The Guy commented that I haven’t journaled about Hobbes as much as he had thought that I would. “I think you’re trying to keep from being boring,” he said, leaving unspoken the thought that I shouldn’t even bother trying because it was too late.

It was true, thinking back, that I had missed out on [...]

We spent the tail end of September up in Seattle, in a quid pro quo nod to Mom’s visit last year. Last September, she came to California to celebrate Hobbes’s birth; this time we’re up north to celebrate Mom’s 70th birthday. In point of fact, we came up to throw a surprise party for Mom, [...]

The first alarms proved to be groundless. Hobbes is by no means as mobile as we had thought he was, though he makes up for distance and speed in sheer determination, such that a trip across the living room floor has a bruising effect on his diaper-padded rear end. Where he developed this kind of [...]

“So he’s walking now?” said one of the ladies at the day care.

“He’s working on it,” I said.

“Hm,” she said, and gave me a pitying glance as I bore a chuckling Hobbes away.

Two steps. That’s all he had ever done before. Two shuffling steps, after which he would fall over flat on [...]

“So is he saying anything yet?” asked the doctor.

“Um,” I said.

“Uh oh,” Hobbes said.

“Well, that’s sort of a word!” the doctor congratulated.

“And he says, ‘cheeto,’” I said.

“What?”

“Uh oh,” Hobbes said again.

“And,” I hurried on, seeing the doctor’s face, “it’s not fair because it’s not like he’s actually [...]