Tag: family
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The rules are there ain’t no rules
There’s a scene in Grease where Leo, the head of the rival Scorpions gang, says to Travolta’s Danny Zuko before they drag race: “The rules are there ain’t no rules.” It’s one of the many random lines that has stuck in my head from a lifetime of movie watching. I think about it a lot…
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Camcorders and the quotidian
Two things my wife and I are really glad to have are a camcorder and a digital SLR camera. We got both of them several years ago, the camera as a wedding gift and the camcorder from my mother-in-law. Mostly we wanted them to be able to document family get-togethers, trips, and our nieces growing…
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Four months old
The Boy just turned 4 months old and is absolutely perfect. He is starting to roll over, has recently discovered his own feet, and is super chubby and smiley. So you can imagine my reaction when I read “The Youngest Child Separated From His Family at the Border Was 4 Months Old” in the New…
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This is my pocketknife
Part of the This Is My series. When my grandpa died in 2007, I informally inherited several of his possessions. Nothing from an official will, mind you—just my grandma saying “You should take this” as we were clearing out his stuff. That’s how I got, among other things, his wallet, a few shirts, an old…
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Advice for parents
Generally I take a liberal stance towards unsolicited advice. You never know when you’ll get something worthwhile, and you can always just ignore the bad stuff. We’ll see if that stance changes once people start chiming in about particular parenting choices. So far I haven’t had a problem. In the meantime, Lifehacker’s Offspring parenting blog…
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This is his song
One day I was trying to soothe my fussy baby with some bouncing and singing. I faced him toward me and then out of nowhere started singing a melody that popped into my head. The combination of the song and how I swayed and bounced him calmed him right away, and even elicited a smile.…
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Babies are wizards
Here’s a recent text exchange with a friend of mine that I started: I keep thinking about the part in How to Change Your Mind about how babies are basically tripping all the time because of their undeveloped brains. Even mundane stuff can blow [my infant’s] mind. Right?! He’s probably still seeing the cosmic consciousness!…
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This was my couch
Part of the This Is My series, documenting meaningful objects in my life. This pullout couch was in my grandparents’ lakeshore cabin for decades before I was born. Then it was in my parents’ basement for another two decades or so. Then it was in my apartment for a few years. And now it’s gone…
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How Helen met Cliff
Today would be the 75th wedding anniversary of my grandparents Cliff and Helen. In the oral history of her life, Helen talked about how she met Cliff: I was nineteen when I met him. He asked me if I was twenty-one and I said no. He was twenty-seven, so he was an older guy. I…
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A new typist in the family
Since I don’t have a Hermes Baby, our now un-Disneyfied toy typewriter will have to do as a stand-in. Excited for when baby’s hands will be strong enough to type. Perhaps I should start typing close to the womb so he can get used to the sound, and then maybe the clacking will be soothing…
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Great Olin’s Raven!
The first baby in my family has arrived. Behold Olin Charles: I’ve made fun of my wife for all the pictures and video she takes of her sister’s kids. I get it now.
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Google Past
This is the Google Maps Street View of my parents’ home. It’s from 2007, which is old by Google Maps standards. The current view looks very different ten years later. The house is a different color, the front lawn is now completely garden (more like a jungle at this point), and the tree on the…
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Inherit the Words
I was helping my parents clear out their bookshelves in advance of their living room being painted and in the process stumbled upon some interesting artifacts. Among the books, family photo albums, and LPs that had stuck around unplayed for decades, I spotted a small University of Wisconsin notebook. I opened it to find in…
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Helen Huhta: A Life
“Take care and keep in touch.” My grandma Helen would close every letter she sent to me with that phrase. They were also the final words I said to her on Sunday, before she died yesterday at the age of 92. After slowly declining for years, she took a turn for the worse this weekend.…
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The Weight Of History
We all grow up with the weight of history on us. Our ancestors dwell in the attics of our brains as they do in the spiraling chains of knowledge hidden in every cell of our bodies. – Shirley Abbott Today, as on every veterans’ themed day, I thought of my grandfather. A lieutenant in Patton’s…