I think maybe Santa needs to bring her some anger-management lessons.

Oh yes, there really is something magical about that book. Maybe it's just that we all need to let loose and howl sometimes. Or maybe it's that we all need to know that even the fiercest wild things will always have a warm bed and loving arms to come home to after the rumpus. A lovely, magical book. And a lovely, fitting tribute to it's author.

Helluva kid. Helluva dad. Helluva post. I'm so glad you went with your instincts and told her sooner rather than later. For what it's worth, I think that was absolutely the right choice - as Mini-P's reaction validates. I have long known that you and Saucy were great parents raising a great kid. I don't expect that to change because of your divorce or your sexual orientation - except maybe for the better. DP, you have such a skill for communicating with honesty and humor and depth and veritas and... well, class, for lack of a better word. You do it with your students, you do it on your blog and other social media - you even handle trolls with enviable poise. I never doubted for a moment that your conversation with Mini-P on this subject would be simple, heartfelt and honest. And I have no doubt that you will both help each other through this "processing" phase and end up with an even closer and more honest relationship for it. Big *hugs* to you both!

I ADORE Calvin and Hobbes. I can't wait to share them with my boys.

Forget the video, I totally snorted coffee out my nose at "intimacy traction enhancement devices." Thanks for that.

This was really lovely.

You have my deepest and sincere sympathies. My oldest came home with lice just after he started Kindergarten. It. Was. Awful. When they came back a SECOND time a few months later, I just about died. And I thanked FSM that I have boy children - because I took the "I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit" approach: I scalped them both - cut their lovely locks down to buzz cuts that would have made a Marine proud. For what it's worth though, I think it's pretty damn cool that you can make even Head Lice funny.

Yay! I've been hoping Sunken Treasure would find it's way to Kindle - downloaded it last night to read this weekend! I downloaded and read Hunter last week - Well done! Liked it a lot. I so hope we'll get to read more speculative fiction from you in the future! :D

"Kids say the most fucked up shit." Damn straight.

Dude. Quit it. You're makin' me cry over here.

Pirate: I didn't think I could love you any more. I SO want that screwdriver. I've already asked Santa for the 10th Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver flashlight from Think Geek. I think this would make for a nice matched set, don't you? Oh, right, I'm supposed to be looking stuff for HIM. Damn.

Well, NOW I wish I'd given in and got one for the kids. Strange and twisted is kinda how we roll at the holidays.

"Like yesterday in another lifetime." Yeah. It's like that. My oldest just turned 6. It's so long. And yet it's too fast. It's a lifetime - literally. And it's a blink of an eye. Well captured, man.

The ZenHusband and I are actually dressing up as Alice and the Mad Hatter this year. You have no idea how hard it was to find a costume that didn't make me look ... how shall I put this delicately? ... like a slutty whore. Yeah, that's it. Even so, the costume I found is still kinda, shall we say "revealing". Now, granted, I was shopping for adult sizes, but I saw puh-lenty of "tween" and "teen" costumes that were definitely pushing the slut-envelope. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Once again, I am so glad that I have two boys. No one is yet marketing over-sexualized costumes for little boys. Yet. Though I did see some that were a little over-the-top on the gore/violence meter for 6-8 year olds, I gotta say. Still, I'd rather have to deal with that then with the costumes marketed to girls. I do not envy you the Teen years, Pirate.

This was genius.

Belle is one of my favorite Disney heroines. I, too, like smelly old book collections and eschew chest-puffing manly men. I know, I'm kind of a freak like that. Though the fact that Gaston (likely unknowingly) quotes Shakespeare does make me smile.

Sweep the leg! Oh, er, sorry, sometimes I get a little carried away with competition myself. Seriously, though, great post, DP. You are a terrific addition to one of my favorite dad-blogs!

Nice. Very nice.

"My eldest is often so meticulous in his endeavors, so reserved, so careful, while his baby brother is a ball of destructive energy, a blonde Tasmanian devil, a foot-and-a-half high testament to the joys of taking a risk because it’s there to be took." This made me smile. I could have written this *exact* sentence about my kids. My oldest baby turns 6 today. And sometimes, when I look at him, I get all choked up at the thought that my baby has become this whole little person. Pediatric specialists say that when a child is born, he has no concept that he is an individual "self", separate from his caregiver. That they don't really start to grasp that concept until they are almost 2 years old. I sometimes wonder how long it will take me to learn that one.

Excellent.

Liability for what?

This is one of the reasons why our boys are Spiral Scouts. I agree that BSA has a lot of great things to offer. And I understand their argument that as a private organization they are free to set their own (bigoted) policies. But I cannot, in good conscience, support an organization with a stated (and strongly defended) formal policy of discrimination. How could I explain such hypocrisy to my sons? No, I would rather "miss out" on what BSA has to offer than to give my tacit approval to their discrimination. An excellent post!

My 5yo will look right into my eyes and tell me a bald-face ass-covering lie. When called on it, he'll parry with, "I was just tricking you. Hahaha." Or he'll attempt to deflect and distract by either pointing our something worse the 3yo had done or just dangling shiny objects in front of me until I capitulate. He's only 5. I'm doomed.

Yes. Yes! YES!!! Oh, sorry, got carried away. Voted. Tweeted. All that good stuff.