Question of the day

Does a vegan mom breast feed?

First Road Trip

We had our first road trip this past weekend to visit the family in Spartanburg. It was a wonderful time and we were able to see so many good friends and family.

Jack got to take a nap in his daddy's crib.
and a snack..

Bud got to play with his li'l guy

Stephen go to sit in the "Dad Chair" for the first time as a dad... The flat screen TV sure looks good from here..

And jack was cooed over by all comers.. including two very important people who were happy to meet him for the very first time..

Jackson did fairly well, all things considered, and we're looking forward to going back again soon.

Humble Pie....mmmm

I am officially posting my apology. I distinctly remember thinking, a few months ago, that the mothers who complain of hardly having time to get a shower or cook a proper meal due to having to care for one single tiny newborn were just poor at time-management skills. Being the arrogant pre-motherhood person that I was, I was quite confident in my multitasking ability and was actually looking forward to having eight full weeks of maternity leave to tackle all sorts of craft projects, not to mention cooking fabulous meals for my new family and ensuring a tidy home.

Needless to say, I am now enjoying a very large slice of humble pie. It occurred to me in the shower yesterday at 1pm, having not eaten breakfast or lunch and running late to the doctors office, knowing full well I didn't have either the time or the energy to dry my hair for the doctor, that I would surely say something to the nurse when she brought me back along the lines of, "I actually took a shower today and it was great!"

Oddly, though, being covered in vomit-stained PJs with little to no time for eating or sleeping doesn't bother me nearly as much as I thought it would. There is something about my sweet little boy who smells like apples and freshly baked yellow cake that makes all of it miraculously joyful. And, I have a strong feeling that there will come a time much too soon when I will wish to be back in this very moment with tiny Jackson sleeping in my arms. So for now, I'm enjoying my pie and my son, knowing full well this is what life is supposed to be about.

6 week video

Cycle of Three

I am living in 3 day increments and I don't think I like it. I had Lexington bbq this weekend. It was great. My son subsequently ate Lexington bbq approx 8 hours later. It was not so great. The Texas Pete tsunami that tore through his gut almost peeled the roof off of our home. It lasted 3 days.

Prior to that, he was sleeping a good 5 hour chunk at night and we thought "Ahhh...he's finally getting the hang of it." That ended after three days. There was a time when he didn't mind going down for a nap. Yep...that lasted three days too. Then there was the chocolate days, the sleeping days, the pooping out curdled French's mustard days, the laughing in his sleep days, the various positions that would get him to stop crying days. I think he's got a slot somewhere like those old Atari boxes that God keeps clicking in a new game, only he gets bored after 3 days and changes it. At least this last game was one I don't mind to put back in the case and give to goodwill.

Word of the Day:

Pooptastrophe (poop·tas·tro·phe) \poop-ˈtas-trə-(ˌ)fē\          

Noun; Greek, from popa- feces + strephein to overturn          

1. the final event of the dramatic diaper change, especially of a tragedy
2. a momentous tragic explosion of baby poop ranging from extreme messiness to utter ovewhelming ruin
3. utter diaper failure : fiasco  
   

David Gerald Dilda Sr

He would have been 63 years old today.

Wherever you are, I hope you're getting to watch your namesake grow up. He looks just like you and I have a feeling he's got a lot of your personality in him, too.

Happy Birthday, Dad.

Good Books

A quick rollup of the past few months' better reads ...

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski

A fantastic Shakespearean / Coming of Age American saga about a family and their quest to develop a truly unique breed of dogs. Nestled among the Wisconsin North Woods on the edge of the Chequamegon National Forest, you instantly feel at home in the life of the mute, teenaged boy named Edgar Sawtelle. I literally could not put this book down, and 5 days later felt emotionally drained and enriched at the same time.

To quote Stephen King: "I closed the book with that regret readers feel only after experiencing the best stories: It's over, you think, and I won't read another one this good for a long, long time."

Accounting and Finance for Lawyers: Just kidding. Avoid this book like the plague - really.

Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner

I got turned on to Stegner back in 1999 when I spent a summer in Wyoming working on a cattle ranch. For those who seek to preserve the unique character of the American West, Stegner is their literary champion.

This work is a complex, deep, and tortuous map of the path of a family growing up on the cusp of a new American dream, yet never quite cashing in. From the mines of Colorado to the Idaho rivers to old Mexico, the countryside that forms the backgorund of this saga is vivid and harsh and real - and eminiently Western.

Killing Rommel, by Steven Pressfield

I admit that I'm a sucker for WWII side-stories that are wrapped up like thrillers, but once again the author of my one my all-time favorite novels has totally exceeded my expectations. This book follows the exploits of the once-famed Long Range Desert Group in North Africa '42, now a forgotten unit on a forgetten front of our most memorialized war. But instead of just a history, Pressfield uncovers the spirit of a group of men facing unfathomable odds, and drinking of their own ingenuity and wits when their water runs out. 

Quite a treat.