The Final Countdown!

We’re practically there!  It is nine days till the due date, and all is going very well.  Jean is healthy, and wrapping things up at work.  Today could be her last day before maternity leave – YAY!  For my part, I’m just being a bum, trying to keep the house clean, wrapping up a few top dog items.  By and large, we’re ready for the arrival.

If you don’t have a baby, when your friends begin to start families you may find yourself thinking “Man, what’s the deal with those guys?  Does everything have to be about babies now?”  Then you get there yourself, and the answer echoes in your head loud and clear: yes, everything will be about babies now.  I’m not complaining; it’s wonderful, though perhaps a little bit overwhelming.  We have the nursery set up with a crib, a changing station, a baby monitor, mobiles (plural: not one, but two…  thanks J&R), and enough baby clothes to fill his closet…  and baby clothes are small; it takes a lot of stuff to fill a closet.  They’re all fantastically cute; thanks for all who have contributed to Charlie’s wardrobe.  We have child-proofed cabinets (in case, at the age of 3 days, our newbord son is trying to rummage around for snacks). a car seat, an easy-glider (with a head-rest tall enough for me; though it is not technically named such, all the reviews call it “the Dad’s model”), and another fifty things I am forgetting about.

Though Charlie is on the forefronts of our minds, obviously, there is some other news in our lives…

Our niece Marisa is interviewing for jobs here in the Bay Area, starting most importantly with Silver Springs Networks (Jean’s employer), and we are very excited at the prospect of her working there.  It’d be great for everybody involved; we’re just waiting to see if the company sees it that way.  Also, if she gets the job, she’d be living with us for awhile, and we’ve got our hopes up about the free baby-sitting.

I have now been to visit my daughter Maddie three times, and each has been better than the last.  We are getting along famously.  She always calls me Dad, which probably seems like no big deal to all you dads out there, but when you haven’t seen your kid for 5+ years, it is very moving.  I am getting to know her, and though it’s long overdue, at least we are making up for lost time quickly.  On the less pleasant side of the Maddie issue, her long-term custody is still in question, and although I haven’t spoken with her about it, I think knowing (or at least suspecting) that there is more of that road to travel weighs on her a bit.  For now, things are simple, and that is good.  She is living with her grandparents, who are making a happy and healthy home for her, and she likes her new school, and has made many friends right near her house (all of whom play some pretty vicious “freeze tag”…  I sustained a tag-career-ending injury when I was there!)

Jean and I are starting to think about how and when everybody can get to meet Charlie.  We are considering Chicago for Christmas, depending on how feasible that is when it gets closer.  Charlie will be so lucky as to come into this world with 20 first cousins (I had zero).  Most of them are on Jean’s side of the family and many live in the Chicago area.  My father will be in town in October, en route to my niece Lilly’s Bat Mitzvah, so he will get to meet his newest (second) grandson then.  I don’t know when we’ll get to Boston, where most of my family is, but perhaps they will manage to come to California in shifts before too long.  It is very exciting to think about all of our families getting to meet the new addition…  I can’t wait!