Kirk blAug

First, you put the baby down in its crib for some rest. Nap time can begin. Then the baby decides it is hungry. So you mix a bottle of formula or prepare some milk. You feed the baby. The baby falls asleep while eating and NOW nap time can begin. But wait. What is that smell? You carefully try to change the baby without waking it up. The baby wakes up. The baby has more room and is hungry again. You feed the baby again. The baby is asleep. Nap time can FINALLY begin. Except now you realize the three-year-old is not napping due to all the noise from the baby. So it goes... There was a point in time when nap time for the boys meant break time for dad. Never again.

I was browsing around Facebook on my phone while I feed Tsunami a bottle early in the morning the other day, when I came across this thread: This is just the sort of thing that makes it seem justifiable for women to be afraid of men. This is also an example of what makes it hard for me to be male without having women assume me guilty until proven innocent. I know that for the most part, these kind of things are said without intended harm, but this misogynist superior male attitude leads down the road to inappropriate touching and rape. As you can see above, some women are just as much to blame. And not only rape, but the kind of rape that people, like Ron Paul, try to justify : MORGAN: Here's the dilemma, and it's one I put to Rick Santorum very recently. I was surprised by his answer, although I sort of understood from his belief point of view that he would come up with this. But it's a dilemma that I am going to put to you. You have two daughters. You have many granddaugh

Earlier this week I came across this comic from The Oatmeal . It is worth looking at. Go ahead and read it , then come back. I will wait. Okay, back? Good. I thought it did a pretty good job of describing one reason that piracy is growing, so I shared the link on Facebook and Google+ with the following comment: This is why piracy exists. The studios continue to drag their feet at offering competitive or reasonable methods to acquire the media. The studios are just as guilty of the loss incurred by the artist if not more so than the customer who pirates. The artist is also responsible for finding a reliable distributor who is not going to make it difficult for customers to acquire the content. Piracy happens because it has the competitive advantage, not monetarily, but by ease of access. Then later that same night I came across Andy Inatko's blog post commenting on the comic . I thought he had made a few good points in his commentary. His post is also worth the read and I suggest

Today Chris, Jupiter, Tsunami, and I decided that we would find something to do outside since the weather was supposed to be in the upper 40s to lower 50s. I previously mentioned that we possess a membership to the Missouri Botanical Garden . The membership also gets us into the Butterfly House as well as the Shaw Nature Reserve at no charge. We had not yet been to the Shaw Nature Reserve, so Chris suggested that we check it out. We were all glad that she did. The trail we followed was about a mile hike from where we parked our car, to the lake, and back called the Wolf Run Trail. This trail was generously recommended to us by the kind lady at the desk in the Visitor Center located at the entrance to the reserve. She asked me if Jupiter was an avid walker and how we planned to carry Tsunami on our walk before coming up with the perfect suggestion. When we first got out there we were up on a hill and the 15-20 mph winds made us wonder if walking trails at the reserve was such a good

We live near a fire station. Because of this, we get to hear the sirens of firetrucks at all hours. That is the downfall. But Jupiter loves it. He has a fascination for emergency vehicles and loves watching the firetrucks whiz by on their way to a rescue, a fire, or to get a cat out of a tree. The other day he and our dog Bowser were glued to something that was outside our front window. Eventually I got curious as to what was so interesting. When I went to the window to see what they were looking at, I saw a firetruck parked right there in front of the house. Jupiter asked me what it was doing out there. I looked around and did not see any smoke. I saw one firefighter talking on her radio and another one looking up at a tree. I told Jupiter that I was not sure why it was there. I posed a hypothesis or two as to what they might be doing out there. I said that maybe there was indeed a cat in a tree. I also guessed that perhaps they had found a fire hazard that needed to be addressed. Whi

Another religious tradition that our family likes to celebrate in secular way truly has roots in my former religion, Catholicism. I previously mentioned the celebrating we did for Mardi Gras last weekend, in Soulard, but I felt that going to the Grand Parade today with the kids was a little too crazy from what I had been hearing. At least, I would feel more comfortable with another adult escort, like Chris, with us. This is Chris's on week though, so she is not available. I had heard that Soulard on Mardi Gras was no place for kids, lest they get an early anatomy lesson. I disagree with that idea. I can not think of a better real world example to teach human anatomy to my kids. Learning through experience has always been a better way of educating than an institutionalized method, I argued. Either way, my excuse for skipping it had more to do with the sheer volume of people and traffic in the area. Instead of going down to Soulard to watch the parade, we decided to get a king cake

I had told Jupiter that we needed to wait until it snows enough before we can make a snowman. He had been itching to build one since seeing Frosty The Snowman earlier this fall. Up until last night, we had not gotten a significant enough amount of snow to make a "Frosty", as he likes to call it, here in St. Louis. Well, either that or we got the wrong kind of snow or did not have time to make one for some other reason. This is strange to us after moving from Nebraska where there is ample opportunity to build snowmen throughout the season. Today the high is forecasted at 41° F, which meant we probably had just enough time to make a Frosty before the snow mostly melts down later today. It also meant that the snow would be good and soggy which is always best for packing snow in spheres. The next step was obvious. I put Tsunami in his swing near the big window looking out in front of the house. This allowed Jupiter and I set out to build the snowman while I could still keep an e

I am sure that most of my readers have at least heard something of Mardi Gras. Perhaps you might know of the celebration that takes place every year in the United States most popularly in New Orleans. But it is not exclusively celebrated in New Orleans. In fact, it was not even celebrated originally in New Orleans. In 1702, when French Catholic settlers founded the original capital of Louisiana which is now Mobile, Alabama , they began the first tradition of Mardi Gras in the United States a tradition that they brought over from Europe where it had been celebrated long before. Once the capital of Louisiana was moved to New Orleans in 1723, the major celebration was moved there and was then celebrated by most citizens of the city beyond the French Catholics. The celebration has been spread to many communities in the neighboring states of Alabama and Mississippi, as well as along the Mississippi river going as far as here in St. Louis. Soulard is historically a French neighborhood in St

When someone sneezes, the most popular thing for someone in the United States to respond with is the phrase 'bless you' or 'god bless you'. There is one semi-popular alternative, gesundheit, which references health. While being more secular and thus more inclusive than the religious message that comes with a blessing, gesundheit is less often said. I have learned from following Penn Jillette's public persona that his family says the phrase 'that's funny' in place of 'bless you'. I do like that a bit and I am sure he would not care if I borrowed it as many of the other children in his kids preschool have according to his book , but that is Penn's thing, not mine. Sometime after realizing that there are no supernatural deities, only natural humans who like to think they are gods, I adjusted my habitual response to sneezing to gesundheit. It took me a little while to adjust, so I completely understand why some of my non-religious friends hold to

One thing I like to do, for several reasons, is run. For the past couple months, because Chris started working overnights, I have found the treadmill to be more convenient. It works well because I can go running late at night after the children have gone to sleep and after she goes to work during her on week and, assuming I can actually get everyone napping at the same time, during everyone's naps during her off week. (She works seven ten hour days on then seven days off, taking naps on the off weeks in attempt to catch up on the lack of sleep during on weeks.) Even though I have chosen to take my running on the treadmill, there have been plenty of really good running opportunities outside during these relatively mild past couple of month. It was ideal for most runners. The type of weather that many runners could not pass up under any circumstances. For the past two months though, I did. Tuesday night I was itching for a run. I checked the weather to find that it was a brisk 34° F.

Chris shared an article yesterday from USA Today that shows that at least some women think that the things stay at-home dads do gets them in the mood for sex: Stephanie Dulli of Washington, D.C., says "hearing nice things absolutely is romantic and a turn-on." But she's with the 25% who say "seeing your spouse as a great parent" or the almost 20% who say it's when your spouse cleans the house or makes dinner that gets them in the mood for sex. "There is nothing sexier in the world than when my husband is giving the baby a bath without me asking. … If he takes it upon himself to do the dishes or the laundry, that's such an act of service, and that's another way he shows he cares for me. I find it dreamy." Dulli has two sons, ages 3 and 8 months. The rest of the article is a good read too. It exposes a study that shows that, while marital sex is not popularized in pop culture, most married women find it very important in their marriages. It

One day a couple years ago, while Chris and I were waiting in the checkout line at Target, she noticed that many parents were using a protective lining in the shopping carts. She asked me why I do not have one of those for Jupiter. I half joked that I was trying to boost his immune system, and she and the checkout clerk had a laugh about it. I was only half joking though, because some people really do try to keep their kids in way too sterile of an environment, in my opinion. I think it is a good thing to spread some germs around a bit to keep the immune system on its toes. I do not want my kids immune system to be so weak that they get deathly ill every time they come into contact with another sick kid. Jupiter does not get sick all that often. We have three dogs, sometimes we think that may be a contributing factor. If there is anything that spreads the nasty stuff around the house, it is dogs. I also do not freak out if the kids pick up something off the floor and put it in their m

This does not sound like the most responsible thing to do at the special moment when a baby is born, but then again, who has a clear head at that moment: We’ve heard the stories of those early-bird babies who just couldn’t wait—making their appearance in the car or on the side of the road on the way to the hospital—but it’s rare that the unexpected moment is caught on film. Luckily, thanks to his cell phone camera, newly reigned father, Zachary Russell, managed to capture the birth—and avoid any accidents!—while he was driving to the birthing center. I am glad that nobody got hurt and everything turned out okay, but I do feel a little worried for the commuters that were put in danger here. Apparently the video in question was very popular on YouTube. This is not surprising.

We spent last weekend back in Nebraska. We went to visit because it was close to Jupiter's cousin, Ryland's, third birthday and we thought it would be nice celebrate with him. While we were there I started paying attention to smells. Particularly, in this case, the smell of the laundry detergent caught my attention. I never noticed the difference between scented and unscented laundry detergent growing up, but since we use scent free laundry detergent at home, I am now noticing it. My mother happened to wash some of our clothes while we were staying at her and my father's house for the weekend. Our packing job was somewhat sporadic due to some unexpected health issues, so we needed to do some washing. My mother, being the extremely gracious host she is, would not let us spend our limited time doing laundry, so she offered to wash a few things. She washed my son's pajamas because we did not pack more than one set. Then, while I was out doing something else, Chris gave her