When my wife and I woke up on Christmas morning, we were, umm, we were… huh. What is the word for when something is so incredibly cute that you just can’t stand it, and you are making the sad puppy dog face and saying “awwwww,” but in an extremely good way? Anyway, there were some […]
Category Archives: Ruby
Bear’s Reconstructive Surgery
As I’m sure you know by now, Bear is magic. He leaves presents for people when they need them, he pops up in weird places, and he makes movies of himself wandering around the house. But just because he is magic does not mean that he is not old and well used. I fear that […]
Yeah, We Made Ten Giant Gingerbread Houses. What?
We had this brilliant idea. After last year’s successful Gingerbread House Decorating Party, we thought, “Hey, we’ve got this down now! We can be smooth and streamlined now! We will make the houses smaller and more sturdy! We will be organized ahead of time! We will have it together!” But like most brilliant ideas, it […]
The Roads and Rails Museum of Frederick, MD
My ten-year-old self has just found his new favorite place. It was completely by accident of course; we went there with the intention of making my three-year-old son very happy. Bleric Ack had been hunting up fun things for us to do while we were staying with him over Thanksgiving, and this was the top […]
Ruby Teaches Her Brother How to Tell A Knock-Knock Joke
Ruby is six. Edward is three. This weekend she tried to teach him about knock-knock jokes. It went something like this: Ruby: “Knock knock.”Edward: “Who’s there?”Ruby: “Banana.”Edward: “Banana who?”Ruby: “Knock knock.”Edward: “BANANA WHO!”Ruby: “No Edward, you say who’s there!”Edward: “I SAID BANANA WHO!”Me: “Ruby, I don’t think Edward knows enough about knock-knock jokes to do […]
My Mother, the Zoo Animal
You see, we really needed to find a bathroom. My eldest child was, at the time, my brand new first and only child, and we were at the National Zoo with my mother, who had not yet been christened “Toy Grammy,” and so was still just “Grammy.” I don’t know how we got off of […]
Note to My Future Self On the Day My Kids Move Out
Hello Future Tenor Dad. It’s me. Tenor Dad from the distant past. I am writing this because you are probably feeling sad and nostalgic today. Ruby is going off to college. Or perhaps Edward is finally getting his own apartment. I’m not there, so I don’t know why you are reading this. But whatever the […]
When the Magic is Gone
Magic always comes with a price. This was never more evident to me than yesterday, as I took my children in search of some horrible thing that they had seen on television. If you do not own a television, then you are smart and do not know what I am talking about, but if you […]
My Daughter Has Shark Teeth
About a year ago, at her normal check-up, the dentist told my daughter that her teeth were starting to get slightly loose, and that she would probably have lost one or two by her birthday. This was the most exciting news possible to a five-year-old, and she spent countless hours attempting to wiggle her, as […]
So Many Fall Festivals
It is now autumn in Vermont. This means that every weekend there is some sort of harvest festival, apple-fest, fall-fest, or solstestival. These things include apple everything, maple everything, and hay everything. And we, like everyone else in the state, go to all of them. Last weekend we went to an orchard in Shelburne, VT […]