A True Artist

My son, Jack, loves to draw with crayons. I think it's great that at 18 months old, he's already developed the dexterity to manipulate a skinny, drawing utensil. Jack can create swirls, scribbles and dashes as well as any child at least twice his age.

Crayola makes this process much easier with its line of "twistables". Unlike traditional crayons that break under very little pressure, twistables are protected by a durable, outer plastic barrel. Similar to a tube of lipstick, twisting the barrel exposes more of the color. And like a mechanical pencil, twistables are always sharp. No need for a sharpener!

I really enjoy watching Jack as he scribbles with his crayons. It doesn't take long for him to turn a blank piece of "doodle paper" into an original masterpiece. And this is an activity that I can share with Jack as I doodle along right with him. What a great way of teaching the benefits of sharing as we pass the "big dip o' ruby" color back and forth.

Early Retirement? Not quite.

When my wife and I finally made the decision for me to leave my job as a sales manager at a publishing company to become a stay-at-home dad, some of my work colleagues referred to it as "early retirement". In a way, so did I. After all, as a full time dad, I was now going to be making my own schedule, which included getting out of bed whenever I wanted, and watching Sportscenter as often as possible. What could be better? It didn't take long to discover that this was not going to be as easy as I was hoping.