This is not my normal fare for this blog, but I couldn’t resist… Check out this snippet from an article in the New York Times today:

As banks grow tighter with their dollars in a period of uncertainty, families are running up against credit limits, forcing many to live within their incomes.

Who would have thought that apparently living within one’s income was such a novel concept?

Caleb, if there is any one tidbit I would hope to distill the topic of personal finance down into, it would be to live within your means (and implicitly, I hope, to intelligently save the remainder).

On the left: Daddy’s Backpack. On the right: Caleb’s Backpack. After a lot of searching, I bought the latter earlier this afternoon as my main Christmas gift to Caleb. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that Caleb and I like to roam around Boston, or wherever else we are, having “adventures.” Mention to him that tomorrow is “Daddy Day” and ask him what he wants to do, and he’ll respond emphatically, “Have an adventure!”

Since we always load my red backpack (which he and I picked out together some months ago) with supplies before we head out the door for our adventures, he has built a strong connection to the backpack and having fun with me. If we are having a lazy afternoon, sometimes he’ll drag the backpack over to me and ask if I want to go outside and have an adventure. It is very cute and makes me very happy.

So, when thinking about what gift I could give him for Christmas, I decided it was time to get him his own backpack. I’ve been noodling on the idea for many weeks and tried a woman’s hydration pack on him during our trip to Vermont last month. The pack was the perfect overall size — the base of the pack rested perfectly at his hips, and it was narrow enough overall to appear to distribute weight well. Wanting to get him a functional pack, rather than simply one he’d “play” with, I became determined to find one that would fit and have everything he might want.

The one I settled on is from REI (just like my red one) and is specifically designed for kids. I am sure it is meant for a child a bit older than Caleb, but it is hard to discount that he is tall enough for the pack to fit him perfectly. I tried it on him in the store and loaded it up with a one-pound weight, and then later with a five-pound weight. He handled the latter like a champ, and since he’d probably never have more than a pound or two (some raisins, a few carrot sticks, a toy car, his sunglasses, maybe a sandwich, and possibly a smidgen of water) in the pack until he is bigger, I decided that we had finally found our pack.

As a plus it has a hydration bladder that rests inside the main compartment, though I think we’ll only fill it up with a small amount of water given the amount of weight it added when we tried it out at full capacity tonight.

At any rate, I really like to hem and haw over the gifts I give, even if it means that I don’t get someone something because I haven’t found or devised the right “thing.” I am very happy with the backpack and plan to stuff it with a few other special gifts as well that I know Caleb will appreciate.

When you have a moment, check out our friend Lisa’s blog Finding Kajal. Lisa lives across the street from us (indeed, our apartments are so close, we could use a soup-can phone to chat) and was one of the first people to welcome us to the neighborhood. She has been a big part of Caleb’s life since we moved to the North End, and has also been just as big a part of my, Megan’s and certainly Nadine’s lives as well.

Rather than preface what her blog is about, I’ll simply encourage you (emphatically) to check it out for yourself. With that, I leave you with a snippet from her first post to gnaw on:

“A favorite classic author of mine (whose name escapes me which shows how scary jetlag can be) wrote that family is not always those whose blood we share but those for whom we would shed blood. Some of us are lucky to have both… great family we were born with… and those friends in life we come across or children we come to call our own. In my case, I am definitely one of the lucky ones.”

Whew! It seems as if Caleb and I haven’t had a real Daddy Day in months. Indeed, we’ve been out of town so much lately, I think today is the first day we have had to just hang out in some time. Coupled with the fact that our computer resources are slim (my ancient laptop finally decided to stop working), our posts have simply lagged. Here’s a quick shot of what we’ve been up to since our early October trip to New York:

• A few trips to Connecticut to visit Nonna and Bappa (what Caleb calls my mother and father, respectively), including a very sad trip to attend my grandfather’s funeral (in New York, about an hour from my parents), another return trip to the cemetery with his youngest daughter a week later, and a quick trip the day after Thanksgiving;
• Semi-hosting Grandma and GrandpaGrandpa (what Caleb calls Megan’s mother and father, respectively) during their trip to Boston this Thanksgiving;
• A stop in Albany, NY (our Connecticut trip to attend my grandfather’s funeral came just a few days before a planned trip to Montréal and Vermont — our stop in Albany bridged the two); and,
• A few days in Montréal, Canada, and a few days in Stowe and Burlington, Vermont (for Megan and my 5-year wedding anniversary — Caleb had a blast!)

…like I said…Whew! All of the trips were car trips, so kudos to Caleb for handling the long rides like a champ. I am not sure what we will do for the Christmas holidays, but for now we don’t have anything major planned until February. So, perhaps we can capitalize on the non-travel time and make a few posts…

So, you’ve noticed that I haven’t posted anything new since early September, eh? Wondering what’s up?

Rest assured, Caleb and I haven’t dialed back our adventures much, but we have been rather busy the past few weeks. After returning to Boston from our trip to Cape Cod (which I kind of posted about but only put up one of the several photos we took) we ended up in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, and then I spent several days roaming through California. A full end of summer/beginning of fall it has been!

I’m brewing up some coffee and will do my best to make the posts current before Caleb wakes up from his nap!

I am way behind on my posting, so this is actually several Friday’s ago, and not yesterday (or even the Friday prior! — August 10th). There are just a few descriptions — be sure to click on the image below to see them all:

These photos are only two weeks late… I was sparse with the image directions as well, and I am almost certain that I spelled half of the names listed incorrectly. Enjoy (be sure to click on the image below for the slideshow)!

It is hard to believe that two years have passed since our son’s birth, but passed they have. I don’t think that we’ll ever look back on the time that has come on and gone as having moved too slow. If anything, I expect the moments to become even more fleeting, and perhaps more fuzzy an distant as we make ever more feeble attempts to reminisce. I imagine that we simply have to increase our resolve to live every moment to the fullest, and move forward with giant smiles on our faces and in our hearts.

You have made the past two years an absolute pleasure, Caleb. We can’t wait to spend this next one, and all the years thereafter, exploring, learning, and just having fun with you. We love you very, very much!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

- Your Daddy

Sweet. I’m a stickler for reading the terms and conditions of a contract, but tend to gloss over any warning label on a toy. Especially toys that are small and cute, like, say, a wooden ambulance… Who would think that a wooden ambulance, the very symbol of emergency care, modern medicine and safety, would pose a threat to a child?

Take a moment and click on the photo to the right. We picked up a handful of similar wooden toys at Target last week and handed them out in goodie bags during Caleb’s birthday. (And yes, even though this post is a bit tongue-in-cheek, we are letting the parents of the kids who took a goodie bag home know that they might want to toss the toys.)

I put him down for a nap late this morning, and tooled around the house doing some work while I waited for him to wake up. I still haven’t figured out what happened, but I must have been in some sort of time warp as he woke up a few years older than he was when he conked out this morning.

I was just about to take a shower and then wake him up when I heard him trying to open his bedroom door. I went to say hello and received the most serious “look” from him after I cracked the door a bit. He was tired looking, but also seemed to be parsing 10 different things while he gave me a once-over. A bit later, I was in the kitchen making us lunch and blurted out to him to ’stop making noise’ (he was messing around in the living room making a general commotion). He came into the kitchen, looked up at me, furrowed his eyebrows, and said, “I was singing.” I didn’t understand him at first but then he said it again.

To say I felt like a punk is an understatement. I so readily ask him to quiet down without bothering to figure out what he is doing, which is a personality trait that is as rude as it is selfish, that I am sure that I have made a similar mistake a hundred times over. I immediately squatted down and apologized, asking him to sing some more. He started again and my heart sank, “Daddy-daddy-daddy…” It was both beautiful and convicting.

Sheesh.

Enough with the sap, now on to his lunch fare. I made us a sandwich that he was quite unlikely to try, let alone eat: Romaine, cucumbers, tomatoes, mozzarella, fresh pepper, and a little mayo, all on a dark German wheat bread (slightly toasted, of course, to make the cheese ever so soft), with a helping of carrot sticks on the side. I think it is a fantastic lunch and was quite looking forward to eating it all after Caleb was sure to not even try a bite.

He ate the whole thing! Not just the cheese portions that were protruding outside of the bread, and not the pieces he pretended to eat (and then spit out with a very dramatic fake gag), but the whole thing. He even ate all of his carrots!

…I think I am going to make him take a late morning nap every Friday…