Parenting

While there are a lot of parenting books out there, I haven't found too many that I really like—until now. Pregnant: a Field Guide to Fathering (134 pages, $10.95), by Marin County father and author Gary Kleiman, is exactly the parenting book I wish would have written. It's funny, comforting, useful, and profound, and if you're a hands-on, inquisitive dad or a dad to be, it should be required reading. (I only wish that Gary published it six years ago so I had it when my first child was born.)

Pregnant: A Field Guide to Fathering is divided into two sections. The first, "Getting Daddy Ready," deals with the preparations for parenthood that every father-to-be experiences, and offers sage advice on mentally and emotionally preparing yourself for your new role, as well as supporting the mother-to-be. The second section is titled "Field Guide to Your Child," and is relevant to parenting children of all ages. It features discourses on such topics as the finer points of choosing a diaper, crying and how to live with it, what to do when your child decided she wants a pet, the joy of undertaking art projects at home, and much more.

It's not as if I led a deprived childhood, but there were some toys that I desparately wanted as a kid and never got. Of course now that I have kids, I can finally indulge those desires of long ago by getting them the stuff I never had! And who said being a grownup is no fun? Although there are plenty of adults in their 30s and 40s who have no problem in buying themselves toys (or "investing" in "collectibles") more suitable for someone a few decades younger, I always thought the idea was just a little unseemly. This is not to say that I didn't occasionally indulge myself in toys, as anyone who's seen my desk at work will attest.

It's actually kind of funny to look at myself and my fellow parents and to see how we're seemingly immature—call it deferred adulthood—compared to our parents, and in turn to compare them to parents of previous generations. I'm addicted to Mad Men on AMC, and I find it interesting, and even a little frightening, to look at a character like antihero Don Draper in his suits and ties and hats and Coupe de Ville and to think that he's supposed to be around my age, and of course is played by an actor my age, but seems so much older than I, and I'm sure many others, see themselves.

As my daughter has gotten older (she's now 2-1/2), she's developed her own unique vocabulary. It's been interesting to watch, as the process seems to be totally different than what I witnessed with my son. She's been speaking in near-complete sentences almost since she started talking, and never had any of those unique made-up "baby words" that her brother did. What she has started, recently, is coming up with colorful names to call people when she's not happy with them. I know I should probably try to get her to stop, but, honestly, it's pretty funny, even when it's directed, as it is often, at me.