Barnabas Monkeypants

We’ve been trying to “teach” Henry the ABCs and the 123s. The teach is in quotes because there are no flash cards involved and the learnin’ is all about fun. Fun, in this case, is singing various versions of the alphabet song and by counting things like the number of burps Kristen is spewing out [...]

Last week I saw a commercial on TV where they were hawking some sort of toddler flashcards so your kids can become some super genius. This made me really, really mad and also quite sad. I have no idea why any parent would want their very young child to learn like that, when it seems [...]

Ten days ago, Kristen, Henry, and I flew down to Tampa to visit Henry’s grandfather and great-grandmother. Fun was had by all. Let me elucidate. Things that were great: The weather. Sure, it was only in the upper 70s and the water temperature was chilly, but after months of cold and dreariness here in Chicago, [...]

Kristen’s still working on getting all the Florida pictures together (we got home on Tuesday), but I promised you all something on Henry’s first swimming class. So here it is. I wrote earlier about my experience signing up Henry for this class, and two Saturdays ago (the day before Easter), he had his first lesson. [...]

We are in Florida right now. We flew down Thursday morning (a 7:00 am flight — what was I thinking?) and are returning to Chicago on Tuesday afternoon. We’ve taken plenty of pictures, but we forgot the cord that connects the camera to the computer, so you’ll have to wait until we get back to [...]

So, since this is tax season, my workdays are each a relentless breakneck race to 5pm. I muster up my last bit of energy at the end of the day to make Henry dinner and get him ready for bed and then I collapse in a puddle on our living room floor. And then have [...]