Sep

30

Sunday morning: easy like

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September 30, 2007

The Rain has arrived, the dark and penetratingly chilly variety that we’ll see off and on throughout the fall, winter, spring, and the odd day of summer when it causes you to shake your fist at the Pacific Northwest weather gods, howling that it’s July for fuck’s sake, give us a goddamned break.

The days are shorter and it’s depressingly cold and unfriendly at 6 AM, which is exactly when Riley chose to start bleating from his room this morning like a malfunctioning alarm clock. I lay there in our bedroom listening to him grouse, thinking 1) what I wouldn’t give for a shock collar about now, and 2) this second kid thing, this upcoming newborn with all the months of interrupted sleep caused by such a creature . . . my god, my god, this has all been a REALLY TERRIBLE IDEA.

I know lots of people eschew caffeine altogether during pregnancy, but as far as I’m concerned, a hot cup of coffee is often the difference between wallowing in bleakness for the entirety of the day, and deciding that ha ha, sleep is overrated, why just look at all the marvelous things a person can get done before 8 AM if they put their mind to it! Such as drinking a second cup of coffee. Mmm.

Too bad you can’t siphon off just a drop or two of toddler energy, like if they secreted a lickable stimulant similar to those poisonous frogs. As I type this, Riley is engaged with galloping back and forth in the hall, his little pajama’d feet going pah pah pah pah pah pah pah—a repetitive sort of game but one I heartily endorse as it doesn’t typically involve pelting his ball into various breakable objects—and this is after he spent a good fifteen minutes practicing various ways to violently throw his body onto the couch (current favorite: the Spawning Salmon Maneuver).

(Now he’s kicking his ball up and down the hallway. He’s pretty good at this. I feel like I can see into my future when I watch him Pelé his way around, and it involves many Saturdays standing under an umbrella at a soccer field. Clutching a latte, of course. Maybe there’s a minivan nearby. Oh, god.)

I really am looking forward to meeting the tiny person who’s been studiously engaged with kicking my various internal organs over the last few weeks, but on dark raining mornings I can’t help wondering why we haven’t biologically evolved to produce children when they’re at a more stable age. Sure, newborns are adorable and squishy and all that, but why can’t they spring forth fully-formed and ready to sleep through the night and pitch in with the housework? Come on, DARWINISM.

Sep

28

Keegans, Wyatts, and Graysons, oh my

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September 28, 2007

Out of all of the (really cool) suggestions for boy’s names you guys gave me, only one or two of you mentioned our top contender name, a name I didn’t mention in yesterday’s post and I’m now thinking—after reviewing a LOT of “sounds-good-but-just-doesn’t-click” ideas from baby books and websites and your favorite names and so on—is the name we’re going to go with, because we both like it a lot and now that we’ve expanded our choices and it remains the favorite, it just seems right. I’m feeling tenderly protective of this name, because wow, opinions seem to run hot and heavy with name choices, and I sure don’t want to hear that you think it’s awful or a dog’s name or the same name some random crappy daytime TV host used for their kid (can I just say, to that little factoid: who cares?) or that you hate it so much it makes you throw up a little in your mouth.

I’m thinking it’s far less likely anyone would say that once the baby is actually here and the deed is done, right? So I think it will have to be a little secret for a few more months. Besides, that gives us time to change our mind if we get a wild hair.

(Introducing . . . HORACE!)

(I’m just kidding. I mean, if anyone needed me to say that.)

Thank you, though, for all the great ideas—I really appreciate it and it’s interesting to hear what sorts of names you like. Most of the names were in just the right category for me: a little different, without being outright weird.

I have to keep this short because my internet connection seems very touch-and-go this morning (oh Comcast, yet another arena in which you tend to thoroughly shit the bed with moist pellets of suckdom) but I’ll quickly and dutifully point out that there’s a new post up at Milk and Cookies, and I hope you’ll come visit.

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