Saturday, January 29, 2011

Nuggets

Nuggets of Goodness:

-Last weekend (or was it two weekends ago?), in the tradition of my grandmother, two of my aunts brought us food in celebration of new babies. Like, gobs of food-pulled pork and pork loin and potatoes and an apple crisp and bread and cake. That entire week, we didn't have to cook anything. Which was great, because no one wanted to. My family rocks!

-We have not actually bought diapers yet, thanks to Nana (Carl's mom) and my mom's friends, whose kind diaper gifts are still holding out. Yay!

-Liam is plumping up nicely. He looks great in this red sweater that Steph knitted for Wendy him:

-Our little fuzzball spends a good deal of his time like this. Crashed out on boob juice, I mean. It is an exhausting world when you look this good. This kid is (sofarknockonwood) a cakewalk compared to my first go-round with baby wrangling.

-Ooh, ooh. Yesterday, I had a clean shirt on all day! (almost.)

These are good and positive thoughts brought to you in a sincere attempt to not whine about the last three weeks that have been a total SUCKFEST of Carl being sick, then me being sick, then Carl being sick some more. (PS: Sick dads can't hold babies, lest they make the babies sick, while sick moms have to hold babies when mom is baby's only food source.*)

Also, in our world, there is this:

So. Much. Snow. Two inches. Then four inches. Then two more nine more inches of dense, heavy precip. Welcome to PA, my son. Panic and break out the french toast supplies.

Wait! I have a good one for the "things rock" list:
-Hot chocolate is still delicious, even if you were the only one who didn't shovel. Hot chocolate makes everything better.

*Carl knows that I am not actually mad at him for being sick/injured for the first three weeks of our baby's life. He knows by the way I stand over him with lovingly prepared bowls of soup and lime Jell-o with a Nurse Ratched smile, explaining via eye-twitch-Morse-code that if he doesn't want to take his medication orally, I am sure that he can have it some other way.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Two Weeks


I often heard, before his arrival, that boy babies are different. I wasn't sure how much stock I should put into the idea. It turns out to be totally true.

For example, boy babies can sneak a whiz into their own armpits while you are fumbling for tiny socks or a wipe or something. I can safely say that Wendy never did that.

So far, however, he is just as serious, contemplative, and beautiful as she was. Two weeks old, and he is beginning to get some baby fat around the edges. (I'm doing my best to give him back the bits that he left hanging around.)

Me? Still hibernating. Like a bear. A pj-wearing, chocolate-eating bear.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Let's Play Guess What Itches?

I'll give you a hint: It's. Stitches.

Yeah, you know where.

Tasty little childbirth tidbits like that can completely throw off one's whole plan to interpret the new baby experience through haiku on one's blog.

You know what makes everything (itchy stitches included) seem like a far-away concern? This:



Liam Wolf
1-6-11; 3:17 AM
7lb 5oz
Big feet. Lots of hair. No lie-Toothbuds.

Giving birth was amazing. A dream birth-three hours from labor onset to his fuzzy head bursting onto the scene. Everything since has been a dream, too...a foggy-edged gray space with a bright middle where we exist and all else melts away in a slush of liquid time…


Of course, nothing is perfect. When is it? Wendy is all twitchy with unspent energy and the sudden paradigm shift. Carl put his back out and came down with a killer cold three days after we got home (becoming instantly uber-unhelpful). Also, he had to go to court somewhere in there, in an amusing episode entitled, Farmer Insane Attempts to Strike Back, but Instead Gets a Chunk of his Ass Handed to Him by a Judge. After the Fiasco That Was 2010, I am neither surprised or terribly unhinged by these developments.

I have been coping with the chaos (both the expected and surprise kind) by ignoring a lot of email and phone calls and (obviously) internet…all the marshy wilderness of outside life, in attempt to regain some solid ground here, on the inside. I feel compelled to apologize to people that I have been neglecting, including my internet buddies, but not that much. I am sure that you can see why:





Falling in love takes a lot of energy and attention. You understand.