Beach!

Finally!
We’re going away for the weekend without having to see any relatives!
We’re headed to Morehead City, N.C., and to Atlantic Beach and Beaufort, where the seafood is fresh and the surf is warm.
It’s only for the weekend. But next Friday we head to Kentucky for a week with Trish’s family, so this quick getaway will [...]

Salty-sweet nasal nectar

Ella has this little habit that only the most blissfully uninhibited enjoy.
She … um … she pokes around at the bears in her cave. She doesn’t care where or when. We’ll be talking to the neighbors and Ella will wrinkle her nose a little, and pretty soon the first joint of her pointer will disappear [...]

Love for all the Puppy Monsters

I don’t know this guy, but his 5-year-old son died in a swimming pool accident a few days ago.
I also don’t know Poopandboogie , which provided a portal to Ohthejoys, where I first read the news.
But this odd blogospheric network, which I joined because of someone I do know, the former Stepblogger, has become [...]

Words from the weekend

Saturday, 7 a.m. Ella enters our room carrying two books.
Wake up! Wake up! I brought books to read!
…………………………………………………………………….
Put on your shoes.
No, I don’t want to put my shoes on for one reason.
Oh? OK. What’s the one reason?
The one reason is I don’t want to put my shoes on.
Don’t you like your shoes?
No.
Why?
Because I don’t [...]

Behavior modification

As Trish and Ella left the neighborhood pool yesterday, where Ella met a new friend her age, they had a little exchange that shined a little sunshine on our parenting pathway.
Trish: Ella, you were so good today in the pool. I’m very proud of you.
Ella (rather proud of herself): I did not pinch and I [...]

A case for hardwoods

Tonight, Ella took a big bite of food and chomped on it a while. Then she opened her mouth and slowly pushed the food out as we provided an accompanying dialogue: “Don’t spit out that food! Don’t you spit it out! Eat it. Chew it up and swallow it. Don’t … don’t … Ella?”So, she [...]

May was better speech, language and hearing month

Boy, was I wrong about this.
I should have known that “socks” sounds a lot like “watch.”
When Ella was leaking, to me, information about my Father’s Day gift she either pronounced “socks” correctly after mispronouncing it as something that sounds like “watch,” or my hearing, which is at times questionable (Trish will verify), played into the [...]

At least I don’t know who’s going to win the Open

Tonight when I came home: “Daddy, we bought you presents today, Daddy.”
“Ummm. I think those are probably for Sunday. Sunday is Father’s Day.”
“No. Come, Daddy. Come. We bought you presents.”
Trish had hidden the presents and locked our bedroom door, which threw Ella into a fit. We got the “I NEEEEED you, Mommy!” bit.
After a few [...]

Oscar worthy

There should be more toddler actors.
Ella’s latest dramatic expression: I NEEEED you, Mommy! I need you. Nooooowwwww! I neeeeeed you.
It comes out in low, modulated, guttural, desperate, exasperated gasps, as if a tornado had just wiped out our neighborhood and left her the only survivor lying atop our collapsed garage in the next county. I [...]

Dough!

Yet another piece of evidence that Ella is my child.
She and Trish went to the grocery store yesterday while I was out playing golf with the neighbor.  When I got home, Ella said, “Daddy, we got a very special donut for you.”
Ahhhh. What a kid!
“Come!” she said, and patted her leg, they way I taught [...]