Could you kids just go to sleep so I can blog about you?

I've been finding it rather amusing all of the little details regarding newborns that I seem to have forgotten since Henry's infant days, just a little over two years ago. Like that whole thing where they'll just pee on your during diaper changes - that's a lesson you'd think would stick for good, but no. Simon had to drop a little refresher for me on that one. It was good of him to get that over with quickly.

And there's that neat trick where you can set them down someplace and turn your back for two seconds and they'll still be exactly where you left them when you come back. Yeah, toddlers don't do that one. Only newborns. And perhaps seniors. I like that one, although it's slightly compromised if you've got a toddler around who is very interested in his baby bro.

Not to mention how little they are. My life was such that I never actually saw a real-live newborn until the birth of my first son, and I remember being struck at that time by how very small and fragile brand new human beings really are. And in spite of his immense birth weight, I felt the same sensation when Simon was born....which reminds me of a funny story from his birth. So the little guy had just been born, right? And I was holding him in my arms, looking down at his chubby-cheeked little face, and feeling the love sweep over my being, and pondering how it could be that each and every human being that has ever lived was at one time this small and vulnerable and dependent, and as the mysteries of the universe began to unfold before me in the barely-opened eyes of this freshly-hatched little squirmasaurus, my wife suddenly started yelling, "still attached! STILL ATTACHED!"

Yeah, those umbilical cords aren't quite as long I thought. Heh.

Anyway. No neat endings tonight. Off to catch some zzzzzzzz.

This Time Next Month

The title of this post is a time I look forward to. This difficult semester will be over, we will be moved, and we can just focus on enjoying the arrival of our new little guy. I suppose it is a testament to how much we have going on at the moment that the thought of having a new baby added to our family sounds like a break. It ain't exactly a vacation, but I look forward to being able to focus all of my energies on my family for a while instead of being pulled in so many directions. I felt the baby moving around in Ashley's tummy the other night, and I felt the same sensation come over me as the one I felt in the months and weeks leading up to Henry's birth, that eagerness to finally meet him, to hold him in my arms, say hello, and just love him. Until then little guy, you just stay in there and bake.

The mouse doesn't work that way

I was so out of it this afternoon at work that I actually moused my cursor up in an attempt to use it to tap the little bobble-headed turtle that sits on top of my monitor. I had entered a state of mind where such a move should have worked. Lucky for me, the cursor reached the top of the screen and went no farther. It did not exit the monitor. I don't know how I would have gotten it back in there if it had. The turtle took no notice.

Quitting is for quitting quitters

Man, I picked a hell of a day to start cutting back on the caffeine.

See, way back in the day, before I was the Pops to the little howler monkey known as Henry, I decided one day that I wasn't comfortable with how dependant I had become on caffeine to wake up and be alert and function. Just didn't seem right somehow. So over time, I eased my coffee intake way back and finally got to where I only had a cup every now and then on the occasion that some especially good stuff was readily available.

Enter baby. After Henry was born, sleep left our midst for a little while, so I found myself fiending for the Joe. I was like the junkie who'd been clean a little while calling up his old dealer. I could practically hear my trusty Houston Rockets mug mocking me. Yeah, you thought you was done with Old Joe, but I knew you couldn't hack it without me. I knew you'd be back. Pretty soon, I was even drinking the sludge they serve up at my office. I needed to function and Joe had what I needed.

Then the other night, our friends Brandon and Courtney (collectively known as Bratney) took us out to dinner, and the conversation turned somehow to coffee, which it turns out they've cut way back on for reasons nearly identical to my own from way back when. And it occurred to me, now that sleep has returned to our house, even if not as a permanent resident, mayhaps it's time I start easing off my habit. I was, you might say, inspired.

So today was my first day with no coffee, just a couple of cups of black tea. Compared to a typical day's countless cups of coffee, I thought this was pretty good. But like I said, it was a suck of a day to go messing with the chemicals my body was accustomed to. First off, it was a Monday, and I am among the Mon. - Fri. crowd. Add to that I had to sit through an intensely boring hour and a half presentation about some Microsoft product tool thing whatever...something about increasing efficiency, facilitating better communication, central repository, blah blah zzzzzzzz. I kept nodding off through the whole thing. I was certain I was going to wake up on the floor surrounded by a bunch of IT geeks. "Is he okay?" "I don't know, kick him." Follow that with more meetings. We just love our meetings at my office, probably because we love each other so much.

But I made it, and hopefully tomorrow is a little easier. Hey, this is nothing compared to quitting smoking.