I met with my buddy Keeton last night and his wonderful wife, Jamie. They are cool people with a nifty new house (and nicely cut lawn, I do declare) up in Denton. A lot of my life was spent with Keeton in it, and it was great to see him again. We grabbed some beers, made a run to Sonic and watched a show I had never heard of called "Archer." Good times.
Holy crap, Archer was awesome. If you like dry humor, and know what I refer to whan I spell out: ATHF. Go see it if you haven't.
Aisha Taylor is the voice of Lana. Win.
My discussion with Keeton and Jamie (who have a beautiful little 5-year old girl) got me to thinking about stuff. Baby stuff. One, when asked if I was excited about the baby, I really wasn't. I was a little alarmed by that and thought rather than deal with my emotions - I'll post here (I am sure there is a psych evaluation just waiting to happen with that sort of narcissism). Two, its about time I posted my slightly curmudgeonly view on names.
Lets start with Excitement.
As many of you know, I am about to be a dad. The baby is due Sept 20. I get asked a lot about how excited I am. My answer is normally "meh." That response gets a lot of raised eyebrows.
Honestly, I am "meh" -- at least most of the time. I have been excited on and off throughout the last eight months, especially near the beginning when I was reading my daddy books and coming to grips with the changes that are to come. So why am I "meh" now? Because its hard to keep up that excitement for nine months. At some point along the way, I came to grips with my current situation - which is basically constantly in waiting with imperfect knowledge about a radically different future. I'm waiting for baby. I'm waiting to catch back up with Tracie. So, I am "meh" until the next stage, the birth, when I will get excited again.
I mean, all you hear as expectant parents is how much your life is going to change and how you can't prepare for the demands of the child. Okay. Fair enough. If I can't prepare, I am going to go into "meh" mode, preserve my energy and anticipation for the baby, and accept that I can't even imagine the changes. I'll listen to the advice, take what sounds reasonable, make preparations from that reasonable advice, and just stay as emotionally neutral as much as I can.
So, I'm "meh" for the time being. Once I am with Tracie, once the baby is on the way, thats when I will get excited. 'till then, I wait. Even then, a little "meh" to help keep us grounded and calm is probably a good idea.
Names and Blissful Ignorance.
People ask us if we have a name yet and what we will name the baby. I dont give the name. Why? Because if I give someone the name then they might tell me about how they had this jerk boyfriend or horrible girlfriend in high school and he/she sucked so bad. I dont want to know he/she sucked so bad and that they have lingering baggage with the name. Ignorance is bliss since I dont want to even have a hint of an idea that we should change the name -- no matter how horrible the person was. Tracie and I have finally found a name we like, and we are going to stick to it, come hell or high water -- and I figure its easier to keep it a secret now and avoid all the horrible stories that certainly exist with the name we chose. I know Tracie and me, if we hear the bad stories, we may actually change the name.
So, we keep the name to ourselves until after the birth (when, not coincidentally, I will get excited. see above). Tracie and I figure after the birth, when the baby has the name once and for all, its too late to make the change.
Trains.
When you have a baby on the way, you look at stores and what they have on the shelves differently. I notice strolers now - never did before. I see wet-wipes on the impulse buy shelf and think we should stock up. Yeesh.
I went to Toys R Us yesterday to buy a couple waterguns for the upcoming barbecue at my Dad's lake house tomorrow (win). What did I see there?
Holy crap! Baby needs that.
Hm. Now that I think about it, baby also needs one of these:
True Story: My first ever car purchase was to be paid off, and I was all sorts of excited, because I had big plans to buy a holy crap awesome sports car--then BAM, pregnant! (That isn't exactly how it works, but I am assuming you know the details since you made one of your own.)
ReplyDeleteAnd so, we went with the mid-sized SUv, and my super fly sporty car dreams are still unfulfilled. But, seriously... what was I going to do climb in through the hatchback to snap in the baby carrier? Yeah, not so much.
It was great seeing you! Keet's always little puppy happy when he gets his Chris fix!
Also, you don't have to tell EVERYONE the baby's name--JUST me. Sheesh. :)
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ReplyDeleteGlad to be of service, Kiran. I have an updated post on gaming and 2 y/os in the works...
ReplyDelete