Archive for January, 2011

A Year in Photos: The 2010 B-Sides

Posted by Will on January 13, 2011

The following photos are randomly chosen snaps from the past year that were not quite up to snuff. Thus, they have either never seen the light of day, were featured, perhaps, on a sister site, or were left on the cutting room floor, figuratively speaking. I did this last year and it turned out to be a pretty popular post and it is a fun excuse to pour through photos from the past 365 or so days.

So, for the pleasure of your eyeballs (and subsequently, your brain), enjoy.

January, Savannah — Eight feet wide and 16 feet long, it soars nearly 30 feet in the air. The mailbox that is. Not Brittany's jaw when she saw this thing.

February, Greenbelt — Sometimes, it is confusing to know what Moses is looking at. Sometimes, Moses is just confused.

March, Portland (ME) — Brittany proves hot chocolate, no matter what size, is never a problem.

April, Washington — An hour's wait proved to be well worth the grub at Founding Farmers.

May, Botswana — Oh yeah. Did we tell you we went to Africa and saw a bunch of animals? Oh right, we did.

June, Washington — This year we got around to quite a few ball games in D.C. and Baltimore. We even braved a Nats v. Pirates matchup and stayed awake to tell the tale.

July, Washington — Cross off “Fireworks on the Mall” on the D.C. bucket list.

August, Washington — Boy or girl? No, this photo was not Photoshopped. Any Washingtonians know where this photo was taken? A pat on the back and atta’ boy to the winner.

September, Washington — D.C. has a lot of hidden gems. That includes this gallery space in the Renwick Gallery.

October, Virginia — I am not a big fan of Virginia but there is a stretch along 66 that really reminds me of home. Pumpkins don't remind me of home but hey, they're seasonal (and we had a Groupon).

November, Washington — A spirited session of Thanksgiving Scattergories with David can zap the energy out of any man, woman, or child. In this case, it's woman and three-fourths of a child.

December, Washington — The calm before the storm? A chilly morning after brunch in one of my favorite areas of D.C. I really chose this photo because Brittany's pretty freakin' cute.

2 Comments on this post | Published in Photos

Shock and Awww …

Posted by Will on January 10, 2011

Disclaimer: This post was written over the last week. It may not make sense, it may come across as rambling. The author is tired (literally) and has decided to post as is, regardless how cockeyed the points may appear.

I.

So where do I start? After a few late nights with pockets of time where you are practically doing nothing but holding a small human life in your arms, you have plenty of time to think. For some people, sitting around aimlessly can lead to daydreams, deep philosophical conundrums, or perhaps, you might even dwell on the subject at hand. Or in my case, the subject in my hands.

Here’s a small sampling of what I have been pondering — consider them early thoughts on parenthood.

Normally
Clichés = Clichés

Sometimes
Clichés = Reality or Clichés = Misinformation

When It Comes to the Whole Newborn≠Sleep
Clichés = Truth

Despite how played out clichés are, unfortunately when it comes to matters of birth and babies, they are all slowly materializing as truth. Not that I am saying all things uttered to us over the past 9 months have emerged as truisms, there just appears to be a lot more validity in these statements than I either expected (or ignored).

Of course, the biggest thing has been the loss and/or lack of sleep. By nature, I am a night owl and Brittany is more of an early bird (fowl puns (foul puns)). While that has been helpful as we both are showing our times of strengths and weaknesses, the whole process of learning how to sleep in small amounts is really hard. When we are not sleeping at all, well, that is even more difficult.

In retrospect, this is the biggest platitude that not only has had the largest impact on our lives (thus far and aside from our child actually being present) but is also the one I am having the hardest adjusting to. It is hard not to claim or look for others to commiserate with. In the end, we just need to put our noses to the grindstone and get past it.

II.

There are things I learned no one taught me about the birthing process. Not my father nor mother, not my friends who are parents, not even the beatnik baby massage therapist who taught us about the miracle of birth for nine hours in the basement of GWU Hospital and let us hold her crystal of power told me enough about what was going to happen. So, as much as you can prepare, as much as you can study up on the topic, nothing, absolutely nothing can absolutely prepare you for the actual birth until you’re there, holding your spouses leg, trying not let your own self become overwhelmed. There were things I was not prepared for and caught me off guard.

III.

Nothing is more surreal than watching your child emerge from womb. Dalí should have focused his work on childbirth rather than melting pocket watches, elephants, and cutting open eyeballs with a straight razor.

IV.

Being a parent has a steep learning curve. I mean, really, really steep. We’re talking 45°. This is probably another one of those clichés but again, it rings true. We are both excited to have our daughter come into our lives but we are definitely going to be students of Parenthood 101 until the end of our time. Fortunately we have great precedents to learn from.

4 Comments on this post | Published in Baby Bram, Photos

Nola Jean

Posted by Will on January 2, 2011

It has been a whirlwind New Year, one with very, very happy results.

Nola Jean is here. Nola was born at 2:29 PM EST on January 1st (a true New Year’s Baby). She weighed in at 7 lb. and 5 oz. and was 21 and ¼” long. She is healthy, as is Brittany, and her parents are both very pleased that she is finally here.