Hi. This is Alex.
If you're reading this blog, I assume that you know me.
So here's the story:
We have a new baby coming. Due mid-January. It's a girl. No name picked out yet. She'll join Jen and I, and her older brother Edgar, who will be 20 or 21 months old when she's born.
Thanks to my work's generous benefits package (and the FMLA), I will have 6 weeks off when the baby comes to bond with the little one and assist the Jen in her "recovery."
6 weeks with no work. give or take a day or two. wow.
So-- I came up with the brilliant idea to blog for each of the approximately 42 days I will have with the family. I've never regularly blogged before, partly because I have an inkling of the commitment that blogging requires. However, this should be fun. I hope. I don't promise to blog every day, but I will do a post for every day. 42 days in the life of a young family.
Should be a wild ride. I don't have ANYTHING planned on any given day, but I have WAY more things planned for this time than we could possibly do in 42 days. Here are a few of the things that I hope to do:
I look forward to getting to know and love the little one. That almost goes without saying.
My stated purpose for this 6 weeks, however, is to keep Edgar entertained (and out of Jen's hair). Jen and the baby will be on the awake-every-3-hours schedule, while Edgar and I will simultaneously be breaking and keeping his (mostly 24-hour) routine.
I want to make sure Jen is comfortable and taken care of. I plan on doing lots of dishes and a tiny bit of cooking. As this is our second child, I will be much more forward in the asking-for-help-with-the-new-baby. In fact, I plan on assigning certain family members certain days.
After things settle down, I want to take a few days for myself (maybe even get some skiing in.)
I'd like to give Edgar some really fun adventures and get him out of the house most days. That won't be easy, considering that it will be winter in Oregon, and it rains every day. My earliest memories start with being almost-two, so I hope that we can concoct something that Edgar will remember the rest of his life.
There's also the around-the-house projects: reupholstering the volkswagen, ripping our vinyl records to MP3/FLAC, writing songs, messing with our craft-area of our bedroom, trying to make sense of all the baby junk we now own.
There's lots of family and friends that want to see the new baby, and I want to oblige.
Oh, and we really should get our album pressed, too.
On top of that, I hope to do some writing. Not capital-W Writing, but just a bit of blogging. Do I plan to include photos? As often as I can. Terse writing or wordy? Probably both. Tangents? All the time. I plan on reporting the mundane details of our life, because I believe that out of those details comes the great ideas and narrative of our lives. Sometimes it might be just about what I ate that day. I may venture into music, politics, culture, music, parenting, music, or anything else. Just some free, unconstrained writing. What, did you think I was actually doing this for you? I may even post some music on here, if I can figure out how to do that (and not simultaneously get shut down by the RIAA)
Do I plan on continuing the blog after my 42 days are over?
Nah... I plan on getting on with my life.
