I never wondered much about God’s existence.  This wasn’t a virtue, particularly; I didn’t know how.  I could do a thought experiment:  what would it be like if I didn’t believe in God?  But it was just an experiment — like imagining if 2+2 were 5. Later, I got the rational foundations of the faith, [...]

We just went on vacation to visit family several states away. It was exhausting. OK, this is hardly news, that traveling with babies is tiring. But I started feeling blue, because… I didn’t spend much time focusing on the people I was visiting. In particular, I started one conversation with Jonathan that wasn’t in passing, [...]

This week, I had it planned.  I was going to insist Liam feed himself. He has the idea that it’s inappropriate and evil for us to expect him to touch his food.  That’s our job! People kept telling us, “Just put food in front of him in his tray.  When he’s hungry he’ll eat it.”  [...]

Charles Joseph came to us on March 19 (feast of St. Joseph); he is named in honor of St. Joseph, and his great-grandmother Josephine, with whom he shares a birthday. His brother Liam is 1 1/2 years old, but developmentally around half that, because of his Down syndrome.  Liam and Charles are not sophisticated enough [...]

You’ve probably heard before a topic I heard at church last night: that the way you think of God the Father has a lot to do with the way you think of your earthly father. Was your father neglectful? Then, until you learn better, you may think of God as distant. Did he rage? Was [...]

I’m not. At least, I started out compliant and credulous and utterly malleable, and developed stubborness (as much as I could manage) in an environment of abuse. Marisa never learned to be stubborn, and may God grant she never has to. Liam more than makes up for it. We want him to learn to feed [...]

I almost can’t talk about Liam — at church, anyway — without having someone try to soothe my feelings. (No matter how happy I am.) About 3 weeks ago he developed stranger anxiety. Although not all babies ever start freaking when a stranger is near (or picks them up), it’s a sign that they are [...]

My brother-in-law says you can tell which fathers are involved in their infants’ lives by referring to a “5-wipe diaper,” and seeing who says, “What’s that?” I recently read a blog post on Catholic Dads that showed advice (IMHO) to the uninvolved set. In particular, let your wife make all the decisions about child care, [...]

Earlier this year I wrote this for Art of Manliness, a web site for all things manly.  Since the new Catholic Dads site has “Masculinity” as a category, I decided it might be relevant to our task, especially if we have sons.  (Which I do — hooray!) Some years ago I read a book (Manhood [...]

We get to see baby #2 in all his or her glory. Pray for us, for everything to be OK. Update:  “no abnormalities detected.”  It’s a brother! WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!