Coming clean.

So I have to come clean. I started this blog for a number of reasons, among them, to hold myself accountable for the choices I make, and for the ways in which I choose to spend my time and money. I wanted to make a conscious effort to balance work, training, and family life, and [...]

what a difference a year and six months can make.

The term “parenting” is really a misnomer, a ridiculous attempt to place a myriad of evolving behaviors  into a single category. I spend alot of my time “parenting,” and by that I mean I spend alot of my time realizing that everything I know about my kid is no longer useful as she is an [...]

Parenting (and training) at 80%

***photos by Benjamin Lopez*** When I was in graduate school, one of my good friends, a father, practicing doctor, and fellow MPH student, told me something rather prescient: You can’t be 100% at everything you do. You can’t be a great student, a great doctor, AND a great father. One of them has to give. [...]

2011 race schedule

So I originally started this blog to force myself to think about what completing an Ironman distance triathlon would entail – is it worth the time away from the family? the time away from work/school? the early morning workouts, bitterly cold runs, and perpetually smelling like cholorine? And what do such mentally, physically, and economically [...]

Language development and the art of one-year-old self-expression

My wife and I decided a long time ago that we wanted to raise any children we had bilingually. When our daughter was born, we thus decided to talk to her at least partially in Spanish, and we also decided to throw some Sign Language into the mix. The result is the most entertaining exercise [...]

You know it’s a gay wedding when…

My poor daughter has been dragged along with my wife and me to SEVEN weddings in the short 13 months since she was born. She has been subjected to every conceivable “aww how cute” photo opp from wedding attendees, has modeled multiple baby carriers, and even braved a rendition of Bon Jovi’s Its My Life [...]

gender role gymnastics

Ann Arbor is probably one of the most family friendly cities in the US. Everywhere you turn, there are museums, parks, restaurants, and shows catering not only to the  mountains of kids in their  modern-hippie Keens, but to the mommies and daddies, also dressed in their modern-hippie Keens, that inevitably stroller them around. A few [...]

ponies, moonwalks, and triathlons on my daughter’s bday

Hard to believe, but my daughter has been with us for more than 11 months. It’s amazing to think that she went from this helpless little being that I could hold like a football in the crook of my arm to an expressive, emotional, active, holy-terror with a strong affiliation for the sound of paper [...]

Co-Sleeping and Dragon Slaying.

My wife and I have a pretty good idea of who we want to be. We also have a pretty good idea of how we want to parent. But sometimes the who-we-want-to-be butts heads with the how-we-want-to-parent, with the victor being anyone’s guess. This has been the situation of late when it comes to getting [...]

what a difference 6 months can make

I have been talking an awful lot about my training, and not nearly enough about my baby girl. Why? Well, quite frankly, because my baby girl has been the theme of my daily life, and by training has become very very difficult. Between a twisted ankle and a long trip to Texas, tri training has [...]