start-up dad

2009-08-09T19:03:00.002-05:00

"Dad, are there people stronger than us?" Kaden said to me this evening. "Yes." "Dad, are there people faster than us?" "Yes." "Dad, are there people more gorgeous than us." "Definitely." "Even more gorgeous than Kate?" (our next door neighbor) "Yes." "...But nobody can try harder than me."

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Tyler Durden is my bladder

2009-07-31T20:29:00.002-05:00

"Momma, my bladder is angry.""Really?""And it likes to pee in my underwear""Umm. Can you just tell it to hold on.""Okay momma, I'll tell it to calm down."

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we're going to have to rename the blog

2008-06-13T11:12:00.002-05:00

IMG_0991 New photos of Liam Hadid Hyatt, born June 10th, 2008 are here.

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keeping regular

2008-06-08T20:15:00.001-05:00

muffin, originally uploaded by Nabeel H. When you find a balance between structure and choice with a kid, it can be a wonderful thing. For us, on Saturday's we wake up, he happily says goodbye to mama and we rush up the street to get to the bus "before it runs away." As the bus comes into view he screams, "it's 72 dada, 72!" The #72 MBTA bus stops, he jumps on board, sprints to the back of the bus and hurries me to sit down to hold his hand before the bus starts going. As an aside, the public bus system is absolutely responsible for my...

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And then there were three

2008-03-14T23:42:00.003-05:00

Kaden turned three not long ago, and we've just gotten the photos up on Flickr. My parents visited and got a chance to see his outgoing nature in action. He took control of the birthday party, getting games of chasing, hiding, and attack of the birthday blowouts.

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"Trick or Treat Time"

2007-10-31T21:41:00.000-05:00

Here on Standish St we are blessed with a capacity crowd on Halloween every year. It is quite a sight to see, so much so that one family I spoke to had driven 30 mins to come trick or treating on our street. So after Kaden was done with his short trip around the block collecting candy, I set him up on our front stoop to hand out the goodies to everyone. Kaden took this responsibility very seriously, greeting nearly everyone with "Trick or Treat Time" and dutifully handed each kid their allotment. When there was no one around he would pull the...

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kaden turns two

2007-03-06T02:58:00.000-05:00

his favorite birthday present was the bubbles. photos here. more to come.

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2006-10-08T20:18:00.000-05:00

Today I was faced with this essay question: We are committed to building and sustaining a diverse population. How would your family contribute to this goal?I was not faced with answering this question because I am applying to financial aid at Harvard, or for my one child permit in China, this was the application at the local day care. They even were kind enough to suggest, "attach additional pages if necessary." Additional pages!? I've heard a hundred times that it is tough to get kids into day care nowadays, but this is an application for...

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Welcome to the world Mr. Fawcett

2006-08-20T16:29:00.000-05:00

Upon announcing to my wife that our friends and fellow bloggers Allen & Elaine had their baby, both she and Kaden cheered. I can't honestly expect Kaden to have understood, but at this point he is understanding so much that I half expect him to guess the name. Today at 2:30p 2:50pm, Owen Grady Fawcett, was born. Congrats to the parents, and to a very lucky kid. We hope to see Owen very soon, and I'm sure Kaden looks forward to playing big brother and showing him the ways of the 1.5 years older world. This birth puts the Fawcett's...

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It takes a...

2006-08-13T16:30:00.000-05:00

There's a perfectly good reason I haven't blogged in a little bit.. everything has been going so well! Its been generally so positive, and I know that the surest way to bore people to death is it to regale the world with tales of how the times are all so wonderful and pleasant and la la la. The other shoe will drop soon, but for right now it's so damn good that when it's close to his bed time and we say, "ready to go to sleep" he actually nods his head, says "yeah." Then goes over to the crib ready to hop right in a snuggle off to bed. I can...

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what noah's kids must have done

2006-05-20T15:12:00.000-05:00

If you haven't checked the news lately, Cambridge has had the kind of rain that makes mayor's declare disaster areas and some to suggest we should be building arks. I would complain more about our brand new basement flooding, but it seems a little petty that we got a little wet concrete when several local towns had to be evacuated. The rain also meant Kaden spent a week cooped up inside, which drove him absolutely batty. The only help was his extensive time with the most annoying toy ever. It is a mass of loudness, plastic, buttons, and...

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2006-04-15T15:31:00.000-05:00

I've been planning this post for a while now, but it's not quite turning out the way I intended. My hope was to tell you that I saw Kaden asleep in his crib in his brand new room for the very first time. I could describe him all splayed out and contorted, pleasantly dreaming of large cupcakes or a dozen golden retrievers that want to do nothing but sit still and be patted. You see, we just moved. In our old place, the floors were so creaky that rarely could you get a peak at the little guy without waking him. I have particularly vivid...

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2006-03-26T19:09:00.000-05:00

Kaden did a total faceplant in the sand today at the park. I mean an arms splayed, feet up off the ground, mouthful of sand kind of faceplant. So after he falls, he pops back up immediately but is clearly upset. But not because of what you think. He's upset because his hands are dirty. When did this kid, who used to not care if his hands were covered in his own projectile poop, become a neat-freak? He's a screaming, crying, holding his hands out until a clean them, then smiling and running on to play, kind of neat-freak. Just when I thought...

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2006-03-04T09:31:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I got a little glimpse into what this blog is going to be like in a couple years. It was our monthly board meeting (venture backed startups have board meetings constantly) and my friend Marc got a phone call during it. Turns out his 2 1/2 five year old has just learned his mobile number and apparently called him during the meeting. Marc picks up and immediately she pipes in, "Hi. What are you doing?" "I'm in a board meeting." "Is it called that because everyone is bored?" Well... While Marc's kid seems to be adapting to new...

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What could possibly be poignant enough for his first birthday.

2006-03-02T12:11:00.000-05:00

For those keeping track of Kaden via the age tracker, you'll notice that Kaden turned one years old last week. You wouldn't have known from the blog because I fell down on the job of even posting about it. This is not for lack of trying, I've just found it hard to find the right thing to say. I started this blog with the idea of keeping it through his first year, cataloging the early "shock and awe" of having a first kid. Originally, this was supposed to be the farewell post for the blog. A nice reflective look back at the year + 9 months...

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we don't need no stinkin press clippings

2006-02-20T18:40:00.000-05:00

So, apparently CBS News has graced this dear blog with its presence. They've taken note of this here blog and not surprisingly do not find it up to the standards of CBS News. Some fathers publicize their baby's latest party tricks. "Kaden now waves, claps, knows to back himself down stairs, and, get this, he WALKS," Start-Up Dad blogs. "He's tromping all around the house falling and getting back up and falling again." I'm hoping his audience is mostly family members. Duh, it IS for family members and friends.. it's a BLOG. Although the...

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Filled with Wonder

2006-02-07T11:04:00.000-05:00

Congrats to our friends Allen and Elaine, who just did the "baby is eminent" post on their blog to announce they are having a kid. Nothing to put a smile on your face like waking up in the morning, firing up your laptop, and seeing an ultrasound of your friends' tummy. I look forward to the excited, harried, tired, frustrated, and jubilant blog posts that are sure to follow. Since Allen is such a music fan, I know he (and anyone else reading) will enjoy a funny article in the NY Times Magazine a few weeks ago, the Preschool of Rock. It...

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What sound does a Panda make?

2006-01-22T17:06:00.000-05:00

You see, we've got this ark (of the small stuffed variety), and it has animals. I've been trying to teach Kaden about animal sounds because it seems like the thing to do at this age. Lions, snakes, elephants, all good. But what's a creative and emotive way to make the sound of chewing bamboo? And don't even get me started on what I've tried for giraffes. Kaden is in a learning frenzy, and I have done a terrible job keeping you guys up to date on everything he is picking up. In the last month it feels like anything we expose him to he mimics...

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the snot heard round the world

2006-01-17T16:47:00.000-05:00

An old friend from High School (Sam Horoschak) just captured an absolutely great shot of her child. So great in fact that it rocketed to the #1 most viewed photo on Flickr for a day this week. Her kid is in complete meltdown over not being able to ride his tricycle in the middle of the street. One of those precious little tantrums about the tiniest of things, and a great photo. NOTE: A few days later Sam seems to have become disenchanted with the attention that the Internet seems to send to it's newly famous (at least she wasn't the Tron...

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2005-12-11T21:10:00.000-05:00

I guess I had it coming to me, not being nervous at all about having my first weekend alone with Kaden. I was practically pushing Megan out the door to enjoy her weekend with Jenny in New York and not worry. I mean, I'm a modern Dad and all.. I've spent plenty of time with Kaden and done everything there is to do. Of course, I hadn't done it all one after another, but that's just timing. A mere formality. So Megan leaves in the early morning and Kaden lulls me into a false sense of security by being all laughing and happy... then I try and...

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If your happy and you know it hit a clown.

2005-12-03T09:44:00.000-05:00

When a baby learns the mechanical joy that is hinges, a parent would hope that leads directly to something like, I don't know, a love of turning book pages. Or perhaps constructing his own kiddy-gates to save me another trip to Target. Instead, Kaden uses his newfound knowledge to open the top to the diaper genie and plunge his hand inside every chance he gets. Yep, Kaden is busy, busy, busy. He's in full Louis & Clark mode, turning up every pillow and diaper to see what's underneath. And once he's gotten a good look at everything, he's...

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Re-startup Dad

2005-11-11T08:47:00.000-05:00

I didn't have a good frame of reference on parenting before embarking on this attempt to build a human from scratch. I never really had a pet, except an anole in the 8th grade that I kept on my shoulder constantly. Unfortunately the little lizard lasted only a few weeks as he was unable to hold on during a roller-coaster at King's Dominion. (I plan to treat Kaden a little more gingerly, and they wouldn't let me take him on the ride at this age anyway.) So really other than that very brief encounter, my closest reference on what it's like to...

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Morning Glory

2005-11-06T11:41:00.000-05:00

Kaden spoke this morning! He said "Da-Da" -- and not just once, I got him doing it over and over again. Yes I think this is incredibly cool, even though at this point it is more of a parlor trick than actual recognition of the contributions of his paternal side. For instance, although he does seem to like saying DaDa, it still ranked lower than his affinity to click his tongue. I sat on the kitchen floor this morning and was saying DaDa, when he made a gurgling sound that had roughly the same rhythm as my oft-repeated phrase. Grabbing hold of...

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2005-11-06T06:18:00.000-05:00

I've found some of the lost shots I had of our trip to Vermont a few weeks back. I've added them to the original set here. If you sign up for Flickr (the photo site I use to post these photos) make sure you add me as a friend. There are more photos of Kaden (like you need that) that only friends & family linked on Flickr can see.

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2005-10-15T08:35:00.000-05:00

Kaden is sick. When he was first born we heard horror stories about newborns getting a fever. How if in the first six weeks there is some worry about bacteria or avian flu or something and you have to take him to the emergency room to.. get this, have a spinal tap. Images of that happening led me to simply err on the side waiting till the seventh week to take his temperature for the first time. But our little Scrambles does not have a fever, and at seven months old he is long past spinal tap fears anyway. He has a cold. Just writing it...

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