Order from Ritual arrived today. Charlie decided that we’ll be trying the Hacienda Carmona, Guatemala first by ripping open the bag as soon as it was removed from the box. He’s got a thing with smelling coffee and apparently now opening the bags as well. Babies, what ya gonna do?
Tag Archives: Charlie
Babies, marriage and death
I’ve been to my share of funerals, but never planned one. I’ve been to a few weddings and planned one. I’ve had one planned baby. With that, I’ve experienced-or been witness to- the extreme costs that these three events can generate for those involved. My wedding was small, not necessarily on the cheap side, but by no means extravagant. Having only one grandparent left, I’ve been on the business end of three funerals and got familiar with the costs involved through my parents. Although these two events differ from the third (a baby) they are not necessarily cheaper.
As I’ve made somewhat of an attempt to become a more practical consumer in recent years, unfortunately I’ve entered a new phase of consumer spending-baby goods. Luckily, the beginning of this journey was set off with a proper shower that took care of quite a few necessities. We’ve also been the recipient of many generous packages filled with baby clothes and other items that would normally have a heavy price tag-strollers, seats, a crib. For those in the know, there’s nothing baby goods manufacturers like to better while they say “congratulations,” is charge you an extra fifty bucks for something that you’ll most likely use for a couple months, or just break without warning. So, if you’re not in the know, consider this a warning.
Different items for babies vary in price in a simliar way that adult goods do, but with a twist. Typically, cheaper items meant for adults tend to last a little longer than the act of removing them from the package or wrapper; baby good on the other hand, not so much. There are a few items that were purchased for said baby that were the cheaper version of whatever item we were in the market for, this turned out to be a bit of a mistake. The items in question were not high-ticket items but did come with an expectation to work-even if only for a reasonable amount of time. The other problem with these items is that sometimes, even if the product that was purchased does indeed appear to work, you may find out that it’s not working well or even at all. The baby goods market is filled with these types of products. Unfortunately, this does not help the psyche of the already nervous parents.
So far, we’ve had good luck with Eddie Bauer, Medela and Fisher-Price branded items, so-so luck with Evenflo items and horrible luck with anything branded Babies-R-Us. I accept that there’s some chance involved with buying retail products in general, but Babies-R-Us won’t be getting any visits from us in the near future.
I haz a baybee
Tonight is the one month anniversary of the birth of my son. I haven’t put much down about the event since the actual birth (we tweeted it and posted the event on Facebook). In a month’s time I’ve learned a few things, mostly about my family-the previous (or existing) one. The most interesting thing that was learned is that all the shit they tell you about how difficult it is to bring a newborn home and that you’ll go crazy due to lack of sleep, for me, was total bullshit. So far (yeah, I know it’s only been a month…whatever) taking care of a newborn is relatively easy. His needs are simple and there’s typically only three things that make him a crab-ass. One, he’s hungry. Two, he’s gassy. Or, three he needs to be changed cause he flopped his shorts. There’s not much else to the little bugger, it’s a relatively simple formula. Sure, it takes patience to deal with something that expresses needs only through screaming, but I’ve worked for grown men who do the same thing and learned to deflect well.
The surprise revelation, and one that our peditrician said was ‘the secret’, is that other members of the family are the hard part and that babies are, in fact, easy. We made sure that grandparents got a visit in soon after we were home as to avoid what would have been a barrage of phone calls. The only problem is after the initial visit, the mind games started. There were more than a few times when family members thought that they were entitled to voice their opinion on subjects that they had absolutely no right to, or times when a visit turned into a power-play and only ended up creating hurt feelings.
With these things, I try to remember that it was more than 30 years since these members of my family had to bring a newborn baby into their house and that the stress of the experience isn’t so fresh in their mind-not a real excuse but an excuse nonethless. Some of the other instances I’m less likely to forgive because it’s just a case of blind ignorance and I don’t suffer that well. Really, most of the problems that occured happened right away, were dealt with and are pretty much over, everyone seems to be behaving themselves for now.
The last surprise I got was the one tha tdealt with time-or, how I was spending the time I had before my son was born. Oddly enough, I seem to have more time now. It makes me sad because that means I was wasting a lot of it before and I’m not ever sure what I was wasting it on. I’m a gamer, so video games was one thing. I like movies so I was watching a lof of those, too. I’m not playing as many video games in the past month as I was prior to the arrival but I’m watch twice as many movies and getting a lot more done. I set up this blog, have continued improving my web dev skills and am keeping a cleaner house than before.
My father always said that I suffered from lack of urgency, I knew that was true but I didn’t know how much so until it became evident that if I didn’t keep up with things that they’d crush me. I’m hoping to keep the momentum going and see if it might change some bad habits that I’ve accumulated in recent years. If not for me, I’ll do it for my wife-who continues to be my hero, and for my newborn son, who deserves a good role model. Happy birthday Charlie, I love you.