Houston, we have a problem

The kid can shoot a jet of urine up to this armpit. This doesn’t work.

See more progress on: learn how to diaper a baby boy

The DAY

Well, it would seem this goal has come to an end as well. Or rather will at about 1:30.

My final bit in this goal will be to drive my wife to the hospital and hold her hand while she gives birth. While I can’t be completely sure of it, I suspect the end result will be an exhausted wife and squalling baby.

See more progress on: again, help my wife as best I can through her pregnancy

How to help Little Girl make the transition to Big Sister

"Clapping with one hand."

How I did it: My wife and I discussed the baby's impending arrival quite far in advance. We talked up fun stuff about the baby. We talked up how Little Girl will be able to be a Big Helper.

Other than that, it is probably difficult to help a small child adjust to the reality of a new sibling.

Lessons & tips: There's probably not any good way to do this. As my wife reports what she once read: "Bringing a sibling home to a child is about the same as asking your spouse, 'I'm bringing home another husband/wife next week. How do you feel about that?'"

Resources: Gasoline and Detroit steel. My final "help" on the transition was to bring Little Girl to her Aunt's house during the birth.

It took me 9 months.

It made me Big Sister?

See more progress on: help Little Girl make the transition to Big Sister

Scheduled another for Saturday

And probably the last one for a good while. Baby is in the way.

The plan is this: Babysitter arrives at 9:30 AM on Saturday. We leave Little Girl with her and go see It’s a Wonderful Life on the big screen.

I’m pretty jazzed. I don’t have to pick up the babysitter.

See more progress on: go out on "date nights" with my spouse on a regular basis

Is life tragic or comic by nature?

Among the things I was thinking about while shoveling the drive tonight.

And I think I’ve got to come down on the comic side. After finishing the job on the drive, the city plowed a bunch of snow back onto the apron near the street. On reflection, it’s downright funny to see how my efforts were partially erased by a second’s work of the plow truck. Not that I was laughing particularly hard at that juncture.

The other reason I’ve come down on the comic side is due to how we arrive in this world. The biggest influences in your life are completely out of your control: your genetics and your upbringing. You are who you are because your father smelled right to your mother or you were brought up in a strict religious household. Both completely out of your control, yet each exerts a lifelong influence on everything about you. And it’s pretty funny when you think about it.

See more progress on: wax philosophical while shoveling the driveway

Little Girl

We’ve got a place for Little Girl to stay while wife has the baby. I’ll be driving Little Girl to Wisconsin at the end of the month. Alone. Don’t worry about me, it will be fun.

See more progress on: again, help my wife as best I can through her pregnancy

Undoable

Sometimes I think there will be no way to make this happen by any efforts I put forward. The only way to do it will be to bring the baby home at the end of the year.

It does seem that what we want in life often cannot be done by our efforts. Of course, that doesn’t stop me.

See more progress on: help Little Girl make the transition to Big Sister