Last week my daughter (second grader) confided in me that she keeps getting 100 percent on her spelling tests “because the squiggly red lines tell me when it’s wrong.” I gave her a high five for honesty.

This would have helped avoid a moment of panic on the first day of school in my daughter’s second grade class. The teacher asked a student to tell his parents something. The student replied that his parents weren’t there. I could hear the panic in the teacher’s voice as she asked, “Are you alone right now?" The…

We made smaller versions of the backpack idea, using zippered pencil pouches. We gave the kiddo one or two of these to play with, swapping them out with different pouches whenever we stopped. This worked well when she was still in a harness car seat. Now that she’s in a booster seat, we’ve switched to the backpack.

I'm assuming the ad placement is unintentionally hilarious. 

I thought #5 was called The Han.

Our daughter once entertained herself by playing with an ice cube in a bowl. Nonstop until the ice cube melted. I just stared at her and then asked my wife, “Tell me again why we buy toys?”

I’ve always called it my Batman voice.

I’ve always (?) wondered about the etiquette for proximity. Like, in the office when someone sneezes, how close do you need to be sitting to them to be in the ”bless you” zone? And if someone sitting closer to them doesn’t say it, does it fall on you to say it?

I read your headline wrong and wondered how to name my plates when they all look the same.

This year, my wife told our 3-year-old about Mexican Mother’s Day (it was on the 10th). Double the gifts...well-played, senora.

They can be hard to find, but I’ve sometimes bought generic blank cards (pretty illustration on the cover and no message inside). In recent years though, I’ve just hit the craft store for some colorful card stock and nice pens, and made my own cards. They are definitely not fancy, but she says she likes them. (She is…

Yes, that’s how I interpreted her comment as well. It’s tongue-in-cheek.

A couple that tripped me up are Thule and Britax.

I notice that the people most likely to go out of their way to say disparaging things about what I'm reading tend to be acquaintances, co-workers and even family. My taste in reading material gets much more tolerance and respect from friends.

Are those ages in months or years? I want to be sure I get the dosage right.

Flavor Trough should really be the name of an all-you-can-eat buffet.

In our neighborhood they put the boxes on the strip of land between the street and the sidewalk—the strip that is technically owned by the city but the homeowner is tasked with maintaining (watering and mowing the grass). I'm sure it's different in other locations, but it works pretty well here.

We have these cluster mailboxes in my neighborhood. I love them. They bring security (your mail is locked away from thieves) and convenience (since the box is locked, I check my mail just once a week).

Because Lego heads only have two printable sides. : ) ; )

It's nice to see Ray Liotta getting work again...oh, wait...