About

Tim is a freelance writer and designer who works for Myself, a business that has been thumbing its nose at The Man for six years now. He’s both a stay-at-home (sounds better than ‘kept man’) and a work-at-home-and-anywhere-else-I-can-get-away-with-it dad.

He does not care for pina coladas and is ambivalent about getting caught in the rain. Tim is a proud, self-professed geek. He feels better about his expanding midsection by expressing it in terms of pi. He has an unreasonable knowledge of pro cycling, thinks prime numbers are cool, and enjoys watching disaster shows on the various Smart Channels. Tim was recently crowned Most Valuable Drinker by the Coffee Growers of the World (fair trade, natch).

Mary has some long, incomprehensible job title and has worked for The-Company-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named (TCTSNBN) for the past 13 years. Her current job at TCTSNBN reportedly has achieved the metric of sucking 100% less than her former position.

Mary is affectionately known in our house as “Mary-pedia” for her vast knowledge of random trivia, particularly in pioneer-era practices and all things rural. She can churn butter with a paper clip. She has read out three branches of the local library system. Monitor glow makes her even sexier; add in her glasses and it’s all over.

The J-Man is our four-year-old, autistic son. He’s working through the challenges of autism, Sensory Processing Disorder, ‘oral defensiveness’ (aka I Hate Things Near or In My Mouth, or Feeding-Fu), severe speech delays and apraxia, motor planning issues, auditory sensitivities, and the rest of the stuff that comes with being a pre-kindergartener. He attends a self-contained, full-day, Pre-K, autism class at a nearby elementary school. In the face of these challenges, he brightens every room he walks into and bravely faces every barrier put in front of him.

His favorite things include Signing Time, drawing interesting patterns on his Magna Doodle, all his teachers, our overstuffed recliner, and stealing your chair. His favorite direction is up, which fills us with hope.

Dale Jr. is our one-year-old son, who still has a bit of that new baby smell. His favorite things are: Mama, food, Mama, the J-Man, eating, his thumb, eating, attacking the J-Man, Mama, reading, watching Signing Time, food, and Daddy. You can speculate about the order.

He spends his days alternating between smiling and laughing, desperately wanting to eat or drink whatever you are and everything you aren’t, and walking around looking for the most dangerous activities and spaces possible. And most of all, he makes our hearts sing.

And everywhere they go, everybody loves them both.