My wife is 39 weeks pregnant and ready to deliver at any time.  So that means nesting, big time nesting!  Nesting will ultimately lead to serious discussions between the expecting mom and dad on topics such as, how much stuff do we really need for the new baby and how detailed do we need to be in the cleaning of our home for the little one’s arrival?

 

During my wife’s first two pregnancies, I certainly had nesting responsibilities, but she too did quite a bit of preparatory house cleaning.  I found it rather odd, that although she was huge with child and having trouble sitting in chairs or getting in and out of the car, she could manically scrub the baseboards and meticulously clean the far back corners of the bathroom cabinets.   But since she was doing this detailed housework while 9 months pregnant, I pitched in and cleaned the A/C vents with a toothbrush (all the vents) and scrubbed behind the refrigerator, without a murmur of discontent.  Sure it occurred to me that no human had ever seen, nor would ever see behind our refrigerator, but I still scrubbed without complaint.

My wife and kids left for vacation on Friday, and consequently I have become an indentured servant working for my freedom.  

 

In the days leading up to my week home alone, I knew I would miss my family intensely but also indulged in certain fantasies of napping, newspaper reading, clicker control and moviegoing.  My wife told me that all I had to do before leaving was three things: get two rooms ready for the flooring guys, get a desk for Bubba, and close up the house for vacation.  My initial estimate on time my honeydo list would take to complete: Saturday afternoon.  Revised estimate: the whole week.

Michael Jackson was an icon and an artist that brought joy to the hearts of millions of people, but I can’t seem to muster much grief over his passing.  The hagiographies clog the airways, and Twitter is on the verge of collapse, but this dad is mystified by the outpouring.

 

To be honest, I’ve always been mystified by Jackson’s appeal.  Mostly as a matter of musical taste.  Shuffle my iPod and you’ll come up with americana, roots rock and folk.  Maybe even some country.  The King of Pop?  Puh-leese.

We’re in the chute.  

 

The kids are back from sleepover camp.  We have a brief layover here in Austin, a time marked by a bit of boredom and mild anxiety as we prepare for The Cape.

Here's wishing everyone in the DadLabs Crib a Happy Fathers Day.

 If you are in Austin this afternoon please join the entire DadLabs crew at BookPeople for a Fathers Day Book Signing celebration. Festivities begin at 3 p.m.

There will be live music, live libations, courtesy of Live Oak Brewing Company and lots of live book signing.

 

My first thought when I saw the print copy of the story: In the last eleven years, I have taken thousands of pictures of the kids; my wife, only one.  And that one photograph ends up on the cover of USAToday.  My second: Will mom be able to brag to her friends about her son in the paper wearing a tiara?

Words have meaning and younger siblings figure them out way too soon!

My son just finished his first year of kindergarten and he was exposed to some interesting words and phrases for the first time.  These nifty additions to his vocabulary obviously came from some of his classmates with older siblings.

Now that he is home for summer vacation, he is trying to incorporate the newfound vocabulary into his everyday vernacular.   This is a bit of a problem, given that super conservative/proper grandma and grandpa are providing childcare for the next few months.  

A telling example that will give you a glimpse of my Mom’s conservative nature; when I said damn for the first time in front of my mother, I was 18 years old.  Immediately upon the utterance of the word, huge crocodile tears welled up in her eyes and she sobbed, “it sounds like you’ve said that before.”   She then retired to her room and cried for several hours.  Thick skin is not an apt description of my sweet mother.

Thus I am afraid that utterances of dirty words from the angelic grandkids may be devastating.  Given the past few weeks, there will be interesting words emanating from the mouths of babes.  

The other day while playing with some plastic crap, my eldest son uttered, “I’m pissed off.”  Examining his countenance, he neither looked frustrated nor angry, so I asked him  “do you know what that means?”  His response, “I have no idea.”  So I explained the meaning of the phrase. “Oh” he said and continued to play happily.

Just this weekend, as he was playing with a homemade bow and arrow made from blue prints garnered from The Dangerous Book for Boys, he exclaimed proudly that he was going to “get me in the nuts!”  Not sure if fully he grasped the meaning of this reference, I asked “do you know what that means?”  His reply “ I have no idea.”   So I explained to him the anatomical references as to what body parts “nuts” described.  

Tickled he laughed loudly, but his younger sister jubilantly screamed “shoot him in the jewels Walker, shoot him in the jewels!”  


Oh boy, it’s going to be a long summer.

 

 

 

My wife and I live and die by summer camps.  This realization dawned on me as a prepared to drop our five-year-old off for his first day of daycamp.  The building where the camp was to be held was somewhat familiar to Coop -- the elementary school that his older siblings attend -- but it still had to be pretty imposing to a kid who just turned five.

 

We stood in line for registration and he suddenly seemed so tiny, dwarfed by his backpack. I’m musing over the fact that he’s really only been outside home to a couple different places -- the daycare that we helped to found near our home, and his pre-k for the past year -- as we edge toward the enthusiastic lady with the clip board and the big cowboy hat.  

Recently Daddy Troy has posted a number of Apple product reviews on his show: Garageband, iPhoto, and the iPod touch.  The latter inspired this post because, like Daddy Troy, I’ve been seeing more and more kids with these gadgets. On a recent multi-family outing, I saw kids as young as 3 playing simple games for the iPod Touch.  In all honesty, the Touch may be the best game system for kids on the market because of the combination of music, video and gaming possibilities.  We have both a Nintendo DSi and a 16G iPod Touch in our house, and the kids have used them about equally at this point.  (I’ll do a head to head comparison soon.)

 

I have no problem with younger kids playing iPod Touch games, in moderation.  Isn’t the fine motor skill involved better for a three year old than watching Teletubbies?  What concerns me more, actually, are parents giving a Touch to an older kid. Bubba’s age -- 10 years old and up.  I worry that some parents may think of it as an iPod and not realize that the little gizmo is actually a powerful little computer, capable of surfing the web, shopping on the iTunes store, and sending and receiving emails.

DadLabs is in the Austin Chronicle Today!