due date +4…
Bubs is yet to make an appearance!
3 hours… and counting…
Just under 3 hours (GMT) till the predicted birth date of my child! 
To be honest, I can’t particularly think of anything to say on this most momentous of days, but I thought it wouldn’t be right to let the day go by without saying anything. So let’s switch on “Spontaneous Mode” and see what happens!
It would be almost a cliché to speak of the passing of the last nine months in terms of it having flown by, crawled by or a combination of the two. However, what’s a cliché but a popular generalisation of the truth (or something)? As such, therefore, I will say… my, how the time has flown! Generally speaking. Although those few weeks at the beginning when Jo was constantly sick (for “morning sickness,” read “all day every day sickness”)… were not fun. I don’t expect they were too much fun for Jo either! Since then, there have been ups and there have been downs, but the weirdest thing of all, for me, has been just how much I have adapted to the idea of being a dad. In honesty, the best I probably could have said nine months ago was, “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be”… but now… it’s like… why the diddly haven’t we gone down this path before?!
The simplest answer is to the above is… we weren’t ready. Well certainly, I wasn’t ready. Or I didn’t think I was ready. I had other things to do in my life, I valued my privacy too much, etc, etc, etc. But now all those reasons (excuses?) I could have come up with nine months and more ago (what seems now, in some ways, an age ago) all seem to have just melted away. They are still there, in a manner of speaking, but their importance/relevance/significance just seems to have dissolved. I want to be a dad! I’m ready to be a dad! And as much as I’d kind of rather fast-forward through Jo having to go through the painful labour part…
I’m ready to meet my son/daughter a.s.a.p.!
So…
You may be wondering what’s going to happen to this blog… well, wonder no more! I fully intend for it to continue, in more or less the same form, only without the countdown (perhaps with a count-up)…
And…
I may slip in another piece or two before my child emerges into the world, but if not… tune in soon for “musings of a dad”!
8 days… and counting…
On the notion of reliving one’s childhood… I keep thinking like I’m actually going to be a child again… which is, of course, not the case! Or then again… is it? In a generalised, conceptual sort of definition… has age got anything to do with “childhood”?
My mind is taking me on journeys which I have to consciously pull myself back from, along the lines of looking forward to actually being in the Christmas school play again… actually spending hours on end watching cartoons again… actually whiling away long afternoons playing with Play Doh again… but actually… thinking about it… why couldn’t I, a mid-thirties adult, throw myself, with boundless child-like enthusiasm, into the latter two? And for that matter, the first one isn’t necessarily totally outside the bounds of possibility!
The thing with being an adult is that self-consciousness plays a pretty big part in one’s decision-making processes - how one decides to have fun and so forth. But… does it have to? Is it possible for a 35/6/7/8-year old man to ditch self-consciousness in favour of child-like abandon? I shall report back on my ability to achieve this worthy goal over the coming years!
10 days… and counting…
In evolutionary theory, there is the notion, supported by physical evidence, that two species can develop the same or very similar traits in parallel. Not being a biologist, I can’t, off the top of my head, think of any particular examples, but let’s imagine that a sparrow and a baboon were plonked in a closed environment full of blue trees, where there was a carnivorous predator who was equally fond of the taste of sparrows and baboons. There would be pretty much equal pressure – would there not? – in order for the sparrow and the baboon to survive as a species, for them to develop the ability to turn blue at will (or perhaps even evolve such that they are of a permanently blue hue), thus blending into the trees and reducing their chances of serving as the primary food source of the aforementioned sparrow and baboon eating predator.
In light of the above, I would like an evolutionary biologist to explain to me the reason for the following…
Why, although we have “evolved” largely separately from each other over the last eighteen years (and therefore one could say, in a short term behavioural-type context, we have evolved into different “species”), have both my dad and I…
a. decided our favourite, pretty much exclusive to all others, breakfast cereal is Malties (in his case the Morrison’s version, in my case Sainsbury’s)?
b. become vehemently (ish) averse to buying a new wallet and thus carry our loose change around in one of those plastic moneybag jobbies you get from the bank?
& c. become, in the eyes of our respective partners, “a bit whingey” about the fact that we don’t like the “pots” (aka. the “washing up”) to be tossed higgledy-piggledy into the sink, as opposed to being stacked neatly on the side, despite the fact that our respective partners lament the lack of “side” onto which the “pots” can be stacked, during the preparation of meals and so forth, thus necessitating the higgledy-piggledy tossing therein?
Explain that, Darwin!
13 days… and counting…
During the months of Jo’s pregnancy, as I have looked forward to my dadhood more and more, I have also felt a bit sad that, after my paltry week or so of Paternity Leave, I won’t be able to spend as much time with my new son/daughter as I would like… but it has just occurred to me that, if he/she keeps me up half the night, I will get all those extra hours! I like to try and be glass-is-half-full about these things…
13 days… and counting…
I would like to just share with you a few entries from a blog which has recently come to my attention. In reverse chronological order of posting…
Firstly I am rather impressed with the author’s description of what he sees when he looks in the mirror in the morning…
http://n2badadad.blogspot.com/2007/11/vote-for-daddy-party.html
Secondly I am wondering whether it is inevitable that I will be this neurotic?…
http://n2badadad.blogspot.com/2007/11/diary-neurotic-me.html
Thirdly, in relation to the following, I am proud to announce that I have just figured out how to wear a baby sling! Now I just need a baby to put in it…
http://n2badadad.blogspot.com/2007/11/diary-its-mans-world.html
And finally, I am so looking forwarding to indulging in these and other “cutesy pie stunts”!…
http://n2badadad.blogspot.com/2007/10/pass-sick-bag.html
13 days… and counting…
[ inspired by… http://beinwonder.blogspot.com/2008/02/hanging-around.html ]
So. The Big Question.
Do I want a boy or a girl?
Well…
Initially both Jo and I thought it would be a girl. Then we thought it would be a boy. Then we thought it would be a girl. Then…
Well, you get the picture.
At one point I thought I would prefer a girl, because I’ve always been curious as to what it would’ve been like to have a sister, there’s so many lovely girls’ clothes out there, it was easier thinking of a name for a girl (more on this after the baby’s birth!)… and… well… just because.
Then I got to thinking about what it would be like to have a boy… and how it would be nice to have a mini-me… and how there’s some equally (but differently, obviously) cute boys’ clothes out there… and… well… other things.
And then I thought… and um… things… and stuff.
And whether it’s a girl or a boy…
It will be a beautiful girl or boy…
And it will be our girl or boy!
And that’s all that really matters…
15 days… and counting…
* * *
15 years ago…
Kids?! Huh?! Smelly, noisy, little brats?! No thanks!
5 years ago…
Well maybe at some time, but I’m in no rush.
1 year ago…
It’s now or never!
7-8 months ago…
Eek! It’s happening!!
4-6 months ago…
Ho hum… still a few months to go…
1-3 months ago…
Hang on, what’s this? I’m getting rather excited! Who’d’ve thought…?
10 days ago…
Blimey, this is it! The final month!
Today…
I can’t wait!
16 days… and counting…
I thought I’d just mention, on account of the fact that it mentions my very-soon-2b-dad status, that I have just written a poem on my other blog…
16 days… and counting…
I have to admit, I can’t think of much to say about this book. It’s short, it’s sweet, it does exactly what it says on the tin. Despite being just under 200 pages, however, it is packed to the brim with helpful hints and tips from real parents, who have been there, done that, bought the t-shirt factory, and are certified experts in raising their own kids. From making your own Play-Doh, to cleaning up potty training accidents with cat litter, to water painting, to defusing tantrums, to dealing with the heartbreak of sending your little darling(s) off to pre-school… it’s all here! And it’s all presented clearly, with a liberal sprinkling of humour and without all the guilt-inducing “Child Rearing Theory” waffle that so often fills out the pages of your heftier tombs.
Jo got this book out of the library, we have both read it and we have decided to buy it… and I recommend that anyone else who is about to embark on the thrilling, terrifying, exhausting, exciting journey that is Parenthood should do the same!
