Newfangled Dad

Cole has been on a "pretend" kick lately, which is hilarious to see. Mostly because it's not a behavior he did much before but has really jumped into. And so far this morning, we've learned how helicopters work, watched wheat get harvested online, and yesterday watched the better part of last year's Indianapolis 500 after a request for "race cars." His favorite is "fishing." Where he ties an old shoelace to an old egg carton and throws it over the baby gate. Kelly has even worked on catch-caught verb tense with him and he brings the two of us his haul to "eat." I'm working on asking what he's catching...tuna, salmon, trout? Which I find amazing for a nearly-3-year-old. It's like at some point overnight we lost a toddler and gained a little boy who is curious about absolutely everything. I'm sure "why" is next but "what's that" is his current favorite. He also loves to "cook." This ...

I thought about making this a multi-part series, but there are other fish in the sea to blog about. So hang in there, this may get long... Drive out the tollway from Chicago past Rockford and it's a whole different landscape. Go through the Land of Cheese...past Madison, the Dells, strange places called LaCrosse or Eau Claire...and you will eventually come to the Land of Nice. To tell people from Chicago about this place makes it sound like Oz. Really it exists. (The roads are free!) It's a crazy place where when you pay for gas--with cash, no prepay necessary--the station attendant skeptically eyes your vehicle trying to decide if $40 will fit in it. "Come back for your change if it won't take it all." Umm, sure thing. It's a crazy place where drivers do something called a " zipper merge " politely taking turns letting each other into traffic via a "use all the space then be nice" philosophy. In Chicago, it's every driver for him...

Apologies, but I'm probably going to fall off the map until next week. Kelly wants to go to the  Shepherd's Harvest Sheep & Wool Festival  for Mother's Day. Yeah, I know. But it's what she specifically asked for. And the upside is that she'll get to see her own mother for the holiday. I have no interest in knitting. Or yarn. Or learning to spin fiber. At least there will be sheep though. Some rabbits. Some working dogs. Not a horrible way to spend a Saturday. It's better than having a wife who wants me to watch her try on clothes at the mall. So the result is that it will be a short week this week to prepare. Packing and errands and things that need to happen to get a dog, 2 kids, and 2 parents inside a Subaru for a 7 hour car trip to Minnesota. I actually love Twin Cities and it will be nice to visit without illness or a marathon hanging over our heads. Well, really my head. Don't get me wrong, there are some questions. Like where our toddler will s...

It's amazing how after a trip it takes a week to recover and then you've got another week's worth of material in your head! I've been to Minnesota twice now...once may or may not have been coherent after wisdom tooth extraction complications. Anyway, I'm convinced Minnesotans are a special breed and they want to keep their paradise a secret. Because, honestly, I doubt many of you out there have ever thought of Minnesota as more than a cold, snowy (coldest urban area in the nation) folksy place where not much really happens. Maybe I need to visit again in the winter before I pass judgment? Maybe. But did you know that Twin Cities is actually the 15th largest metro area in the US? Home to the oldest operating Ford plant from 1924? And that Minnesota has voted for Democratic Presidential candidates since 1976, longer than any other state? Or that 78.2% of eligible voters took part in the last Presidential election? It's this populist progressive streak that...