Parenthood: Week 6

I think we're adjusting to parenthood pretty well so far. It's exhausting. I can't stress that enough. I really miss my 8 hours of sleep a night. And it's not like having a dog... With the dog, I can run her around and wear her out then know that she'll need to sleep for a few hours. You really never get a mental break like that with a baby. You almost always need to be "on". But man... When the Little Guy is fed and changed and happy, there's just something so peaceful about him. You could watch him for hours.

Little Man still isn't on any kind of regular schedule. He eats when he's hungry. He sleeps when he's sleepy. Everyday is a surprise... (which can also be exhausting.)

Also... He loves baths.

We had a busy Thanksgiving. Little Man did well. We did the full tour of Massachusetts relatives over the weekend. He didn't seem to mind who was holding him. Everybody dug him. And he's good with riding in the car.

Daisy is adjusting. I'm not able to give her quite as much attention as I used to, but we're still getting our walks in. Whenever she gets near Little Man, she tries to lick his head. But she hasn't shown any signs of fear or aggression around him, so that's good.

I wish I could spend my whole day with him. It's funny... after Little Man was born, I started doing the math in my head and trying to figure out how long we could live off my 401(k) if I quit work.

Then I realized... oh yeah... we wouldn't have health insurance.

(If we picked up and moved to Canada, would anyone come with us?)

It's Rhode Island. Everyone votes twice.

Little Man voted for "more feedings" and "fewer diaper changes".

The Adventures of Pat Canole, Amateur Electrician

Much to my surprise, I've suddenly found myself quite handy around the house.

Under the close supervision and guidance of my father-in-law, we've greatly improved the electrical situation on the second floor this week.

We've run a new circuit upstairs. We've added two new outlets. We've fixed two switches that weren't working right. And we've replaced or upgraded a few more outlets.

I was a little hesitant at first. I had no prior experience with electrical work. But after taking things apart and realizing how bad the existing situation was, I felt like we could hardly make things worse. The whole upstairs was running off of one circuit. None of the outlets were grounded. The plugs were about 12 feet apart. The light switch also turned off the TV. Other wiring was just plain backwards.

It's definitely stuff that needed to be done. It'll be nice to clean up my chains of surge protectors.

And my computer outlet is actually grounded now. Hurray!

Little Fatty Pants

We just had another weigh in for Little Man yesterday. He gained 17 ounces in 12 days.

That's over 15% of his body weight.

That's the equivalent of me gaining 28 pounds in two weeks.

Whoa.

Kids these days...

I had to wait until I was 29 to see the Red Sox win the World Series.

Little Man only had to wait two weeks.