when I started this blog five years ago, I was a pet sitter and the name animal-crackers made sense. now I'm a stay-at-home-dad and freelance writer, but rather than confuse everyone by getting a different blog, it's just easier to keep posting things here.

I've been horrible about updating this blog. It's been sparse since last fall, and then yesterday's update was rather heavy. So I'll try to be better.

It's been crazy busy. Here are a few of the happenings at Club Animal Crackers:

-- Andrea and I are training for the Hill Country Ride for AIDS. It's a 45-mile ride on April 25 that benefits local AIDS charities.

http://www.hillcountryride.org

As you can see, I've done a terrible job getting donations this year. But you can change that! Just $5 will get me started and keep me from being a complete scrub.

-- Josh is doing great! He'll be 7 soon, and we've got a party to plan. It'll be low-key. Public park. Hamburgers and hot dogs. Sheet cake. Balloons. And that's about it.

-- Dylan's doing well, but going through a rough patch at school. When he started pre-school in August, it was Dylan, another kid, and two teachers. Now the class has 11 special needs children.

Dylan has reacted by lashing out. He gets overloaded and starts slapping the other kids and the teachers. Not good. But we're working on it.

Except for the behavioral issues, Dylan's progress is impressive. He often talks in complete sentences. He recognizes most of the letters. He climbs stairs and plays hide and seek.

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There's other stuff to update to, but like usual, I'm feeling rather brain-dead. But expect to see more regular updates here.