"Lego" of Gender Stereotypes

Lego, I've loved you for as long as I can remember. From the days of creating simplistic towers and faux weapons with your larger blocks, to graduating to the smaller blocks and building intricate spaceships and cityscapes, you gave me endless amounts of entertainment and creative development as a child. You taught me spatial relations. You taught me the basics of physics. You helped me learn to stretch the creative portion of my brain to realize...

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A MINE Sweeping Realization

Though my daughter is now officially in her 'Terrible Twos' phase, she naturally got a head start on this period of stubbornness and started her 'No' phase months ago. But now that I've become numb to the consistent toddler hard-headedness, a new behavioral development has entered the fray: The 'Mine' phase. While the sheer thought of this phase may strike fear into the hearts of some parents, I've spent most of the time scratching my head out of...

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Controlling the Sailor

I have a terrible mouth. Really. Ever since I discovered cursing, my language has gotten progressively worse, and in college it was safe to say that I could rarely form a sentence without an expletive thrown in. To say I cursed like a sailor seems like a bit of an understatement. Of course, the birth of my daughter caused me to make an immediate change in my choice of words. The majority of the time, you might hear me using such dangerous phrases...

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I'll Be The Judge Of That

I won't beat around the bush; I'm a judgmental person. It's rare for a day to go by where I'm not raising an eyebrow at someone for something they've done or said that I find to be less than intelligent or not my style. Am I proud of it? No. Do I wish I could change it? Sort of. Has my constant eye for scrutinizing others paid off at times, or resulted in me being "right" in my judgment? That's where things get hairy. If there's one area in my life...

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Living Single

Though I wish this post's title was an homage to Khadijah, Synclaire, Max and Kyle (thumbs up if you caught that joke), it is unfortunately a reference to a major life change that has occurred for me in the past week. I am now divorced and 'living single'. The following is a few random thoughts and observations on divorce and my life going forward as a single father. It may not be completely coherent and fluid, but let's face it, neither is my brain...

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Beats and Beer Friday

Once again, it's been a long break since I've done Beats and Beer Friday, but I'm excited to bring it back. The beats and beer selections this week juxtapose each other a bit; my music selection is an up and coming artist who I guarantee will make a big splash in hip hop, while the beer selection is a regular favorite of mine that is sadly going to no longer be available where I live. Beats G-Eazy Now in the past, I've highlighted a specific album,...

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Parents Are Weird

Last night at a friend's house, her roommate showed me a project she had been working on; painting a plaster cast that her friend had molded around her pregnant belly. This was certainly not the first time I had seen or heard of a pregnant woman making a cast of her stomach, but it got me to thinking. Because the fact is..it's kind of strange. In fact, there are a lot of bizarre things that people start doing once they become parents that to the...

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Help Find Lisa Irwin

10-month-old Lisa Irwin went missing from her Kansas City home the night of October 3rd. At this point, it's believed that she was kidnapped. What started as a case for local police has now expanded into a nationwide hunt for this little girl. The FBI has become involved, and the Irwins were in Good Morning America today, once again pleading for their daughter's abductor to return her, no questions asked. Please see the flyer below with details...

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The Defiant Toddler Drinking Game

My daughter has officially begun her "No" phase, and has started things off in full force. Every question asked of her is promptly countered with a defiant "No!" But rather than spout out a long-winded post about my experiences with terrifying phase that every parent has to deal with, I instead decided to create a method of dealing with the issue. Parents, please see The Defiant Toddler Drinking Game below. Enjoy, and remember to parent in moder...

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The Elmo Trance

My daughter is coming up on 2 years old, which basically means that few, if any, things in this world can get her to sit still and pay attention for more than 5 seconds. Every day is a whirlwind of short-lived activities and sporadic, pinball-like movement that would dizzy any adult trying to keep up. However, there is one special creature that can magically hold her attention for an extended period of time.. Elmo. Yep, that spastic, constantly...

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Help me send a girl to STEM Camp

While the recent JC Penney 'I'm too pretty to do homework..' t-shirt fiasco has resulted in a lot of negative and angry response on the Internet, I decided to take a different approach to how I reacted. I'm not going to create an angry petition. I'm not going to harass them on Facebook and Twitter. Nor am I going to create a product to sell where I turn around and pocket the profits. This situation isn't about opportunism or seeing who can yell the...

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Drinking for Joplin

When you already love drinking great beer, it makes the experience even more enjoyable when you can benefit a charitable cause while doing so. Kansas City's hometown brewery, Boulevard Brewing Company, recently announced that for every barrel of Boulevard beer sold in Missouri during the month of September, they will donate $1 toward the Joplin, Missouri relief efforts. As a reminder to those that may be out of the loop, Joplin was hit by a deadly...

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Soul Providers Crew - The Soul Keeps Rockin First Edition

The Soul Providers Crew is a collective of numerous talented MCs hailing from Kansas City. With 12 members, it can be hard to keep up with everything they are doing, especially when it's all incredibly dope music. These guys are like a cross between a Midwest Wu-Tang Clan and a hip-hop Megazord on steroids (and yes, that is a compliment). Because they are all busy working on their own material, it can be difficult for the whole group to come together...

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Creating a Generation of Wussies

Over the weekend, while at the park with my daughter, I came to a disturbing revelation. Now, normally when I'm with her on the playground, I'm pretty focused on her as she tears around the equipment with reckless abandon. But on this day, a brief conversation between siblings sparked my interest. A young girl, let's say 9 or 10, had climbed up one of the pieces of playground equipment and was perched sitting on top of it. Now keep in mind, that...

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The Battle of Price Chopper

It was Saturday, August 20th of the 2011th year. The day would go down in infamy as hosting the most intense battle to date between two rivals that will forever butt heads: Independent Toddler and Disciplinary Dad. The Battle of Price Chopper came to fruition out of seemingly inconsequential circumstances. Disciplinary Dad had escorted Independent Toddler to make a mandatory, standard expedition to the store to purchase rations. Allies at the time...

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One Year Later: A Tribute To Jill

30 years. Said alone, it seems like an incredibly lengthy amount of time. But when applied to someone's life, it's like a blink of an eye. Today marks one year since my sister Jill passed away at just 30 years of age. They say that time heals all wounds, but in reality, the pain and sadness I feel from my sister's passing is just as fresh and omnipresent today as it was the day she passed away. But, this post isn't intended to be about my grief or...

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Put On A Happy Face

I've had a rough week. I won't go into detail (although part of it will be explained in a post later this weekend), but it has been one of the most trying, stressful and saddening weeks I've had in a long time. Here's the hard part about being a dad and having a bad week: I hate being upset or in a bad mood in front of my daughter. This is a constant mental struggle for me. As her father and as someone she looks up to and is constantly watching,...

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Wild Kingdom

It's good to be king. And right now, Mike and Nate of Thank Heaven For Beer/Wilderness Brewing Co. have to be feeling like royalty. With just about an hour left in their Kickstarter campaign, the entrepreneurial duo has already exceeded their fundraising goal, which will allow them to open the nanobrewery they dreamed of. When I blogged about their Kickstarter campaign before, I was genuinely optimistic and excited for them to raise the money they...

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Midwest Dud Fest

My daughter is finally starting to reach the age where we can venture out and find entertainment from a variety of sources and events. Long gone are the days of 'she's just a baby, she'll have no idea what the hell is going on.' So, when I recently heard that an event called Midwest Kids Fest was going to be taking place in Overland Park, I immediately checked it out and planned to attend with Ava. The list of entertainment options sounded great....

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College Me vs. Dad Me

At first glance, the college version of me and the dad version of me might look incredibly similar. However, like many things, the devil is in the details. Here's an illustrated guide to determining the difference between a college student worn out from excessive partying and a young dad worn out from excessive fathering. (click to expand image...

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Beats and Beer Friday

It's been a few weeks since I've had Beats and Beer Friday but I've drank/will be drinking too much good beer and listening to too much good music to skip it again this week. Here are my latest recommendations: Beats Big K.R.I.T. - Return of 4 Eva It is too damn hot outside. It's the kind of hot where you don't even want to be outdoors, you just want to be inside, with the A/C blasting and slouching around on a comfortable couch or chair, cold...

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A Pacifier Addiction PSA

Pacifier Addiction is no joke. Every day, pacifiers destroy children and their families worldwide. Join me in my pursuit to bring awareness to this disease that is taking over our babies' lives. Watch the video below and learn about the warning signs so you can identify the pacifier addict in your own home. Together, we can make a difference! Disclaimer: The above video is meant to be satirical and does not reflect my true beliefs. I do not think pacifier addiction is a real problem. I had a binky until I was 4 and I turned out okay...righ...

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Girls: Embrace Your Inner Nerd!

I read a great article today from Brittney Wilson at My Reality Tech called 'Little Girls Need to Learn to Code'. The article talked about the lack of females in the technology world, and noted that by teaching girls about technology at a young age, parents could be setting their daughters up to have lucrative, successful careers. Not only that, but they will be contributing to an increased representation of empowered women in the world of technology....

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