My living room looked like a neon blue and yellow explosion hit it last April 12th. Leo turned three, and if you know anything about toddlers in Austin right now, you know that Chase is basically a deity. I spent three weeks obsessing over the perfect paw patrol birthday tableware because, honestly, the plates are…
Twenty-two seven-year-olds in a small Houston classroom can generate more heat than a Texas summer afternoon, especially when someone suggests a rainbow-themed St. Patrick’s Day bash on March 12, 2024. I stood there, clutching my lesson plan for “The Science of Light,” while Lucas, a boy who once tried to eat a glue stick, vibrated…
Twenty-four sets of sticky fingers. That is my daily reality in a Houston third-grade classroom. I spend my life dodging glue sticks and explaining why we don’t eat the scented markers. By the time the weekend rolls around, you’d think I would want a nap in a soundproof room. Instead, I throw parties. Last October…
My living room looked like a NASCAR infield that had been hit by a localized tornado. It was March 15, 2026, and my son Leo was turning eleven. Being a single dad in Atlanta means I’ve spent a lot of time wandering the aisles of party stores in a daze, trying to figure out why…
My kitchen currently looks like a vibranium mine exploded in it. There is blue glitter in the grout and I am fairly certain Barnaby, our overly-enthusiastic Golden Retriever, is still wearing a stray Captain America shield sticker on his tail from three days ago. If you had told me ten years ago that I would…
Austin heat in mid-April feels less like a warm hug and more like standing behind a running bus. My nephew Leo turned two last Saturday, April 12, and my sister begged me to handle the “vibe” because she was drowning in diaper changes and sleep deprivation. I accepted the challenge with the confidence of a…
My kitchen counter looked like a tropical rainforest threw up, and not in the cute, curated way you see on social media. It was June 12, 2024, the morning of Leo’s 2nd birthday, and I was currently losing a battle against a tub of store-bought vanilla frosting that refused to turn the specific shade of…
My kitchen looked like a Smurf had exploded in it by 10:00 PM on Friday, April 11th. I stood there, clutching a spatula covered in neon blue buttercream, staring at my four-year-old son Leo’s birthday cake. The “Sonic Blue” food coloring I bought at the North Lamar HEB had stained my white quartz countertops, and…
My kitchen smelled like a mix of industrial gold spray paint and dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets on the morning of June 12, 2024. That was the day Leo turned four, and I, a single dad with a history of party-planning disasters, decided to conquer the elusive safari birthday centerpiece without losing my mind or my rent…
Fifteen years of teaching elementary school in Houston has taught me that glitter is the herpes of the craft world; it never truly leaves your classroom or your soul. My third-period students once managed to coat a rescue tortoise in iridescent pink shimmer during a pollinator unit, and I’m still finding specks of it in…
