Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Milestone- He rolled over!

So little Ember rolled over for the first time. Typically babies roll from their stomach onto their back. Instead, Ember first rolled from his back onto his belly and then within seconds rolled back onto his back. So far he has rolled over once more from back to stomach.

He's getting happier and happier every day too. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that he has more range of motion. He also has a lot more control over his hands and is starting to grab things- like the cat. It's a good thing Max takes whatever shit people give him.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Milestone- First Laugh!

Two days ago Ember had his first laugh. I was at work when he first laughed for Whitney after she raspberried his belly. Yesterday morning I had the treat of sleeping in. Whitney came in quietly to fold some laundry and had Ember sitting on the bed while I snoozed on. She started shaking the pillows so the pillow cases would slide off and it set Ember off into a low steady- huh huh huh chuckle.

It was quite possibly the cutest wake up I've ever experienced. We got him to do his sweet little baby chuckle shaking off the cases and then again shifting the new ones on. He has only uttered one other little laugh since then. I will now always appreciate the humor in changing pillow cases.

Welcome

Fist in the Mouth refers to one of Ember's favorite pasttimes- sticking his fist in his mouth. He just turned 3 months old on the 7th of November and that is quite frankly insane. Since his first days as a confused and sad baby he has tried sticking his little hand in his mouth in hopes even a bit of relief from this strange world.

Sometimes I see it as a metaphor for my own life- my oftentimes pathetic attempt at finding security in a world that has changed dramatically. Like Ember, I struggle and struggle to stop crying. It usually works for a few seconds before the fist flies involuntarily to the side I am left weeping in a set of diapers.

Ember's birth threw me into a world almost as confusing and new as the one he is navigating through right now. I sort of did a freefall into what a lot of people call the American Dream. I am married to an incredible person. We have two beautiful kids. We live in a newly purchased home and I have a job which in general is one I enjoy and provides some financial stability. We've accomplished what society has prescribed for us, which is exactly the opposite of what I thought I'd be doing about 2 1/2 years ago.

My entrance into "normality" leaves me uneasy a lot of times, but really through the thin veneer of a stable job, modest home and button down shirts it doesn't seem too hard to see that we're still the same quixotic people we were before we had kids.

The truly difficult part of life has been how incredibly busy my job and new lifestyle have left me. I can honestly say I have never been so occupied in my entire life. Life as a first year teacher in the Denver Public School District is a rollercoaster. Add into the mix that I am working towards my license and an English Language Acquisition certification and I am left frazzled more days than not. Still, the kids I work with rock and my school is a sort of oasis in the desert of stifling bureaucratic procedures.

So this blog is an attempt to document this quickly changing period of my life. Like most attempts I make at writing about my life it'll probably start strong and fizzle out as my to-do list looms over me. We'll see though. I hope that this can at least be a place to post pictures of the kiddos and share some developmental milestones and funny stories.
Happy reading,
Clayton