i love this family shot. it tells a lot about who we all are!
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Doubling Down on Fatherhood
So we're going to do this again. I guess I was just that good the first time, it's a hard argument to against the proverbial 'why not?'.
A little girl! I'm intrigued by this sudden crystallization of our family thumbnail. Instead of the rock tumbler that is a male dominated clan like the one I experienced, we will have a more neopolitan family of poise and parity. And while I can name a handful of new parents with an elder son and junior daughter, we have none of reasonable comparison in either of our families.
With Jack it has been a rather simple plug and play strategy for me, as I am also a first born son. Basically I can provide and apportion with little more than intuition and timing. With a daughter ... I hesitate to say the same attitude is insufficient, but it's a road never traveled. A child tends to bond to the opposite sex parent, what can I utilize from that arrangement?
It was a bit of a surprise to thumb through a variety of bookstores when I was looking for books for dads about raising daughters. There appears to be a veritable library of information on raising sons, even a section on raising geeks, but fathers and daughters? I found three on my initial inspection.
The first one was written by a Dr. Meg Meeker, M.D., which initially drew me in, as I was expecting a tome steeped in rational thought and chock full of scientific studies. What I got was a Catholic conservative telling me unless I was a huge asshole my daughter would contract a STD by age 12, and that would make her RUINED FOREVER. Essentially she preached there was no such thing as being too overprotective, that my daughter will only think I love her if I'm a dark menacing shadow in her social world and that smoking is a better habit than sex, a topic the woman seemed obsessed with. Indeed, there seemed to be almost nothing in the book about years zero through twelve, it just warped ahead where every third page was a sobby anecdote about one of her patients blaming her herpes on daddy not cleaning his guns on the porch when boys came around.
The other books seemed better, but I'm quickly coming to the conclusion that we have exceptional parenting potential and coupled with the lessons we learned with Jack, I'm as well prepared as I can be.
Hey, I've got two girl dogs, that's at least worth the benefit of the doubt.
Hope she likes kibble.
A little girl! I'm intrigued by this sudden crystallization of our family thumbnail. Instead of the rock tumbler that is a male dominated clan like the one I experienced, we will have a more neopolitan family of poise and parity. And while I can name a handful of new parents with an elder son and junior daughter, we have none of reasonable comparison in either of our families.
With Jack it has been a rather simple plug and play strategy for me, as I am also a first born son. Basically I can provide and apportion with little more than intuition and timing. With a daughter ... I hesitate to say the same attitude is insufficient, but it's a road never traveled. A child tends to bond to the opposite sex parent, what can I utilize from that arrangement?
It was a bit of a surprise to thumb through a variety of bookstores when I was looking for books for dads about raising daughters. There appears to be a veritable library of information on raising sons, even a section on raising geeks, but fathers and daughters? I found three on my initial inspection.
The first one was written by a Dr. Meg Meeker, M.D., which initially drew me in, as I was expecting a tome steeped in rational thought and chock full of scientific studies. What I got was a Catholic conservative telling me unless I was a huge asshole my daughter would contract a STD by age 12, and that would make her RUINED FOREVER. Essentially she preached there was no such thing as being too overprotective, that my daughter will only think I love her if I'm a dark menacing shadow in her social world and that smoking is a better habit than sex, a topic the woman seemed obsessed with. Indeed, there seemed to be almost nothing in the book about years zero through twelve, it just warped ahead where every third page was a sobby anecdote about one of her patients blaming her herpes on daddy not cleaning his guns on the porch when boys came around.
The other books seemed better, but I'm quickly coming to the conclusion that we have exceptional parenting potential and coupled with the lessons we learned with Jack, I'm as well prepared as I can be.
Hey, I've got two girl dogs, that's at least worth the benefit of the doubt.
Hope she likes kibble.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
baby girl
it's official, in june we will be a family with a new little girl. the ultrasound today revealed that our little girl is free of abnormalities, has a healthy heart and weighs about 1/2 pound. she moved around a lot and we got see a lot of her. at one point she was clenching and unclenching her fist. amazing!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
17 weeks
jack wants to see inside my tummy for the baby. i hope i can prepare him enough for this little one. baby is growing big and i have been feeling flutters for a couple weeks now. those flutters are in the exact spot that i was feeling jack, kinda cool. baby makes it known that it doesn't like the tummy sleeping anymore. from now on, i am now on my side for the most part.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Saturday, January 2, 2010
week 16 for the sequel
baby is the size of an avocado and will be going thru a growth spurt in the next couple weeks. i think jack is doing the same, both intellectually and physically. his imagination is profound for he makes up stories about gardens and eating monsters.
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