Once upon a time, there was a little girl. With her birthday just days away, her parents announced that as part of her gift, she could pick any restaurant she wanted to go to for dinner. She debated and deliberated. She hemmed and hawed. She asked her mom where shethought she should go. She asked her dad, too, but neither offered an answer. It was up to her, they said. The little girl really wanted to go to Luigi’s, the pizza parlor downtown. She quite fancied the old brick walls and the smell of the wood burning stove. And watching the thick-forearmed men shape the dough and toss it into …
Faith
Lessons from a Screaming Teether
Last night, Lucy screamed and cried for 90 minutes straight. Jason and I are convinced that every baby has a "thing." We escaped colic, gassiness, and sleeping problems, but teething has proven to be Lucy's archnemesis. Those 90 minutes last night definitely ranked up there as some of the worst minutes of my life. Screaming "mama" over and over again, Lucy was in pain and she wanted me to take the pain away. I tried everything... Walking her around the house. (Check.) Singing. (Check.) Talking softly. (Check.) Tylenol. (Check.) Playing her favorite song on the iPod. …
Life’s Little Traffic Jams
[This post originally appeared on Dad-O-Matic, a cool site for Dads, by Dads.] We bought our daughter one of those little primary-colored push car toys for her first birthday. It gets great gas mileage and holds up amazingly well in crashes, of which there have been many so far. The other day, she got herself caught in a traffic jam. The legs of our counter-height kitchen table and its accompanying chairs gridlocked her into a standstill. With all the might a one-year-old can muster, she pushed and prodded that car in an attempt to break free to the open road. To no avail. …
Watching Angels Dance
Lucy is one year old today. Happy Birthday, Lucy Ruth! She's in that cute stage where she reaches out for things that she wants. Typically, her reach is accompanied by a grunt, as if to say, "gimmie that!" On Sunday morning in church, as I held my bundle of energy (not unlike wrestling a cat), I couldn't help but observe her noticing something. Unlike other parts of the service, she wasn't reaching for the guy's coat in front of us or the bag of mini-marshmallows his four-year-old son was inhaling one by one (which was hilarious, by the way). …
Anticipating The City of Blinding Lights
Sometimes I miss the anticipation of Christmas Eve. Trying to will myself to sleep as my mind raced imagining what Santa might leave under the tree seemed a lot like torture at the time. Looking back, I see that it was probably the best part. I was fortunate to experience some of that childlike anticipation recently when Kim and I went to see U2 kick off their North American tour at Soldier Field in Chicago. Bono and the boys are probably our favorite band, and seeing them perform live was on the ol' Bucket List. As we sat in the stadium ogling over the monstrous stage assembled for the …
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Allow Chance to Change Your Life
Last week Kim and I enjoyed a much-needed date night. We went out to a nice Italian restaurant and wanted to see a movie. 500 Days of Summer and Funny Peoplewere at the top of our list, but we couldn't decide which we'd rather see. I suggested that we flip a coin and let fate choose for us. So that's what we did. I kid you not, the first flip attempt resulted in the penny landing on edge in a sidewalk crack. We had neither a head nor a tail, but an...edge. It appeared that not even Chance could make up her mind. …
When God Shouts At You
I recently experienced one of my best days ever. I had a program in St. Cloud, Minnesota for an association of secretaries, and it couldn't have gone better. They were a squirrelly group, and we had a blast. When I stopped at Applebee's for dinner on the way home, I was still on a bit of a high. A waitress promptly came by to take my drink order (a Cherry Pepsi). She went away and I scoured the menu. My mind made up, I waited for the waitress to return, to no avail. Although I was eager to get home to see my girls, I really wasn't strapped for time and I had a magazine with me that I was …
Bonk
One of my favorite words is "bonk." And if this little chicken nugget of of information doesn't give away my background as a cartoonist, I suppose nothing will. Perhaps you will be as surprised as I was to discover that "bonk" is actually a word. For real. I didn't find it in my old Webster's dictionary that was published in 1984, so I figured it was invented by Charles Schulz the first time Charlie Brown got plunked in the head. But according to dictionary.com, bonk is a real word: bonk (bŏngk) v. To strike or cause to come into contact: She bonked her head going through the low …
Shedding Light On What Keeps You Up At Night
When you were little, were you ever afraid of the dark? I sure was. From horns and hair to scabs and skeletons, thinking about what lurked among the shadows was an all-you-can-eat buffet for my imagination. In fact, I may not have made it through childhood without that humble but powerful life-saving device known as the night light. Although small in size and wattage, it did a remarkable job of keeping the creepy-crawlies at bay. Without it, I’m sure I’d have long been digested in the belly of a slimy beast from the netherworld known as “Underthebed.” Many lives have been saved by the …
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Your Recession-Proof Inner Child
Old people are often accused of being stuck in their ways. "Old" is a relative term, though. It does seem to be that as our age climbs, we tend to get more comfortable and less open to change. But that can begin to happen just as easily when you're in your twenties as when you're taking advantage of the senior citizen discount at Applebees. This little trait doesn't usually serve us all that well. Even less so during economic recessions. …