Tuesday, October 27, 2009

"You'll become an expert on it," she said, referring to types of baby poop.


Only a few days left in October and it continues to be eventful. I changed my first diaper! Sure, it was on a plastic doll, but I did it.

My sister was born on the second day of my Sophomore year in high school. And, I did watch her for a couple of hours on a few occasions. Turns out, I happened to know most of the words to Walk on the Ocean by Toad the Wet Sprocket and my sister just happened to like the song well enough to fall asleep to it. So, two minutes after parents walked out the door each time, I would start singing. Then, set Katrina down gently and wait for parents to come back, check on my lovely sister, and change her diaper if needed. Brilliant, really. But, I had already told this story to my wife so, she was wise to me. Figured I better learn to change a diaper. And that's not all I learned at the new parent class held at Kaiser. Apparently, we will become experts on baby poop. There are a lot of rashes and skin stuff that may appear and is perfectly normal for a new born. There are times when a parent should be concerned such as with fever. I'm glad we went to the class as it put a lot into perspective; things I had never considered before. As Tami said, she knew we would wash the baby, but she had not thought about how or considered that we should start gently with the eyes and work our way down and that we should only sponge bathe him until the umbilical stump falls off. Practical things we had not considered. Then there is the video we watched about colic. Wow, if our kid gets colicky and I survive the experience, I may have become a buddha.

Tami and I are still going to Birthing from Within pregnancy classes at Harmony and I am still enjoy them very much. At our last class, an exercise we did caused Tami to say "and I realized the baby is just happy." Wow. I've been thinking about that concept a lot lately. This kid has all he needs right now. He has the comforting embrace of Tami surrounding him, the melodic rhythm of her heart beat, the warmth and nutrition he needs, all the time he wants to rest and grow and move around. He's got it all in his nourishing world. He wants for nothing yet. And in less than two months from now, he'll want to get out and then he's in for quite an adventure. He'll have a life time to explore this Universe and never run out of aspects to discover, understand, or admire. This makes me smile. The Kid just hanging out happy right now. The Kid that will come out some day to explore this side, the outside, of Tami's gigantic belly. How cool.

Speaking of Tami, she has cut off her hair and donated it to Wigs for Kids. This organization makes wigs for children with cancer. The wigs are specially made not to fall off and to look natural when kids swim, or play, or do gymnastics. Turns out they have to hand tie each and every hair individually to a cap that is custom molded to match each child's head to meet the criteria. Impressive. I do believe that when the time comes, I'll donate my hair as well. The donated hair has to be 10 inches long, so I have some time.

The number of motorcycles in the family of friends has increased. Sam and Pat were given a Harley Dyna and Yamaha Rode Star (respectively) for their birthday last week. This freed up Pat's Yamaha V-Star and Don bought that from him. A whole bunch of fun bikes. So, off for a Sunday ride with friends. There were eight of us on seven bikes. I had never ridden with so many people before, though I had ridden with all of these friends in the past. Pat, Sam, and Don were on their new bikes. Nathan and Laurie took the Goldwing. Matt took his Goldwing. Eric was on his VFR and I borrowed Sam's KLR for the ride. I love that bike. It was my second motorcycle. I became friends with Riza whom I bought it from and we rode to Mexico soon after, me on the KLR and he on his BMW GS. I eventually sold it to Don to be his second bike and then bought it back after a time (it would have been my 5th bike had I not already owned it before). Since then, I sold it to Sam as his first bike. I still have first buy back option on this lovely motorcycle. Needles to say, it was a good day. Riding a favorite bike, hanging with good friends, enjoying the beautiful hills and Santa Cruz Mountains south of San Jose.

And then a stop in downtown Campbell to relax and admire the machines.