Dark Day

It's Maddie's fourth day at school. Last week was okay, but today didn't start well.

"Daddy, you stay with me, okay?" she asked, all the way to school. I try not to lie to her. "Only for a short while, Baby," I said reassuringly. But she was anxious all the same.

A short little trip to 7-Eleven was supposed to be a clever little bribe, but my little girl was cleverer. "Coughing cannot drink Vitagen," she tells me. Even her favourite Tic Tacs weren't doing the trick.

In the end I carried her all the way to her classroom. Teacher Mary Ann recognised the problem and attempted to carry her away. Maddie clutched at my shirt, fear and trembling in her eyes, like a tragic scene from a movie.

"Tell your girl it's gonna be alright, Gordon," Harvey Two-Face snarled, waving his gun menacingly as he held on to my child. "Lie," he hissed viciously, "like I lied."

Every impulse in my body wanted to react. I wanted to grab my little girl, clutch her close to me and run out the door. And I would have taken out whoever tried to stop me.

That would have been the Daddy she deserved, but not the one she needed right now.

Addendum:
I abandoned my little girl at the verge of tears today, and it was eating me up just a little bit. But as it turns out, she was all happy and cheerful when Mommy picked her up. See, Babykins? Daddy did it for your own good. :P

Babykins

"Hey Babykins," I call to Maddie as I have done countless times before. She is, after all, the baby of the family, and at 3-years-old it's a cute little term of endearment.

"Don't call me Babykins!" she replies, "I'm not a baby anymore, Daddy."

Maddie can't wait to grow up. And you can see it in every little thing she does. She feeds herself, what little of it she chooses to eat. She wears her own shoes, although once in awhile, she slips up and gets them on the wrong sides. She wakes up at night on her own to take a pee, and she wipes her own poo.

In fact, she so self-reliant that she's all but ready to move out on her own and never look back. And that breaks my heart just a little. Yes, yes, Daddies are supposed to learn to let go, but she's three I just need a little more of my Babykins just a little longer.

"Can't you just be Daddy's little Babykins for a little while more?" I pleaded. This was not looking good for me. This is exactly how Daddy get wrapped around their daughters little fingers. But alas, it was futile.

"Daddy, I'm a big girl now," she said as she looked earnestly at me, as though assuring me that Daddy's little girl is all grown up and that everything was gonna be alright. I was almost resigned to the fact that Maddie was never gonna be my Babykins anymore, when I remembered I still had a trump card up my sleeve.

"Ok Sweet Pea," I responded, "but how about Daddy bathe you now?"

"I want Daddy to bathe me," she squealed. And right there in the bathroom, we're back to being Daddy and Babykins once again. :)

Tech Savvy

Last night, I came home with a nice little Disney Princess doll for Maddie. It's one of those cute little things that sings. This one sang a song in the tune of "I'm a little teapot". I figured, since my little girl is into singing now, she'd get a big kick out of it.

She did. For all of 2 minutes.

After that she ditches the damn thing, heads straight for the iPad instead, launching the YouTube app and playing some videos of nursery rhymes instead. *sigh*

Jesse is also big on YouTube. These days he's learning the words to Queen's "We Will Rock You".

Back in my day, the only piece of tech I got was a Viewmaster. It was one of those toys that looked into like a binoculars, with a cardboard disc that had slides on it. You clicked on the lever, and it took you through some 10 to 12 slides. And that, impressed the shit out of me. "Look Mommy, I'm watching a movie!" Never mind that it didn't have sound and the pictures didn't move. It was magic as far as I was concerned.

Our kids are tech savvy. 

Meanwhile, Mae still can't locate the YouTube app on the iPad. Heheheh.

It's okay Hun. One day when the world is decimated by a nuclear holocaust, and the world is relegated back to the dark ages, your rudimentary survival skills will see us through. Then you can show us who's boss.

Don't Cry

Maddie is all of 23 months now. She's talking a lot these days, except the times when she actually wants something in which case she just wails her head off. *sigh* But yeah, she's picking up words and phrases and she parrots whatever we say to her.

But the cutest part of it is, she sometimes offers herself words of comfort, just like we would do whenever she was upset or afraid.

There was this episode when Mommy was leaving for work and poor little Maddie was being especially sticky. Mae tries to sneak out undetected, but unfortunately, the wife isn't quite cut out for such clandestine operations. Picture a buffalo stampede through your front door. Heh.

And so Maddie catches wind of Mommy less-than-graceful exit, and starts crying for Mommy. And in moments like this, I have a place in her world once again. I pick her up and she buries her face in my neck, sobbing her little heart out. And right there in between sobs and sniffles my cute, sweet little baby consoles herself. "Don't cry, Baby, don't cry".

Awwww.

"Don't you cry tonight. There's a heaven above you, Baby. Don't you cry tonight."

Six Years of Jesse

Jesse is six today.

It wasn't all that long ago when he was just an itch in my groin a baby. And suddenly, lo and behold, the boy is six.

Suddenly, he's all independent and stuff. Suddenly he doesn't need Daddy to switch on the lights for him anymore. Suddenly he's operating the DVD player all on his own, and working the iPhone. Suddenly he's Googling, and reading his own bedtime stories. Suddenly he doesn't need Daddy to wipe his ass anymore.

And suddenly I miss it all. Except maybe that last one.

He's even begun dictating the terms of his birthday celebration. "Daddy, for my birthday, I want to go the the place," he explains, "where we eat the fish on the leaf, with the Roti Canai and the sugar."

It used to be McDonald's. But my little boy is all grown up now. *sniff*

In other news, Little Maddie is on her way into her McDonald's phase very soon. Ah, the stories I have to tell. :) More blogging!!!

Stealth Kisses

Maddie doesn't do kisses.

For some reason, our little girl doesn't liked to be kissed. Her lips are no man's (or woman's) land, which can be tough on Daddy cos she's got the cutest little lips that are just begging to be kissed. Heh. But when you come within stinky-breath distance from her face, our baby girl will take all necessary evasive action.

I've tried shaving, so that my stubble won't bother her. Heck, I've gone as far as to brush my teeth and gargle with mouthwash (in the middle of the day, mind you) to no avail. I come close and she'll twist and turn her head. Sometimes she'll even shove at my face. One time I swear she was trying to break my nose and shove the bone up my brain to put me out of my misery.

And then she shakes her head vigorously to display her disapproval. This is coming from a 13-month-old kid. So what's a Daddy to do, but to get creative?

Maddie has no problems kissing inanimate objects. Bring her dolly up to her face, ask her to kiss it and my little girl will crane her neck out to peck the doll. So I do that, but at the very last moment, I pull dolly away and steal a kiss, like a ninja. Score 1 for Daddy. She has since wised up to my ways and that trick's not working anymore.

I also found short-lived success by covering my lips with my hand or a sheet of paper, coming really close and planting one on her kisser. That one's not gonna work anymore, too.

Then one day while I carried her, I put on the most pathetic face I could muster and asked, "Don't you love Daddy? Don't you want to kiss Daddy a little?" She looked at me with a twinkle in her eye, leant forward... and gave me a friendly pat on the back.

*sigh* Guess I'll just have to settle. Until you're ready, sweetheart.

Drawing Inspiration

Jesse made me this drawing a couple of days back. "Take this to work with you, Daddy," he said, "and show it to your friends". The kid's a narcissist, I tell you.

The drawing made me laugh. It's his cute little attempt at spelling and his record of events and observations that entertains me no end. I think I'll teach him to blog next. That oughtta be hilarious.

As for the drawing, the boy managed to sucker Uncle Jeff into getting him the new Iron Man toy as a present when they were out at Tropicana City. He's also awed by the fact that Iron Man has a triangle arc reactor this time around.

I dunno, but I thought that deserved a blog post in itself. :)

Maddie 365

Maddie turned one 2 Sundays ago. As tradition, we had a little bash for the family. It was like a scene from Goodfellas.

There was Jeffrey and Stevie and Me. There was Gino from the family up north. There was Slicky Ricky and his brothers, Eric the Booze and Two-Tone Tony. There was Tall Joey, who was Lari's brother from the wife's family. Two Jasons. And you had Ashley The Eyes and his gal, Cotton Candy. And Jeremy 2K, who gets the nickname because he owes me 2K.

It was all in the family, but you get the idea. Now enjoy the photos. :)


It's Maddie's first birthday and we're a little liberal with her eating for the day. She gets a first taste of Vitagen and she loves the stuff. Check out the killer pose.


The spread. We catered this from D'Fortune and it was good. An order for 45 feeds 60, with some leftovers. Shhh...


Maddie complaining to Auntie Sue, "There's just too many people here, and they're eating my food!"


The Grisly Sisters (mine), watching Maddie sleep. There's something discomfiting about this picture, because you should never sleep in the presence of these two. Especially when they have marker pens nearby. Trust me on this. Poor Maddie.


The whole village. 60 of us, Grandfathers, grandmothers, grand uncles and aunties, uncles & aunties, cousins, etc. And this is not even the whole family! They came, they ate, they left. Just like locusts, except that we like them and they brought gifts. Heheh.


One for the album. Everyone singing the song, but Maddie just wants cake.


Kids ravaging the cake. This one comes from The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and it's got all kinds of goodies on top. The little horrors were just picking off the colourful treats, led by their leader, my son. :)


A little flower power for my little girl. Maddie's totally into the cake decoration. She's also into her very first taste of cake.


No it wasn't the kids. This was all Mae. Apparently it's extremely difficult to cut a cake that's got all kinds of candies on it.


Cuppacakes from Wondermilk. Mae bought a whole box of the stuff and ate it for a week. Yeah. Eww. Too much of a good thing, as far as I'm concerned.


Maddie gets her first birthday present. She loves it, if only to jump up and down on it.

It was tiring just looking at all those people. And in the end, it was more a party for everyone else than it was for poor little Maddie. Sorry sweetheart. Daddy will make it up to you every birthday from here on, okay?

Eight Months

Wow. It's been awhile since I was last here. Yeah, I really should blog more, but somehow, life got in the way. And poor Maddie went through 8 months of her life without so much as a squeak. :(

Sorry, Sweetheart, Daddy'll make it up to you. I promise. With any luck, that could well be a nice convertible for your 21st birthday. But for now, it'll have to be a bunch of catch-up posts. Heh.


Fresh from the farm, Little Maddie meets her big brother for the very first time. Although she appears nonchalant despite Ko-Ko Jesse's gawks, we suspect she's just holding back. In time she would develop the very same goofy stare (complete with mouth agape) for Ko-Ko as well.


In the morning of her Full Moon party, Maddie gets her first haircut, courtesy of Grandma & Guys unisex salon. Despite my little girl's lack of hair, my mother takes another swipe at her barren locks at the very moment I had my back turned. Apparently, out of superstition. By the time I realised it, it was already too late. So, instead of stopping her, I stopped time. Via my Lumix LX-3.


In her second month, Maddie sleeps. A lot. Didn't help that she woke only during the hours I was at work. Sometimes when no one was looking, I'd wake her up just so I could enjoy her waking moments. Shhh...


Three months on, and Maddie's still not doing terribly well in the hair department. We resorted to hats, hairbands, bonnets to help "girlify" her a little bit. In the end, I decided to lob off my hair too, just to keep my little girl company. Just so she can look back one day and say, "Hey, Daddy had a silly haircut too!" Mae hated the way I look. Silly woman.


After four months, Maddie starts practicing her bite. On anything, including her very accommodating big brother. She would eventually develop a couple of cute little gnashers.


At five months old, our little princess develops a winning smile. She's also gained a lot of strength in her legs, kicking about every time you carried her, all the while grinning from ear to ear. Mae is all smiles too at this point, since she started to be able to squeeze back into her old jeans.


Right on schedule, at the age of six months old, Maddie learnt to sit unaided. Here, we're prepping for one of those shots that was all the rage in the 70s. You know the put-you-kid-on-a-car shot? Helped that we had Mom's vintage VW at hand. This was also Maddie's first long-distance trip. We went back to my family home in Taiping. She cried most of the way cos she didn't want to be confined in a car seat. *sigh*


For the Christmas holidays, we decided to take another trip. This time a short one to Bukit Tinggi, since Maddie wasn't terribly big on long car rides. The cool weather and the funky threads went down well with our little girl, hence the happy demeanour. BTW, those Vincent shoes she wears, we bought from FOS Kids & Teens. Cheap shoes for under 20 bucks. She can outgrow them without us feeling too much of a pinch. :D


And finally, this just in. At a ripe old age of 8 months a couple of weeks back, our little girl is learning how to stand on her own two feet. Assisted by her own two arms of course. And as usually, Daddy is proud as hell. :)

So there. A pretty long post, after a long break. And with plenty of pictures too. A good restart, hopefully. :)

Maddie's 16-Day Milestone Report

Day 1: Subject Madeleine is soft and squishy. Limbs and extremities look frail and fragile. Will probably snap under little effort. Must handle with care. Umbilical cord withering away, but still attached. Subject appears to need no constant nutrition, finding adequate sustenance from a short stint at subject's maternal mammary gland.

Day 2: Subject is excreting a dark, sticky matter from its posterior. This product is assumed to be Meconium. An assumption will be adequate at present time for the purpose of this report, due to this researcher's refusal to perform a taste and smell test.

Day 3: Subject has begun consuming and requiring a larger intake of subsistence. Its current diet of Colostrum, a concentrated nutritional lactative product, will soon be replaced by a higher volume dairy product. The Meconium production appears to be ceasing, much to the olfactory delight of the research team. Subject, however, has taken a slight yellow appearance on the epidermis. Subject will undergo a daily exposure of natural ultraviolet rays.

Day 6: Natural UV Therapy had paid off. Tests at the Damansara Specialist Hospital measures subject Madeleine's bilirubin level at 9.8mg/dl, a safe level. Subject has begun to respond to visual and auditory stimulus.

Day 9: Limbs and extremities have gotten firmer. Subject has also demonstrated increased strength, as well as increased suction power, as evident during feedings. However, it must be noted that subject's suction prowess is estimated on the basis of facial convolutions expressed by subject Madeleine's maternal lactation unit (also referred to as Mae).

Day 11: Subject's umbilical cord has dislodge from the main unit. Upon visual inspection, said umbilical matter is dried and withered, displaying a dark brownish-red transluscency similar to the processed combusted porcine aliment usually available during the Lunar new year festival. However, inhalation tests offer no such similarity, producing a pungent and putrid result. The research team has concluded that the unbilical matter is best disposed as biohazard and not safe for consumption, nor as accessorial ornaments.

Day 13: Registered at the National Registrar. Subject Madeleine will now fall under the purview of the Federal Government. However, subject will still be required to report to her parental units for all matters pertaining to cultivation and nurturing.

Day 16: Subject has begun to respond kinesthetically to stimulus. Her oral emissions in times of hunger are registering higher decibel levels oftentimes shattering the concentration of the maternal lactation unit. Otherwise, subject displays a calm, quiet demeanour, befitting of assumption regarding the female of her species. It must be noted that this assumption has oft been faulty with the researcher's own experiences with the female of the species.

This concludes the 16-Day Milestone Report on Subject Madeleine. In the final summary, the subject has shown remarkable growth and positive development. It's parental units, however, though positive in outlook, are showing signs of fatigue and weariness, but that is typical is studies like this.

Jesse In Love

Who's this Carmen, and what spell does she hold over my boy? And yeah, pardon the voice if I sound like a wuss. That's my son's spell over me. :P

A little background to what you'll be watching: We're talking to my Jesse about a name for his soon-to-be-born little sister when I decided to mention the name of his kindergarten classmate, the object of his affection.

Baby Wants Out

"Look, Look," Mae calls out to me excitedly pointing at her belly. She had pulled up her shirt to observe our little girl in action, and the little tyke did not disappoint.

Baby was moving about in the belly, her every move visible as she stretched her way around Mae's overtly bulbous belly. Every now and then, she'd even yank at the umbilical cord or something, causing Mommy's now protruded navel to sink back in. It was the weirdest thing! Just like that extra-terrestrial creature right before it popped out of John Hurt's stomach in Alien.

"She's always moving upwards too," Mae complains, "and that always makes me want to puke."

I think she wants to come out through Mommy's mouth. Either that or via the emergency hatch though Mae's belly button. Which explains why she keeps on yanking at the ejection seat lever.

This is gonna be one fiesty little monkey girl. Just the ideal companion for the agile little monkey boy we already have.

Budding Artist?

drawing inspiration?

Every since Jesse could hold a pencil without attempting to ingest the damn thing, he'd been drawing. And, for a five-year-old, I think he's got potential. Then again, I am his father and am allowed to be biased so you'll forgive me. :)

If he ever develops this skill, let it be known that he got it from my side of the family. The Tan family are genetically creative. Jesse great-grandpa, my grandad used to paint movie posters in Capitol Cinema in Taiping. Yeah, way back before large-format printers, this stuff was hand-drawn, and my grandpappy was the man to do it. My uncle is also an accomplished artist, and Mom was always good in sketching and craft. I inherited a little of it too, which put me in my present vocation as a graphic designer. Jesse's Uncle Steve is also a pretty good artist, while his Uncle Jeff is... erm... well... a nice guy. Heh.

The shot above is the boy's sketch of his hero, Bruce Lee. He's put in quite a bit of detail here. Bruce has got hair, angry arched eyebrows, a mouth, 2 nostrils and five digits on each hand. He's also made sure to give Bruce Lee two nipples and a belly button. Hahahah! You can't teach stuff like this! No parent ever told his kid, "Hey, draw some nipples in there, and don't forget that bulge in his pants!" Nope, it's gotta come from his own observation.

Jesse also does a mean Iron Man. Yeah, that's my boy. :)

Brotherly Love

On Saturday, we lost Jesse's jacket at the supermarket. The boy taking it off and putting on again, just for the fun of it and somewhere along the way, we must have dropped it.

On the way home, when the reality that his favourite jacket was gone hit him, he started wailing. And quite melodramatically, too. (He gets it from his mother, I swear). To further dramatise his loss, he starts imagining things.

"A baby took my jacket," he sobbed. "I don't like the baby anymore!"

We were a little disturbed that perhaps he might be laying some blame on his little unborn sister in Mommy's tummy. I had read that kids tend to feel threatened by a new sibling.

"You don't like our baby anymore?" I asked our son in the saddest tone of voice I could muster.

"No! It was another baby!" he protested, his crying now toned down a couple of notches. "Baby Madeleine is a good baby," he added assuringly and earnestly, "I love our baby very much."

It was heartwarming to hear that our little boy can have so much love for his little unborn sister. It was like the way we had loved him while we waited for his arrival. It might be a little too soon to tell, but I think they're gonna get along fine.

And incidentally, Big Brother has also decided that his baby sister is going to be named Madeleine because he's convinced that the name is wonderful for her. :) More on that soon.

Girl Power

27 weeks and all girl

Last Friday, Doc confimed that we were indeed, without a doubt, looking at a little girl in Mae's belly. 100% sure. So it's no longer just a guess or wishful thinking.

That means we'll be buying plenty of dresses, hair clips, pink stuff, barbie dolls, chastity belt, and other girlie things. Which is a good thing. If we had yet another boy, the poor little guy will no doubt be inheriting a lot of Jesse's hand-me-downs. And the poor kid might feel a little slighted that Daddy and Mommy never gets him anything new. And that would eventually lead to resentment, feelings of inadequacies and expensive psychotherapy bills. So yeah, girl is good.

Also, it'll be a totally new experience for Mae and me. How do little baby girls behave? What do they like? How do they manipulate their parents? What do they eat? It's all very exciting.

Anyway, now that we know, it's time to get cracking on the shopping and stuff. We're steadily collecting a whole repertoire of pink things from mitts to booties, to jumpers, to towels and such. We'll also need to get bottles and diapers and a cot and car seat and playpen. All the ones we bought for Jesse have been either given away or are in bad shape.

Imagine that. A little girl of own, to complement our little family. It's wonderfulicious! Quick, quick, congratulate me again. :)

Cookie

Baby is in her 25th week now and she would be starting to hear right about now. So we talk to her every now and then. And just like we did with Jesse, Mae and I ran some names by our soon-to-be little girl just to elicit a little reaction from her.

"Hey there Baby Madeleine," I called to my baby. "That's Madeleine with the French spelling," I tell Mae, "cos it looks nicer that way." But Baby couldn't care less, or otherwise.

"Then how about Amelie," Mae tried, digging the recesses of her faulty pregnancy-afflicted memory of French movies we had seen. Still nothing. Nothing too for Hayley, Elena, Jasmine and Emily.

"Maybe we oughta try names that have songs written about them," I suggested to the wife. I reasoned that when Baby grew up we could just tell her that there's a song written about her. Heh. But Baby wasn't cooperating with any of it. Not Layla by Eric Clapton, Not Jezamine by the Casuals, Not Amanda by Boston nor Deborah by the Crickets. (Yeah, I'm THAT old!)

Nothing too for the girls of the bible - Rachel, Naomi, Esther and Delilah. Okay, okay, I was kidding about that last one.

"Then I guess we'll just call you Cookie," I proclaimed. And there it was, a kick. Mae repeated the name, and Cookie repeated the kick. So yeah. Cookie, it is.

"You think she'll like cookies?" Mae asked with a chuckle. "I dunno, would she?"

"Well," the wife reminds me, "Noodle likes noodles, remember?" Indeed he does.

Kickin' It Baby Style

Little Tyke's been at it all night, kicking away at Mommy's belly. By now, she's developed a hearing so we're talking to her every now and then.

We also get Jesse in on the action. But he's not awfully clear of the concept, so he'll bring along his toys to "show" Baby. "Look Baby, this is my Iron Man toy," he'd tell her in his most educational tone, "boys like Iron Man!" It's the cutest thing ever to see him slowly slipping into his big-brother role. He's already decided that he'd wanna carry Baby and bathe her. :)

One night we asked the boy to put his face on Mommy's tummy to speak to Baby. "Go on Jesse," Mae advised, "ask Baby to kick for you."

"Give Korkor a kick-kick, Baby," he cooed in his baby voice. However, Baby wasn't quite ready to do that and so Mommy had to intervene. Mae tensed her stomach muscles to "fake" a baby kick and the boy was all ecstatic, his face glowing in wonderment of getting a response from his little sister.

Yeah, we cheated the little guy. But he was far too thrilled to notice. :)

Sex Talk

Sorry kiddies, its not that kind of sex talk. :) But seeing as to how family and friends have been speculating about the sex of our 2nd child, I thought I'd talk a little bit about that.

My father is convinced that our new baby would be a girl. "Just look at Jesse," Pops said, pointing to that twist in Jesse's hair where his parting line began. "It's off to the side." Apparently, if a kid's parting starts at the centre of his head, his sibling will be the same sex as he is. At least that what my father says.

Mae has her theories too. "Look at my breakout," she says pointing at her less-than-porcelain complexion. "While boys will give you beauty, girls will rob you of them," says my still-lovely-and-beautiful wife. *Ahem!

Mom is far less scientific. "I think it'll be a girl," she proclaims, "because I'd like a grand-daughter." She then crumbles under the pressure of her own prediction. "Maybe it'll be a girl," she says but only to finally settle for, "I hope it's a girl". Poor Mom had always wanted a girl but fate dealt her a three-of-a-kind Jacks instead, in her real life game of... erm... poker. Heheh.


big brother is watching

Anyway, during our last visit to the doctor, we had spotted a dark shadow between Baby's legs, putting the matter to rest, at least for awhile. Until yesterday, when we visited Dr. Huam again.

We looked intently on the screen as the good doctor carefully negotiated the handpiece all over Mae's tummy. As she did, Baby gave us quite a show, moving arms and legs about, yawning and just plain being cute. At least as cute as a foetus could be. Jesse was thrilled that he was starting to recognise bits of his little sibling on the ultrasound. Then came the highlight.

"I dun see anything there," I said. Doc nodded, "Yup, it looks like it might be a girl." And there was joy and laughter all around. In any case, we'll have to reconfirm on our next visit in January. Who knows, the little tyke may be hiding his family jewels. But as of now, it's a girl.

Good girl!

First Dibs

They say kids will take over your life. And how.

Lately Jesse has impressed upon himself that he, and he alone, is the best person to decide our in-car musical entertainment. While we mostly play the radio in the car, our four-year-old has decided that CDs are better, if only just because he can play the same tune over and over. And over. And over. And over. Well, you get the idea.

One day, Mae was listening to a little Michael CW Smith. Mommy had her mind set on a little uplifting music for the soul, but the boy had different ideas.

"Mommy, can I hear 'Beautiful Day', please?" Jesse said as he handed us our U2 CD, his eyes sparkling with earnest sincerity.

"Mommy needs to listen to some Church music," Mae explained.

"And our Baby-in-the-tummy likes it too," I added, cleverly - or so I thought.

Yes, it was a little emotional blackmail which I thought might appeal to his brotherly love for his soon-to-arrive little sibling. A little under the belt, I know. But I thought that out to neutralise him for the duration of a few songs, at least. That, however, was not to be.

"But, what about Jesse-outside-the-tummy?", our boy enquired wistfully, reminding his lousy parents that their firstborn was right there, in the here and now.

And as the guilt-wracked strains of The Edge's guitar permeated the confines of our little car, our boy sank back into his seat, his face beaming with his toothy grin, as his new rock idol sang the very words that spoke his heart, which was, as Bono put it, abloom.

*sigh* We're never gonna get our radio back, but at least we can celebrate the fact that our boy has great taste in music.

Hanging In There

We decided to go back to Dr. Huam, after a bout of bleeding. "Let's take a look," said Doc, as she fired up the Sonograph. By then, Mae and I were practically turning blue holding our breaths over the condition of our baby. We were worried.

The screen flickered as Doc moved the handpiece over Mae's tummy, trying to detect Baby.

Suddenly, the little tyke appeared onscreen and started threshing about, waving hands and kicking feet. "Lookit me, Daddy and Mommy!!! Look!!" Junior called out from the depths of Mommy's womb, as Mommy and Daddy stared at the monitor, bewildered at the amount of activity a 10-week-old could manage. It was like our child was reassuring us.

"Hey Doc," I asked, "think we could see the sex yet?"

"Oh, let's try," Doc responded enthusiastically, as she repositioned the scanner. As she did, I spotted it. There in between the little fella's legs was a little silhoutte. "It could be the umbilical cord," Doc reassured, thinking that perhaps Mae and I would be disappointed. But no, the wife and I stared at each other, grinning like a couple of well-fed hyenas. Boy or girl, we're gonna love this one to bits too, just like we do his big brother. :)

And no, it probably isn't the umbilical cord. Because, I could have sworn I saw a couple of nuts in that equation. Heheh.