It was bound to happen. I got my first hateful, vitriolic, spewing comment on my last post Dr-logging. Before you read it though, let me set you up with some context. Before digital cameras, when we were in our teens, my older brother once took a dump so glorious and huge that he snagged my [...]
Categories: Alcoholism, Blogging, Motherhood, Parenting
The first time I ever got drunk I was 15. I snuck out of my house with a friend to meet a boy she liked and he brought along his uncle. I’m not sure how old he was, but he was definitely an adult. It seemed like he was in his 30s. He treated me [...]
Categories: Alcoholism, Austin, Books, Fatherhood, Motherhood, Parenting, Texas
Ruta Maya coffee house in Austin has been one my favorite hangouts for awhile now. But since installing a toddler potty in the ladies room (I don’t know about the men’s room) they now have a special place in my heart. I have never ever seen a public toilet with a toddler seat. It just [...]
Categories: Austin, Fatherhood, Motherhood, Parenting
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Tags: Potty
Annika was not planned, but I’ll be honest here, I’ve always felt like she was meant to be. It’s not something I can explain. And no, I did not purposely get pregnant. I did not want children. I didn’t like children. Before I had my own child, when women with newborns were in my presence, [...]
Categories: Motherhood, Parenting
| Tags: Annika, Motherhood
I don’t often tell Toyin how much I appreciate his good parenting. But today seems like an appropriate time to say that he’s a great dad. He loves Annika more than anything or anyone else in the world. He’s never said that to me, but I can tell that it’s true by the way he [...]
Categories: Bi-racial, Fatherhood, Parenting, Racism
| Tags: Bi-racial, Inter-racial, Racism, Stereotypes
And just like that. It’s done. The co-sleeping/no cry it out years of insomnia-inducing sleepless nights are over. Well, at least, for now. At least I’m not getting woken up every. single. night. Anymore. I actually slept an entire night without waking up for the first time in over two years last night. I’ve gotten [...]
Categories: Motherhood, Parenting, Uncategorized
| Tags: Attachment Parenting
Looks like I have a new holiday to celebrate. June 12 is the anniversary of a Supreme Court decision that struck down the country’s final Jim Crow laws, allowing inter-racial couples to marry and cohabitate. This decision was only a few years before I was born. It’s strange to think that only a brief period [...]
Categories: Bi-racial, Motherhood, Parenting, Racism
| Tags: Bi-racial, Inter-racial, Multi-racial
Before I had Annika, I loved cheese. On any given day, I salivated at the thought of a soft, rich block of cheddar. Cheese crackers, chips and queso, forget BLTs, I made CLTs, cheese sandwiches, with tomato and lettuce, mozzarella melted over spaghetti, cheese quesadillas, burritos with extra cheese, chunks of cheese in my salads, [...]
Categories: Motherhood, Parenting
| Tags: Motherhood, Parenting
I’ve been reading a book called, Half and Half. It’s a compilation of essays by writers who are Bi-racial and/or Bi-cultural. All of the essays are compelling. But I wanted to share part of a particular one. It is written by James McBride, who is, like Annika, half White and half Black. I won’t comment [...]
Categories: Bi-racial, Books, Motherhood, Parenting, Racism
| Tags: Bi-racial, Books
Several years ago when I was living in Detroit and working at a bank in Grosse Pointe Woods — an affluent and very White suburb that juts up against Detroit’s border — I got a lesson about race that is coming in very handy right about now. It’s funny how life teaches you everything you [...]
Categories: Bi-racial, Detroit, Motherhood, Parenting, Racism
| Tags: Bi-racial, Biracial, Racism
