kind of way (and my hats off to you single parents, including my mom). I mean you have to have some adults in your life so that you can spend at least some part of your day talking in complete sentences with real words about things other than toys and/or poopies. Certainly, I spend some of my time with parent-friends talking about toys and/or poopies... Truth be told I spend a lot of my time talking with them about poopies. But I use complete sentences and very large words... like defecate, explosive-diarrhea, prostate-buster and poo-nami (rhymes with tsunami).

What to do on a rainy day?

I'm cool with being messy outside. Dirt, sand, water, sticks, cobwebs are all par for the course at any playground. But inside... inside I like things to be neat and tidy. It's getting tough these days as Finn's favorite thing to do is to dump out buckets of toys. More photos after the jump...

Music Monday... err, Tuesday: You can't rock without sticks!

Finn started out as a very auditory learner. I'm not sure if that is the natural starting point for all kiddos, given our proclivities for language and all, but his learning style has become more kinetic over the last year.

When he was about one, I wanted him to have a real pair of drumsticks. There are lots of cheap, plastic toy drumsticks available. But I wanted him to have some genuine stix. For proper rocking.

Quiz: What type of dad are you?

Yeah, there's a quiz for that.

1. When your kid makes a brown biohazard you:
A) take a deep breath, scoop him up and discreetly change his diaper in the next room without requiring a parade.
B) say, "Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew," and look for Mommy. Only after not finding her do you change the diaper. You know exactly how many no. 2s you have changed in your life.
C) pretend like you didn't notice the obvious stink bomb in your kids drawers, discreetly shuffle him towards someone you know will notice, then shout, "Not it!" when they figure it out.

More after the jump

Dad bikes and baby seats

Sorry for the blogging radio silence, but I don't get paid for this so... tough.

Anyway, I am a bike guy. I'm not a hardcore, single-speed, fixie-bike, disregard-all-traffic-laws-while-wearing-a-pink-tank-top,-a-pair-of-cut-off-skinny-black-denim-girl-jeans-and-dock-shoes. But I like bikes.

Bike psychoanalysis... after the jump