March 2010
66 posts
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February 2010
63 posts
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I'm an Originalist
Oh look! Nate ‘s answering yet another question from Father Knows Best? Gather round everybody! Today’s question comes from Stacey, author of Mommiverse. Let’s see what she asked me!
Hey Nate, I was just wondering if your Mt. Dew addiction carries over to their other occasional flavors, ie: the Halo and WoW Game Fuels, Code Red, etc.? Or are you a Dew Traditionalist?
All the...
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Fatherhood: This thing is forever
Today’s edition of Father Knows Best? coincides nicely with a post that I have been trying to write for a while. So thank you very much to Sarah, for submitting the following question.
Love the blog :) I just wanted to know, what do you think has been the single biggest change in your life since becoming a father? (Apart from the small person who seems to follow you around for most of the...
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Improvising Fatherhood gets published on...
Excitement and gratitude. Those are the two emotions I’m feeling right now. Remember my article titled Being a dad: Play the character smart? Well today it got published in an international online newspaper, the world renowned Christian Science Monitor.
It got a bit of a haircut during the editorial process to make it a little more presentable for a larger more international audience, but...
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Watch your head
Recently Father Knows Best? has become quite popular. I’ve got 2 more questions in the que, and I will be getting to them soon. I know I’ve been doing a lot of these lately but I’ve been busy and my time constraints have made coming up with ideas for new posts more challenging AND I’ve been receiving more questions than usual. So hopefully you don’t mind as I indulge...
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Comment and ye shall receive
Welcome to another edition of Father Knows Best? Today’s question was submitted by Joshua who writes shrepthegnar. His question wasn’t as much of a question as it was a really nice comment. He says:
Just wanted to let you know, your blog is awesome. You make fatherhood something to look forward to… along with the tumblr that will be created with the birth of my son.
But the...
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Petition: Give my father a lifetime supply of Mt....
Recently I wrote about how my daddy is drinking away my college fund. Now, it’s not what you think. My dad is not a lush. He’s just huge fan of the sweet taste of Mt. Dew. If people had Mt. Dew running through their veins instead of blood, my dad would be a Vampire.
Well, I have mailed my letter to PepsiCo and am eagerly awaiting their response. But one letter alone might not do the...
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My son is a hot item.
Yay! It’s time for another thrilling episode of Father Knows Best? Today’s question comes from Megan, mother of super cute baby Eleanor, and author of Mommyhood. Recently she wrote a pretty interesting post about dealing with her evolving self image as she transitions from a life in the art studio to a life of baby finger paintings. I found I could relate to it quite a bit as a...
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Reviews
People have been saying some pretty nice things about Improvising Fatherhood. Check it out!
(From the Babycenter.com forums)
(From Facebook)
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That food was solid
Today was another big day on a list of big days that happen in a child’s first year. Today Chandler got his first taste of solid food. That’s right. For a boy who loves to put everything in his mouth, the event of eating real food that wasn’t squeezed from a nipple (real or synthetic) is pretty monumental. But like he does with everything else, Chandler took it all in stride. So...
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“Sometimes, the way my wife and I respond to how cute our son is, you’d...”
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Follow up to 2014 Winter Olympics, Here we come!
My wife very astutely pointed out that my father seems to be taking my blog as a challenge. A typical father figure, he can’t let his son be successful.
In reality it is just becoming more and more clear that my father is where I got my sense of humor. He wrote me the following story after reading yesterday’s post about the Olympics. I was laughing almost to the point of tears. Maybe...
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2014 Winter Olympics, Here we come!
Unfortunately we missed this year’s opportunity to participate in the Winter Olympics. This is a shame because Chandler loves the snow and ever since Chandler was born he has been an Olympic hopeful. He’s just such an athletic kid, he can really excel in any sport he wants. But sadly I wasn’t on top of all the paperwork and forms that needed to be submitted to the Olympic...
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Chandler made me a Valentine's Card
Yesterday was Valentine’s Day and Mommy and I were both slackers. We agreed to lay low and not worry about gifts and cards. At first I thought this was a trap devised by my cunning wife. Turns out she was feeling as lazy as I was. But guess who wasn’t feeling lazy. Chandler!
Chandler really got into the spirit of Valentine’s Day and didn’t even succumb to the sirens of...
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Join the Improvising Fatherhood Newsletter - Get...
Do you love Improvising Fatherhood but hate having to type in that whole annoying web address with all of those ridiculously repetitive Ws? Are you totally intrigued by what’s going on behind the scenes of this hilarious blog? Well now you can sign up for the Improvising Fatherhood Newsletter.
Once a month I’ll send you an update on posts you might have missed and give you a sneak...
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Got Dew?
Hi, I’m Chandler Smith, star of the hit parenting blog Improvising Fatherhood. When I wake up in the morning I like to start my day off right, with an ice cold glass of Mt. Dew. Nothing gets me ready for the day like the extreme tastiness of doing the Dew. And when I come home at night after long hard day of crawling around, going to ridiculous music classes at the library, and showing off...
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Circle Circle Dot Dot
It’s been a while but welcome to another exciting installment of Father Knows Best? Today’s question was submitted anonymously. Here goes:
Are you and your wife having Chandler get all of his vaccines?
This is a good question. Like any good parents, Ashley and I take Chandler’s well being seriously. So we have decided to give our son a full range of comprehensive vaccines to be...
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A father discusses Google Buzz with his 5 month...
Son: Whatchya doin' Dad?
Dad: Playing around with Google Buzz.
Son: What the heck is Google Buzz?
Dad: It's a new feature of Gmail that allows you to share status updates, photos, and links, with people without leaving your Gmail inbox.
Son: Don't you already do that with Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr?
Dad: Well...yeah...
Son: So you're saying this is just another way for you to ignore me?
Dad: I'm not ignoring you. All I ever do is talk about you. I write about you on Tumblr, post pictures of you on Facebook, and post updates about you on Twitter.
Son: Then why do you need Google Buzz?
Dad: Well, no one NEEDS any of this stuff. But it's cool because it does the same thing Facebook does, but I don't have to go to another website to do it.
Son: What's so great about that?
Dad: Well, imagine this. I'm checking my email. I pretty much have my email open all day long...
Son: ...Uh, yeah. You've got issues...
Dad: ...Whatever. So I'm in my Gmail when I get a new message. It's a Facebook notification telling me your Aunt Ashley has sent me a message in Facebook. The thing is, it doesn't tell me what the message is. I have to open a new webpage and log in to my Facebook so that I can respond to her message. And maybe that's not so bad if it's a message from someone I don't know very well. But this is my sister, and she knows my email address. It'd be really nice if I didn't have to leave my Gmail in order to send my sister an email.
Son: Sounds like the issue is with your sister.
Dad: Yeah...she also sends text messages to my email...so...I guess you're sort of right.
Son: Of course I'm right. So does Google Buzz connect with your Facebook and Twitter so you can send status updates to those sites from the comfort of your own Gmail inbox?
Dad: Not currently.
Son: What? Huh? How STUPID! What a waste!
Dad: Geez. Calm down. You sound like everyone else.
Son: Well c'mon! Why doesn't it do those things?
Dad: First of all, I'm sure it will do all that and more sometime soon. If Google doesn't add that functionality then someone else will create an app that does it.
Son: They should have done it right away!
Dad: (sigh)...and second of all you're going about this backwards.
Son: How so?
Dad: You can't look at a service or piece of technology and criticize it for not doing all the many different things that you want it to do.
Son: Why not? I'm the consumer!
Dad: Okay...think of it this way. Google Buzz is a tool.
Son: You're a tool.
Dad: Let me finish. Google Buzz is a tool. Imagine I invented the hammer.
Son: Ha! You barely know how to use a hammer.
Dad: That's why we're imagining. Now imagine I invented the hammer, and I showed it to you. I told you it is LIKE other tools you have. And this tool will help you put nails into wood.
Son: "Put nails into wood?"
Dad: It's hard to not say "hammer" when talking about what a hammer does. Anyway, I tell you what it does, and then you look at it and say, "Does it turn screws? Does it have a camera built into it?"
Son: Two things I think hammers should definitely do...
Dad: ...and then I told you it doesn't do those things because that's not what it is. It's a hammer, not a screw driver or a camera.
Son: But those are the features I want!
Dad: But you see, you can't look at a product and criticize it for not having crazy features that you are hoping for. The point of technology is that it makes our lives easier. So when something new comes around you have look at what it can do for you, and see how that fits into your life and can make life easier for you.
Son: BUT I WANT A HAMMER WITH A CAMERA IN IT!!! I'd call it the Hammera.
Dad: Then, if that new product doesn't offer something that improves your life you don't need to use it.
Son: BUT NOW I'M SO MAD THAT YOUR HAMMER DOESN'T HAVE A CAMERA! AND 3G!!!
Dad: Okay, it's time for your nap.
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My son, the big deal.
It’s official, my son is kind of a big deal. Check it out. I was going through the mail, looking for the TMNT wallet I ordered online, and look what I found. A letter from the President! That’s right folks, Barack Obama wrote a personal letter to my son welcoming him to the world. You can tell it was written by Obama himself because it’s a little long winded.
This is pretty...
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I will live a life of adventure
This is my adventure hat. Actually, it is my dad’s adventure hat. He got it when he was in Australia. Mom told him that he’d never actually wear it. Dad replied, “This will be my adventure hat! I’ll wear it when I go on great adventures!” Mom very lovingly humored him.
That was two summers ago and Dad still hasn’t really worn it except around the house a few...
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“Sometimes I treat my son like a muppet.”
– True confessions of a marginal dad
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“Shout really is a perfect name for that product because that is what you are...”
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“Chandler had an accident on our bed this morning. We call it an accident but it...”
“Crawling is for suckers!”
– Chandler: when asked to comment on his desire to stand and walk before he perfects his crawling skills.
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Music Class 2: Shake, rattle, and that's how I...
Today the whole family went back to the Lake Oswego Public Library music class. In a previous article I wrote about my experience taking Chandler to this class on my own. This time all of us went together.
We were a little late and missed out on some of the opening songs. That didn’t phase us though, because today’ trip wasn’t about the music. Today we were there to show off...