marty and i begin a new phase of parenting this week. we are now the parents of three teenagers as anthony turned 13 on saturday. it seems unfathomable on many levels, but i'm sure time will blur again, and we will wake up as parents of three full-on adults.

i'm elated and relieved that we got all three of our children through their childhoods without any great catastrophes. not all families win that lottery. i'm also grateful to be the father of three young adults of such marked personality and promise. i routinely marvel at how genuine and confident each of them are. i did not know that level of comfortability with myself until i was in my thirties. 

i will miss being a father of children. all-out tickle fights that start with the sighting of a comforter spider. school-day dad lunches. fantastical story-tellings that have children writhing in laughter. early-morning cuddles. bedtime cuddles. naked playing in rain-filled gutters. and looking out the backyard to see a child recklessly flying through the air on a rope swing. well, not overly reckless as he did have on leather work gloves. 

there are just some things that will never be again. i'm thankful for all those early-year memories and i'm thankful that many of those memories are captured in these pages, as a good number of them have definitley been lost to the mental ether.