D to the M to the V

Boy, I tell you what the folks here sure are friendly. I knew this, but after years of living in bigger cities, it's hard to get used to. Today, the lady at the DMV was nice to me. There's a reason Patty and Selma from the Simpsons work at the DMV.
They are parodying the bureaucratic, unhelpful DMV employees we've all met. But not this time, not in Montana. Karen at the DMV asked me what brought me to Billings, she helped me fill out the form and even complimented my daughter's eyes.
I wanted to leave a tip. Aparently, I'm not the only one impressed by the friendly public servants in Big Sky Country.

What to Wear

Now that we're far from the fashion conscious citizens of New York City, I don't know how to dress. At my job in Manhattan, I dressed business casual sporting typical white guy clothes from the gap, and banana republic with a belt that matched the color of my shoes which were usually Doc Martens or Keens.
Out here in Montana, everyone owns a pair of Merrel's, it is not uncommon to hear people saying, "I love my Merrel's," or, "Dad loves his Merrel's." As you can see, it does appear to be a very comfortable shoe, but that doesn't mean we should strap such a god-awful turd onto our feet.



I'm looking for some advice on how the fashionable stay-at-home dad dresses. Thanks for any ideas.

Watering Baby

Our pediatrician recently recommended Carolyn should be transitioning from bottle to sippy cup.

Carolyn Loves the Camelbak dad uses.





















Not so much a fan of the sippy Cup

Cons of Mannyhood

There are also cons of mannyhood. The first being the unsolicited parenting advice, I wonder if this is somewhat gender-biased, Here's what I imagine people think when they see Carolyn and me in the grocery store. "How cute, Dad is babysitting today. Since we all know Mother's are the only people capable of raising children, I feel compelled to give him parenting advice in a condescending manner." People like this are known as the, "mommy police," according to the honest baby website.
Another fun thing are the not so clever references to Mr. Mom
Not only was the movie crap, but it's title implies some crazy stuff. For example, if I grow my hair out long, am I Mr. Woman? When my wife drinks PBR, and acquires a huge potbelly, is she Mrs. Dad? If I borrow tools from the neighbor and never return them, am I Mr. Brother-in-law? I could go on and on.

Thoughts on being a stay at home dad

I have been staying at home with Carolyn for about 8 months now. She turned a year old yesterday and when I took on this adventure, I assumed I would be looking at going back to work by now. I thought this gig would be boring, that I'd have nothing to talk about but day-time TV, Oprah, and of course Carolyn. I imagined people quickly zoning out as I described how much fun I had recently playing peek-a-boo for twenty minutes with my daughter....and then my face re-appeared from behind the stuffed monkey....Carolyn laughed a lot...and then I hid my face behind the stuffed monkey...Carolyn got excited my face was soon to re-appear and guess what, it did...more laughing by Carolyn.
It turns out I'm hoping to ride this thing out until she turns eighteen as I consider many reasons to continue this lifestyle. For one, the paper isn't going to read itself. Secondly, I'm needed at YMCA noon basket ball to bring down the median age and also decrease the amount of back (and shoulder) hair per capita. Carolyn enjoys spending time with the other kids at the Y day-care and for the first time ever, we have a membership at a gym that doesn't appear monthly on the Quicken budget taunting me: "$99 is a lot of money to spend every month for something you never use." During her naps. I'm able to watch sporting events tivoed over the weekend and lately I've gone through Seasons one through three of "The Wire," in only a month.

It's Bub's
















Now I answer the phone with, "Yo."

Any comments about the benefits of being a stay-at-home dad?

Carolyn is a year old

A year ago around this time, my wife was pacing the halls of our Manhattan apartment per the instructions of our doula in an attempt to coax our daughter to come out and meet us. Her moaning was loud enough to frighten some of our neighbors into locking their doors. Carolyn arrived soon later and to celebrate, I've decided to start this blog. Much has happened since Carolyn was born. The biggest change has been a move last July from a one bedroom apartment in New York City to a house in Billings, Montana. Before the move, I resigned from my job as the assistant director of a mental health outreach team and have been a stay-at-home dad ever since. This blog will be a discussion about life as a stay-at-home dad as well as the adjustments to living in a much smaller community. Enjoy!