Tonight at the dinner table, our youngest boy—who bears a good deal of physical resemblance to his Daddy—was particularly tuned in to my every move. He was watching (and mimicking) everything that I did. When I leaned forward onto my elbows to rest my head in my hands and wipe the tired of the recent…
Tag: Parenting
Hugs
I am a hugger. It’s one of the main ways I express love, especially to my kids. (I think it has rubbed off on them, too, as I must get a hundred hugs a day! I love it! And I always welcome it, even if I don’t feel like I have the time.) One time…
Transitions
We’re definitely in a season of transition here. I am beginning to understand that life itself is a season of transition. But there is a more specific area of transition I’m talking about. We have a teenager. (Da-da-dum…) And so, things are different. I don’t just mean that our food bills are (MUCH) higher, or…
Tradition, Tradition!
As far back as I can remember, my family has always celebrated New Year’s Day with a big meal featuring pork, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, and corn bread. My dad enjoys throwing in some baked clams, but I’ve chosen to leave those out of our version of the family tradition… 🙂 This year was no different….
Will You Let Me Love You?
Sometimes babies do dumb things. OK, a lot of the time. But usually (really almost always) they are really cute doing them, so, you tend to pretty easily forgive. (That and, they’re all fairly new on the job, so, you cut them some slack.) Well, today, Emma (who is 2, almost 3) decided she would…
I’m Such A Baby
Tonight I was noticing just how much I am like our one- and two-year-old children. Now, for the most part I’ve learned to control my responses a bit more (not to mention my excellent potty-trained record) but watching them tonight—and in particular, the way I, their father, interacted with them—I realized just how much I…
American Values
At the ReValue America lecture we hosted last weekend, one of the themes was of course, “Values”. During the presentation, the speaker—Dr. Shanon Brooks—took a moment to ask everyone there what some “American values” were. Various words were quickly offered: Honor. Courage. Bravery. Love. Friendship. Hard work/work ethic. Faith. Charity/Generosity. Probably about 20 or 30…
A Few Things I Love
Tonight I was noticing several things I love about our family, and I just wanted to write them down. I love that our family reads. I mean really reads. We took our customary Monday walk to the library this afternoon (with MOM this time, since Grammy & Grandpa were here to stay home with the…
Do A Great Job, Not Just An ‘OK’ Job
This afternoon, what started out as some outside playing time, turned into the great deforestation project of 2010. While the boys and I were tossing the football around, Grandpa decided to climb up on top of their fifth-wheel camper and clear off some things. Well, that reminded me of a few low-hanging tree branches I…
The Family That Reads Together…
I absolutely love reading with my kids. Love it. I think I especially love reading stories that stretch out over days and weeks (even months in the case of some longer books the boys and I have read together, like Oliver Twist, and Nick of Time). The pure joy of entering new worlds every time…