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Showing posts from April, 2016

"They Grow Up So Fast"

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I've heard about a thousand times that your kids grow up "too fast." This comes mostly from seasoned parents, with kids in high school or even out of the house, grandkids to follow who are also growing more quickly than their parents wish. And I'm sure they're right! However, in my tenured two years as a parent, I haven't really felt that way. I chalk it up to my status as a stay-at-home dad. I've been able to spend about every waking moment of the first two years of my daughter's life with her, and so when people have told me, "They grow up so fast," I just thought: E h, feels about right to me.   I think that's actually one of the great benefits to staying home with your kids -- time seems to travel more slowly -- and until they invent time machines, those are moments you just can't get back. But then today, it happened -- I had my first "they grow up so fast" moment. I was feeding Ellie and asked her if she remem...

Jack of All Trades, Master of None

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I drive a  Subaru Baja . It's an unusual car/truck combo that only lasted production for four years back in the early 2000's. Four doors, a 4-cylinder motor (mine is turbo charged), roof racks and a truck bed barely large enough to haul a refrigerator, this car is an anomaly to most. I read one person describe it as a "jack of all trades" kind of car, and I think that's a great description. In all its glory. That is a term my father has always ascribed to himself (though he's good enough at most things to get by with a little more than "jack"). He can fix anything, coach sports he's hardly played and play the drums with no lessons. He's a writer, professor, public speaker and successful businessman, on top of a thirty-year career in public works. I tell my friends about him and they are all surprised to find he still surfs and snowboards more than some of them do. Maybe that's why he likes my Baja so much. And so it's no su...