My Little Pele'

I've put about half a dozen ancillary baby stories into editing over the past four days that will all have to wait a few more days for your general perusal. It seems as if the roller coaster is about to take another trip through the loop-de-loop for me right now and I'm gonna have to hold on tight for the ride; which means no free hand to write until probably late next week. By then you all may have to take some vivarin to keep up with all the new stuff I'm gonna be putting into this site to make up for lost time. If that was too vauge I'll be much clearer next week- promise.

But, between now and then there was one thing I couldn't keep in any longer:

Tuesday night I felt him kick/move for the first time and let me tell you... he kicked hard.

We spent the evening down at the Ronald McDonald House near University City with some of the kids who are there either pre or post-surgery playing games and coloring and doing "farts and craps" ("arts and crafts") while their parents got a few hours of rest and maybe a cup of coffee or eight. Most of the time they're not gone for long though since they want to be around to see their kids play and have fun, even if after everything they don't always have the energy for it themselves.

So we get back home rather late and after wolfing down a quick bite we picked up at Quizno's we head off to bed- rather exhausted. After reading Fox in Socks, by Dr. Seuss, to the LAB (one of the future posts I alluded to earlier), and as I rolled over to say good night I put my hand on Katie's belly for no other reason than it was a good place to put it as I rolled when suddenly, there it was.

A kick. A hard one too. Square in the middle of my palm.

Now, Katie's been able to feel the LAB moving around for quite some time and has gotten used to him being more active at night when her normal movements aren't there to basically rock him to sleep during the day. Consequently, her inactive periods (usually after dinner) have become his active ones. He espically loves coffee ice cream and, as I understand it, just about does somersaults after a bowl of the stuff for dessert.

I understand the LAB will sometimes react to a hand pressed against the tummy; basically feeling it when you apply a bit of pressure. I wasn't even pressing that hard, but my hand just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Katie said it was an espically hard kick too. I was amazed. It was so cool but happened so quick I almost didn't realize it for what it was as first (as opposed to a bit of a gas bubble or something more "common" like that) I did a little of the aforementioned "pressing" to no avail. He spotted me one good kick in the hand then went back to doing whatever it is babies his age do... probably growing the brain cells that remember baseball stats or something important like that.

I haven't felt him since, though Katie assures me he's definitely been an active bugger the last few days (again, especially after meals and during night-time story reading); but it was a nice reminder of what's actually happening. It was a chance for my son to say HI in his own way. It doesn't mean the next time won't be a surprise too, but it was the first, and I will always remember that.