Barnabas Monkeypants

First off, my apologies to our “fan,” Caroline, who lives not in Grays but in Colchester, a good 40 miles away. All was not bad, however, as I was able to cancel my Grays Athletic t-shirt and replace it with a Colchester United — The U’s — order. I’m hoping that Caroline can start our [...]

A couple of weeks ago, I added a counter to the blog. Along with telling me how many hits we get a day, it also says where the people are that are visiting. I’m not sure why I did it, but it’s interesting to see how many people read this every day. For the most [...]

Okay. Another pithy, “Wow-I’ve-never-heard-that-before!” statement: Having a baby is expensive. It’s almost like opening up a store. (Ah, retail as a simile for parenting.) The start-up costs are huge. You have to buy fixtures (crib, dresser), gussy the place up (painting), stock up your merchandise before the first customer comes in the store (onesies, bedding, [...]

Just over a month ago, we had our baby shower (you can read about it here if you haven’t already), and because we’re so on the ball, I’m finally posting a few pictures for you who weren’t there to see (and for you who were there to say “Look at that stain on my pants!”). [...]

I have no clue what more has to be done in preparing for Barnabas. We’re just waiting. Everything is set. The painting, the constructing, the washing and folding. Right now, the only thing that we need is Barnabas, and unlike most of the packages we get in the mail, there is no tracking number. Kristen [...]

I’m going to type something now that most people are going to laugh at (and not the ha, ha-type laugh, but the scoff-type of laugh): Having this baby is going to help me get a lot of my unfinished projects on track. And I’m not talking about baby-related projects either (although I’ll be doing plenty [...]

On Friday, I thought I lost Kristen. No, not in the medical-drama sort of way (“Doctor, we’re losing him!”), but in the where-the-heck-is-she sort of way. And it was not pretty on my part. Here’s how it went down (I sound really “street”, don’t I?): During the summer, my company lets its employees leave early [...]

I worry that we’re going to call him Barnabas instead of his real name.

I’ve determined that every parent (or parent to be) has one somewhat irrational thing that makes them go crazy. For some people, it’s going organic. Everything has to be organic. OH, MY GOD, POLYESTER JUST TOUCHED MY CHILD’S SKIN! PUT THEM IN THE SCRUBBER! For other people, it’s CIA-like monitoring of the baby’s every move. [...]

I can be, at times, an emotional guy. If there’s a seeing eye dog leading a blind person down the street, I’ll likely start to well up. It’s a mixture of me being sensitive and a little bit nutty. With the upcoming (one month until due date!) arrival of Barnabas, I think that those tear [...]