Blowing & Drifting

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Entries Tagged as 'parenting'

Internet Haters

January 11th, 2012 · 5 Comments

Today I read an incredible essay by Meghan Daum in The Believer – “Haterade.” Equal parts autobiography and social commentary, the article analyzes hater culture on the internet – horrible comment boards on news websites or blogs, vitriolic email criticisms to authors, and so forth. Maybe I’m naive, but I was shocked by some of [...]

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Tags: art · diversions · miscellany · narcissism · parenting · Shannon · winter

Shameless Plug + Shameless Request (Or, Did I mention my wife just published a book?)

January 6th, 2012 · 1 Comment

All right, friends. This blog has been awfully quiet for a while now, but I’m going to break the silence with another post on Shannon’s book. As you know if you’ve recently read this blog or her own blog, you know that her book – The Essential Stay-at-Home Mom Manual – was published last month. [...]

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Tags: borrowed content · miscellany · parenting · Shannon · winter

Homebody Roadtrip

December 26th, 2011 · 1 Comment

I am ridiculously lucky to be able to take a lot of time off this holiday season, including all of the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Before Christmas, Shannon and I decided to make the most of this time by doing fun stuff with the girls each day. Early this afternoon, we headed over [...]

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Tags: diversions · girls · Minnesota · miscellany · Northfield · parenting · winter

Authoress in the House!

December 22nd, 2011 · 1 Comment

Over our lives together, Shannon and I have enjoyed some everyday accomplishments – buying houses, having kids – and some less-ordinary ones – earning doctorates. Yesterday was a day for a very un-ordinary accomplishment: the publication of Shannon’s first book. This is the culmination of a lifelong dream and a lot of hard work. It’s [...]

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Tags: art · borrowed content · diversions · miscellany · parenting · photos · Shannon · winter

Julia’s 2011 Christmas Book (Sorta)

December 13th, 2011 · 2 Comments

True to tradition, Julia is making Christmas presents for the rest of us. She started making me a book – How to Be a Good Daddy! – but then abandoned it. This is a shame, given that the first page is GENIUS and because I would love to read the other chapters, especially number 6, [...]

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Tags: art · borrowed content · girls · narcissism · parenting · winter

Jump Around!

December 11th, 2011 · No Comments

As the girls get bigger, sledding becomes easier and more fun. Already this winter, we’ve twice made the short drive to a relatively big and steep hill near Julia’s school – a hill they found too scary even last winter. They’ve loved it both times this winter, which I find exciting. And I’ve also been [...]

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Tags: diversions · girls · Minnesota · nature · Northfield · parenting · photos · winter

Games Girls Play

December 6th, 2011 · No Comments

Here is a partial list of make-believe “games” that my daughters play, and what explanation of each that I can offer: Kitchen (cooking and serving food in the play kitchen) House (being a family) Old Fashioned (being the Ingalls family, or another pioneer family) Rich (being a rich family) Poor (being a poor family) Mrs. [...]

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Tags: borrowed content · diversions · girls · miscellany · parenting

Baba

November 13th, 2011 · No Comments

Vivi woves lerdplay. She and I are the only people in the house who don’t think toying with words is pun-ishment. Her specialty, though, is coining and using nonsense words, the latest and perhaps greatest of which is “baba,” as in Baba? Beebee baba. This muffin is so baba! Daddy! I’m baba to see you! [...]

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Tags: girls · miscellany · parenting · winter

Krazy Kid Konversations

November 9th, 2011 · No Comments

Genevieve: “Know what my favorite population is?” Me: “Population? Uh, no.” G: “Seventeen thousand.” Julia: “Daddy, did you know that if you’re a human, you have thousands of ancestors who were cavemen?” Me: “Sure. You do, too.” J: “What? That’s crazy! I wonder if they looked like me…”

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Tags: autumn · diversions · girls · Minnesota · parenting

Halloween!

October 31st, 2011 · No Comments

The girls were VERY EXCITED about Halloween – Vivi way more than Julia, but still. They had a blast on Friday at the Halloween parties at school, and we had fun on Saturday carving pumpkins fun on Sunday at Carleton’s big Halloween carnival (despite this “I won’t smile for you” portrait) and fun today trick-or-treating – [...]

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Tags: autumn · Carleton · diversions · girls · Minnesota · Northfield · parenting · photos

7 Going on 17

October 20th, 2011 · No Comments

I’m not much into the girls’ milestones. I mean, I pay attention to them and mark them as significant, but I don’t get choked up about first steps, going to kindergarten, or whatever. I figure that they’re growing up whether I like it or not, and that it’s not worth getting too sentimental about that [...]

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Tags: autumn · girls · miscellany · Northfield · parenting · photos

Red Wing Sunday

October 16th, 2011 · No Comments

Today, we took our annual trip to Red Wing, a great little river town about 45 minutes east of Northfield. We had a blast there last year, and expected the same this time around. Trouble is, the geniuses in charge forgot to check if any of the good reasons for going to Red Wing – [...]

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Tags: autumn · diversions · girls · Minnesota · miscellany · parenting · photos

Sweeping the Nobel Prizes

October 11th, 2011 · No Comments

So the Nobel Prizes have been announced over the last couple weeks. I’m sure all of the winners are deserving of this enormous honor, but I’d like to point out to the prize committees that they are full of Nordic crap. Clearly, my wife should have won each and every one of the prizes. A [...]

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Tags: diversions · girls · miscellany · parenting · Shannon

A Public Service Announcement to Parents of Pre-verbal Kids

October 8th, 2011 · No Comments

Before your children actually acquire verbal skills, you should develop and memorize answers to the following questions, which your child will ask you roughly a hundred times a day between the ages of 3 and 7 (or later): What’s your favorite color? What’s your favorite animal? What’s your favorite fish/reptile/amphibian/snake/bird/cat/dog/et cetera? What’s your favorite kind [...]

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Tags: autumn · girls · parenting · stupidities

A Kindergartner’s Nightstand

October 2nd, 2011 · 3 Comments

Julia and Genevieve got sweet new beds and nightstands this summer. Vivi took the square foot of empty space on top of her nightstand as a challenge, one she has met with “treasures” – glorious, wonderful, crazy clutter. This is how it looked on Friday. I didn’t touch a thing.* (The blank spot at the [...]

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Tags: autumn · borrowed content · diversions · girls · miscellany · parenting · photos