Check it out–I’m a dad!
After contractions started at 4:30 a.m., Madeleine Alexis Hendricks joined the world at 11:57 a.m. this morning. She weighed 8 lbs. 2 oz. and was 21-3/4 inches long. Mom and Lexi (our preferred nickname) are doing great. As you can see they’re clean and glowing, while I’m just glowing.
Nope, no baby. Still no baby. No, I’m not a dad yet.
That’s what it’s like to be me. Say that over and over again to every person you know and you might start to understand. But you won’t.
I’ve come to realize that waiting for a baby to be born sucks. There’s no way around that. It’s the only event that will completely change your life upside down that you prepare for and know is coming but you have no idea when it will actually happen.
But my wife did it, so I’m humoring her. Speaking of humor, Mazie had a pretty funny one.
Les Savy Four (from Jenell)
FOUR JOBS I’VE HAD:
There have been very few occasions in my life when everything comes to a halt. When suddenly you don’t care about the dishes, or the responsibilities at work, or the color of the sky. Your life is about to change in an unexpected, dramatic and painful way, and you hardly know what to do.
That happened yesterday for about an hour when we sat in the doctor’s office and then made a harried ride to the hospital at speeds exceeding the posted limits. The baby’s fine. Everything’s OK. But she’s in so much trouble. When she’s finally born she is so grounded.
Technically the countdown is down to 10 days, but c’mon. Seriously. We’re all waiting for you kiddo. I know it’s still technically early, but we like to be punctual around here. Early is good.
Anywho, a baby is coming. That means we need a name. Of course we have one, but we’re being obnoxious and not sharing the name with anybody. So let’s have some suggestions. And it is a girl (we think), so you can minimize the Tony Hendricks suggestions. Personally, I’m still partial to Swanhilda Himalaya.
And for the love of all things holy, we’re not naming a child Jimi. So don’t even go there.
If Jason Kottke is doing it, why can’t I? Here’s my 2005 in cities (one or more nights spent in each city, cities marked with an * were visited multiple times in non-consecutive days):
St. Paul, Minn.*
Los Angeles*
San Diego
Wilmar, Minn.
Cleveland, Ohio
Mason, Wisc.
Green Bay, Wisc.*
Great Bend, Kans.
Not nearly as exciting as you might think. (Can you tell I’m sitting around with the laptop tonight? Sheesh)
So I’ve signed up with the current flavor of the month, MySpace. I’ve got my own little MySpace page with my favorite movies and music and a running tally of how many friends I have (yesterday it told me I had 0 friends, but today I’m up to 12–score!).
I’m trying to see what all the fuss is about, and so far I don’t really get it. I think I’m just old.
I don’t ordinarily think of myself as a productive person. I like the idea of it, but productivity, organization and efficiency are all things I strive for but rarely attain. At least that’s how I feel about it–others would probably describe me as productive, organized and efficient. Those people also don’t see the piles I usually have surrounding my work space.
I especially like it when I find a new way to make my work more efficient, like I found today. It starts with Lifehacker, a blog dedicated to productivity, mainly through technology. I stumbled on the site more than a month ago and it wasn’t until today when I actually had time to sift through the 200+ plus Lifehacker RSS entries and see what the site was really about. It led me to a few new upgrades:
18 days until the baby is due. Which really doesn’t mean much since baby’s rarely come on their due dates. But in terms of practicality that’s what we go by–and pray she comes early. On my calendar I have “Baby Due” entered on January 22, though thanks to the speediness with which I entered the info it’s set for 8:00 a.m. I think I meant to check “all day event,” but we’ll see if the kid sticks to my calendar. Not likely.
So the final days before birth are kind of insane. I’m in an especially odd spot because I finished a massive project for work last week, so I’m much more relaxed this week and beginning to return to normal. But rather than starting the next big project, I feel like the day before a vacation where I’m scrambling to get every last thing done, continually adding to my to do list both so I can remember everything and so I can check them off in triumph (I actually added “refill dog food containers” to my list today).
Things on my to do list yesterday included dropping off books at Goodwill that have been sitting on the basement landing for over a year, making a run to the dump with our old storm door and various bits of crap from the corner of the garage and recycling the printer cartridge that’s been sitting in my office for two months.
Two days ago we rearranged the living room, our semi-annual tradition that we apparently needed to get in before the baby came. I even cleaned and reorganized my office on New Year’s so when the baby comes the inevitable piles that come will be new piles, as opposed to piles on top of piles (my standard method of organization).
It’s all so very odd, like preparing for a trip, except there’s no exact departure date. So I just carry on, trying my best to keep things clean and organized and kept up so we’re not caught with a pile of moldy dishes or almost-due bills when the baby comes and we rush to the hospital and drop off the face of the earth for days or more likely weeks.
Oh the joy of end of the year lists. Well, I guess it’s the beginning of the year, but I was busy last week. Here’s my picks for top movies of 2005:
1. Serenity
Aside the fact that I loved the TV show Serenity was based on (Firefly), this movie just hummed on all the right points. Great action broken up with hilarious comments and then sudden rollercoaster drama. The stakes were high and it all paid off. I even compared it to Star Wars (well, I didn’t, Joss Whedon did), and I’d say that comparison still stands.