The other day I was explaining to my wife Danielle on the phone that Sean (our 17-month-old) and I had discovered two new monsters in our presence. One was the Washcloth Monster, who feeds on the crumbs little boys leave behind, and the other was the Hand Wipe Monster, his cousin, who follows us around [...]
* Temporary Assigned Duty
Danielle called last night, and the homesickness had finally gotten to her. For the first time since her shore tour began almost 3 years ago, she’s on TAD 8 hours away, training for her next assignment.
This is also the first time since our son was born 17 months ago that she’s been [...]
My wife is stressing about being away from Sean and me this summer for training, but last weekend, I was the one who was on my own.
If you’re like me, you crave alone time: time with a book, time to make a dent in your project list, time to sleep in. I got a big [...]
About a year ago, my wife and I decided we only needed one car. We live in town, making it possible to walk most everywhere, and until recently we were both working from home.
We also had a new baby and wanted a larger vehicle for those times when we wanted to travel. Our economy cars [...]
Sarah Smiley’s commentary about Lisa Pagan, the Army mother of two who was called back into active duty from the Individual Ready Reserve, got me thinking about commitment.
What struck me about Ms. Pagan’s story was the disparity of peoples’ reactions to it. Some saw it as a story about a good mother doing what she [...]
We go to Starbucks—a lot. When I took one of their online surveys recently, one of the questions was, “How many times in the last month have you visited this Starbucks location?” My answer: 25. Sure, I was estimating. It might have been 24 or 26.
Now, that may seem excessive, not to mention expensive, but [...]
Those of you with kids will know what I mean when I say I LOVE nap time. If you’re lucky enough to get your infant onto some kind of schedule, chances are you’re getting three to four hours of quiet every day while your little one recharges (unless you have older kids, too).
Oh, how we’ve [...]
Something about being on shore tour has made Danielle and me more anti-social than usual. We don’t go to church. I’m not a member of the spouses’ club. We don’t know most of our neighbors.
To make matters worse, we live on an island, and, like true islanders, we hate leaving it. We just want to [...]
I didn’t even notice it when it happened, but at some point during the last few months, my son Sean made a major developmental leap.
As anyone with kids knows, it’s hard not to feel manipulated by infants. For his first 3 months, Sean would barely tolerate being anywhere but in my or his mom’s arms. [...]
