This is a post from my (new) “Daddy Daze” series, an anecdotal exploration of my odd little adventures in parenting in bite-sized chunks (for your reading enjoyment) and because the last thing this world needs is yet another doting parent blog. Spring Rolls A week ago (give or take) we were in the mood for sushi. It’s one of those few dishes we just don’t bother preparing at home, so one of the few (non-we’re-feeling-lazy) excuses we use to duck out of cooking and [...]

I was listening to a book. It was early, the clock just barely approaching quarter-to-eight this morning. I had just climbed up the stairs from the Central LRT Station, I was plugged via my headphones into the 20th Anniversary Audio Edition of Star Wars: Heir to the Empire — which is awesome by the way — and one of an army of orange-shirted volunteers jabs a copy of today’s Edmonton Journal into my hands. Again, my headphones were on, I was mostly distracted, and [...]

To Claire, On the occasion of your fourth birthday. So, I missed a year. What was I thinking? Maybe… that letting two more years slip by in my recollection wouldn’t matter. How wrong I was. Time marches on… You’re four years old today. And, just like you do every day lately, you stood atop your toy chest, looking out from the middle window of our upstairs den, and enthusiastically waved goodbye to me as I drove off to work. Nothing can stop you from [...]

A “reloaded” post is a quick-clipped summary of a bunch of small things from the past few days. I want to write them down, but I am either lacking in (a) details or (b) time. That’s just how it goes sometimes. Enjoy. On Paints and Beds I was feeling a little blue. Literally. I was speckled all over my arms, and a bit on my face with a kind of greyish indigo. Eggshell. The direct result of that casual splatter often encountered by your [...]

It’s been interesting to watch the ongoing engagement of Edmonton’s art gallery, The Art Gallery of Alberta, as it blossoms within the community. I remember thinking when they were just planning to build the new facility how awesome it was going to be to have this epic new structure to continue the efforts to round out the culture of downtown core… even though I wasn’t working downtown at the time, which was too bad. Now I am (working downtown, that is) and I do [...]

Claire and I had eaten dinner, gone to and from her swimming lessons, played in the backyard and were killing a few minutes watching television before her bedtime.  I happened upon an old episode of Batman. You know… the old Batman.  The 1960s Adam West in baggy tights spouting cheesy dialogue Batman. Claire was fascinated, though she couldn’t quite figure it all out. Who were the bad guys? Why were there bad guys? Why does Batman’s car go so fast? Was that girl really [...]

A “reloaded” post is a quick-clipped summary of a bunch of small things from the past few days. I want to write them down, but I am either lacking in (a) details or (b) time. That’s just how it goes sometimes. Enjoy. School Dazed Pre-school? Playschool? The one before kindergarten, anyhow. The first day approaches rapidly, at any rate. And that’s just the formal stuff. We were a blur of school-minded planning this weekend, thinking ahead to not only Claire’s first day of preschool [...]

August is over. September has arrived. And photography-wise I’m onto grander and more daunting projects. Real projects. The (un)project concludes with just a last few notes at some last highlights from the (un)collection… a fatherhood edition. A while back we ordered a copy of everyone’s favorite tile-based strategy game, but in the Kid’s Version. Kid’s Carcassonne is a hit around our house, as far as games go, and while this is not a review, you can take it as a recommendation: solid. That said, [...]

We were listening to the radio at supper time the other day and after a news story about some relatively complex medical story, the conversation in our house went (briefly) something like this… Radio: …and so, just to add some clarification, let me say that… Claire (surprised): WHAT!? Claire on vacation? Karin: He said “clarification” not “Claire on vacation.” Claire (completely ignoring her parents): How did they know about my vacation!? (then, muttering and laughing to herself in disbelief) They said me on vacation. [...]

The weather being cooperative for once, Claire and I spent some time in the front yard yesterday morning photographing flowers and bugs. She had her camera out, too, but I’m sorry to say her largest contribution to the collection was the jitter-focus you might see in some of my shots. She was having a great time climbing onto my back while I lay in the grass, leaning into and amongst the flower beds with my camera and macro lens attempting to capture the miniscopic-macroscopic [...]

A day involving news about space travel, the moon, and the number 42. That’s my kinda story. Or, at least, that is to say, forty-two years ago today the Apollo 11 moon mission touched down in the Sea of Tranquillity on the surface of the moon, marking humankind’s first contact there and a significant milestone in the history of peopled space exploration. Yup, 42 years ago today we (as a species) made our biggest leap outwards, past where many had dreamed possible, and went [...]

… and a roundup of the weekend events. It’s been no secret around our house that those official daddy-days have been in quiet jeopardy for some time now. Between that little stint of unemployment last summer, and the uncertainty of a job change, through the peppered consumption of my flexible days off for use during our more formal vacations over the winter, it has been a wonder that we’ve had any at all in the last months. But we have. This past Friday both [...]

That might sound decidedly un-dad-ish, until one realizes that not only were we listening to kid’s music — you know, The Doodlebops, Disney, the Backyardigans, and various other random, upbeat and simplistic songs — but we were listening to kid’s music with the express purpose of compiling a playlist to burn onto a CD for my car. Because, yeah: when she’s in my car, and I’m toting her around somewhere, guess who is picking the tunes. One guess. I’ll give you a hint: it’s not me.

Thing is, something I do quiet enjoy thinking and writing about is parenting topics. It’s a big, important part of my life these days. But I also have to fully admit that I’ve lately been ignoring something related to that job, and the ‘other duties as required’ classification that goes along with. See, for the longest time — well, since a few months prior to this whole fatherhood gig — I have actually, diligently, been busy keeping a fairly extensive collection of writings on fatherhood. Some have been here. Some have been other places.

For the entire month of June I’m planning on writing a series of blog-a-day posts based on a set series of open-ended questions to myself. This is one of those posts. June 8th // Something You Have Fixed I was sitting here trying to think of something to write for today’s blog-a-day topic, filling time writing about the video games I was playing which was itself to fill time trying to think of something to write, thinking about how I should try and relate [...]

I’ll avoid this becoming a commentary on the anti-intellectual nature of our society, but I wanted to make it known that I was deeply disappointed to get an email from Indigo.Chapters (the bookstore) providing me with suggestions for books that are “great reads for dads” — presumably just in time for father’s day shopping. This dismayed me not because it was an unsolicited email (which it was not, since I am willingly on their mailing list) but instead because all but one book on [...]

It was one of *those* evenings last night.  Not that there was any prior indication.  All seemed calm as dinner passed.   We went for a family walk, Claire on her bicycle, us on foot.  We laughed and played some games on her computer, laying tummies to the floor.  Then it was bath-time. I should caveat that the girl has had a rough few days.   We had a little (not-our-fault) frak-up with the day-home last week, and as a consequence she got bounced around and beset by a [...]

It’s been, what four years? Nearly. Has it been that long? Yeah. Poor little guy. You know I saw that look in his eyes, standing there at my door. I’d worn almost that same look a hundred times when I was a kid. But, no. Not that look. Not THAT look. I was selling things door-to-door when I was his age. But I was selling raffle tickets. Chocolate-covered almonds. Microwave popcorn. Honey in little plastic bears. Newspaper subscriptions. I’d worn almost that same look, [...]

It’s been one of *those* evenings, so I thought I should write. It’s been one of *those* evenings because I had to play evil, discipline-wielding father and all I got out of it was a heavy feeling of guilt mixed with the pained assurance of — y’know — doin’ the right thing. The Girl had been a pleasure for most of the day, which is probably why I feel so bad. It was my day off. Our regular Thursday “daddy-day” together, and we spent [...]

I was interested to read the latest edition of Skeptic magazine over the long weekend, particularly since a jumbled collection of similar ideas relating to the cover story — Our Cultural Obsession with Happiness — is something that has been swirling about my mind for the last couple months. The article, and you should read it for yourself, centers around the central premise that our societal obsession with pursuing something called ‘happiness’ is illogical, ill-defined, and often irrational. So, go ahead, tell your loved [...]

I’ve been spending some of my rare free time lately playing a little capture-the-flag-style game on Playstation called “Fat Princess.” (I’ll leave you to research the details on your own, if you are interested.) And while I’ve been playing video games for most of my life — our first console was a Coleco Vision where my sibs and I spent hours acing Zaxxon — I grew up in the generation just prior to what is now quite common in video games: online gaming. And [...]

It’s Sunday morning, and The Girl and I are sitting at the kitchen table. I’m writing a blog post. She’s being artistic, drawing with a cheap set of acrylic paints, swirls of brownish-gray (the paints mixed beyond reconciliation) into images that are one-of-a-kind reproduction portraits of every single person she can think of as she sits there painting. One person per page. Circles with legs, arms, and eyes. “This is mommy. This is you, daddy. This is my cousin. This is grandma. This is [...]

A likely familiar tune, but bedtime at our house is borderline ritualism: Bath. Brush teeth. Story. Shine the flashlight on the ceiling to make the the glow stars light. Song. Some idle talking about the day past. At least three drinks of water. And a small peppering of parental nudges to “get back into bed!” Ritualism, and in that order. Lately, and this evening being no exception, we’ve been adding the list. I’ve been hearing the faint voice summoning me from down the hall, [...]