Day 13: Never Say Die

Last night, I took a fussing Betty and played some video games one-handed and let her scream at me for a few minutes. After a while, she calmed down and went to sleep. It was cute. I got tired, so I flopped on the couch, with Betty on top of me, and that worked okay until we both woke up about 1 AM. It was good to let Jen have some uninterrupted sleep for a little bit at least.

This morning, we got Sabrina to her early, foggy, soccer game. She played great. I got tons of pictures. In fact, I apologize for all the soccer pictures-- this is two weeks' worth, and Jen missed last week and this morning, so these are partially for her, too.

Came home from the game, and Jen was up and around and offered to get everything ready and let me take a nap... so, take a nap I did. I love naps.

Woke up from the nap to a visit from Greta and Tom. They brought a used crib and a new high chair. Thanks, guys! I was still super sleepy and groggy during and after their visit, and it took us way too long to get Edgar ready and out the door, and all FIVE of us crammed into our little car. In fact, I accidentally left Sabrina's lunch box, which I had packed full of water bottles, on top of the car. Somehow it miraculously made it (plus one loose water bottle) all the way (maybe 5 miles?) from our house to the soccer fields. We were late AGAIN... Edgar has had two practices and two games, and he's been substantially late to all of them. Our fault. Slow parent failure.

Anyway, Edgar had a good game too. By the afternoon, the sun had come out, and was beating down on baby's head. Edgar mostly paid attention to the game, and had some pretty awesome moments.

I said "mostly" paid attention.

..."mostly"

Okay, there he goes.

...but he sure is a fine big brother.

After soccer, I went to the store and did some wild goose chasing shopping. Then, our friends Vince and Christi visited. Vince had never seen Goonies, and we've threatened so often, that we ended up having to educate him. [He's never seen Bill and Ted, either, but we couldn't find our VHS-- I think we may have loaned it to Vince years ago]

Anyway, one awesome 80s movie and a game of carcassone later, it's time for sleep again. Well, we get to do it all again tomorrow.

P.S. -- yesterday, I mentioned Sabrina wrote me a letter telling me how much Betty pooped while I was away. Here is the letter:

...and no, I can't translate/transcribe all of that. I can attempt: "From Sabrina to Dad"..."Baby pooped and pooped"... "I did it by myself", but some of the middle is a little fuzzy.

Day 12: Blue

Okay, story time.

So, about two years ago or so, I went and bleached my hair. For fun, of course. I'm not sure blondes have more fun, but it was fun to look different for a while. At the time, Sabrina (3) said "When I grow up, I want to have PURPLE hair, and a PINK BEARD!" (Someday, I'll have to break it to that girl.) At work, I can only have a naturally-occuring color, so bleaching was one of my few options. Anyway, I made a promise back then-- If we had another kid (IF), and if I got a lot of time off (again, IF), I'd let the kids choose my hair color.

So...

This is me

It's taken two days of morning snuggles and watching Bosch to get my hair the right shade-- the first bottle of color got me lightly blue. The kids picked the color, although the box made it look more of a bluish-green cyan or mint green. But I'm all blue. I look like a frosted cupcake. Not quite Katy Perry blue, but unmistakable.

with the goop in my hair.

after one round of coloring. The blue was a little weak.

So, yeah. That's fun.

Last night, I spelled off Jen, and slept all night in the chair with Betty on me, while Jen slept in our bed. Betty only woke up twice-- well, 3 AM and 6 AM to feed. The rest of the night, we snuggled together. Although it was a bit awkward waking up at 6 AM to Betty licking my shirt in the appropriate place hoping she's get some food out of my very non-functional nipples.

Had another hard time getting the kids out the door in time for school today. I think we're going to have to start making time-to-put-your-shoes-and-backpack-on earlier and earlier until they actually do it on time.

Today was pretty low-key, other than the hair coloring. I got TONS of Betty snuggles.

I was able to go to KMUZ and do my radio show, which was fun, as always.

Pictured: fun.

Had a low-key evening of eating pizza and watching Star Wars Rebels with the kids. Sabrina wrote me a letter (!) about how much Betty pooped while I was away. (!!!)

Sabrina really wants to wear Betty's outfit

Jen castigated me for not writing about the important update that we got at our neonatal appointment a few days ago: Betty is up over her birth weight, which means she is eating healthy and everything is great. Or, in the words of Jen, "It means I'm doing something right with my boobs!"

Day 11: The icon of domesticity

I am the luckiest guy in the world. I get snuggles every day from this cute thing.

Baby snuggles are the best.

Not much to report today. Got the kids off to school with the usual last minute drama. Settled in and watched a few episodes of Bosch with Jen, and got some baby snuggles. I spent a good portion of today doing laundry, washing bedding, etc. I am really getting good at this chore thing (=. Too bad the laundry I do today gets dirty tomorrow. Too bad I still don't like doing it. Oh well.

Put my show together for tomorrow's radio show, then took Sabrina to soccer practice. While she practiced, I walked around the track a little near her practice. It felt good to (literally) stretch some muscles that I haven't been using lately. Apparently, this is a sign that I need to start exercising. I wonder if you can get cellphone signal at Silver Falls-- I could hatch some pokemon, walking around my favorite 8 mile loop hike.

After dinner and putting the kids to bed, Jen and I played some Carcassone and listened to some of the songs I'm playing tomorrow on the radio. Wow, not much happened today.

...But I did get baby snuggles. LOTS of baby snuggles.

For what must be the thousandth time, I'm sure grateful that I get paid time to take care of my wife and newborn (and other kids). Not everybody gets that luxury. Watching and helping Jen and the rest of the family struggle through sleeplessness, diapers, nursing, and regular family life, I can't imagine how others do it without a support system-- a husband, parents, or somebody to help full-time.

Daddy leave is AWESOME.

Day 10: Traffic and Tantrums

 Another great day. Got up with the kids and got them to school.Edgar was being silly and threatening to not leave on time (or ever) but luckily we were able to kick them out the door. Jen and I snuggled and watched a coupla episodes of Bosch before I crashed.

Jen woke me up from my nap and told me it was time to get ready. Already? Awww man...

We packed up our stuff, I swung by the school to pick up the kids (a bit early, but not too much), then drove up to Andaluz in Tualatin for our neonatal appointment.

Everything is good, baby is healthy, and so is mom. Then, we plunged (at 4:45 PM) into rush hour traffic.

It took us hours to traverse the city of Portland to get to my folks' house in Vancouver. We were in traffic forever, which is not very fun in a stick-shift car, with THREE hungry kids jam-packed into the backseat. Edgar and Sabrina were super nice and loved sitting next to Baby Betty, letting her hold their finger, covering her with a blanket, etc, but it was TOO LONG for any sane person to sit in the car. Betty started screaming and wouldn't stop. Edgar and Sabrina were getting on our nerves, and each others, and it was generally time to get out of the car long before we actually could.

Spent the evening with my parents.

Love these guys.

So very much.

Betty was cute, and was loved by all. Dinner was wonderful, as per usual. After dinner, I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer and slipped off downstairs to take a nap.

My sister Dani and her husband Todd came over for a later dinner, and Dani got to hold Betty too:

I love this little girl. She's growing so big, learning to tolerate her siblings as they learn to tolerate them. Look, here's Sabrina being helpful and changing Betty's diaper all by herself:

Parenting WIN

Blue Steel? Are you crazy?

Finally got this family home by about 11 PM. Got the garbages out, and thought I'd try to repeat my last night's success by taking another trip to The Space. I asked Doug last night what time the show would end, as I suspected I wouldn't get back home until super late. He told me he thought the last band would start at 11. I showed up at 11:15 and the place was shuttered. Leave it to a Salem bar to close up early...

Anyways, since I was feeling daring and was out on my own, I went and conquered 3 pokemon gyms. Now, it's sleepy time.

Day 9: Venturing out

 This baby....


This baby is sleeping about 20 hours a day, it seems like. Waking up to get a diaper change, eat, get another diaper change, then go back to sleep. I've been feeling like this is unusual, and we're trapped in the house, but then I got to reading my blog from when Sabrina was this age, and Jen's blog from when Edgar was this age, and I'm remembering now how this is all completely normal and this too shall pass.

Betty is even growing up a little bit. She doesn't have that fragile newborn-ness that hangs on for the first few days. She's here to stay.

Had a pretty regular morning of getting up, making lunches, and getting the kids off to school, except Sabrina informed me that she wanted to walk to school with her big brother, and without daddy. (sniff) She's growing up. Actually, I'm pleased and proud that the kids walk together and have each others' backs, etcetera. I'm just a little disappointed that the half-kilometer that I was getting every morning for hatching pokemon eggs is going away. Maybe now I need to actually get out and start walking.

Yes, I'm hooked on Pokemon Go. Not even ashamed of it. More on that later.
(heh heh.. I said "moron.")

Once the kids were off to school, I dozed in the chair for a while. I think it helped my sickness. I hope (as of tonight) I'm over it, especially since we plan on visiting my parents tomorrow, and Dad's on some sort of medication that suppresses his immune system.. scary.

Jen and I (and Betty) picked up a new show (on Amazon, no less), Bosch. It's a pretty R-rated police procedural based on some books that Jen read a while back. I read one, too, but I have less of an appetite for crime novels than Jen does. We watched several episodes. By afternoon I was beginning to feel restless, which must mean I was also beginning to feel better.

This afternoon, Jen, Betty, and I left the house for the first time. This was a big deal. Our first trip was to the Book Bin, to pick up the next book in Jen's series (note to self: that's a perfect way to make sure Jen wants to leave the house), then to Walmart to pick up a few diapers.

Jen was exhausted by the time we got home. Betty was fussy, but that's not surprising. Both will probably need a day to recover.

Took Edgar to soccer practice, and he goofed around and didn't listen to his coach. He was pretending to be a zombie, pretending to be the ball, running off in the wrong direction, pulling up grass, and generally spacing off the entire time. I know that 30 years ago, I was the spacy kid on the soccer team, who was off in his own little world while everyone else was running around, but I honestly don't think I was that bad. I actually played soccer and actually tried, occasionally... you just get bored sometimes....

Anyway, I tried to have one of those father-son talks with Edgar after soccer. I told him how terribly disappointed with him I was. We got emotional. He promised to do better next time. We'll see.

Ran off after dinner to a show at The Space. This was my first time seeing a show at The Space's new digs (I had a private tour a few months back). Playing the show were Chris Bernstorf and Kevin Schlereth, among others. Kevin has played many many shows at the Possum House and is something of an old friend.

The Kevin Schlereth band: Kevin and Jay Costlow

It was good to get out of the house, and good to hang out and see live music. Afterwards, I found a nice place to park the car and played some Pokemon Go.

Yes, I sat in a parked car in a public park for an hour in the middle of the night playing video games on my phone. I am THAT guy. I managed a Pidgey Party where I evolved 51 pokemon (if you don't play, don't ask...), and got a new most powerful pokemon, a 1700-level Exeggutor (yay.) I also managed to replenish my supplies. I had used all my Poke Balls and was down to Ultra Balls this afternoon. Now I'm good.

It's amazing how an hour at a park in the dark could reset my whole frame of mind. I'm refreshed now. I'm ready for tomorrow. Bring it on.

Day 8: As close to nothing as I could

I'm sick, so my stated goal for today was to do as close to nothing as I could. I think I got as close as I could, without having my wife kill me.

I got up, got some laundry started, packed some lunches, and walked the kids to school. I wore my (as Jen described them) "man-yoga-pants", or as I described them, my "ain't-gonna-leave-the-house-pants"

Came home, played some video games and snoozed. I got a few chores done, but mostly sat around. I even got a long bath in.

That Betty is growing, although she spends most of her time asleep attached to someone in the rocking chair. For a while, I spelled Jen off.

kinda miserable dad, but cute baby.

After school, Edgar and Sabrina wanted to snuggle with the baby.

 So cute.

The kids asked when I was going to do the second round of bleaching my hair. So, I did it with Jen's help, while Edgar was doing his homework.

Bleach selfie,

We had some mixup where we got off a night on who and when folks from church were bringing in meals (THANKS to all of you), and so we had just finished dinner when another one arrived. Oh well, that's a meal for tomorrow.

Watched a few episodes of Star Wars Rebels with the kids downstairs in our new home theater. Then, a quick store run, and bedtime again. Again, not much happened today. I hope that I'm feeling better tomorrow so that I can be more helpful and justify my being around the house.

Day 7: Doktor vonCarmichael

Before I begin, here is another one of those family pictures we took last night:

Aww,,,

 Getting those pictures done allowed me to... umm... go a bit crazy. You see, when you don't have to go to work or generally impress anyone for 7 weeks, things get.... weird.

Weird, as in... goodbye beard.

That's right. I shaved my beard. I'm not sure I have a chin anymore.

Here is lots of new blue goo now.

 ..but wait...

Yep.

My kids weren't surprised (they helped me go to the store and pick out the bleach).

...but my kids in Primary sure were.

So, I got lots of good sleep last night (thanks Jen), and got up this morning and took Edgar and Sabrina to church. We sat in the back.

I teach singing to the kids in our ward. For the 3-7 year olds, and the 8-11 year olds, I made a grand entrance. Boy were they surprised.

Of course, it helps that I was dressed as Doktor VonCarmichael. I wish somebody had got a picture. I put on my old chemist's lab coat, put some tools from the garage in my pockets (a rubber mallet, drywall saw, and pliers never looked so ominous!), and loaded up Jen's stethoscope and blood pressure cuff in the pockets of my coat. I stood up my strange fluffy yellowy hair, and told the kids that their songs were "krank!" and they needed to take them to "gesangkrankhaus!". Then, we worked on memorizing some of the tougher songs they will be singing for their program this year. It was fun and totally hilarious. I may have scared some of the 3 year olds, and I definitely scared one of the leaders' 2 year olds who was on her lap.

(as a side note, I remember being 3 and my best friend's dad dressed up as a leprechaun and visited primary. I was scared out of my mind. It didn't matter that it was my best friend's dad, there was a 6 foot leprechaun in primary) -- nevertheless, I was totally down for scaring the next generation of kids.

I led some of the songs with the props I had in my pockets, and I had a vial of "medicine" (root beer) that I would squirt in the kids mouths if they wanted it. (I did this whole routine a year ago, sans crazy hair, and it was a success)

For the youngest kids (18 months - 3 years), I was a little gentler. I combed down my hair, said "Hi, I'm brother carmichael, your music leader. I lost my beard and turned my hair this silly color, but it's still me. Let's sing some songs together, and at the end, if you like, you can touch my silly hair." The kids were skeptical at first, but by the second or third song, they were down with it.

Anyway, church took a lot out of me (it always takes a lot out of me. I can't do this without an immediate nap afterwards), but this week seemed even more. After a 4 hour nap, I woke up feeling terrible. I snoozed a little in the living room with Betty on me while Jen got the freedom to move around. We listened to my friend's radio show, which is always good.

Had some dinner delivered by some friends (thanks!), and settled back down to read some. I'm apparently sick. Maybe it's the man flu. Anyway, I feel awful, thankyouverymuch.

Put the kids to bed, and Jen and I watched Zoolander 2. It was every bit as silly and funny as it needed to be. It's not a Great Movie-- neither is the original, but it was a great movie. It was super super funny, and I loved every moment of it. I mean, it started with Justin Bieber being killed-- what's not to love?

Now, Jen and baby are asleep in the chair in the living room. The stereo has been playing our Landing collection -- we have about 24 hours of music from them. They were friends of mine in college, but they are truly beautiful, experimental, trippy music. Baby and mom love it. We're on multiple repeats of this 24-hour playlist.