There was a brief scuffle in the family room this morning followed by the sound of toy pans being dumped on top of a toy kitchen. I stopped brushing my teeth and listened. There was an obvious physical confrontation going on, then more crashing of pots, followed by a few outbursts between Clara and Lydia concerning the proper storage location of their shared kitchen supplies. “Girls?” I yelled through frothy teeth. “Girls are you seriously fighting over where to put your fake pans?” But they ignored me and continued their argument which quickly lead to Lydia crying in a loud wail and rushing past my bathroom door on her way up the stairs towards her bedroom. Behind her Clara yelled accusingly, “Lydia! You are being rude…
A father's struggle to capture his children's brief moment of youth in words and pictures
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I woke up on Easter morning with my six year old leaning over me, shaking the edge of my mattress. She was excitedly repeating some kind of nonsense over and over like a scientist that had just made a major break through and had to share it with everyone even if they didn’t understand. She repeated the phrase until I opened one eye and looked up at her. She smiled and said it again, directly into my open eye, even louder this time, and then she twirled in a quick circle and bowed. “Wait… Clara… are you saying ‘Cheap Snuggles’?” “Yes!” She cried in joy. She had finally gotten through to me. “That’s what I decided on as a name!” She grinned wildly. A…
It’s amazing to watch children figure out how the world operates. Everything is foreign to them and the possibilities of how things could work are practically limitless. A pair of pliers could just as easily be a funny bow legged cowboy as they could be a tool for grabbing and pulling things. This makes it even more amazing when their blank slate minds tackle complex systems and somehow are able to come up with ideas that took modern civilizations centuries to develop. In a different era, these children would have been instant prodigies. Millionaires and revolutionaries by the age of 10. But they were born too late and now they are just regular children. Take my daughter Clara for example and the subject of economics.…
“Clara!” Her mom yelled. “Don’t ever ever get in this box, do you understand? This box has important papers in it and is only for Mommy and Daddys.” Clara wrung her hands. “Yes Mom. I’m sorry. Anyway, I’m going to be a Mommy soon too, so maybe then I can get in the box.” Then she turned and galloped out of the room. And those were the first words I heard the morning of April Fool’s Day 2015.
Where Are We Here? 