And now we are three

Last Thursday we welcomed the arrival of Alice, 7 lb 10 oz at 03:37. It was the first snow fall of the season when Laura went into labour, a wet snow. So far Alice has been wonderful and we're starting to get into the rhythm of being a parent. I think that means "making it up as you go" and "rolling with the punches" all at the same time.

The word "labour" seems so inadequate to describe the process. It reminds me of a old Dave Barry joke where he said "boating enthusiast" was an understatement like saying "heroin fancier". I actually found it quite upsetting at seeing someone I love be in so much pain but not be able to do anything about it except fetch ice chips. It was a feeling of helplessness, but like all things, it too did pass.

So now we're all home, working on feeding, clothing and changing a baby. As a family. Of three.

38 weeks

I feel a bit silly counting the weeks like I have been, but I can't really help it. I am now one of those annoying people. Help me if my posts become just about naps and fluids coming out of orifices of my offspring. Help me, but forgive me.

I feel like the days are counting down to an almost surprise party. I'm not sure when I'm going to turn a corner and Laura's going to yell "surprise! I've wet myself!" Not exactly the type of party most people are surprised with. I just hope that there is balloons and cake.

Tick tock.

Pay attention

One of the things that I don't want to be is one of of those fathers that has a bluetooth ear bud in while he's watching his kids play. I want to be focused on the present, the now, the "right in front of me". The extreme little that I know about buddhism (attachment to desires) makes sense to me. The posts today on boingboing / google+ about "multitasking" or continuous partial attention remind me a lot of the buddhism philosophy.

In layman's terms I think that this translates into:
- go for more walks with my loved ones
- enjoy a hot beverage and focus on the people in front of me
- with kids, put down the camera / take my eyes off the screen more.

If I'm really good at it, no one will ever notice all my effort. Bwahahahaha!

What's one more...

My boss informed me of an interesting Portuguese expression: O que È um peido para quem est· cagado. It translates into "What is another fart when you've already shit your pants".

I laughed and laughed... such an awesome visual when dealing with yet another problem on something that's just full of them. Much better than talking about the broken windows theory.