Still Here

Well, I suppose my paternity-leave-from-blogging should just about be coming to a close, given that Benjamin has now reached the 3 month-old mark. Here are a few updates:

-Last week, I went to an academic conference in Copenhagen. It was a great conference, and I got good responses to my paper, so I'm glad I went. I also got to see a good bit of the city. But it was so much harder to leave Watoosa and Benjamin than I had expected. I always miss Beth when I travel, but I was pretty much wracked with worry the whole time. So while I'm glad I went, I'm also glad to be back.

-Fatherhood has brought with it a whole range of emotional states that it's dizzying to keep up with them. Taking care of Benjamin (and Beth) in the early days was certainly one of the toughest emotional experiences of my life. Things have gotten easier now that we have him on a feed/wake/nap schedule. It's made a world of difference. But there have been times when the combination of stress and sleep deprivation showed me just how much moral formation I have yet to undergo.

-And yet... I have grown so attached to the little fella, much more than I realized until I had to say good-bye at the airport last week. I like the way he giggles and flashes his big toothless grin, and how he stretches his arms out when he wakes up, and how he makes little cooing sounds when he eats.

-I also love showing him off, seeing everyone delight in looking at him as they fight off their sense of disbelief at how he is just as unbelievably gorgeous as his father. Good stuff. When we took him into campus to let everyone meet him, we started off in the secretaries' office. As soon as she saw us, Jane, who was on the telephone, just burst out, "Baby! Must go!" and hung up on whomever she was talking with. She told us they'd understand.

-Watoosa and I were proud when we were asked if he could play baby Jesus in the Christmas pageant at church. Alas, we'll be out of town. Plus, he will probably be larger than the kids playing Mary and Joseph by then. And while that might nicely represent the relative importance of the characters to the story of salvation history, I doubt the organizers want to have a baby Jesus that has to be hoisted into the air by his parents with a series of pulleys and levers.

-Greta's status position in the household has, naturally, declined. She gets more attention from me, since that's pretty much the way things were before Benjamin arrived. Now that the cold weather has come, she likes to sit in my lap when I wear my robe, and she likes to sleep on my back at night. But unfortunately she doesn't get quite as much attention as she wants. To be more precise, she doesn't get the attention she wants when she wants it. Perhaps recognizing the new attention-hog, she completely ignores the baby. We'll see how that strategy works once he gets mobile.

-Benjamin had an early lesson in the difference between men and women when I picked him up in the middle of the night for a feeding. Since it was still during warm weather, and I had jumped out of bed, I was shirtless. He tried latching on. Let's just say neither one of us was happy with the outcome.

-Finally, I'd like to formally revise my pre-season football predictions.

I don't know if any of my former readers still check in, but take this as a sign of more regular writing, if you're interested. I have noticed that many people start their blog and then over time lose momentum. I 'm not ready for mine to go dark just yet.

All About the Benjamin

Watoosa and Ben are now home from the hospital. We're all pretty exhausted, but happy to be home, and happy that Watoosa's parents are here to help. We've got relatives lined up to cover the next three weeks or so.

Ben is very healthy. He weighed in at a hefty 9lbs. 11.4 oz., and he only lost about a pound of that before he started gaining again. He's also very sweet-natured, as long as his every wish is fulfilled without delay. Unfortunately, doing so is made more difficult by the fact that Watoosa is moving a bit slower than usual. When he's being...uh, not sweet-natured, he can pack a wallop. He's already developed a William Shatner-style karate chop, with which he rained blows on my face and chest when he had to wait for Watoosa to get out of the bathroom and feed him (check out the 1:15 mark here to see what I mean). He should call it Kirk Fu.

It's still a little overwhelming to realize that I have a son, but in a good way. When we finally got discharged, we were so excited and relieved that when I went to get the car, I steered toward home out of the parking lot before I realized that I was forgetting to pick up Watoosa and the baby at the entrance. Luckily, I didn't get far.

For more on Ben, check out his blog at The Kid (soon to be renamed). We've been too tired and busy to post anything yet, but that will change soon.

This Is What Justice Looks Like

Sweet, hilarious justice.

Word to the Wise

The wait continues here at the home office. Watoosa is now ten days past due, which is well beyond fashionably late.

Meanwhile, in preparation for my role during the delivery and first few days of childrearin', here is a list of words, phrases, and sentences which I am pretty sure I should avoid using.

"great with child"

"fruit of my loins"

"Walk it off."

"Let me finish this nonogram first."

"What's a contraction?"

"football"

"whiner"

"women's work"

"Are you cooking tonight?"

"Dibs on the bathroom!"

"I'm pretty sure he's crying for his momma."

All Those Years of School Were Totally Worth It Because of This

My doctoral regalia came in this week, so I had to try it all on.



The tam looks even better on Watoosa. I think she's starting to show, now.



Greta liked the tassel.

Surprising Experimental Finding of the Week

Bicycle helmets make you less safe:

"When he wore a helmet, vehicles tended to pass closer than when he did not wear a helmet. Passing drivers may have read th helmet as a sign that there was less risk for the cyclist if they hit him. Or perhaps the helmet dehumanized the rider. Or--and more likely, according to [the researcher]--drivers rea the helmet as a symbol of a more capable and predictable cyclist, one less likely to veer into their path. In either case, the helmet changed the behavior of passing drivers."

That's from Tom Vanderbilt's Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us).

I'm tempted to try this experiment myself, given how scary it is for cars to pass too close by me on high-speed roads. But I suspect an AK-47 strapped across my back might lead them to give me even more leeway. These are the things I fantasize about as I pedal around the area.

In other news...no, labor hasn't started yet.

Regrettable Food...Soviet Style!

Nothing in your life can prepare you for this:



Questions:

(1) Obviously, the most pressing question is this: "Do the makers of this commercial want us to buy this product, or are they trying to turn us off of meat forever?"

(2) Is that voice-over
(a) simply part of the soundtrack?
(b)a Manchurian Candidate style hypnotic trigger designed to send someone out to bring the system of capitalism to its knees?
(c) a voice inside the women's heads?
(d) a voice inside the women's heads projected by the chicken, announcing impending bloody vengeance on the human world for this and this(!)?

(3) The women at the restaurant seem to be exchanging knowing glances, as if to say, "Do we dare try the Kana hakkliha?" What do they know that we don't? Something tells me that deep down they suspect that KANA HAKKLIHA IS PEOPLE! IT'S PEOPLE!