Geek Games

So, some of my Internet friends and I were playing the typical geek parlor game of assigning each other identities from the Justice League. I ended up with The Flash. Not because I'm, you know, speedy or anything, but because he's the only member of the team with a decent track record at fatherhood (when you stop to think about it, a surprising number of male JLAers are fathers, but their kids are all either dead or evil).

This was my first attempt at portraying Skeezix and myself in costume. This is drawn from a if-I-was-trying-to-dress-up-as-the-Flash angle.

This is more of a if-I-was-the-Flash kind of thing. And, certainly, the depiction I prefer. I wish I really could pull off wearing a winged hat.

Happy First Mother's Day!

Here's to a wonderful wife and mother!

You wanna know just how wonderful the Lovely Wife is? We went on our first date since Skeezix was born, last night. And she was the one who suggested seeing Iron Man!

Nicknames

Beyond his nom de Internet, Skeezix, the Adorable Progeny has picked up a passel of nicknames, a selection of which are presented here:

Action-Baby
Action-Baby demands action!

Schnorfler

Mowgli
Lie still, little frog. O thou Mowgli–for Mowgli the Frog I will call thee...
—Mother Wolf in The Jungle Book

BabyLad
With one-tenth the power of ten ordinary infants!
So nicknamed by Chris and Curt.

Little Goat
I don't quite have the onomontopoeia right on this one, yet.

Thunderpants
The onomontopoeia on this one is very accurate, however.

A Good Day

We recently celebrated Skeezix's one-month birthday with some of his very favorite things.

The Marsupial Man

After about a week of sitting around and staring at the Adorable Progeny, I had to get up and actually get some stuff done. This became much easier after I entered the august ranks of Baby-Wearers. Starting with about twenty-four yards of fabric and a team of specially-trained hand maidens, I am encased in an elaborate criss-crossed layering of slings, pockets, at least one origami swan. It takes awhile, and the hand maidens command a pretty steep salary, but it's worth it. Once outfitted, I can effortlessly wear the Adorable Progeny in a variety of positions. He is completely blissed out by this arrangement, and I'm freed up to do thing like, uhm, draw the above doodle.

The Greatest News in the History of Humankind!

Welcome to the world, beautiful baby!

The Adorable Progeny was born on Wednesday. He was 7 lbs. 9 oz., a little under 20 inches long, and a sporting inch-long strawberry blond hair. Geez-o-Pete, but is he good looking.

Skeezix was born by way of an emergency caesarean, which was pretty scary. His umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck and head, and when labor began in earnest his heart rate dropped precipitously. The room was immediately full of people asking questions and issuing orders. Some blue scrubs were thrown at me and the Lovely Wife was whisked away. The twenty minutes or so before I was allowed to join them were awful. The only thing that kept me in one piece was knowing that I needed to look composed when I saw the LW again.

Once in the operating room, things went very quickly. Skee was dark blue when the pulled him out, and the split second it took for my brain to resolve the shape I was seeing as being separate from my wife's anatomy, as actually being a head with a face and features that were familiar but which I'd never seen before, was the most intense experience of my life. I wish I could describe it more specifically than that, but I don't know what I was feeling so much as how much I was feeling.

His color immediately went from blue to pink, and he passed his Apgar's with flying colors. The LW was not in a position to see any of this, and was asking me lots of sensible questions, like "Is he okay? Is he breathing?" But I was such a blubbery mess, I wasn't much help to her. I was blinded by tears and my surgical mask was full of snot, and I couldn't hear a thing that was going on around me. All I was aware of was this incredible little being that was suddenly in the world.

And, well, that hasn't really changed in the past five days.

Let's not have another week like that one, okay?

Things have been a little rough around here, lately. The Lovely Wife and I went to a routine doctor's appointment, and ended up in Labor and Delivery. The good news is that she and the Adorable Progeny are both okay, and that Skeezix is still on the right side of LW's belly (that is to say, the inside), but that was very nearly not the case. Five days later, and considerably worse for the wear, we made it back home.

The Lovely Wife is on bed-rest for the rest of the pregnancy, which, hopefully will be awhile longer. Skeezix is 33 weeks along, today. Seven more to go.

Join the Parade!

While putting together the Adorable Progeny's deluxe suite (presently referred to as the Nerdery), and I keep coming across the information that young infants can most easily see high contrast black and white imagery. There's some very nice stuff available for purchase, but, hey, I've got a bottle of ink! Why not make my own?

Here's what I'm thinking: I'll post my drawings at pretty high resolution (600 dpi). Any parent who would like to use these for their infant is welcome to. They remain my intellectual property, and are not available for other use without contacting me (this includes schools and garage bands), but parents can do all kinds of things with them: make flashcards, wall art, tattoos, whatever.

And, in my very first attempt at memecraft, I'd like for other folks to add to the parade. The parameters are:
1.) You are willing to offer the same terms that I have. You retain all rights, but parents can use the images for their kids.
2.) High contrast black and white imagery, at a pretty decent resolution. No grays, no gradients, no colors. Well, maybe red.
3.) Content should be all-ages appropriate. Dahr.
4.) It's a musical parade! Give your marcher an instrument!

No deadline. We'll keep on marching for as long as people are interested in joining in. Drop your link in the comments of any Parade post, or shoot me an email!

Sit Tight, Skeezix

The past couple months have been pretty tense, Skeezix-wise, as the prospect of pre-term labor has been with us pretty constantly. But the Adorable Progeny has hung in so far, and every day he does he gets stronger and more developed. So listen to your father, Skeezix, and stay put for another ten weeks, okay?

The line quoted is from Sea Dreams by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Sea Dreams is a narrative poem about a family coping with getting swindled out of their savings, but the following is often excerpted as Cradle Song for collections of children's poetry:

What does the little birdie say
In her nest at peep of day?

Let me fly, says little birdie,
Mother, let me fly away.

Birdie, rest a little longer,
Till the little wings are stronger.

So she rests a little longer,
Then she flies away.

What does little baby say,
In her bed at peep of day?

Baby says, like little birdie,
Let me rise and fly away.

Baby, sleep a little longer,
Till the little limbs are stronger.

If she sleeps a little longer,
Baby too shall fly away.

Meeting Skeezix

So, the Lovely Wife has been puking an awful lot, lately. And, apparently, it's not the bargain-bin clams she prefers for breakfast. The cause of her symptoms has been given the in utero name of Skeezix.

Woo-Hoo!