My 23 regular readers will no doubt recall that we recently learned that Michael is allergic to both Dairy and Soy products. Since then, we’ve been keeping a close eye on what little Mr. Mikey eats. And lest we ever let our guard down, Michael himself provides an abundant level of caution, asking whether or [...]

Caught a mouse this morning. Humanely; I was able to release it into the wild later in the weeds near a pond some distance from our house. I’d heard this particular little guy Wednesday morning as I was making breakfast. He was scrabbling around under the stove, no doubt snacking on whatever little bits of [...]

It was a near miss. We nearly pulled Michael out of his in-home preschool completely yesterday. There were countless reasons: alleged complaints from parents about their kids being hurt by Michael, notes that come home describing Michael’s apparent inability to sit still or stay focused, reports of Michael being overwhelmed by the noise of the [...]

Upon picking up Michael from Ms S’s yesterday, I was for the third time this month presented with The Book. I do not like being presented with The Book. It is unpleasant. It is distasteful. It is wearying. I lightly skimmed the words in the book, wincing at reading the narration of Michael’s unprovoked aggression [...]

It was errand time, and Michael and I were finishing out our trip at the grocery store. He’d been his usual animated self throughout our visit, chirping about this and that and asking a million questions. Finally at the checkout, I set the cart against the end of the counter like I always do, so [...]

The part of each weekday morning that I dislike the most is, without question, assembling Michael’s lunch. I’ve mentioned this before. Yesterday’s episode went like this: Daddy: “Michael, what do you want for lunch?” Michael: (no response whatsoever) Daddy: “Sometime today, please.” Mommy: “How about fish fingers?” Michael: “Yeah, fish fingers. That sounds good.” Daddy: [...]

Michael’s currently enrolled in a private, in-home kindergarten. We decided against sending him to public school this year, and the decision was not made lightly. We felt he wasn’t ready for public school yet. More accurately, it could be said that public school isn’t ready for Michael yet. But whichever way you slice it, we’re [...]

I really need to buy myself a sense of humor. The fact that my wife laughed at my irritation this morning is a clue upon which I ought to ruminate at length. You see, I was in a rush to get out the door. This is my normal operating mode on any given weekday. I [...]

I’m sitting on the couch, trying to pretend I’m not awake yet. Michael suddenly runs to the bathroom to grab a wet wipe, and quickly returns and starts scrubbing down his little plastic slide. “Don’t worry, daddy. I’ll get the germs off.” “What?” “It’s on the slide, right there,” he points to a black smudge [...]

There is little that can compare with the excruciating torture that is attending a civilized function with a bored five year old. Having bamboo shoots run under one’s fingernails is about as close as I could imagine. Last night sister S sang in her high school choir’s Christmas program, along with I believe seven hundred [...]