Month: May 2014

Sunrise or Sunset?

Posted under NOTEBOOK

Parents, there will be days when you may misremember which day it is. You will put your socks on backwards and wear clothing inside-out, from rise to fall. You will click your car key at your front door, half-expecting it to open before you. You will forget your children’s names, your spouse’s name and maybe […]



Kid Photo – Scrabble Scribble #7

Posted under SNAPSHOTS

  There’s a point everyone comes to when taking pictures of their kid; when the little drool-machine finally GETS what that little shiny thing in their parent’s hand is doing. > click! < What the response is to this newfound knowledge varies from kid to kid, of course, but the genie's out of the bottle. […]



What It’s Like Being a Parent: Part One

Posted under EXTERNAL USE ONLY, NOTEBOOK

My non-parent friends often ask me what it’s like to have children. I usually answer with something sarcastic or sentimental. Or both, just to confuse them. Because screw them and their “free will.” But I’ve decided it’s time I let them in on my life as a dad. In this continuing series, I will journey […]



Palm Reading Chart for Parents

Posted under INSTRUCTIONAL DIAGRAMS

Since there’s no one-size-fits-all science on raising children, a lot of guesswork gets employed. And if you take anything without definitive and consistent truths and add a crap ton of worry, doubt and failure, you can wind up with a heightened appetite for superstition and mystical wisdom. A person can get so uneasy about their […]



My Kid Just Said… #49

Posted under "MY KID JUST SAID..."

“Wake up wake up good mohning! It’s fwee five eweven o’cwock. You can cwose yo eyes again, I’m done tawking. G’night!”-Lucas (2014, 4.5 years old)    It’s 35:11 o’clock. Do you know where your good night’s sleep is? I probably mumbled something really intelligent like: Whu? Whu time’s it? Whu’s hmmmrphumph still dark… mmrphh… back […]



“The Day After Tomorrow” : Convos With My 2-Year-Old

Posted under EXTERNAL USE ONLY

Unless you’re clever, by the time you’re done explaining how long it will be before it’s your kid’s birthday it will have taken so long it will actually be their birthday. For a deeper insight, here’s the kid definition for “tomorrow.” Subscribe to ConvosWith2YrOld to follow the series. (Liking, favoriting and commenting helps videos on […]



An Honest Modern-Day Kids’ Fashion Paper Doll

Posted under INSTRUCTIONAL DIAGRAMS, SNAPSHOTS

Paper dolls have been around since forever, or the mid-18th century (close enough to forever). Little printed playthings you could cut out and dress up in coordinated outfits, luxurious new fashions, with PAIRS of the same socks and shoes, etc. Pure fantasy. It’s not that anyone who grows up really tires of fantasy and escape. […]



Storming the Beaches

Posted under NOTEBOOK

Another installment from my Instagram account, @CharlieCapen where I capture thoughts, and release them back into the ether of Instagram. But mainly, it’s a journal for my two boys. Typos are free of charge. “Finn: Today we woke at 6:30am and drove to the beach to see what answers we could find. Just the two […]



My Wife Just Texted

My Wife Just Texted… #161

Posted under "MY WIFE JUST SAID..."

  My phone lit up by my side as I was working late. I read the text and knew it probably meant that the part of my 4yo son’s mind that manufactures nightmares was also working late. I made an awwww face as imagined the little guy stumbling with drowsy desperation to our room, to […]