Tales from the Crib: Archive

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To borrow from Bill Cosby, it’s totally true that kids are born with mild to severe brain dammage (depending on what you ask them to do). Just ask our son to retrieve something that is in plain sight, and you’ll see what I mean. So there it is, and animated episode! I thought I’d experiment a bit. The animation is done entirely in Maya, so it’s actually 3D done in a 2d...

Oct 5th

Episode 26

For months Joe has been climbing in and onto boxes imaging that they are firetrucks, elephants, and race cars. But he gets most excited about the times his box transforms into an airplane and we go flying through the apartment. So I decided a while ago that we needed to build a better airplane to fly around in. Here’s what we came up with: Joe asked for 2 engines on the plane,...

Sep 27th

Episode 25 - Mien Delf

Ah, two. Sometimes it’s easy to get frustrated with a 2-year-old’s desire for independence. But not when they start speaking German! Makes us laugh every time. I think we can all relate to how good it feels to do something important for the first time ALL BY YOUR SELF!

Sep 22nd

Episode 24

Book 4: Cookie Bending “What’s Aang doing, Daddy?” “Being awesome.” Munch, munch, munch… The hilarious thing about this post is that as I’m drawing it, my wife Emily leaves me a message on my phone telling me that JoeJoe has been telling everyone that he passes, “I watch Aang with my daddy…and eat cookies and ice cream!” Doh! ...

Sep 12th

Episode 23

So we found out today that we’re going to have a little girl! We’re both very excited and curious to see how her big brother behaves once she arrives. Joe has been saying all along that the baby is a “sister bear” (like in the Berenstain Bears books). Turns out he was right, and she looks exactly like this! Probably.

Aug 19th

Episode 22

If you give a boy some makeup……he’s bound to make a mess have some fun. This one is an idea stolen from my friend Brittney Lee. An artist’s work lives in a world of its own, and it gives you a look into the mind of its creator. If you know Brittney’s work, the world her art comes from is a beautiful, amazing, enchanting place. As much as I admire her piece, when I...

Aug 5th

Episode 21

Being two, Joe has some new favorite words. I think that by far the most creative word play he has latched onto is the combination of his two favorite responses: “No!” and “Mine!” Put together they become the compound word: “Nomine!“ We hear this about two times per minute on average, so it does get old fast. But I have to admire the minimalism and...

Apr 30th

Episode 20: Disneyland!

We’re getting settled back in from our first trip to Disneyland. I’ll leave you to guess whether this is a drawing of little Joe or my inner child. Having grown up on the east coast, I have to say that Disneyland compares very well to Disney World. It’s smaller, and we miss Epcot, but it has most other things, and is easier to walk around with the little guy. In the end,...

Apr 14th

Episode 19

Apr 5th

Episode 18

Here’s one I’ve had sitting in my sketchbook for weeks now: A while back Joe got one of those plastic cube things that have all the shapes inside that each slide through a specific hole. You know, those things we give toddlers to frustrate them and to prove that we’re smarter than they are. (Google tells me those are called Form Fitters, fyi.) Well, as you might expect he...

Feb 28th

The family that draws together...

Tonight, before his bedtime, Joe walked up to me and poked me with my Wacom pen. “I want rraw,” he said. So we drew this together. Every once in a while he’d hand the pen over to me, I’d draw for two seconds, and then he’d rip the pen away from me. So here’s our masterpiece. Sleep tight, little Joe. Love, Daddy

Feb 27th

Episode 17

Yesterday my son saw/ate his first Oreo. It seems that some things are instinctual. Like knowing how to eat Oreos. This is pretty much exactly how it happened:

Feb 17th

...in the air

Hmm, I wonder if I’d be that way if we ever have a little girl. Since it’s getting closer to Valentines Day, I figured this was appropriate. P.S. ~ With any of these images, you can right-click and choose “View Image” to see it larger.

Feb 1st

Episode 15

“Just finish the broccoli and you can have dessert.” Sometimes, Mom, it just doesn’t seem that easy. Or that’s what Joe seems to say. Ok, sometimes I feel this way too.

Dec 16th

Episode 14

1st Poo! Just thought you’d want us to share this moment with you. Really. So yeah, it’s been a terribly long time since I’ve posted one of these. Things have been pretty busy the past couple months. I’m going to try to get back to one per week. We’ll see how that works!

Dec 9th

Episode 13

KEEEEEEEEEEYS!!! That’s our little key zombie. I’m pretty sure that all toddlers go through the key obsession phase. Our little one has never been content with those plastic keys. If he hears something jingle in your pocket or purse, the eyes roll back red and he stretches out his arms chanting, “Keeeeeeys!” Slowly he waddles up to you, still chanting, and you know...

Aug 7th

TftC Animation?

Could there ever be a TftC cartoon popping up in the future? No promises, but yes, it just might happen some day. Here’s a quick test I did last night with the open source app Pencil. It reminds me how important model sheets are ;) Pencil is simple and mostly awesome. I do all my animation thumbnailing in it. I just hope they keep developing it!

Jul 25th

Episode 12

The other day I sat down with my son and we doodled together. At this point he’s mastered the zigzag line, and enjoys drawing on his skin more than on paper, go figure. Watching him with a pen reminded me of my first paint set and a book my parents gave me called “Panda Bear’s Paintbox”. Those two things really clicked with me, and it was then that I knew I wanted to make...

Jul 24th

Episode 11

Many an evening, my wife and I find ourselves pulling little Joe out of bookshelves, trash cans, and taking away the blunt objects which he enjoys bashing against walls and doors. Usually we’ll read with him or try to organize a three-way game of catch. Inevitably Joe will slip away to a good board book while Em and I continue playing, unaware that the adults are now the only ones tossing...

Jul 18th

Episode 10

He makes a very important point. This isn’t a quote from little Joe, fortunately (or sadly), as he’s not quite old enough to say these wonderfully embarrassing things. But I’m sure we’ll be there soon. And you’ll know when that time comes. You’ll know. Tune in next week…

Jul 11th

Episode 09

When a child enters the world they see infinite possibilities. As he or she begins to interact with the world, limitations are discovered. (My story remains that the couch was made of kryptonite.)

Jul 4th

Episode 08

Remember when a lump of mixed vegetables was just about the worst thing in the known universe? Remember how rubbery those carrots tasted, and how every veggie in the mix tasted the same—like a bad combo of tire juice, dust bunnies, and old pants? Do you remember how justified you felt when you crammed every last one of those suckers into the hole in the table leg, hoping to God that next...

Jun 26th

Episode 07

True story. Every day. Sorry, Em. If it’s any consolation, he also calls the door “da da”. Also, in celebration of Father’s Day, get your child some clean clothes! They won’t stay that way for long, but hey, that’s life. Click below to see the latest TftC shirt:

Jun 19th

Episode 06.5

This probably isn’t worth being the official episode for the week (hence the 6.5), but it popped into my head and I had to post it. File this one under: The confusions of childhood.

Jun 16th

Episode 06

So we have a friend who tells our son that she is his actual mother. Strange. And with awkward implications. And even though little Joe is not old enough to understand what any of this means, I imagine it must be confusing to hear. When I was a few years old, I remember having a very vivid dream that involved me discovering that one of my mom’s friends was actually my real mom and that my...

Jun 12th

Episode 05

Oh and just for fun, I enlarged a few and made them available to wear through zazzle. T-shirts, get your t-shirts! (ladies, toddlers, and infants) “Omnomnom” on zazzle.com Head on over to my store. I have this one up currently, and will be adding a couple more very soon! Update 6/7/09: Added two more shirts. And you can change the shirt color or style. Makes a great gift...

Jun 6th

Episode 04

It’s Friday again and, as usual, I’m wondering where the week went. I’m also thinking about the left-over dim sum in our fridge…which brings me to this week’s tale: All men have a one track mind, no matter how big or how small the man.

May 29th

Episode 03

They chew on everything. It’s kinda their thing. One morning my wife and I went into our son’s room and found him in his crib with little white specks all over his face, around his mouth. It took us until the next morning to realize that the first thing he would upon waking up was to begin chewing the paint off the crib’s rim. After a week of experimentation, we found that...

May 23rd

Episode 02

What? He likes it.

May 15th

May 9th