My Train (wreck) Of Thought

This is what happens when I don’t write in a long while. I feel so compelled to get all these thoughts out on paper finally that they become the blog equivalent of a dam breaking- no smooth flow and transition, just a white-water current of my random thoughts over the past three and a half weeks (and I apologize for waiting so long).

I have more pictures and if I ever actually plug my laptop into the office scanner instead of just having it on my lap in bed (a wireless home network is a dangerous thing) I promise to give you all some more “belly shots”.

I’d also like to start taking pictures of progress on the LAB’s bedroom mural. I’d like to…

When I was a little kid I thought my father was perfect; like most kids do who look up to their fathers. When I got to be a little older (re: teenager) and we would fight some it was me testing boundaries and coming to the assumption that he was, in reality, far from perfect; though at that age I still didn’t have what you might consider “proof”. It was only after he died and I got a bit older and realized that I wasn’t perfect that I was able to say for sure, that neither was my father. Oddly enough, it was only when I reached that point that I think I fully understood what kind of man and what kind of father he was; and that who he really was now impresses me more than when I was an eight-year old and really thought he was perfect.

I also felt a bit guilty this past week for thinking about my father so much when I’ve got my mother still here. Remembering how a few years back she battled through open-heart surgery, breast cancer, near kidney failure and two hip-replacements in a span of just over 24 months… I don’t think calling her a hero would give much justice to the kind of woman she is. I’d like to think these are the kinds of moments she was looking towards when she was fighting to get out of hospital bed after hospital bed. One of my favorite quotes of all-time is “A man is not judged a success by his accomplishments as much as he is by the number of times he is willing to fail, and try again.” I botched the exact quote but you get the idea… my mom is living proof of the truth of that idiom.

We’re getting the baby’s furniture next weekend. It may be the first time I’m ever excited to assemble furniture.

I decided in church last weekend that the LAB was going to be born on July 16th. Follow this logic: I was born on October 20th and my dad’s birthday was January 24th. So, as his first born son, I arrived 4 days short of nine months after his birthday. This might seem silly to you; but right now it makes as much sense to me as 2+2=4.

Our brand new car had issues last weekend that kept us from going to a friend’s on Long Island for their birthday. I think it’s the most randomly angry I’ve been at something in a while. Especially since the repair/ issue was relatively minor and cost us nothing (warranty). Still, on principal I almost drove back to the dealer (200 miles away) simply to yell. Problem was, I didn’t have a car to do it in. That my friends, is irony.

I think we finally found a pediatrician. Next to the birth itself, this was probably the biggest remaining worry I had (excluding the money worry which will go away when they’re 30…maybe).

I thought nesting was a female trait of the pregnancy. Apparently I was way wrong. Curtains, pictures, furniture, murals… I feel like I’m living in one of those home renovation shows except for the fact that nothing’s been glued to walls (yet).

No child’s diaper could possibly be as bad as what our cat did in the litter box last night. At one point, as I approached the box, I could feel heat emanating from it – kinda like the sacred stones in “Temple of Doom”.

The LAB moves ALL THE TIME. It’s like a human gremlin that got fed after midnight or something I swear to god.

Apparently, hospitals are seeing a decline in the number of births for 2008 so far. Some experts believe this is because of the hits the economy has taken over the past year which are now, months later (obviously) showing up in a decline in “planned” pregnancies. That either makes the wife and I very secure or very delusional. I haven’t decided just yet.

Will try to be more frequent with the updates; if not for your reading pleasure than at least for my sanity… July 16th… what am I thinking?