And Then There Were Three (part 1)

Welcome to the world, Haden Asher.

Your mother and I love you very much. We first discovered that you were coming into this world on April 7th, 2008 just before 4 AM in the morning. I was rather groggy, but quickly woke up to the realization that your mother and I were about to be responsible for a whole 'nother life on this planet.

We celebrated by stuffing our faces as Kirby Lane. I suggest you go there one day at 5 in the morning one day. They have pretty good celebratory breakfast food. Just make sure we know you're there and who you're with.

It wasn't long after this that you gave your mother what we'll call the Sleepless Nights. For several weeks she simply couldn't sleep and it took a while for her body to you growing in her tummy. I, being the knucklehead that I am, managed to sleep right through her awakeness, but she never gave me a hard time about it. Just expressed her jealousy of my awesome ability to sleep.

It was was only 13 days after we found out that you were coming that I sold my beloved motorcycle, Titania, and bought my camera, Haruko. I sold off the bike because your mother was worried about something happening to me. That wouldn't have been good with you on the way, so instead I bought the camera with the money and that's why we have such wonderful looking pictures of you. One day I'll show you how to take good pictures with it and enjoy the world from that point of view (after, of course, I brush up on my own skills).

Another thing that happened was that your mother got the Vicious Sickness. She didn't throw up very much, but she could almost only eat certain kinds of chicken noodle soup for a long time, and felt very very nauseous nearly all day every day for weeks on end. She pushed on through it though, knowing that you were going to be the prize for all of her hard work. I made a lot of soup during this time, and if you ever get sick I'll be happy to make it for you too.

We did lots of things while you were growing in your mommy. One thing we did was go to the doctor and listen to your heartbeat. That was really fun to do. We also saw you on an ultrasound, but you kind of looked like a peanut at that point, so we didn't know what you would end up being. That would come much later.

Your doctor was named Doctor Solomon. He was a true blessing to your mother and I, and we are so so grateful that he was who took care of mom during her pregnancy with you. The doctors we went to did lots of things, and we even found out that you were a boy!! We were so happy, but it took a long time to decide on what your name would be. We both had very different preferences, but in the end we were both very happy with what your name ended up being. Haden Asher. A good, strong name.

Your momma got bigger and bigger as the days went on. Not only did she get bigger though, but she stayed a beautiful as she was when she somehow married me. You got bigger too! And developed all the things you would need to live in the outside world.

On our one year anniversary your mommy and I showed the world the meaning of the world carnivore. You come from a family of meat-eaters, and Fogo de Chao was just what we wanted. One day we'll take you there for a super-special occasion of your own, and I'll make sure how to show you how to grill your own meat for mass human consumption.

Then the big day arrived. We had gone to the hospital in the afternoon on December 7th, and after doing some tests and sending us home, we ate dinner, went home, and went to sleep.

To be continued...

Pictures!

Nothing but pictures at the moment. Still getting used to taking care of the Little Monster and everything that goes with that, heh...

More on everything that happened (and more pictures), as things progress...

Baby's doin' WHA???

It's finally happened.

Baby is on his way!

There's a ton to tell but right now I'm kind of too hopped up on the "it wasn't due for another 10 days" thing to go into all of it at the moment. In any case, suffice to say that the Little Monster decided to be born on December 8, 2008, which means that he won't suffer quite as badly from Christmas-Birthday syndrome.

The wifey got her epidural at about 4:00 this morning, and everything has been mostly happy bunnies and rainbows since then. We've gotten a little rest, I ate some breakfast, and it looks like we're going to get our doctor that we've been seeing this whole time to deliver for us.

So I thought that I had another week to get prepared and take care of chores and all that good stuff, but I guess there were other plans in store for us. I'm crazy excited, but also a little scared, which is normal, I suppose. We've called and sent text messages to a bunch of people, and naturally I won't be going into work today, and probably not tomorrow either, but we'll see. We're going to stick to my original vacation plan so that I can be home for those 2 1/2 weeks, which will rock. Anyways, craziness ensues!

I'll post more (complete with pictures!) after the Little Monster has arrived and we've gotten more rest.

EGAD BABY'S ALMOST HERE!!!

Project: Baby

The baby's room has been put together at last. Actually, this was done some weeks ago, but I'm just now getting around to writing about it. What you see to the left is the dresser that The Grand Donna got us. Pretty sweet, yeah?

The baby itself has "18 days" left as of right now, but I'm not sure that's going to be accurate. The Little Kitty's body has been going through constant restructuring so the kid can come out, and I really don't think it's going to take another 3 weeks for it all to happen. I'm placing the over/under at 2 weeks.

The Little Monster has really been movin' around and I can't wait to meet him. It's actually a little freaky thinking that I'm going to be a real live dad in such a short amount of time. No longer is it some nebulous future date that I don't have to worry about. It's becoming very real very quickly. This isn't a bad thing by any means, it's just a very different feeling that the "oh yeah, i'll be father 10 months from now" thing.

Out little apartment is (mostly) ready and set up. The port-a-crib has been built, and the car seat installation should be complete this week (thanks Megan!).

Good gravy, I just realized that I put the over/under for the birth date at 2 weeks. In any case, things seem to be moving very, very quickly for me (not so much for the Little Kitty, she has to deal with all the craziness her body is putting her though), and before the end of December there should be a new child in this world that I hope to teach all the things he needs to know in order to be a Real Man. Not the namby-pamby wishy-washy run-of-the-mill "man". But a tough, hard working, fight-for-what's-right gentleman who is willing to go the distance for the true goodness in the world.

Time to get this show on the road!

The Other Big News

You may recall from the last post that I said there was other Big News. That news is this:

I received a new position at work. I will be a Marketing Communications Specialist, dealing in brochures, posters, promotional material, catalogue developement, website and image maintenance, and promotional item inventory management. Oh, and some trade show graphics as well.

Flippin'. Sweet.

For those who don't know the backstory, I started at my company in December of 2005, pulling parts in a warehouse as a poor post-college kid wondering when my degree would finally help me get a Real Job. From there I moved to the shipping department, when I met someone in Marketing. Upon talking to Awesome Lady as I was carrying a box up to her cube for her, she got me a stint splitting my time between helping them with technical drawings and manuals and the warehouse, as a test run to see what I could do.

Turns out I passed the test run, and in April of 2006 I contracted with the Marketing Department doing the same work. November 2006 rolled around, and with my contract up, they kicked me over to the Training Department working for Mr. M, this time as a Full Time employee.

After several months, Mr. M and I received a New Young Manager, who I then worked under as a designer and eLearning developer. This did not suit my strengths very well, however, and so the New Young Manager began helping me locate something that would be better suited to me.

By the way, New Young Manager rocks, and I hate to lose him as a boss, but them's the works.

Anyways, long story short, the marketing manager, The Stone, offered me a position working in marketing doing all the things I've been trying to get into. I start January 2008, and I'm very, very excited about that. New baby, new job, it looks like life could be pretty good comin' up (not that is wasn't already, just even more so).

So that's the Other Big News that I have. Our Creator has treated me very, very well. Undeservedly so, to say the least, but I am still grateful for it and humbled by the amazing gifts I continually receive from him.

WOO!!!

Egad! (That's a lotta stuff!)

I suppose I could apologize for the lack of updates, but then, you already knew that was coming, yes?

Things have been going rather well for the most part. Today's theme is baby showers, and the masses of stuff people give you for the arrival of baby.

Apparently, upon first arrival into this world a little human averaging 8 to 10 pounds needs approximately 6.7 metric tons of equipment in order to survive the harsh climates of sleeping, eating, and pooing on new parents trying to change it's diaper. In order to acquire the amount of material needed for a new baby, human parents hold events called baby showers in order to not go bankrupt 3.2 times upon the arrival of said little human.

Of course, while I do say all of this in jest, there is a LOT of stuff that makes caring for the Little Monster much, much easier that I had no idea of. Cribs and beds and swings and porta-cribs and strollers and bottle sanitizers and bouncy things are just a few of the items that make caring for the Little Monster easier. The Little Kitty must be commended for her tenacity and knowledge of said objects. If it were just me picking stuff out then our child would likely be sleeping on a small cot and drinking out of mason jars. Well, maybe not mason jars, but you get the point, I'm sure.

In any case, we got a LOT of stuff, which will definitely help out a TON with raising the Little Monster, and for that we really, truly thank everyone for all that they have given us. Your generosity means more than either of us could say, and it's really amazing that we have so many people that care about us enough to help us provide for our child. Thank you with all that we have.

On a side note to The Grand Donna*, I accidentally left my camera in Katy, and will put up a picture of the wicked-awesome dresser we got probably tonight or tomorrow. Young Nani** brought it with her when she came to see The Little Kitty, so I can actually take a picture of it now. :-)

Well, that's all for today! Another post probably coming at the end of the week (maybe early next week) with another piece of Big News also. Stay tuned!


*The Grand Donna is my grandmother. She'll rock your face off.
**Young Nani is my wife's mother. She could win against a rock in a patience contest.

7 Weeks and Counting

Quite a bit has happened, as usual, since the last post.

We attended, and completed, two days of childbirth classes. The classes lasted 6 hours each time, and covered pain management, what to expect when labor hits, things to look and watch for, and of course, watching videos of 6 different women giving birth. There was also a small segment about how to take care of the baby once it got here. We learned quite a few useful things, which was good. By the end of the class, however, this is about what things looked like:

It was worse for the people sitting next to us. They looked much worse than we did, heh.

We also had our first baby shower! We got a ton of great stuff, and we thank everyone for thinking of us. It really was great to be remembered and we truly appreciate it.

I forgot my camera in Houston, shame on me. Otherwise there would be a picture here of the baby's room at the moment including some of the gifts and how they're set up. For now though it will just have to wait until later.

The Little Kitty has been extremely tired lately. Unfortunately, this has not translated into sleeping or even napping particularly well, so she stays pretty tired. Apparently this is just another one of those weird pregnancy things that happens.

Well, once I get my camera back there will be another (better) post about the above items complete with pictures. Until then I'll keep updating with (hopefully) more regularity (haven't heard that one before, right?) on other subjects as things progress.

That's it for now though, so have a great one!

P.S.: For those that have asked, my sleeping schedule still stands at 4 1/2 hours per night, with 2 20 minute naps in the day. I'm past the 2 month mark, and loving it. Yey for every morning being Saturday morning! :-)

And in other news...

Once again it seems I have underestimated my ability to not write on this blog. Part of life I guess.

Several things have happened since the last posting of this, including:

Little Kitty's belly growing lots! I'll have pictures at some point. I can feel him move (a lot!) every night now. Pretty cool how that happens.

Dad has turned 50 on September 30th, looks like he's 35. Seems I got some good genes in my system. Now if I'd just work out and take my vitamins regularly I can capitalize on it like he has, ha.

The Little Kitty and I celebrated our 1st anniversary on September 29th (woohoo!). We had fun, got neat gifts, and went to Fogo de Chao.

We discovered that Fogo de Chao rocks, as you can eat all the fresh cooked meat you can stuff your face with, but that you can only go on rare occasions because you can stay in a nice hotel for the cost of the meal (but still totally worth it, they wait on you hand and foot there).

We only have two (TWO!!) months left before the baby gets here. While that is more than enough time to get things around here prepared, it's coming up pretty quick. I really can't believe that I'm going to be a dad soon. I still don't know if it's actually hit me yet, or if it's going to totally slap me in the face (in a good way) once I actually see him for the first time. Something tells me that's just how it works.

The series of books called Twilight is really stinkin' good, even if it's written from the first-person perspective of a teenage girl. Hard to beat a good, freshly creative vampire book.

Other than that, not much is going on. We have childbirth classes on two Sundays this month, so that should be interesting. Well, I guess that's it for the moment!

Progression

The following is a series of pictures of my beautiful wife as the baby has grown and developed (yey!):

It's really been a pretty cool journey so far. The baby has gotten big enough to where I can feel it on a regular basis, and (for the most part), the Little Kitty hasn't really felt sick. She's getting to the feeling uncomfortable stage (especially sleeping), but that's to be expected. I really want the baby to get here so that I can meet him for myself. Can't believe I have to wait all the way till December (though it will be here before I know it, I'm sure).

Pretty neat trip, this pregancy thing.

Tremors!

It would appear that the Little Monster growing the the Kitty's belly has already decided to start using some of the traits it's gotten from me. He won't stay still when you want him to.

Now, those who know me know that this is one of my issues. I don't sit still. At the very least I'm constantly shaking a foot, and often and entire leg. Has something to do with my ADHD I think, but either way, that's the case.

At a doctor appointment a couple weeks ago, the Little Monster was so active that they couldn't get a good ultrasound reading for a while. Yesterday, he decided it would be fun to constantly kick while they tried out listening to his heartbeat again.

This isn't to say that it's a bad thing. I think it's hilarious that he's already got a problem sitting still when you want him to. It's the little things like that which makes him a little more human and a little less monster I guess.

On another note, we got our baby furniture (thanks Bran and James!). We now have a crib and a changing table and a little armoir, all of which has barely been used at all. Turns out the baby now has nicer stuff than most of what we do. I hear that this will become the norm, but that's fine. I like our comfortable furniture myself. :-)

Well, that's about it for this morning's post. I'm still on my sleep schedule, and it's going well. I moved up my core sleep from 3 hours to 4.5 hours, and now take 2 naps during the day instead of 3. It has been working much better and I haven't accidentally fallen asleep a single time since, woo!

Sleep Experiment - Day 6

Well, it finally happened. I fell asleep after I woke up for almost 4 hours. First time it's happened, but still kind of a bummer. Anyways, there's not a whole lot else going on at the moment. Gotta get ready for work in about an hour. Have a good day all!

Sleep Experiment '08 - Day 4

2:15 AM: Very nearly didn't get up this morning. The Little Kitty woke me up a few minutes after I had turned off the alarm and crawled back into bed. Beyond that I feel pretty much like I did yesterday morning (extremely tired), but that'll probably go away on it's own pretty soon here. Well, all's well that ends well I suppose.

Sleep Experiment - Day 3

2:15 AM: This morning it's pretty hard to stay going. It's still not quite as bad as I was expecting, but boy am I tired. Hopefully I'll keep waking up more and more as the day goes by. There's a good chance that this is going to be the worst day I think. Guess I'll have to wait a few hours and see how I am then.

7:19 AM: So the zombie status only afflicted me for around an hour after I woke up this morning. For all I had read I really had expected things to be much harder than they have been. I get yawny sometimes, and am tired by the time I go to bed at night, but I've also been falling asleep faster than ever once I actually lay down to sleep. It looks like the experiment is a success so far, and if it keeps up for the next couple of days I should be in the clear, hoorah!

Sleep Experiment - Day 2

2:08 AM: This morning hurt pretty bad getting out of bed, but funny thing, I'm actually not that much more tired than when I woke up getting ready to go to work. I am definitely more tired, just not as nightmarishly so as I had envisioned. I'm going to jump in the shower to help get the blood moving and then do some chores to keep me moving. I'm really finding it odd that I'm not dead this morning. Heck, I did manage to write this blog post! Lol.

5:51 AM: I'm a bit more tired than I was yesterday morning at this time, but still nothing like I expected. Been up for nearly 4 hours now, so far I've taken the clean dishes out of the dishwasher and put the dirty ones in, washed the pots, cleaned out the fridge, disinfected the fridge and counters, and swept and disinfected the kitchen floor. I've also played video games, watched the first episode of Heroes, and written on the blog for the second time. Have I mentioned how long a day lasts now? Psychologically it's a very strange feeling, kind of like it's still before most people are even awake? I'm glad I took the day off of work. I wouldn't be in a very good mood if I had to go and do work stuff from 8-5. As it is, it's like I get a free extra Saturday! As such, gonna go watch some anime before nap time from 6:40-7.

10:28 PM: The day has been pretty good, not overly tired or anything. Right now though I'm ready to go to sleep. Kinda waiting for the other shoe to drop and see if I really get exhausted. Guess we'll find out tomorrow!

Sleep Experiment - Day 1

2:47 AM: Been up since 2 AM. Woke up pretty well and I'm not tired, but that's to be expected right now. The human body can take things like this no problem for a day. It's the next few days that's gonna be difficult. The Little Kitty was up too, she's been having some trouble sleeping due to some back/side pain from her stomach stretching and making room for the Little Monster, so we watched a little of an old John Stewart standup, and she went back to sleep.

Well, I have 4 and a half hours to blow before I go to work, so I'll probably clean the kitchen, pick up the living room, and play some video games. Tomorrow's plan involves disinfecting the fridge, sweeping and mopping the floors, and probably lots of other chores that I'm asking the Little Kitty to think up to keep my body moving.

6:20 AM: This is a long time to be awake. I've gone to Wal-Mart, cleaned the kitchen and straightened the living room, play about 1 - 1 1/2 hours of video games, walked nearly a mile, grabbed the mail on the way in, took a shower, and watched some anime. My brain is already trying to play tricks on me saying that it's not really worth staying up this much and that there's no way I'll fill all this time. I know this to be fundamentally untrue however, as for the last few months I've been thinking of all the things I want to do that I can't due to time constraints. I'm not even particularly tired, but I have a feeling that by the time this evening rolls around I'm going to start to want to zonk out a lot more. Well, time to get ready for work so that I don't have to do it after my first nap. :-)

I'll write more this evening monitoring my progress. :-)

9:27 PM: Wow, this has been a long day. I've been up for 19 1/2 hours, minus my naps. Today was forever long, and it seems like this morning was yesterday. Interesting experience. I've read about time dilation, but even at this early stage I'm already noticing a little. I'm starting to get pretty tired, but that's to be expected I suppose. Anchor sleep is in an hour and half, so hopefully I won't oversleep or anything. Tomorrow is when the hard part starts. Kind of dreading it, but if I can power through it then everything should be good. Well, one day down, a few more to go!

Sleep Experiment '08!

Sorry I haven't written very much the last few weeks. Things at work have gone pretty crazy, but it's all settling down now.

This post is a warning about the next week or so.

Tomorrow night I plan on starting my adaptation to a polyphasic sleep schedule. This will (hopefully) enable me to sleep less and stay up more, since I really dislike sleep for the most part and have a LOT of things I want to learn and do and explore. My current schedule is set to be:

11 PM - 2 AM: Anchor sleep. This is where I get the majority of my rest.

7 AM, 12 PM, 5:30 PM: 20 minute nap

I've done a lot of research on this, reading up on people who have done it and continue to do it, what horrors to expect, and ways to stay on schedule and not mess up so that the adjustment is as quick as possible. So why do this?

Well, as I stated before, I want to do a lot of things, such as catch up on reading and studying, learn guitar and origami, exercise, play some games, and lots of other stuff. I never have time to do all the things I'm interested in, so this gives me an opportunity to do them. As the saying goes, work smarter, not harder. Hopefully it will work, and if it doesn't, well, I'll have to try again in another few months with another plan in mind.

I'll try to keep the blog updated with the current standings on how things are going. If something get's typed that's really weird, chances are I'm having sleep deprivation and I'm not thinking totally straight. The hardest part of the adaptation is making it through the sleep dep short-term so that you force your brain to begin working more efficiently and use the time it has better.

Oh, and if I pull it off, that means that from 2 AM - 7 AM the Little Kitty won't have to stay up with the baby. We won't have to be the crazy-tired new parents! How great would that be?

So wish me luck and see you on the other side!

iiiiiiit's sonogram time!

Here you go everyone. Now you can see what we saw!

Skeletor! (It's a ____!!)

So yes, I am going to make you read (or at least skim) this post before saying what the baby is! Not that many out there don't already know, we did send over 40 text messages today, call a bunch of people, and announce it at work. Anyways, on with today's story.

So today is the day we found out the sex! I still had to go to work in the morning though, as I had to get a bunch of videos shipped out and had a class going on that I was in the middle of attending. Well anyway, at 9:15 I popped out of my seat and left the course and, with the wellwishes of my fellow classmates, walked quickly out of the building and drove home to pick up the Little Kitty for the Big Appointment.

So we drive up to the hospital, hit the wrong floor on the elevator (but realize it in time), and go on up the the 4th floor where all the baby stuff is. Sign in, wait, and in a few minutes time get lead to the sonogram room (yey!!). This is where we saw what you see above, which we lovingly referred to at the same time as Skeletor. If you don't know who Skeletor is (He-Man's arch nemeis), here you go:

But enough about childhood heroes and villians, you're here to read about the baby. The nice sonogram lady took lots and lots of measurements and summarily informed us that everything looked perfect. This naturally made us both very happy. The rest of the sonogram went as follows:

So in case you missed it in the photo just above this paragraph, we're having a son!! Right where the little mouse arrow is is where his manhood sits, in case there are any doubts. The Little Kitty was very excited that she has known since April what it was going to be. I can attest to this fact myself, and congratulate her on her intuition (let it also be known that Granny was right as well, and may keep her perfect guess rating, lol).

The rest of the visit went very well. We saw Dr. Solomon, who assured the Little Kitty that everything was going well. He suggested Melatonin and Camomile Tea to help her sleep (she's had a pretty bad bout of insomnia lately), and antacids for her stomach (she's been having some nauseousness which the doc thought had more to do with her stomach changing positions and the subsequent acid fluxes than her being preggo sick).

So we thanked the good doctor, came home, and I went back to work. Tonight we celebrated at Chili's and went to Target, and bought our first outfit for the baby! It had dinosaurs on it. For those wondering, our theme is dinosaurs.

So that's all for this post (not that it's long enough). We also got a DVD of the sonogram, which I plan on ripping the video from tomorrow at work and posting shortly. I'll also take a picture of the clothes and post those too, just because it's fun.

Wow, a son. Guess it's time to get ready to raise a boy to grow up and be a man. Scary prospect, that. But one that'll be totally worth it.

Oh, and dinosaurs are wicked awesome.

It lives! It liiiiiiiiiiives!!

So yes, it's been almost a month since my last post. This week I plan to rectify my past laziness in keeping up with what all has been going on. Anyways, on with our story...

Me for the last few weeks: "Hey, soon I'll be able to feel the baby kicking yeah?"

Little Kitty: "Well, probably sometime in the fifth month or something."

Me: "Nah, it'll be sooner than that right?!"

Little Kitty: "I dunno, it has been kicking pretty hard. Maybe."

Little Kitty on Thursday night: "Hey, it's moving around again, wanna see if you can feel it?"

Me: "Sure!"

So I place my hand on her stomach, concentrate reeeeeal hard thinking "kick baby kick!". Lo and behold, it does! However, it has been the only time it's worked so far. Now whenever it starts to move and I try to feel it, it stops!

Well, as least it knows how to play a good joke on it's parents. That's a good sign. :)

In other news, I just got back from being gone for ten days in Utah. Now Utah is a nice state. I got to see some friends there, and I got to take about 300+ pictures of everything from the Mormon's cool stuff to cool stuff in a big graveyard to natural rivers and giant boulders. Also, I did a bunch of training there, which nearly made my head explode, but which also was a very good thing to get me moving forward in my job.

I also came to a realization while I was away. The first was just how much I would miss my wife and child-on-the-way while I was gone. You always here about it from other people who have to travel occasionally, but you don't really understand it until you haven't seen your love for over a week and you realize that there's still 2 more days and a thousand miles between you. It's not a pleasent experience, but it did lead to a second realization.

That realization is that I really am responsible for a family now. Now don't get me wrong, I've always had an OK work ethic. I would get done what I needed to get done and if I needed to put in some extra work on a rare occasion then I would go ahead, do it, and go. However, that's not necessarilly enough. I can become much, much better at what I do, and take steps to even advance my personal goals much, much more than I currently have. It will take a lot of study, and a lot of work on my part, but in the end I need to make sure that my family is provided for not only emotionally, spiritually, and physically, but financially as well.

Now this does not mean that I am going to become one of those crazy workoholics who's job comes before all else and the only thing that really matters is advancing up the ladder and making more money. However it does mean that I can take some time outside of my 8-5 job and do a little studying and a little growing to make sure that I become more than I am now.

I guess becoming a man who strives for growth in all areas of life, not just the parts they find shiny, is part of becoming a father too.

Hey look! I'm growing up!

P.S.: On July 29th we have our wicked-awesome sonogram where we find out if it's a boy or a girl!

Woohoo!

P.S.S.: Yes, those are robots playing soccer. Doesn't technology rock?!

small change

I've had more than one blog over the years, and while perusing through old material, I came across this:

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so i'm in the shower today, and i'm thinking...what's changed in me lately?

now...i'm not talking about small changes. i'm not talking about...haircuts, or what kind of toothpaste i use or even...what my job is going to do.

i mean, that's all good and well and all, but what about...spiritually?

and its easy to say, and we hear it all the time that you grow and you adjust and you ease into being a good christian...but is that enough? i mean, Christ didn't call people to making small little changes and "ease into" being a christian.

we see him calling people out of their entire worlds. in luke 9:59 he asks this guy to follow him and this guy asks, just to go bury his own, father. and Jesus, he didn't miss a beat and said "let the dead bury their own dead". even in the very next verse, Jesus tells someone else to follow him and they ask to say goodbye to their family, and Jesus tells him, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." and i don't know about you but...that seems radically different than what we hear today. i mean, if you told someone that what do you think they'd say?

but that's the point, isn't it? Jesus didn't call us to some...humdrum life where we can just change a little bit and be like him. he called us...to change. and not just change to this, this...culturized, sunday-wednesday church that comes in, sings some songs, and goes to lunch.

but you can't change radically all the time, but you can make radical changes in your life more than once, and more than twice. and if you haven't...if i haven't...then there's something wrong and we need to fix it.

and we need to do it now. we need to change ourselves so radically that we never even know who we used to be. we need to change ourselves to be so much like Christ that anyone, and everyone, that used to know us doesn't know what happened to us.

and i'm not saying that...that it's somehow bad or wrong or that you're lost if you don't change as fast as the next person or you don't know how to radically change your life or you just...don't understand what the big deal is yet. but just going day to day isn't enough. just being a "nice person" isn't enough. if we're not trying and striving and sweating and bleeding to change...is it enough?

and we're not perfect. we're going to fall and trip and stumble and crash, and burn sometimes...but only, if we're trying as hard and as long as we possibly can to be more...like...Jesus.

and if we're not...we need to fix that. we need to find someone, anyone, that can help us be who we know we need to be so that we don't...get left with this small change scenario when we are called and created to be so...much...more...

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I hope i can express this to my children one day. obviously my parents did something to help me realize that myself.

I don't worry really, about raising decent children who grow up to be decent adults.

Sometimes though, I worry about raising truly great children who grow up to be truly great men or women of God. It'll be tough to figure out, I'm sure, but I'm willing to put in the effort to help make it happen.

Guess it's time to get started on me. :-)

Father's Day

I didn't write the song at the bottom, but it sums up what I think of my dad. Without him I'd have gotten nowhere, and even though he thinks we made it easy to be a good dad, he made it easy to be a good kid. I look around and see so many guys, both kids and adults, and wonder what went wrong. Chances are they didn't have a father to back them up, show them how to live a good life, and how to be a man. If I manage to be as good of a dad to my kids as mine was to me, it's to his credit (along with mom), but there are certain things that you can only learn from a good father, and I've learned an aweful lot, and I learn more every day even when I don't talk to him. To me that's the mark of not just a great dad, but a great man and a great man of the Lord above.

What's a dad for dad?
Tell me why I'm here dad
Whisper in my ear that I'm growing up to be a better man, dad
Everything is fine dad
Proud that you are mine dad
Cause I know I'm growing up to be a better man

Father I will always beThat same boy that stood by the sea
And watched you tower over me
Now I'm older I wanna be the same as you
What's a dad for dad?
Taught me how to stand, dad
Took me by the hand and you showed me how to be a bigger man, dad
Listen when you talk, dad
Follow where you walk, dad
And you know that I will always do the best I can

Father I will always be
That same boy that stood by the sea
And watched you tower over me
Now I'm older I wanna be the same as you
The same as you

When I am a dad, dad
I'm gonna be a good dad
Do the best you could, dad
Always understood, dad
Tell me I was right, dad
Opened up my eyes, dad
Glad to call you my, dad

Thank you for my life dad.

Not Cutting the Baby in Half

So today was our first appointment with the new doctor. His name (as the title suggests) is Doctor Solomon. He came complete with a great attitude, jokes, and a beard, just like we picture King Solomon in the Bible. Well...with the beard at least.

Anyways, to continue the story, we got down to the hospital with little delay, and within short notice we (she) had refilled out all her paperwork and we were called in to see the doctor.

So he came in, insisted that we not get up from our seats, and welcomed us warmly and started asking a bunch of questions. The Little Kitty answered them all and had some of her own. The whole time he was very considerate and made a point to go into detail on many health issues and/or things we didn't quite understand. This was rather nice, as the previous doctor, while seeming competent enough, didn't seem have quite the bedside manner we were looking for.

There was no ultrasound this time, but Doc Solomon did bring his microphone thing, and upon putting it to LK's belly, we once again got to hear the "thumpthumpthumpthump" of the Little Monster's beating heart (at 168 beats per minute). This time though, we heard a weird "whoosh" sound. Upon seeing the odd looks on our face, he told us that that was the baby's kick! I didn't know babys made sounds when they kicked, but apparently they do! That was really really cool. A couple seconds later we heard a "beep beep...beep beep", and the doctor told us that it was not, in fact, the baby, but rather that his microphone thing needed new batteries.

So overall it was a great treat to go. Great doc, great place, and the Little Kitty felt it was a bit more "homey" than the last place, so what's good for her is good for me.

Release the Beast!

Countdown!

Widgets are pretty neat things. You can see that I've added a countdown timer for when the baby is supposed to be here. Every week the picture will change and bit by bit you can see what stage it's in as is grows into a larger little monster. Hoorah!

In other news, the Little Kitty has decided to change doctors. While the last one seemed perfectly confident, she didn't really seem that excited about what was going on. Her nurse was very nice and joyful for us, but she had this kind of "meh" attitude which kind of turned us off. The new guy (yes, guy) is supposed to be really good and was suggested by our general practitioner, and we go to the appointment with the new doc on Monday. I think I'm going to try and steal a friends audio recorder and record the heartbeat. That'd be fun. :-)

Other than those couple of updates, there's not a lot to report. I will however have a new post once we get back to the doctor, complete with new pictures (hopefully) to put up. I've also gotta find where the wifey put the ultrasound picture and get it posted...maybe I'll remember that next time too!

I hope my kids get the Little Kitty's memory, mine seems to short out way too often, heh.

As a side note, I doubt our doctor will be as sinister as Doctor Wiley at the top, but it's the only picture I could find, so there. :-)

Adios!

All Quiet on the Western Front (or - the new normal)

It seems it's been a while since my last post, so here we go again!

Things have been amazingly normal around here lately. By normal, I mean normal for a pregnancy as far as I know (which uncoincidentally isn't much).

The new normal involves lots of sleep for the Little Kitty, including a 9:00 bedtime, with me going to sleep between 10:30 and 11:30, depending on how long I'm writing or playing games or what have you. It also involves lots of soup for the wife and cravings for water, of all things.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining in the least, I just think its funny how easy new things become normal things. The all-day-full-body-corruption (or as some know it as: morning sickness) has begun to ebb and flow more rather than just flow at a constant rate. In fact last week was so good I was surprised when it came back this week. But, that's life, yes?

Me (and her) are ready for the little monster to start showing. It actually doesn't look like a miniature shark anymore, and instead is taking on much more human characteristics. Seems that the Island of Doctor Moreau part of it is over, and it should start growing pretty rapidly beginning in a few weeks.

So that's all that's going on at the moment. I'm sure more things will begin happening, and when they do, I'll be right there anxious and excited that they're occuring.

Mother's Day

So today is Mother's Day and it would be good if I could write something, so this is a two-parter:

Part One: Things I learned from mom (see this post for the dad version).

1. Never underestimate yourself

2. Be there for people

3. Cracking your knuckles won't actually give you arthritis, but it will make mom a lot happier if you'll cut it out already

4. Give dad the respect he deserves

5. The worse thing you can do in dad's eyes is to disrepect mom

6. You will, in fact be the man of the house one day

7. Longaberger baskets are like McGuyver, they can do anything

8. A wife taking care of children has the best job on the planet

9. Mom knows a whole lot more about what's going on in the house than anyone else

10. The wife is the gatekeeper to the success of the husband

11. There's no cookin' like mom's cookin'

12. It takes a lot more time and effort to be a good mom than to be a good most-other-things

13. Things turn out a lot better when mom doesn't baby everything

14. Playing in the rain should be encouraged as it does not, in fact, make you sick

15. That regardless of where I am in life, whether drowining in myself or soaring high, being crushed by the world or lifting it up, that mom will be there to pull me through.

Thanks, mom, and I hope I to still learn more and more as we continue onwards.

And now, for Part Two:

A letter to my wife.

Dear Little Kitty,

I know that pregnancy is not easy. Obviously, I do not know this first hand, but I hear some pretty freaky things about it, at least for the beginning part. When I married you I had no idea what all might show up on our doorstep but I don't regret one thing that has ever happened, and I never plan on regretting anything. I love you more as each day goes by, and even when I don't have a reply to a question or get real quiet, it's because I'm thinking things through because I want only the true best for the both of us (soon to be the three of us).

There are a lot of things that I will probably never quite get or understand, and my ability to zone in and out of things (ooh! shiny!) will get the better of me now and again, but it always comes back to you. I love you more than life itself, and I will be at least attempting to improve myself for you as every day goes by. More often than not I'll mess up at that, but I'll keep trying at it until I succeed. I know that you think I'm already terrific and that you love me with all you are, but my commitment to you is based on my constant improvement, however disjointed it may be. You're going to be such a great mom and I can't wait to share this unbelievable blessing with you.

Happy Mother's Day.

Love,

Me

Wrap-up:

So Happy Mother's Day mom, kitty, and all the other mothers and mothers-to-be out there!

Heartbeats

So yesterday the Little Kitty and I went to our (her) first sonogram appointment. It was pretty cool. The place was at a brand spankin' new hospital, so everything was really nice.

Upon awakening that morning I proceeded to go and get a full physical/blood test/checkup since I'm supposed to start being all "responsible" now, and then proceeded to work from home. I had taken the day away from the office since I had that appointment in the morning and the baby appointment in the afternoon.

So yesterday afternoon at 2 o'clock we drove up to the hospital, about 5 miles and 2 tolls away, for our appointment. I made the comment that once the baby came I was finally going to have an excuse to drive at excessive speeds. This turned out to be a mistake, as the wife chided me for the remark and said that I would proceed to kill us all if I did that (but don't worry, I still plan on making it to the hospital in at least 1/2 the time it took us to get there this time).

Anyways, back to our story. We arrived at the hospital and proceeded to the Gates of OBGYN's and Labs. Behold:

So we went in, she filled out a bunch of paperwork, and we waited. Me, being the patient waiter that I am, got some water, played with the camera, and generally fiddled around as usual. Finally (aka: about 10 minutes) we got called in to the ultrasound room. The Little Kitty laid on a table and they smeared her with some weird jelly stuff. This was followed by turning on a giant machine attached to a strange little wand and the lady put the wand on her belly.

Presto! Upon the screen appears and warped black and white, grainy picture of my wife's lovely innards. Did you know they can zoom in and stuff now? Ultrasound Lady zoomed way in and there it was! Our baby. And you could see the heart pumping away! How cool is that? My favorite part was what came next though.

Did you know that ultrasound wands have microphones now?

Ultrasound Lady turned on the microphone and you could hear the "thupwumpthupwupthupwump" of an itty-bitty heart plowin' by at 150 beats a minute. You could see it too! That was really cool.

Once I get my scanner back online I'll post the picture of the ultrasound.

So next (wow, this is a long post), we went back and waited some more, then got called to the Gyno's office for her to talk to us about the pregnancy and what was going on and all that good stuff. They even gave us a copy of What to Expect When You're Expecting and a bunch of other informational stuff. We also found out that at our 20 week ultrasound that they give us a DVD of the ultrasound! Sweet! New hospitals are win.

After this I was kicked out of the room so that they could do their Boys Not Allowed stuff, and we went home. And now, we finally get to tell everybody! We had been keeping it a not-telling-everbody-but-who-we-really-felt-like-we-needed-to thing, but no more! Yey!

I'm really excited about becoming a dad.

Release the beast!

Almost 8 weeks!

At 8 weeks, the little monster looks something like this:

So we're almost at 8 weeks, which means we're almost at our first doctor's appointment! It's strange and exciting that in only 1 week (next Monday), I'm should get to hear the baby's heartbeat and see the strange bean-like structure that is my child. The Little Kitty is still feeling pretty bad, but a friend at work told us to ask the doctor for Zofran when we go. It's supposed to really help with nausea. Actually, it's what they give chemo patients to keep their nausea down, so if that doesn't work I'm not sure what we'll end up doing, heh.

So life is pretty good at the moment for me. It's difficult to stretch myself sometimes and keep going when I just wanna stop for a while and play games or read or go to the toy store and look around, but that's what happens when you grow up, right? Life's only gonna get busier, but if I can keep putting the big rocks in first, all the small stuff will start following soon afterwards.

So here's to moving forward and moving on, and to pushing on ever towards that next level!

P.S.: I finally finished putting the apartment together! Woo! Not everything is on the walls yet, but the boxes are unpacked and put away. Finally put in a late night last night and finished up after work today, and it's all finally done.

That only took 2 1/2 weeks...ha.

My Dad

It's a double-post Thursday!

In all seriousness though, a tribute to my dad, who has been there all the way and whom I respect more than any other man out there today.

Things I've learned from dad:

1. It all centers on God

2: There are always more questions than answers

3. Not every question has an answer

4. It's important to share all the answers you can with your kids

5. It's not about climbing the corporate ladder, it's about climbing the family ladder

6. If you call your kids "little twerps!" while they're teens in a fit of anger, they'll probably laugh at you

7. A day's hard work on the farm is worth 10 days at the office

8. Respect your momma

9. Respect your wife

10. Respect your kids

11. Respect yourself

12. If you start saying "crap!" so will your kids, followed by everyone else in the family

13. Dad really did know best most of the time

14. That at some point after my teens I knew nothing and dad knew everything

15. That no matter what, come hell or high water, length or depth or anything else, that dad is there for me.

Thanks dad, and I look forward to learning a lot more from you than I already know.

Vicious Sickness (hey that rhymed!)

Beware ye that plan on pregnancy.

"Morning Sickness" is a crock. "All Day Full Body Corruption and Nausea" is a better term for what it can really be.

The Little Kitty has been feeling aweful lately. She can hardly eat or drink most of the time, and nothing seems to help. We've done cranberry juice, teas, preggie pops, ginger ale, ginger chews, you name it. This leaves me in the precarious position of trying to do what I can without: A) bugging her to death about it. B) seeming like it's not that big a deal. and C) trying to get a lot of stuff done the 5 or 6 hours between coming home from work and going to sleep.

At the same time, I'm glad it's not me who has to go through that. I hate being sick. Hopefully our doctor can give her something that'll actually help, but we have to call her first.

Luckily, I have a wife that appreciates me helping out and lets me know it. And I'm glad that I can do something to make her life easier. The problem with pregnancy sickness is that there's not really anything I can do directly that's helpful. I recognize that doing things on the periphery to make her more comfortable is a worthy task, but as someone who would rather be on the frontlines of helping out, it bugs me.

Well, I'm only human I suppose. So let this be a lesson to ye men out there trying to "fix" your wife when she has All Day Full Body Corruption and Nausea. Don't try to. Do the things on the sidelines that you can do to help her out. She'll appreciate it a lot and you'll be doing your part to keep things moving along.

Goodbye Titania, Hello Haruko!

So Titania is gone after only being on craigslist for one evening. The guy came today, paid for her, and took away the title and key (he picks her up tomorrow). Afterwards the Little Kitty and I went and went (originally) for pizza, but ended up at Chipotle because it smelled better to her. What is it with pregnant women and their sense of smell? She's like a superhero or something, ha.

So once we got back I decided I must have the camera I've dreamed of having. My big reason for it? It'll take great pictures of the baby. My other reason for it? I'm a graphic designer and I want a wicked camera. So there.

I went to Best Buy originally, and fawned over the different cameras before making my decision. When I made up my mind, it turned out they didn't have it in stock. So I went to Sears and lo and behold, they had it. Seeing as I was at the mall at this point, I picked up some preggie pops for the wife.

Preggie pops are good things. They make her feel not as sick (this is very important for everyone involved).

Anyways, back to the camera. I am now the proud owner of a Canon Rebel XTI 10 megapixel digital SLR camera.

It takes wicked awesome pictures, and her name is Haruko.

So farewell Titania, hello Haruko, and let the games begin!

Farewell, Titania

A sad day has come to pass.

Titania (my motorcycle) must be sold, ending my riding days for the time being.

I really enjoy riding, and with gas prices going the way they are, the miles per gallon (around 40) on it were killer. But, with a kid on the way, there are some things that are just more important. I have confidence in my riding skills, and my commute to work is only 4 miles now, but I do cross 2 major roads, and the off chance that some moron running a red or swerving to make that last-second turn and ramming me just isn't worth it.

When we first found out the baby was coming I didn't even consider selling the bike, but things change, as they must, and if I want to be the father I truly want to be then I don't want to tempt that fate by continuing on with something that could stop it before it starts.

So I'm selling little Titania and buying my self a sweet digital SLR camera, and putting the rest of the money away towards the house we're wanting to buy when our lease on our apartment is up in a year. And my riding days may be over for now, but in the future that may or may not change (though I tend to believe the former).

But right now, I have a little monster coming, and it's going to change a lot more things than whether or not I have a motorcycle.

And I couldn't be more excited about it.

Update: Titania has been sold after on one day on craigslist! I didn't quite get what I payed for her, but I came pretty close, and that's good enough for me.

Sleep Glorious Sleep

There is more than one reason I started these posts. One was so that, later on down the road, the wife and I (and the Little Monster) could look back on these, laugh, and say "remember when" so we don't forget all the little things that happened along the way.

The second reason is to keep our family and friends updated on the goings-on in our life because I'm terrible at keeping in any sort of decent contact with anyone (I'm off-the-charts ADHD and very forgetful, not a good combination).

The last reason is so that this might be a resource for other new fathers down the road to see a more personal view of having a kid so they might have that much more knowledge on what they might expect as things progress.

This brings us to the title of today's post.

For the record, the Little Kitty is probably about 5ish or 6ish weeks along in her pregnancy. For the past 2 or 3 weeks she's been having some pretty bad sleep. Last night we actually had to sleep in the guest bedroom because our bed suddenly turned very uncomfortable for her. After that she slept more or less ok and I was out like a lamp (again). I usually do pretty good with a minimum amount of sleep, but between work, church, moving, finding out we're having a baby, fixing the flat on the car, and lack of sleep, I have become rather worn out by the time bedtime rolls around. But I'll stay up as long as I can, because being with her is the most important thing right now.

If I could give that sleeping ability to the wife, I certainly would.

So what's the point of this post? Stay up with your wife when she needs it. It'll help her know that you are there, and with all the crazy changes her body's going through, you definitely have the easier job. So enjoy the extra time you have with her as much as you can, even if she's not exactly enjoying not being able to get to sleep. I get the sneaking suspicion (aka: every book and blog i read tells me) that once the Little Monster gets here the extra time is gonna go right out the window.

Sidenote: Little Monster is not a derogatory term at all. I look forward to the child, but have you ever seen those pictures of the baby while it's developing?! It has a tail and everything!

Big News!

Yesterday morning:

The sky is dark outside, and I'm asleep. Well, more like dead to the world, when the Little Kitty (my wife) comes in and wakes me up:

"Hun! Hun! Get up, you gotta see this!"

"Ungrhrhgrghrg...time'sit?" I say, as I look at the clock.

My mind slowly realizes that yes, the clock does say that its 4 AM, and something in the back of my mind tells me I'm not sleeping till 6:45 like usual today. As I stumble into the bathroom, my eyes, which at first were hurting by the eeeeevil light, slowly adjust. The sight of a pregnancy test comes into view.

"It came back positive!" says the wife.
"Huh?" says my mouth as my brain starts wracking me with questions and advice ("Don't say 'huh'! Your having a flippin' baby! Wake up!").

Comprehension finally settles in as the rest of me wakes up just enough to not sound retarded.

"That's great! Woo!" I say as I hug and kiss her. And I am excited. But in reality its 4 in the morning and my body hasn't finished waking up. So we talk about it for a couple of minutes and go to lay back down, her telling me to get some more sleep so that I can be awake for work tomorrow.

Ever tried going to sleep right after hearing that you're having a baby? Doesn't happen. So we layed there for about an hour, talking occasionally, the rest of the time thinking of all the things that are about to happen while at the same time realizing that we don't know anything about what's going to happen.

So we walk to HEB to get another pregnancy test, finding out that they don't open for another hour. So we do the only natural thing we can think of.

Go to Kirby Lane and stuff our faces.

So back to HEB, get another test, and take it, just to be sure.

Yup, 'Pregnant' says the test, much to our delight.

I have no idea what's about to happen to my life, but I sure am looking forward to it, even if its going to be terrifying and new and completely turn my life upside down. You know what though? I need a change. Its about time I got that push to become the man I've always wanted to be.

Update: The Little Kitty went to the doctor yesterday to get a blood test, just to be really really certain. Sure enough, doc called back this morning saying that it is officially official that she's pregnant.

Release the beast!