We just went to the two week well being checkup for Alex, and he's fine! He is now 9 pounds, having gained about 2 since the jaudice thing, and he's about an inch longer. We also got a letter in the mail asking if he would join Bush's war against Iraq. I guess it's expected to go that long. File that under garbage.

Apparently Dansen is being rocked by earthquakes in Japan, and as far as I know it, he's still alive and kicking. I hope he is well.

There is a slight sense of sadness when I think about going back to work. Granted, working 32 hours a week isn't exactly hard labor, but I'm going to miss spending time with my wife and my son after these three weeks. Realistically, I've really done more than most fathers could, but since my delusional streak is fairly impetratable, it was quite the experience to see my son, this little 9 pound eating machine, alter our lifestyles so much. Hopefully, we'll adapt nicely or otherwise, we'll just have to give up the dreams of starting our own casino.

Yeah, I'm just tired, so my jokes are slightly surreal.

First of all, I'd like to thanks my friends and my wife for vastly improving my birthday tenfold - they wished me a happy birthday and gave me some pretty cool stuff, a "Cowboy Bebop" DVD, an Elvis CD, and movie passes that will no doubt be used for Kill Bill. And I got a cool handmade card from my wife, and she got me an ice cream cake too! And that's all I really wanted, something simple and says, we know you, man. And that's what you'll probably enjoy. I know, I'm being a slight brat about the whole thing, whining about something that seemingly, a lot of people wouldn't mind having. I'm sorry if I come across that way - it's just not expected that my birthday present has to turn into a conflict with my family, about hurting other people's feelings and pride. It's all so moot and stupid. But anyway, now I have a partial gym so if anyone wanted to make me watch them sweat, they're welcome to come over and pedal away. Of course, I still have to get it home from Sears. Amazingly low priority for me.

Complete lack of sleep has made me slightly dazed, and hopefully I'll be just fine driving down to Redmond. My wife and I are more worried about Alex adapting to this environment, and us being visitors for two whole days. I myself have never really been a fan of going home, mostly because it's not that. Having never stayed there for more than a few days and having absolutely no memories about growing up there, it's just like a bed and breakfast. And my mom's place is always so cold. I won't be surprised if the baby shrinks due to the frosty tempertures.

Well, just gonna pack and off we go. And then after that, it's back to work. Might as well, I'm not making hardly any money staying home.

Time for some self-absorption.

Today, right now, is my 27th birthday. Actually, if you wanted to be technical about it, it would've been my birthday yesterday since I was born in Singapore, and the 18 hour time difference would mean that I've already turned 27. But I'm just feeling kinda "eh" right now. Feeling a bit crap, actually.

My day was actually not bad, got another wedding finished, just two more to go. Had a really good time playing around with my wife today, feeling like the couple we were before baby. Had a relatively easy day with Alex. Regulated body temperture with lots of Coke.

But what put me in a funk was going to the Post Office, and finding out what I got from my mom and brother. It was a receipt for a paid for stationary bike. In all honesty, I basically said, "What the hell, dude?" and just spent the rest of the day moping because of two reasons. One, this was essentially, the only present I was going to get because my wife's been on maternity leave for the past seven weeks, and I totally understand that she cannot afford to get me anything, because I couldn't afford to get myself anything, and two, this will, and has, escalated the whole gifting thing between me and my family.

A little history lesson.

My mom and brother don't really understand me. I like movies, video games, Macs, video and camera things. That's it. Anything else I might fancy would be pedestrain, a phase. Also, I'm practical. I like things I can use often, or things that are cheap and effective. I don't believe in newer is better, or bigger is better... usually. My family however, isn't on the same train of thought. I don't really know what they're thinking a lot of times.

Granted, I have returned a lot of their gifts in the past. Columbia Jacket. Wedding watches for my wife and I. Stroller. But that's because anyone who knows me would know that I'm just a practical guy. It's Bellingham, and Columbia jackets are not only excessive in thickness, but also in brand status. Don't care for that at all. Watches were 100 bucks each. Fancy. My wife and I aren't fancy people. And Stroller is easy, we got a free hand me down, so we had to tell my brother to return his. Because we had one. For free.

So, right now, I've been msn messenging my brother about the stationary bike, and it looks like the best damn thing to do is to keep the stupid thing. He's saying that it's about the thought behind the gift, which I do appreciate (essentially, they want me to be healthy. And a bike solves that.) but to me it's the practicality of it.

I don't wanna just bitch and moan about it anymore. I would rather just return the thing to them and give them their money back, but I don't know if that's gonna happen. In the end, it's not about getting something for my birthday, really. I have a son and that's a pretty good present. It's just about getting into the same stupid scenerio all over again with my family.

Alright, enough about that.

Bleah.

Alex is probably not crying or fussing any more than he usually does, but the lack of sleep and just tiredness of myself and my wife makes taking care of the little guy seem really tough. And it's only the second week!

I've read other people's accounts of it, and heard all the stories about how new parenthood will just consume you and your time with your significant other, and as much as I tried to not make it a self-fulfilling prophecy, it ended up being that way. I think the only way that a relationship won't be affected by the baby is if the couple just neglects the baby. Which is something that we're not going to do, obviously.

We're waking up after six hours of sleep, taking a lot of naps, and making formula almost every day. He's taking baths once every two days (he's got my ability to sweat and grease up.), and he's eating every single second. If there's anyone considering a baby, don't worry about your finances - worry about the time you can spend with your child. On one hand you don't want to miss a second of his precious innocence and cuteness, and on the other hand, you want to maintain a somewhat sanitary environment in your household by doing laundry, dishes, and other personal hygiene routines.

My wife and I are trying to make time between his naps to bond, and I'm trying to help out when I'm not nose deep in weddings. Alex is growing before our eyes, it seems like. We've hardly blinked and everyone says that he's become slightly bigger. Man alive.

Boy, I'm betting my wife will find this to be good news. She was feeling so guilty about switching to the bottle in the first week.

Yahoo! News - Toxic Flame Retardant Found in Breast Milk

I came to the realization today that Alex has accomplished something quite spectacular. Not only has he effectively altered the lifestyles of three individuals, two of which are adults who are parenting full time, but he has also forced us to live his reckless life. We are now sleeping, eating, and going to the bathroom more than ever, and pretty soon we'll be crying at will.

Forgive me if for the next few days I'm missing, but this will be my last week of vacation. We're going to meet the grandparents on Friday and through the weekend, and fueled by the email and phone calls from my client in June, I will be spending the majority of the week parked in front of the computer, editing my butt off.

And also, my wife has been calling him a "hungry bear" a lot, and the nickname is starting to stick a little for my wife. I haven't really called him "Monkey" too much, though I've called him a hippo and a monster (all in good happy feelings, of course.) See, that's what you get with me. I start a catch phrase, and once people start noticing it and repeating, I change it. I don't know how it works exactly, it's just that I actually get bored with it rather quickly and invent new things. Ask my wife and she'll tell you all the mini games we played before have either evolved or have been dropped. Now we play new games like feeding noodles to coma patients.

Yeah, you kinda have to be one of us to get that, and even then, you still wouldn't because it doesn't make any sense. By the way, the Best Buy noodles are the best.

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