Archives for “Posts”

Since Ryan moved in, Leilani visits nearly every weekend, and Zoe has been thrilled. For the most part, they get along great, and Zoe loves having a “big sister” to follow around and play games with. She gets super excited on Saturday mornings, and has a hard time waiting for Leilani to wake up. Usually, [...]




“Design for yourself fast. You shouldn’t need to think about what you want, you are what you want. It just comes out of you, and it will be good. But sometimes, you have this feeling that you have to think about it like you would for some detached client project where they sell gutters; your [...]


Last year I succeeded at 50% of my resolutions. I successfully uploaded all my old photos to flickr, but I wasn’t able to entirely give up soda at my desk. It went great for about six months, and then we had a big deadline, and I started up again. I felt pretty good about lasting [...]


Over the holidays, Zoe spent a lot of time with her cousins. Since she’s an only child and the only girl in the group, it’s pretty interesting to watch how differently she reacts to situations. In general, she’s delighted to see the boys’ high energy and rough-housing, and she likes to join in. Unfortunately, she [...]


Zoe: Mama have some tea. Annie: Thank you! What kind is it? Zoe: Ice cream and chocolate!


“Her name is Pot-Lock Robot. She’s an acro-bat. She’s only four months old! You see her? She’s being so crazy! She’s got an owie.” – Zoe, telling me about her baby doll


Annie: Okay, I’m going to count to five, and then we’re going to be all done with this. Zoe: Mommy, stop talking! I’m going to count to six. Annie: And then we’ll be done? Zoe: No, I’m just counting to six.


“It doesn’t matter whether you are liberal or conservative, but it’s dangerous to always think with exclamation points instead of question marks.” – Marty Beckerman, Hi, I’m Marty, and I’m a recovering Republican


Zoe and Maia have been friends their whole lives, but only recently have we seen them grow into playing together, rather than just playing near each other. They love to jump and run around together, and it’s really fun to see them dance. Here is a video of the two of them goofing around in [...]


I was taking photos of Zoe in the backyard, and when she noticed, she ran over to the chair and struck this little pose. She held it long enough for me to snap a single shot, and then ran over, demanding to see the photo. Her reaction was “I so pretty!”


This is old news by now, because I’m a lazy parent-blogger, but Zoe has (long-since) given up her crib and moved into a toddler bed. We bought her a very nice bed for her second birthday, and she loves sleeping in it. Most nights, bedtime involves one parent (usually Annie) handling bath, teeth, and reading books, [...]


These are the details that she’ll kill me for sharing when she grows up, but I don’t want to forget them, so apologies to future Zoe (and future me!) Zoe is totally potty-trained now, and it was suspiciously easy. To the point where I’m half convinced that we’ll wake up one morning to discover it was [...]


“If you are not hungry enough to eat an apple, then you are not hungry.” – Emma Fogt, Food Rules: Your Dietary Dos and Don’ts


“In the original story, Hansel & Gretel’s stepmother persuades their father to lose them in the forest during lean times so the whole family won’t have to starve. The suspicious and resourceful Hansel spoils the plot by dropping pebbles on the way in and following them home. But the next time(!) Hansel is forced to [...]


Since Zoe was very little, it’s been my job to clip her nails. The funny thing is, you would expect a small child to resist this, but Zoe has always been fascinated with the whole process. She sits calmly in my lap, and holds out her hands and feet. Once she got big enough, we [...]


The very first thing anyone ever said about our daughter was that “she’s got a mind of her own!” That was the ultrasound technician, back when Zoe was still in the womb, but it’s just as true today. No matter what we’re doing, she’ll find a way to put her own spin on it. Here [...]


“Here’s what’s actually happening. The US is the only major industrialised country that does not provide regular healthcare to all its citizens. Instead, they are required to provide for themselves – and 50 million people can’t afford the insurance. As a result, 18,000 US citizens die every year needlessly, because they can’t access the care [...]


“A little library, growing larger every year, is an honourable part of a man’s history. It is a man’s duty to have books. A library is not a luxury, but one of the necessaries of life.” – Henry Ward Beecher


Zoe was a little young for the beach last year, but we’ve managed to take her a few times this year, and she’s always very excited. She loves playing in the sand and even (with a bit of coaxing) splashing in the creek — though she refuses to touch the actual ocean, and when it [...]


my appearance on Kevin Smith’s list of the five coolest people I’ve met at the San Diego Comic-Con put me in mind of the time I encountered Kevin Smith. It was round the back of the San Diego Convention Centre, near the loading bay. I was on my way to a panel when a gentleman [...]


If we take Zoe to the park for a half-hour, she will spend 20 minutes of that time watching what all the other kids are doing. It’s not that she’s shy, really. She loves other kids, and will happily play with them — once she’s watched them for a bit. This particular photo was taken after [...]


Don’t worry about the fact that you can’t see anything in the video – it was taken in Zoe’s room with the lights out, while Annie tried to put Zoe to bed one night. For several nights in a row, I had been laughing while listening to Annie try to put Zoe to bed. She would [...]


There was a brand-new second lieutenant who was very ambitious and wanted to be a general. So one night at the officer’s club the young officer spotted this old general sitting at the bar. So he went up and said, “How do I become a general?” And the old general answered, “Son, you’ve got to work [...]