Regular Life

Benjamin splashes in the bathtub as I lean over the side.
He plunges a toy squirting frog under the water and squeezes it, then lets it slowly draw in its fill. “My frog loves the water,” he says.
“Yep, most frogs do. You know, frogs are amphibians. That means they live on the land [...]

Thursday ended with Shannon staring at her computer screen, tears streaming down her face. “Ben’s hiding in his closet,” she said. Ben likes to do that when I get home so I can “find” him.
Then Shannon looked up at me and sobbed, “He could have died.”
Just home from work, I set down my [...]

Benjamin and Shannon splash it up. Click for a much better look.
Although I enjoyed all the father/son time Benjamin and I spent last week while I was off work, the time we spent as a family topped my list.
They often get buried under her depression, but my wife’s sense of humor and love for life [...]

Click to enlarge
Last week while I was off work, we had another first, and it was a blast.
One nice thing about living in a major metro area is that there’s almost no limit to the options available as long as you can cover the admission price. Laughter was the sound of the day as [...]

Benjamin, speaking of his doll: Baby Rex is a Super Diaper Baby.
Me: Well, then what are you?
Benjamin: (before I could blink) A Super Underwear Kid.
And that settles it.
———-
While re-hanging pictures on the kitchen wall following our first marathon painting night, I dropped one of them.
Startled, Shannon yelled, “Oh, mother –” and then stopped herself [...]

Note: Photos in this post by Benjamin, with his Fisher Price Kid Tough Digital Camera (generation one model).

My Blurry Mommy, by Benjamin
It’s strange, having nine days off work in a row and nowhere to go. We could have gone to Spain, England, France, or all of the above. Heck, we live in a [...]

Besmirch not my mommy’s name.
(click to enlarge, or walk the plank)
In Tulsa last weekend, my favorite time was one cool morning playing with Benjamin in the front yard. He picked up a couple black plastic stakes advertising the lawn service Shannon’s uncle uses, and following his lead we pretended they were swords. We [...]

If you normally spend between four and five minutes reading here, then today is your big break.
You get to spend about the same amount of time listening, because I’m offering up a hodgepodge of clips that help paint a sonic portrait of what goes on in our lives. No, it isn’t just a bunch [...]

(Note: Yesterday’s post was my 700th published. About 60 days short of three years doing this, I figure that’s one post every 1.4 days.)
Before the thievery on Saturday, there was a windfall of epic proportions.
Sometimes, you just get lucky.
You’ll recall that we were at a place featuring games that spit out tickets rewarding [...]

Shannon was a victim of a theft and a theft attempt on Saturday. Both by the same person and in the same place.
After finally finishing up a customer call that made me all but miss a five-year-old’s birthday party, I showed up about an hour late to a six-year-old’s party hoping I could just [...]