It’s the most wonderful time… to scrutinize your parenting skills.

photo: scottfeldstein

Cool Mum gives the rundown on why it might work to be preggers in the city.

photo: Ed Yourdon

Cool Dad’s family visits us in New York City and has an encounter with the naked city.

photo: heymynameispaul

How does New York City rate as a place to raise a family?

Cool Mum’s parents are visiting New York for the first time this weekend. And they’re staying with us in the Cool Studio.
(giving time to let that sink in)
And Cool Grandpa is 6′4.
(more sinking)
Updates from the Cool Sardine Tin to come…

Cool Mum and the boy return from their sunny Florida vacation tomorrow! Unfortunately, I won’t have any t-shirts ready for this family reunion.
I don’t envy CM having to entertain the boy by herself during that 2-hour flight. While I’m working, going through my daily routine, she will be trying to contain a 25-lb bundle of toddler energy in her lap. The boy is cute, but he’s a challenge to keep in one spot, especially for 2 hours.
But she’ll pull it off somehow and probably won’t complain one bit about it. …

1. It doesn’t seem right to spend more time preparing and cleaning up after dinner than it does to consume it.
2. Food cooked by someone else truly does taste better than food you’ve stared at for a half hour or more.
3. Raw meat is just gross.
And thanks to my own Cool Mom, I don’t have to cook this week!

Cool Mum and the boy are spending next week in Florida with the Cool Grand’rents. It’s Cool Dad alone in the city until Friday. It’s just like The Bachelor – minus the lineup of eager ladies, fancy dinners (does pasta and sauce count?), and the millions watching. Though I’m happy with the few dozen reading.
So, I’ll be working everyday and coming home to an empty, tiny apartment. Sadly, I complain way too much about the small space in which we’re living, for reasons like:
1) Not much room to put stuff.
2) …

I now have photographic evidence that Cool Dad turns to baking cookies as a form of escapism.
That’s me on the left. I loaded almost all of our earthly possessions into the Uhaul myself.
Cool Dad spent that time baking. Apparently it was an emergency.
sidenote: the cookies were the best ever made by anyone on earth and I thoroughly enjoyed playing tetris with my moving boxes

For Positive Post Tuesday, I want to talk about two people very dear to me: the Cool Grand ‘Rents — the ones on my side. CM can post about hers if she’d like.
Actually, I’ve had some tough talks with the CGRs lately, but I still look up to them as the loving parents that they are. I doubt that they will ever read this — they likely think that a blog is what you sneeze into a tissue. However, I want to lift them up anyway.
Great things …