A blog about parenting, sports and life.
‘Twas the month before Hanukkah
The leaves had been turning
Though it should have been cold
The weather was burning.1
Thanksgiving had passed
Black Friday came and went
We avoided buyer’s remorse
Despite the money we spent.
But the music had started
(A bit later, to be fair)
The onslaught of Christmas
Could be felt in the air. Continue reading “A Hanukkah Poem”
Dear E,
I’ve been meaning to start writing you letters for a little while now. I suppose the blog that I’ve been writing for the last year and a half has basically been a long series of letters to you anyway, but I wanted this piece to be directed to you, in particular, as opposed to me just writing about you. There are some things I’ve been thinking about here and there, especially over the last month and a half since my last blog post, and I want to make sure I get them down before I forget them. Continue reading “Dear E”
I don’t spend a lot of time watching sports.
This is not an entirely new development; it’s been a gradual decline over the past five or six years or so. And over the last two years or so, my live sports consumption has dwindled to almost nothing.
There are a few reasons for this trend. The most significant, of course, is that I just don’t have as much time as I used to. Between a full time job and two part time jobs, plus actually wanting to spend some quality time with my wife and son, it’s not easy to carve out a three hour block (at least) to watch a game start to finish. I’m pretty sure the last game I tried watch from the beginning was Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals and we all remember how that turned out. I barely even watch highlights anymore, although that has a lot to do with my disappointment in what Sportscenter has become, as opposed to just not having the time. Continue reading “Lesson #3: The Chicago Bears”
There has been a lot of negative news lately regarding professional athletes in the U.S. The Biogenesis scandal regarding the use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in Major League Baseball has re-sparked numerous debates over the validity of certain records, awards and potential future Hall of Fame eligibility. Free agent point guard Daniel Gibson was charged with battery for breaking a man’s jaw during an argument. And, of course, former1 New England Patriots tight end, Aaron Hernandez, was arrested and charged with murder.
Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio, indeed. Continue reading “Liars, Killers and Brauns, Oh My!”
(Sorry for the delay in posts. Work and preparations for E’s birthday party have kind of dominated the last two weeks.)
Parenting is a weird business.
Weird may not be the best word for it; I just chose it because there are so many different ways of looking at being a parent and so many different things to experience that “weird” seems like a catch-all word. Parenting is the one job[1] I can think of that can make a person laugh, cry and want to punch a hole in the wall all in the span of five minutes. It’s exhilarating and heart-wrenching, amazing and overwhelming, all at once. The biggest thing about being a parent, though, is this:
You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into. Continue reading “What I Didn’t Expect”
A few weeks after my son was born, I was sitting with him in my living room watching television and decided it was time to begin his education.
There’s been all kinds of research about how reading to your kids even while they’re still in the womb benefits their intellectual development.* You’re supposed to read to them, sing to them, play music for them and basically do anything that would annoy you if you were trying to sleep as a way to stimulate their tiny little neurons and synapses. By encouraging brain development, you’re preparing your baby for more conventional learning later on. All that being said, the education I had in mind had nothing to do with any of this.
It was time to teach him about Chicago sports. Continue reading “The Four Lessons: An Introduction”
