Big Week

First, we have baby number three. You can see my wife (in all her glory) on our big day on her one of her photo-blogs.

And, my book hit the Amazon shelves!

I only mention this because I want to say Thank You to those of you who have bought my book today. And because I'm actually impressed with my sales rank right now:

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #24,763 in Books

I mean, yeah, that's not too high, bu it's not in the 100,000s like I thought it would be.

I'm pushing it, knowing that many people who may not have bought before may be more comfortable using their preexisting Amazon account. So, check it out, and help keep me below 25,000!



This has been a very exciting week for me.

What will I do with all these Girls?

Daphne Blue Jocasta was born at 4:13am, a tiny 7lbs 13oz. We're home and very wiped out.

A perfect labor and delivery, by far Sue's greatest and fastest. But, postpartum, the placenta broke. Sue experienced the worst pain of her life and lost a lot of blood. She's okay now, bp is fine, but has to be more or less lying flat for a few days.

And the baby is...sleeping? WTF? Is she really ours?

Labor Day

We're in labor. We've been in it since 8:45 this morning, but things are starting to pick up. I can't stand the ambiguity of it all; the movies and TV would have you believe that all of a sudden the woman screams and moans and a taxi arrives to serve as delivery room.

In real life, my wife's waters broke this morning and we still don't know where we're headed to the birthing center. In the next couple of hours, I imagine.

Ambiguity or no, I'm excited. I'm stoked. Make it through tonight alive, and we're parents of three.

I'll keep you updated as things matter.

Whatever Happened to Intrinsic Value?

I take my daughters grocery shopping on Sundays while my wife does her homework. At the store where we go, the cashier gives the kids little play-money bills. They get all excited and take these play bills to a vending machine. After putting them in, they control a little grabbing arm that grabs out plastic bubble-balls. Once opened, these balls reveal stickers. What's on the stickers? Numbers. You then are supposed to put the number-stickers into a booklet provided next to the machine and save up these "points" to obtain prizes--little worthless toys of the store's mascot.

We did this today and I thought, "What the hell?" They get one prize and use that prize to win another prize. With the second prize, they can save it to win a third prize. When I was little, they just gave kids a free kid's cookie and we were thrilled.

I get it. Teach kids to shop. Teach them the value of spending money, saving money, begging to come back to the same store so they can try harder to get bigger number stickers to win a little folder with a picture of a shopping bag with a face and arms on it.

Why are we always teaching our kids to trade-up? Why is are things only done for the value of what they can be exchanged for? Whatever happened to doing something just for the value of doing something?

It spreads in their lives like a disease, climbing up their years and tainting their futures.

For example: my college students. For the most part, they don't say that they're there to learn (at least not at the beginning of my class). They're there to graduate and get a better job. A better job means more money. More money means more things. A bigger truck. A bigger house to hold more things. And on and on.

With that chain of events in their minds, why would they care how well they do on their narrative essays? The value of that narrative essay is, essentially, a single little number sticker towards a bigger TV when they graduate and get two or three promotions. It's meaning is totally lost.

We do this with our lives. Always looking down the road toward "someday" (as my bank puts it). You're supposed to save, you're supposed to upgrade, you're supposed to work harder to get promoted to a better job. At every instant, you're then just being handed play money to drop in a machine to get a plastic bubble-ball to save up number stickers to get something better.

A hamster in a wheel.

I want to teach my kids that you go to school for the value of it. You go because there are perspectives that you aren't familiar with that you can use or adapt to your own situations. You write essays because they're fun (if you're bent my way) or because they help you to make meaning out of life experiences or because it's a challenge that will empower you by overcoming.

You don't listen to music so you can get to the next song. You don't read a book to get to the back cover. You don't hold your baby in your arms so that they will grow old and leave you.

Of course, I didn't waste all this on them today. Luckily, my kids don't know about step three of their little prize-winning game. They get excited because "Look! I got a 3 and I used to be 3!" As long as that's enough for them, I'm thrilled.

My Wife says she Not Nesting

I've mentioned that we're cloth diapering. My wife just sent over a list of what we have to start out with, should the baby come along. For those interested to read what a diaper stash might look like (on paper--in life it is far more three-dimensional and now super-organized) here it is. In life, these are all color-coded. Blogger has seen fit to turn them into boldings and sizes. And the little names are either the store where she bought them online or the online handle of someone from whom she bought/was donated used ones. I'd like to note that I have not seen her this organized in our time together.:

Prefolds

12 unbleached Indian prefolds

6 dyed Indian prefolds

6 chinese prefolds

Fitted

11 small MJ Sherpa diapers $50 (mizzy)

1 small Calico baby tropical fish. $5 (mizzy)

1 small Calico Baby vintage kids $7 (mizzy)

1 small Sugar Plum baby (natural/blue snaps) $5 (mizzy)

1 small Chunky Bunns (nursery rhyme) $4 (mizzy)

NB Little witchy britches (blue tye-die) $4 (mizzy)

1 small pre-fitted grow-me-a-rainbow (sock monkey) $5 (kaccii)

1 small pre-fitted grow-me-a-rainbow (gnomes) $3 (kaccii)

1 small fitted Blue Dog (Dri-Line) animals and bugs $5 (kaccii)

1 small fitted – jolly rogers

1 small fitted – sugar skulls

6 small fitteds (pinks and purples) – (lemmings world)

2 small fitteds (first class baby and stars) – (facethemoon)

5 medium Little Lions fitteds (green, yellow, blue, purple and orange) $22.50 (alonwimonster)

1 medium wahm dinosaur diaper $5 (alonwimonster)

2 medium peewells – khaki and rust $22 (breathbox)

2 Sammy’s Sherpa One-size – good karma (alonwimonster)

1 SOS – gnome print - $20 (pinkmeetsred)

3 Goodmamas – buy 2 get 1 free! (bought new)

Wool

1 medium organic wool cover (Vermont Diaper co) – good karma (alonwimonster)

1 medium handknit (facethemoon)

small ‘Moss Tweed’ green longies – White Elephant Wool $8

Knit by me

Noro shorties

Noro shorties

Noro and tan soaker

Blue and tan soaker w/cuffs

Yellow shorties

Red shorties

‘cranky pants’ longies (tiny)

tan longies (tiny)

my first 3 soakers that might not work

Pockets

6 medium fuzzibunz (jesamin) $44

Inserts

6 inserts (with fuzzibunz from Jesamin)

Covers

2 small bumkins covers – white $2 each (alonwimonster)

2 small imse vimse organic covers – one zoo, one farm - $14 (angelfalling)

1 small imse vimse bumpy day – white - $8 (liss07)

1 medium imse vimse bumpy bears - $8 (liss07)

1 large/mediumish sumbuns goldfish - $8 (liss07)

2 small Bummis Superbrite

1 small thirsties

2 one-size wonderwraps

Snappis

Four snappis

Wetbag

1 Goodmama large hanging pail – Carnival Print - $28

Other

Sheepy Pants Pattern $5.75