Read the first part here: Taking Care of Mama Bird Cardinals mate for life. The male collects sticks for the nest, gathers food for the female, feeding her beak-to-beak, and occasionally even sits on the nest. Sometimes they sing to each other. I had no idea. I’ve never seen the male sitting on the nest … Continue reading Taking Care of Papa Bird
Taking Care of Mama Bird
For the last two years, a bird has made its nest under our front stoop. A cardinal, I think. The male flaps about the yard in his bright red plumage. The female, quiet and dull brown, sits upon her nest. Opening the front door is enough to scare her off the stoop and onto the … Continue reading Taking Care of Mama Bird
How Bad Times Become Good Memories
I never used to like to hold babies. Not even my nieces and nephews. I didn’t trust myself. Too fragile. Too pukey. I could just imagine the tiny little human spitting up all over me, at which point I would involuntarily toss the thing across the room, giving it some kind of traumatic brain injury. … Continue reading How Bad Times Become Good Memories
How Not to Be a Good Father
I admit to getting a little hit of dopamine any time someone tells me I’m a good father. You can tell I enjoy it because I try to dismiss it with things like, “Meh, not really…” or, “I just try to have fun…” or, my go-to, not responding to or acknowledging it at all. Maybe … Continue reading How Not to Be a Good Father
Why We Do the Things We Do
I do a lot of things to keep my wife happy. I’m not sure whether any of them actually work, but I try. That’s my primary motivation for doing whatever housework I do, and I often end up cooking dinner, washing dishes, folding laundry, picking up toys, dusting the furniture (haha just kidding, who really … Continue reading Why We Do the Things We Do
Bare Minimum Parenting
Bare Minimum Parenting, by James Breakwell, is a book every parent can enjoy. It’s a comedy book, not a serious parenting guide, but in the finest spirit of comedy it provides a serious critique to the excesses and absurdities of modern life. That absurdity is, in this case, the anxious and neverending efforts of the … Continue reading Bare Minimum Parenting
Confessions of a Grammar Nazi
When I was a kid, you did not want to mix up your adverbs and adjectives around me. Forget to the put the -ly on an adverb and you were sure to hear a swift rebuke. Heaven help you if you ever split an infinitive or uttered a double negative. If we could hear commas, … Continue reading Confessions of a Grammar Nazi
