Personal:
Home
Blog
Archives
CD Projects
FAQ
Last.FM
Radio SFT
Creative:
The
Truth
Audio Biography
Contact:
Mail
Roll Call:
Weasel
Trust But Verify
Astral Base
Cartoon Colin
Remmev
Pampered Queer
Fluid Pudding
Daddy, Poppa & Me
Extrasuperfantastic
Geek Press
Boing Boing
Goldenfiddle
Wilco Base
Be My Demon
Podcasts:
The TWIT Network
The Fredcast
The Spokesmen
|
|
Posts for the date of Saturday, December 01, 2001
|
posted by Gary O'Brien at 9:46 AM |
permalink |
(0) comments
Shhh. Gertrude’s asleep and Matilda is upstairs building a fort in her room. Mom is in the shower. I’m alone! It’s just me for three blissful minutes until Matilda comes downstairs or Gertrude discovers that’s she’s lost consciousness.
There are many things you discover when your kids multiply. One thing is the moment of solitude that you used to take for granted. These days, I think we all feel we’re always on top of each other. Matilda and I are actually fighting over the television, which is funny because we never used to watch TV.
But when you place a baby in the equation, everything changes. Even if my wife has the baby, I feel like I shouldn’t be more than a floor away, in case she needs to be relieved of duty. So, when everyone is content and happy, it’s an odd feeling now. So, I’m sitting here with an unconscious infant on the floor, and two uninterested people elsewhere.
I have a few minutes! So . . . what do I do with those few minutes? I talk about the people from whom I’ve escaped. It’s a disease. I’m obsessed with them. It’s a good thing they’re my family, otherwise the restraining order would be difficult.
This week Matilda and Gertrude were in a photo shoot for an ad brochure for a textbook. The theme was “Big Things Come in Little Packages.” So, they put the girls in boxes. Poor Gertrude, being so small, had to be propped up in the box. She did really well, though, until the flashing lights pissed her off. Matilda, on the other hand, acted as though she was born to be in front of the camera. Flipping her hair this way and that. Smiling, posing.
She doesn’t realize that Gertrude has an advantage on her in the modeling biz. Gertrude has the whole eat, barf, eat, barf cycle down pat. Matilda would have to pick that up again. The learning curve may be too great.
That’s okay. I don’t want Matilda to be a model. She’s going to be a singer/songwriter/teacher/scientist/dancer. It’s her chosen career and I, for one, support it fully. I feel there aren’t enough multi-tasking professionals with post-graduate degrees and an artistic side. Besides, she can teach everyone about the cure for cancer she discovered by writing a musical in which she stars. Beat that Jonas Salk!
There have been some major discoveries in the house in recent memory.
First, Matilda has discovered comedy somehow. I suppose it’s some sort of a defense mechanism to counter the inherent cuteness of a squishy baby. Still, the kid’s talent for performance and comedic timing is amazing. I’m considering changing her name to Shecky. What amazes me about Matilda is the fact that she’s still resisting the influence of her friends. They all love the teenage crud that’s floating around on the radio. I understand this. At her age my favorite song was “Lovin’ Touchin’ and Squeezin’” by Journey (though at that age I would also cite “City of the Angels” as that bled into “LT&S”, for those in the know). All of her friends love Brittany, ‘Nsync and BSB (see? I’m hip.) Matilda, however, has no time for such trivialities. I think she enjoys the more eclectic music we have playing in the house constantly. When our friend comes over, there’s European Pop playing. When I’m in charge it’s either Power Pop or sixties pop. She’d prefer that. Oddly, right now I think she likes Calypso over all other music. She’s so cool.
Gertrude has discovered sight. Granted, we can’t quite figure out what she’s looking at. But it’s clear in her face that she is looking at something but it’s not clear what. Still, there is a look of curiosity on the little face. Or is it more stunned wonder? “What the hell is that thing? AAAHHHHHH!”
Here’s the one thing I don’t understand yet. Whenever Gertrude is awake and looking at me she stares at me with a look of suspicion. I feel the need to apologize for being her dad. It’s as if she’s fully aware of all the weird things she’ll be doing over the next few years, before she can say no. Granted, most kids don’t memorize Pet Sounds by the age of two, but I feel that doing so will give her a good grounding in the traditional pop sensibility. Right?
Sigh. Maybe my friend is right. Gertrude has absolutely no chance of growing up normal. But, that’s a good thing, right? Who wants a normal child? Not me. I think I was able to get a pretty good model, though.
I still wish she could fly.
|
|
|
Posts for the date of Monday, November 26, 2001
|
posted by Gary O'Brien at 12:50 PM |
permalink |
(0) comments
Random notes:
Well, we survived Gertrude’s first Thanksgiving. It sounds monumental, but it isn’t. We stayed home to avoid submitting the child’s immature immune system to deadly germs. Or something like that. It just didn’t seem right toting a one-week-old baby around to family events and passing her around like an artifact from the now defunct nation of Neonatia.
It was nice staying home, for the most part. I’ve been so down recently that spending time with just my family was something I desperately needed. I only wish it could have lasted longer before I had to head back to my internment in corporate America.
Look, it’s not that I don’t like working. And it’s not that I don’t enjoy writing email (official company spelling . . . no hypen. They also don't know the difference between an em dash and an en dash. Incorrect usage all around. Oy!) campaigns.
Ah . . . the good things in life.
Enough of that. I was supposed to be talking about fun stuff like cute babies and technology. The things I love.
It’s been unseasonably warm these last few weeks. By unseasonably I mean that I’m checking the skies for the telltale fiery streak of the Earth-shattering meteor, which will surely rain fiery death upon us.
Wow! My underlying happy demeanor keeps creeping in here, doesn’t it? I’ll stop, I promise.
ANYWAY, it was suddenly very hot in the house so we decided to free Gertrude of her requisite clothes and let her lounge about on a blanket with nothing on but her diapers.
Talk about a happy kid. She kicked her legs, stretched her arms and made a contented little face that said, “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. Nature state!” It’s at these moments when you see how small these little babies are. Their tiny little toes scrunching up, fingers stretching in every direction, chubby little thighs and those little baby folds of skin. You must resist the urge to scoop them up and just hold them. You must allow them the freedom to discover their own movement. It’s amazing to watch. I take my ability to control my body for granted. Poor Gertrude seems to be aware of these things attached to her, but unable to control where they go next. It’s pretty cool. Kind of like watching Jell-O discover it can wiggle itself.
Makes you wonder . . . how self aware is an infant? Not too much, I hope. Otherwise Gertrude thinks I’m an idiot.
We were able to watch a few movies this weekend too. That was nice. Being a movie addict and not having time to watch anything is a killer. But, little Miss Gertrude slept straight through them. Good kid.
We never had any problem with her big sister. Matilda sleeps like the dead. Always has. Makes watching a DVD in Dolby Digital 5.1 rather nice. I get complaints from neighbors, but my daughter sleeps like a log. What a good kid.
Last night, while Chris administered Matilda’s bath, Gertrude and I watched the end of The Phantom Menace. I had to explain to her why this is such a bad movie. As fate would have it, Turner Classic Movies was playing selections from the National Film Archive (job #31 on my list of dream jobs). Made me realize how blasé we are about movies and technology. In 1894, when some of the Kinescope films were made, people were truly amazed at the simple movement. Just watching pictures move fascinated them. The closest thing to this I’ve seen in my life was visiting a mall, watching people try to figure out those old 3D posters. Thank God that trend ended.
But, this is what life is like for Gertrude. Everything is new. In a way I envy her. I wish I could go back and experience that again . . . and remember it. To be lost in the wonder of how the world works again . . . bliss.
|
|
|
|
|
