<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>Spilling Coffee &#187; Daddy Stuff</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.spillingcoffee.com/category/fatherhood/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.spillingcoffee.com</link>
	<description>by Tom Coffee: Daddy Blogger.  Humorist.</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:44:42 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1</generator>
		<item>
		<title>The First Day of Kindergarten</title>
		<link>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2011/09/07/the-first-day-of-kindergarten/</link>
		<comments>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2011/09/07/the-first-day-of-kindergarten/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 07 Sep 2011 09:44:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Coffee</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daddy Stuff]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.spillingcoffee.com/?p=461</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Today is my son&#8217;s first day of Kindergarten. Though he doesn&#8217;t know or understand it yet, today is the first day of at least thirteen years of formal education and savoring summers. It&#8217;s a rough cycle for a four-year-old to understand and it&#8217;s even more rough for a 39-year-old to have to explain. Instead of dwelling on the responsibilities and the homework and the things he&#8217;ll need to do in school to succeed we&#8217;ve mostly talked about the fun of riding the bus, the desk full of school supplies that is awaiting him at school and the coolness behind the concept of letting him order his own lunch in the cafeteria. He seems genuinely excited, but deep down I don&#8217;t think he&#8217;s buying it. Since about the age of 9 months my son has been going to day care which eventually morphed into &#8220;Pre-K&#8221; but it was really only a slightly structured babysitting service where they taught the kids basic math and reading skills not out of some urgent need to have them grow as humans but more as a way to keep them busy and give them something to think about other than when they were going to go [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2011/09/07/the-first-day-of-kindergarten/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>My Four-Year-Old Is Ready For College</title>
		<link>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2011/05/13/4-year-old-ready-for-college/</link>
		<comments>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2011/05/13/4-year-old-ready-for-college/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 13 May 2011 09:34:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Coffee</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daddy Stuff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Humor]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.spillingcoffee.com/?p=435</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Pardon me for boasting a little bit here, but my four-year-old son Eddie is clearly ready for college. He has proven to his mother and me that he does not need the basic foundations of kindergarten, the monotony of grade school or the drama of high school. I think my pre-k son is just about ready to fit in with the college crowd and take his place among the slackers, the burn-outs and the party animals who will inevitably become the leaders of tomorrow. Here&#8217;s why: &#160; All His Friends Are Obsessed With Partying: Whether we&#8217;re watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Handy Manny, about every third episode revolves around going to a party, finding something for a party, getting ready for a party or preventing something bad from happening at a party. His school friends are just as obsessed.  He has about 20 kids in his class and he has two teachers who are desperate for activities. Lincoln&#8217;s Birthday? Have a party! We&#8217;ll make top hats! Arbor Day? Have a party! We&#8217;ll plant seeds in paper cups! Nicholas Garbachio&#8217;s 5th birthday? We&#8217;ll have a party! The school parties always seem to involve cupcakes, though my son never brings home any [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2011/05/13/4-year-old-ready-for-college/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Nobody Nose The Emergency Room Like My Son</title>
		<link>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2011/04/19/nobody-nose-the-emergency-room-like-my-son/</link>
		<comments>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2011/04/19/nobody-nose-the-emergency-room-like-my-son/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Apr 2011 17:20:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Coffee</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daddy Stuff]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.spillingcoffee.com/?p=378</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;Mr. Coffee, there&#8217;s been an incident at school today&#8230;&#8221; said my son&#8217;s Pre-Kindergarten teacher on the phone while I was driving home from work. I was an English major so I pay attention to how things are said. In my mind the word &#8220;incident&#8221; should be reserved for boiler explosions, terrorist attacks and most anything that happens in Japan these days. After I was able to calm her down she explained that Eddie had just tripped and smashed his nose into a table. There was some crying. There was a lot of swelling. &#8220;He&#8217;ll be fine&#8230;&#8221; I told myself as drove into the parking lot of his school. My son after slamming his nose into a table at school. When I got to school he was holding an ice pack to his face but the crying had stopped and he was happily exploring the school office that doubled as a sick child holding pen. He was acting as though nothing happened. He took the ice pack away from his face and I winced. My son now had a true Hollywood movie star nose. Unfortunately, that movie star he most resembled was Klingon Lieutenant Worf from Star Trek: The Next Generation. [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2011/04/19/nobody-nose-the-emergency-room-like-my-son/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>A Short Conversation With My 8-Month-Old Daughter</title>
		<link>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2011/04/11/a-short-conversation-with-my-8-month-old-daughter/</link>
		<comments>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2011/04/11/a-short-conversation-with-my-8-month-old-daughter/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 11 Apr 2011 09:57:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Coffee</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daddy Stuff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Humor]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.spillingcoffee.com/?p=364</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My 8-month old daughter is already turning out to be quite the talker. Tonight we had a our first real heart-to-heart conversation. &#8220;How was your day, Ellie?&#8221; &#8220;Ya ya ya ya yaaaaa! Ya ya ya yaaa yaaaa.&#8221; &#8220;Really? Then what happened?&#8221; I ask. &#8220;Dah.&#8221; &#8220;And?&#8221; &#8220;Doh doh doh doh. Yaaaaaaa. Doooooh,&#8221; she told me. &#8220;See, that&#8217;s interesting because I was thinking the state of Canadian politics in the past decade of economic upheaval has proven that the inherent friction between the political parties and the regional differences of the nation-state can be overcome by forward thinking men and women who are willing to put the good of their country ahead of their own personal convictions.&#8221; &#8220;Yaya,&#8221; she replies. &#8220;Exactly!&#8221; &#8220;Doh doh doh doh doh doh doh doh doh doh doh doh. Doh doh. Doh. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.&#8221; &#8220;Well, what did you do?&#8221; I ask incredulously. &#8220;Doh doh. Yah.&#8221; &#8220;Oh well in that case&#8230; dadadadadadadada! Dohdohdoh ya ya ye eeeeeeeeee!&#8221; Through giggles she responds, &#8220;Doooooh. Doooooh. Yayayayayaya!&#8221; &#8220;I&#8217;m glad we had this talk. I hope we do it again soon.&#8221;]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2011/04/11/a-short-conversation-with-my-8-month-old-daughter/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Things You Should Never Say To Your Wife When She Tells You She’s Pregnant</title>
		<link>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2011/04/06/things-you-should-never-say-to-your-wife-when-she-tells-you-she%e2%80%99s-pregnant/</link>
		<comments>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2011/04/06/things-you-should-never-say-to-your-wife-when-she-tells-you-she%e2%80%99s-pregnant/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Apr 2011 16:19:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Coffee</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daddy Stuff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Humor]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.spillingcoffee.com/?p=350</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Yesterday Playground Dad put up an amusing post called 10 Things You Should Never Say To Your Wife When She&#8217;s Pregnant and asked if he&#8217;d forgotten any&#8230; I thought of a few more&#8230; You probably shouldn&#8217;t do this, either&#8230;&#160; 1. Again? 2. Well, that explains the moodiness&#8230;. 3. I guess shouldn&#8217;t have put off that vasectomy. 4. That&#8217;s it, I&#8217;m swearing off Tequila. 5. Huh. 6. Now we&#8217;ll need to draw straws to see who sleeps in the garage. 7. Good, we need another mouth to feed. 8. Now I&#8217;ll NEVER get to play Xbox in peace. 9. Woo hoo! Tax deduction! 10. That&#8217;s really going to increase my child support payments, isn&#8217;t it? 11. Oops. 12. That&#8217;s it, I&#8217;m swearing off rubbing alcohol. 13. Congratulations! When are you going to tell the father? 14. I knew I shouldn&#8217;t have bought condoms from that high school kid. 15. Can we finally name this one &#8220;Anakin&#8221;? Fortunately, I don&#8217;t have to worry about this right now. I hope&#8230; Image: graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2011/04/06/things-you-should-never-say-to-your-wife-when-she-tells-you-she%e2%80%99s-pregnant/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>My Four-Year-Old is a Trend-Setting Fashion Genius</title>
		<link>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2011/04/05/my-four-year-old-trend-setting-fashion-genius/</link>
		<comments>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2011/04/05/my-four-year-old-trend-setting-fashion-genius/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:28:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Coffee</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daddy Stuff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Humor]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.spillingcoffee.com/?p=336</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I didn&#8217;t think I&#8217;d have to write about this for at least another 12 years, but my 4-year-old has not only discovered girls but also taken a keen interest in what&#8217;s cool to wear and what&#8217;s not cool to wear in his Pre-Kindergarten class. Not surprisingly, the two are not mutually exclusive. My four-year-old is setting trends and breaking hearts. It began a few weeks ago when Eddie refused to take off his coat as I dropped him off at school one morning. It wasn&#8217;t particular cold in the building and normally getting a coat on the little guy was a chore. He repeated this for the rest of the week. For the first few days I didn&#8217;t think much of this, figuring that maybe he wanted to take his coat off by himself or he had developed some sort of system for how he wanted it hung up. Finally, on a particular warm day, I asked him about it. &#8220;Cause Samantha wants me to keep my coat on.&#8221; &#8220;Samantha? You mean your friend with the long dark hair?&#8221; He nodded. I prodded. &#8220;Why does Samantha want you to keep your coat on?&#8221; &#8220;Because. She&#8217;s my girlfriend.&#8221; It&#8217;s at this [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2011/04/05/my-four-year-old-trend-setting-fashion-genius/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Why is Our Nut-Free Daycare Always Offering Things With Nuts?</title>
		<link>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2011/04/01/why-is-our-nut-free-daycare-always-offering-things-with-nuts/</link>
		<comments>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2011/04/01/why-is-our-nut-free-daycare-always-offering-things-with-nuts/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:24:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Coffee</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daddy Stuff]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.spillingcoffee.com/?p=325</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m allergic to most everything else on the planet, but, judging from the size of my pants, I clearly never struggled with any sort of food allergy. Before becoming a parent I was always pretty blind to the whole kids with peanut allergies thing. It was just this nebulous danger that had a slim chance of afflicting any kid and it wasn&#8217;t something to lose sleep over. Then, around age two, my son took a small bite of a little peanut butter cookie and&#8230; immediately got sick. Hives, short of breath, the whole 9-yards. I&#8217;m no food scientists, but I&#8217;m pretty sure this has nuts in it. Visits with an allergist followed. Testing followed. Epi-Pen Jr. prescriptions followed and now, two and a half years later, we&#8217;re all pretty cool with the routine. We check the labels on packages before my son tries anything new. We regularly check the packages of foods we &#8220;know&#8221; are safe because companies sometimes change their processing plant or ingredients. So when we enrolled my son in daycare years ago we obviously wanted a facility that was &#8220;nut free&#8221; and truth be told, most are. Our daycare doesn&#8217;t allow children to bring in any snacks [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2011/04/01/why-is-our-nut-free-daycare-always-offering-things-with-nuts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Using Amazon&#8217;s Subscribe and Save for Baby Supplies</title>
		<link>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2011/03/31/a-quick-review-of-amazon-coms-subscribe-and-save/</link>
		<comments>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2011/03/31/a-quick-review-of-amazon-coms-subscribe-and-save/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 31 Mar 2011 09:35:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Coffee</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daddy Stuff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Things That Beep]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.spillingcoffee.com/?p=312</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We have a baby in the house which means that my wife and I spend approximately 23 hours out of the day feeding the baby, changing the baby, playing with the baby and trying to figure out what the baby will need in the next 23 hours. Usually the answers are pretty much the same: diapers, formula, baby wipes and food. Tired of runs to Costco and Target to fill our trunks with huge diaper boxes and crates of formula, we decided to give Amazon&#8217;s Subscribe and Save program a try. It&#8217;s available on a lot of items that you would tend to buy, use up, and then buy again. Think snacks, baby supplies, coffee, paper towels, batteries, printer ink, etc. Amazon&#8217;s Subscribe &#038; Save is particularly useful for restocking all those consumable items that you find yourself buying over and over again. Like most things on Amazon.com, it&#8217;s fairly easy to set up and order. You save money by agreeing to have certain items automatically delivered to you in one, two, three or six month intervals. Shipping is free, you get emails when something is about to be sent and you can modify your order at any time before [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2011/03/31/a-quick-review-of-amazon-coms-subscribe-and-save/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>How A Second Child Is Different from the First Child</title>
		<link>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2010/08/28/on-having-a-second-child/</link>
		<comments>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2010/08/28/on-having-a-second-child/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 28 Aug 2010 12:06:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Coffee</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daddy Stuff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Humor]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.spillingcoffee.com/?p=290</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It has been about six weeks since my wife and I welcomed our beautiful little daughter into the world and so far the dire predictions from friends and family about wanting to sell off my kids to the circus have not come true. My four-year-old son is taking his little sister in stride and his little sister is excelling at everything except, of course, sleeping for more than three hours at a time. The nine months leading up to our daughter&#8217;s birth was filled with prophecies of doom and gloom about the hardships of adding a second child to our family. We were told in no uncertain terms that having two children was &#8220;like having three children&#8221;, that everything would be 1,000 times more difficult and that we would, essentially, cease to be human beings and instead be reduced to simple beasts of burden who served the needs and wants of our children like automatons. But instead of being weighed down with grief and despair my wife and I have actually been enjoying the whole process of having a newborn in the house much more than we did the first time around. We&#8217;re more experienced, more laid back and a [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.spillingcoffee.com/2010/08/28/on-having-a-second-child/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

