Monday, March 1, 2010

Don't Worry - I'm Not This Delinquent At Fatherhood

Ladies (and a very small number of gentlemen),

So much to fill you in on. I'll begin with an apology for my laxity. I've been on the receiving end of a fair amount of flak lately - "Jason, are you going to update the blog? I check it all the time." Frankly, I've become much like the Michael Buble of the baby world. He sings more than me, and I probably paint more than he does, but otherwise, we both have our legions of lady fans and our staggering good looks to deal with.

Anyhoo, there have certainly been many developments since the last post. The two biggest were discovering that (a) there is only one child in there and (b) he is another man-child.

This is very handy from my perspective. Allison wins enough conflicts in this house as it is, so she certainly doesn't need anymore female allies.


The Big Day

February 11th, 2010. Allison and a dark, mysterious stranger are spotted entering the Janeway Children's Hospital.

The day of the ultrasound was a very exciting day for me. During the preceding weeks I flip-flopped daily. Some days I thought that a sweet little girl would be nice. But then I thought about the hysterical pre-teen and teen years, not to mention all of the horny teenage boys sniffing around the house.

Then there were days when I pondered another boy. I thought it would be neat to live in a house of men, and as already mentioned, to diminish to power of the female vote, if nothing else. Of course, boys often tend to be a little more "energetic" than girls, so my daily gender preferences tended to be rather temperamental.

Allison's sister Heather came home to spend a week with Allison, so she, along with my mother, accompanied Allison and I into the ultrasound room. When we saw all that all of the working parts were in good order, Heather and Mom were kicked out of the room so that Al and I could discover the sex of the baby.

"Well, you're having another boy," proclaimed the technician as soon as the door was closed. In case we had any doubts, she showed us the male equipment." All seemed well; two arms, two legs, one bird, and one brain. I think this family was finally due a brain-toting member.

When all was said and done, we left the hospital and proceeded to our favourite breakfast haunt and broke the news to close friends and family by unveiling the cake shown above. We were given many nice presents, including this stylin' outfit by the well-travelled and dedicated Aunt Heather.

We made it home just minutes before Ben came home for lunch and broke the news.

He was very excited to hear that a new brother was on the way. If there was a girl-child, I believe he had plans of a trade-in, so at least we avoided that awkwardness.


Life Since the Ultrasound

During the month or so since the ultrasound, the entire situation seems more "real." I guess knowing that there's an actual boy in there makes everything less abstract. He's also getting more active now and kicking his mother regularly. In fact, Just this weekend past I felt the kicks myself for the first time. Very exciting stuff.

Allison made the baby's quilt recently. She went with a monkey pattern. At first, I had imagined something more "manly" (i.e. machine guns, car engines, knights on horseback, etc..), but when I thought about it I realized that monkeys spend most of their days hanging around in trees while flinging poo at each other. It doesn't get any manlier than that.

We are still pondering the name issue. We were pretty much in 100% agreement on girls names right from the beginning. Boys names, on the other hand, have been another story. Opinions about baby names, as the saying goes, are much like assholes - everyone has one and most of them stink. I can only guess that in time we'll come up with something that stokes our fires.

In the meantime, I'll try not to be quite as slack in the blogging department, and as the big day gets closer, I'm sure I'll have much more to say. I'll leave you with this sharp outfit that Allison picked out (for baby, not me... just to be clear)


Until next time, I remain most faithfully yours,
BDJ