Getting back into the swing of things post Kaden is difficult on two fronts. One I want to spend as much time with him as possible and two when I do go out that means Crystal is flying solo. Granted now that I am back to work she is getting a lot more experience with the latter, but the former is still a tough go. This past Saturday I set out to get some pedal time in with Grant even if it was very brief.
He showed up bright eyed and bush tailed at 9am and we were two wheels rolling soon after. We decided to take the tried and true route through U of R and ended up in the Southside where we crept our way along Riverside Dr. Eventually we crossed the river back to the northern side of the city and made our way west to Château du Tabib. All in we put in around 24 miles in what ended up being just over two hours. The weather was hot, but breezy enough to make for the perfect blend of comfort.
Kaden Adam Tabib was born April 10th, 2009 at 3:54 am. He was 8.7 pounds and 21 inches long. A big healthy baby by my estimation, considering I was 12.13lbs.
The tale of his birth starts with a car that finally gave up the ghost. Crystal's car has been huffing and wheezing its way into a shallow grave for the past year. It has served her well though, originally as a last minute replacement to her first car that she totaled with two years left of college. Since college it took on the strict role of commuter, shuttling her to and from work five days a week and laying dormant otherwise. When it finally decide to go to car heaven on Thursday April 9th, it left Crystal in a panic.
With a new baby on the way and the expenses that accompany such tiny old men (diapers, day care, etc...), she turned into stress tsunami. The perfect storm of accountant, panic and unlikely miracle worker. I assured her as best I could over the phone from work and when I got home we became the proud new users of Quicken online. After two hours of web 2.0 budgeting she had either worn her self out or was at least some what soothed by glossy pie charts of our worldly income.
Around 9pm she went up to bed and I set about to gaming the night away. Fifteen minutes later she was back in my office complaining of mild pains in her abdomen. "Running cramps that go from front to back" is the way she described it. I'm no stranger to a running cramp, so we decided she should try and sleep on the futon in my office and we would monitor any other pain she might be in. Soon enough I had my Touch stopwatch and a spreadsheet tracking what we finally decided were contractions. At midnight they were five minutes apart and had gained in intensity by leaps and bounds.
I quickly packed up the car and we drove to the hospital. By the time she was admitted and into labor & delivery she was greatly pained by said contractions and her body was fighting the doctor who was trying to giver her an epidural. Many tears and hand crushes later she was numb from the waste down and we were napping. Only three hours at the hospital and the nurse came in with the news that it was time to push. I'll leave out the details of the actual pushing dear reader, it could get graphic and I'd like my lovely wife to maintain at least some of her modesty.
An hour of pushing later and he was born. Previously, I thought I had at least some inkling of what the feeling of being a father would be like. I will be frank and tell you I was wrong. It was the best feeling I have ever experienced in my life hands down. It was an emotion that I don't think I could ever do justice to in words, so I will leave it at that for now. We spent about an hour with just the three of us in the delivery room and then finally called in the grandparents to come see there new grandson.
The rest of the time in the hospital is a blur. We had many visitors, sleepless nights, emotional highs & lows and an underlying desire to just go home with our preciously little gift. When Sunday finally came around we packed up our things and left just afternoon to go it alone as new parents. The rest of the story is best left for another time as I am already six paragraphs deep and could expound for six more I'm afraid. I'll go into the details of the first two weeks in a coming post, but for now please enjoy the video above and all of the pictures we have been taking daily.
I'm back on Tumblr after my extend two week baby break by the way.
Previously on the bee log, I posted the day after we found out that we were having a boy. I ended up recording the ultrasound and little bit extra that day with the intention of putting together a short video of the event. Things got busy and I put it off more than a few times. There is no excuse that satisfies me at the moment in any case.
Well now it is just days before the little man shows up and I would be remiss if I didn't post an ultrasound from December prior to him getting here. So last night when I got home from work I sat down with the intention of posting it and doing it right. Right meaning high quality and small file size. Thankfully I built a HD template in my video editor (Sony Vegas) now, so in the future I can edit and go straight to the web.
Note: The editing is no where near what it could have been, but in the process of building a template last night I had to redo the whole edit I started in December of last year. Not the best work I could have done, but I have big plans for future videos.
When I got home from work last night, I hit the kitchen to start prepping for burgers. I'll take grilling outside over cooking indoors any day and the weather gods have been kind enough to bless us with warmer temperatures as of late. As with my last trip to the grill I brought the dog (Macy) outside with me so she could run off some energy. A practice we have been encouraging as of late with the baby coming.
The burgers were sizzling in no time and Macy was taking laps and sniffing up a storm in our backyard. By the time I had administered the first flip Macy was tiring out and hanging by me , the grill and the gate. Crystal soon came outside to join us, we chatted about her day at work while Macy snagged a lick or two on the spatula, a practice we do not encourage. When the burgers were done Crystal went inside to prep the dinning room table and I tossed cheese on the burgers and went to take Macy inside.
A part of the practice of taking Macy to the backyard is doing it sans leash. She grew up in a townhouse with a 6ft by 4ft patch of grass to go out on. So a leash was necessary. Leashing her up continued through her seminal years and is something we still do today. Needless to say we shower her with treats and praise every time she makes it from the backyard to the backdoor without one. She was batting 1000 on taking the three foot ninety degree turn, until last night.
Last night she made it about two feet into the dogleg, when her line of sight was filled by a boy on a bike. He couldn't have been but 9 or 10 years old and presented a perfect target to our 16 lbs beast. Mind you she would never bite anyone, but she would charge towards them to bark a lot. When I caught up to her in the street she played keep away from me with the boy in the middle of us. I kept assuring the child that she meant no harm and thankfully he seemed unphased.
When she lost interest in him she took off down the street with me in tow. Slowing and sprinting as I gave chase on barefoot, having kicked off my shower shoes in the interest of greater speed. We made it about two blocks by the time she took new found interest in a mailbox and I cornered her. I out of breath and she confused about the fuss I was making. When we made it back to the house Crystal was standing in the yard and I could see and smell the cheese on my burgers burning. Jogging past her to the burgers I explained what had happened and in one motion tossed Macy inside and threw open the grill. The burgers were saved, thankfully.
I took off my iPod, which had become tangled in the chase and set it aside, while I went about plating the burgers for the trip inside. We dined on burgers in our living room and glared at a confused 16lbs dog who most likely thought the whole thing was all in fun.
At 1am I went outside and got my iPod, it had been rained on for what I presume was the whole night. It is now resting in a bag of brown rice and I have my fingers crossed that it will turn on again in the near future.
Grant rolling
Riverside
Grant and I rolling
Top of Riverside
Cool old car
Group shot
Saddle shot
