or  Living very carefully in a pink cloud of estrogen…

Not sure if you remember me, but it’s been a while.

Hi.

I’m Dave, that stay-at-home-dad to three girls: 6-year old Sydney, and her 2-year old twin sisters Emma & Maddie. I know…THREE GIRLS.  I had joked with a friend once about having a bevy of girls when I was younger, but this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.

I’ve been a bit absent lately. Turns out my middle child, Emma, decided last November that she wanted my laptop. She wanted it to be a little closer to her, down there on the floor and quickly took decisive action to make that happen. It seems the power cord to a resting laptop is a very attractive thing to pull on…so she did. Crash! Laptop met the floor, and died a quick death. Thanks Emma.. Good work. My girls are assertive, that’s for sure.

It should be said of that laptop, though, that it wasn’t in good shape. Polluted with spyware/malware and a grossly overstuffed hard drive, we could easily look at this as Emma putting it out of its misery.  Maddie, the youngest (Emma’s twin), had months earlier rendered a number of keys on the keyboard inoperable or missing all together.  I never really got the full story, but my wife, their mother and co-conspirator, let them tap away on the keyboard (tap = pound). To the best of my recollection, your honor, I last saw the laptop with the arrow-keys and the number “6” key in fine working order, and return to discover two of the arrow keys missing altogether and the “6” key floating on the keyboard, unable to be secured back into its place. You don’t realize how often you actually use the “6” key until it’s gone?  It’s a lot more often than you might think.

The lost arrow keys and the wonky “6” didn’t impede my contributing to this site, Everyday Childhood (although I do blame their absence and inoperability for all syntax and spelling errors in said contributions). I discretely worked around these issues without commenting on them publicly (just a series of private “What happened here?” and “You kids are NEVER allowed to touch this laptop, EVER!!!” comments, made usually to nobody in particular (since I’m usually ignored – testosterone, it seems, renders me invisible in my home – it didn’t really matter.) But the demise of the laptop at the hands of midget #2 ended my contributing rather suddenly.

Because I am here, back in the saddle, as it were, you can conclude that I’ve got a new laptop. Shiny and new, free of all that malicious software and boasting a squeaky clean and even more so, enormous hard-drive…I’ve missed being able to share my adventures with and the exploits of my girls. I’m excited about the adventures to come.

Since we last spoke, all those months ago, so many things have happened. We’ve moved from an urban setting to a very suburban neighborhood where we’re still settling into new routines, discovering things to do in our new neighborhood, experiencing exciting dramas with new friends and neighbors all while learning an assortment of shortcuts to the closest Starbucks and Cold Stone Creamery. I’m compiling a list of all the best places I can escape to (that is not located in either my backyard or garage) to enjoy a beer, or watch a hockey game…an escape from the kids on those rare occasions when that is possible or required.  I’m even compiling a list of the best and worst places to take the kids for lunch when they revolt against the mac n’ cheese and I find myself once again under siege, defending my sanity….and this laptop… from these tiny, albeit adorable, vandals.