Triple The Dad

Everybody wants their kids to hit that important milestone of speaking.  Right up until they do. We were the same.  One of my concerns is that I sometimes have a dirty mouth.  Not the “doesn’t brush his teeth” kind.  My teeth are fairly immaculate.  I’m talking the “swears more than he sometimes should” type.  I never swore on what you would term a regular basis, but I’m a true believer that certain occasions call for a good curse word.  Car accidents; for instance.  If you are ever in one, even a minor one, having the F word be the first thing out of your mouth is a perfectly acceptable situation, in my opinion. But at times in my life the definition of “acceptable situation” slide a bit; sometimes more than a bit.  During those times, I would find things like not getting a letter in the mail sufficient reason to let go with a chosen word.  As in: “S***, the mail came and I didn’t get this letter to the mailbox yet.”  ...

If you are a Dad blogger, you probably haven’t failed to notice there are quite a few of us. There are so many of us that the Year of the Dad has arrived.  Supposedly.  I hear tell that we are leaving the workforce. We are staying home to raise our kids; by choice.  Gone are the days when weary Dads returned home from work, patted their kid on the head and buried their heads in the newspaper, looking up only long enough to maybe admire a Lego creation.  We are now taking active roles in raising our kids.  Supposedly. I keep hammering you with “supposedly” because two recent expeditions out with my triplets suggest a different narrative. The first was a Gymboree class that, while pretty evenly populated, was still mostly Mom dominated as far as caring and playing went.  Dads are there, sure.  Some are even engaging with their kids.  But you know who I talk to because they are holding the hand of the child behind mine?  Moms. ...

If you are a parent, or on the internet in anyway, really, I’m sure you seen those listicles. Articles/lists of things.  In honor of the many websites and listicles covering similar topics, I’ve decided to take a crack at the genre myself. Every single one of these is true.  Every. Single. One. So without further ado… Why is one of my triplets crying? 01) My wife carried him up 2 of the 13 steps 02) He only managed to hook one of his feet onto the crib before being placed in said crib 03) I mentioned peanut butter as a food option 04) I responded by telling him he didn’t have to have peanut butter 05) I may have mentioned food 06) I offered him a hug 07) I didn’t understand a word that sounded a lot like hybgibberit 08) I gave him the exact lollipop he asked for 09) "Over The Rainbow" is being sung by Izreal, not Dorothy 10) I put raisins on his plate and not his hi-chair tray

“Daddy, guy” my daughter said as she crouched down in the stall of men’s room, pointing at the pair of shoes in the stall next door. I calmly told her that, yes, there was a guy over there and we had to focus on pottying. “Daddy, guy” she reiterated.  She crouched down once again, her bottom hovering ever so slightly above the bathroom floor.  She leaned forward, trying desperately to see up under the wall.  “Daddy, guy in there.” I hadn’t been sure at first whether her interest stemmed from the fact that there was a stall with a toilet next to ours, or whether someone was actually using that stall.  “Daddy, guy in there.”  Yep, sure enough, there was a man in the stall next to ours. I need to explain a couple things at this point.  First, the fact that my kids call all strange men “guy” is my fault.  On vacation last year we saw someone sitting on a balcony near where we were staying and I said “Hey, look at the guy.”  For th...

I've written about the Picky Eater Panic in the past.  But I'm a vegetable eater and my three have all eaten pretty well.  Each has his or her own fav: one loves vegetables; one clearly loves fruit; and one appears to love carbs, but overall they've eaten what we have given them. Then, in the last month or so, things changed.  It crept in slowly.  First is was more of the green stuff left on plates, not a lot, but enough to notice, as if someone was trying to sneak through enemy lines.  Then it became a little more. And finally, it moved to the point where we were having to tell them to eat their vegetables or they wouldn't get anymore Mac & Cheese.  Picky eaters had arrived.  Would the Picky Eater Panic be far behind? I admit, I was concerned.  But then I went a Googling, and learned what a serving size is for 2-year-old kids. Did you know that for a 2-year-old kid or toddler, a serving is about a quarter or half of an adult serving? ...

Hi. I’d like to introduce myself.  I’m that Dad you are tsk-tsking at the playground as I bury my head in my phone.  I see you; and I know what you are thinking: “He’s missing all the great things his kids are doing.”  “What an uninvolved Dad.” “What if his kids need him?” Here is what you don’t know: On any given day, by 9 a.m. I’ve changed each of my triplets and fed them.  Over the first two years of their lives I changed close to 7,200 diapers and served 1,500 meals.  That is 1,500 meals per kid , or 4,300 meals in addition to those diaper changes. I spend at least an hour every day, and sometimes two or three hours, parenting my kids solo.                                                  ...

[Warning: today's Tip is on the expensive side.  But if you are looking at spending this type of money on a playset, you might find this review helpful.] Now that Christmas is in the rear-view mirror and we stuck in the doldrums of winter I thought I'd post a nice Trip Tip that looks forward to spring.  I know, you have big Christmas bills to pay off, but keep and open mind, because Spring really is just around the corner. Last Spring we made a big mistake when we took the neighbors up on their offer to let our triplets play on their play set.  Because once we did that, its all the kids wanted to do.  The first step into the outdoors immediately prompted pointing and shouting towards the play set. Now, our neighbors are nice enough - I'm sure they wouldn't mind if we used it.  But when you have triplets, you use  stuff.  I didn't want our three ruining their singleton's plaything.  Also, I didn't want to spend the rest of my summer in their ...