Big developments on the horizon at Action Academy: After a year of handling the superhero tutelage of Dangerg!rl and Iron A!dan (now 4 and 6) as a single superhero dad, I'm bringing my old friend and new partner into the mix as the newest Action Academy resident.

Captain Sarah is… Read full post »

My son was selected to represent his class today at the school's Thanksgiving writing assembly. He was beaming with pride, up on stage next to the principal and one kid from each grade. Before he even got through "I am happy to be thankful for..." I was totally wiping tears from… Read full post »

My sister is pregnant and just found out the other day that the baby is going to be a girl. Upon hearing this news, my daughter Dangerg!rl said:

"As soon as she's born I'm going to give her Dangerg!rl lessons. Dangerg!rl lessons are like swim lessons, but for danger."

Action Academy… Read full post »

I'm positively swooning over how awesome my daughter is. Both of my kids, obviously, but this week the spotlight is on Dangerg!rl, 4 year-old birthday girl extraordinaire. For her birthday this year, she asked for a purple skateboard and also for a purple salon chair so she could style her
… Read full post »

"You either have one very lucky little daughter, or one very lucky gay partner."

– Cashier lady at SuperTarget, as I was checking out with a cart full of pink and magenta party plates and plastic silverware, a pink tablecloth, pink balloons, the purple doll's salon chair… Read full post »

The occasion of Esquire Magazine's 75th anniversary is reason enough in itself to go pick up a copy. Among its many treasures is "The Future of Words," a brief essay by Dave Eggers, who Esquire is rightly calling one of the 75 most influential people of the 21st Century/… Read full post »

While I work up another good superhero post, here's a great YouTube superhero that my kids are in love with for you to marvel at.

I first found this via Constant Siege, the "working notebook" of photographer Clayton Cubitt. Cubitt's caption:

"A canine Icarus, leaving its slack-jawed… Read full post »

Today I volunteered as a parent chaperone for a school field trip to Denver's Washington Park Botanic Gardens with my son's Kindergarten/First Grade class. More about that in the next post, but for the moment here's a charming snippet of dialogue that makes for a nice sequel to… Read full post »

This doesn't have anything to do with the rest of what this blog has been about, so I'll keep it brief:

The Washington Post is reporting that David Foster Wallace hanged himself on Friday.

My best friends and I discovered DFW when we were in college, just… Read full post »

Coincidence? My daughter's favorite character from The Incredibles is the mom, Elastigirl. My son is loving both of the Fantastic 4 movies, and although he loves all 4 equally, and also the Silver Surfer, he says he's partial to Reed Richards, aka Mister Fantastic or – as… Read full post »

Interesting development over here at Action Academy: We might have to revise our vegetarian menu. My daughter Dangerg!rl, aka Independivore, came home from Pre-K last week declaring herself a meat-eater.

This is potentially a family crisis: I've been a vegetarian/pescetarian for 15… Read full post »

Action Academy field trip, long overdue: Although we've now been living in Colorado for one year after a very urban existence in Washington, DC, we haven't had nearly as many outdoor adventures here as I'd intended. Thankfully my eco-warrior environmental-crusading friends &ndas… Read full post »

Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. The Situation Room. The Fortress of Solitude. I was a high school teacher for 5 years and once dreamed of opening a real-life superhero academy some day to help shape talented and adventurous young people into the kinds of heroes we so desparately need.… Read full post »

I can already tell that one of the best things about sending a kid off to school is going to be the chance to catch up on some new playground slang. While I'm working on a bigger, weightier post about superhero schools, and another one meditating… Read full post »

Now that I've gotten underway with the conceit of blogging about my parenting experiences under the guise of running a superhero training academy, here's a brief meditation on disability superpowers, the power of a child's perspective, and an amusing Action Academy anecdote.

First… Read full post »

The best money I spent on my Action Academy superhero training budget this summer: A pool membership at the swim club my family belonged to when I was a kid. Swim lessons were included in the cost of the membership, and my young pool protegés are now officially… Read full post »

My… Read full post »