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| An example of the extremely interesting pictures I like to take of our baby. |
- First, a huge, sincere #sorrybutforrealverysorry to all the parents I gave advice to when I didn't have children. Maybe I didn't even mean to give advice. Maybe I was just sharing a blog post or TEDTalk that I thought was interesting and decided to be helpful. Or maybe I was just drawing on my "vast" experience, having done "a lot" of baby-sitting when I was younger. Whatever. I didn't know anything about anything, and I'm sorry for thinking otherwise and thank you for not defriending me.
-On the other hand, thank you to everyone whose advice was insightful, including from childless friends. I didn't know that honey could kill my baby. Or that newborns were so delicate and could die from a fever and that's why you make everyone wash their hands. I didn't realize they made 12-hour diapers. I didn't know what a crawl ball was, or that Sophie the Giraffe was basically an institution for teething babies, or that putting a carseat on the top of a grocery cart (I never did this, for the record) wasn't dangerous only because it could fall, but because it ruined the latching system under the carseat so that my baby could fly through the rear window in a bad collision. I honestly just didn't know. Thank you for keeping my firsborn alive.
-Also, thank you to all the friends and family who brought over meals the first few months of our baby's life. You were clutch. Thank you for supplying us with so many diapers we didn't need to buy any until he was 10 weeks old, and he went through a lot. Thank you for spoiling our baby with clothes, toys, and endless supplies. We've used every single thing, except for the clothes Baby C has yet to grow into. Thank you for your words of encouragement, and "liking" all of my baby-related posts on social media with grace, and for loving our son so much. Your generosity of spirit is astounding.
-I am also very grateful that my sister and her husband chose to move to San Diego upon their return from New Zealand. Thank you for giving us all of your sons' hand-me-downs, and for baby-sitting, and for being our main support system. Thank you for showing me the amount of patience it takes to raise respectful little boys. I'm very sorry (again) that our son peed on your couch.
-To my brother and his wife, who have four very well-behaved, extremely intelligent children who have been trained to say, "Mommy, when you are done washing the dishes, can you help me with my hair?": you guys should have your own television show. For that matter, same to M's sister and her husband, with their three very well-behaved, extremely intelligent children.
-To my friends: I'm sorry we haven't seen each other in months. My baby currently wakes up every hour/ two hours at night, despite having a bedtime routine, waiting a few minutes before I go in to soothe him, introducing him to a lovey, being vigilant about his naps, etc. M tries to help but is currently soundly rejected at night, because M doesn't lactate. The kid just doesn't want to sleep. Also, I'm still recruiting from home part-time. I am a zombie, and only writing this blog post because M is out surfing and our son is napping and I've just had a cup of coffee. Expect the next post sometime in 2017.
-To our parents: thank you for loving Baby C so unconditionally. Thank you to M's parents for hosting us in Georgia and letting us sleep in while we hand over our kid in the morning, or when we want to go in your hot tub, or when we want to have fun on the lake. (For that matter, thank you to M's sister for being willing to hold our baby all the time too!) Thank you to my parents coming down to San Diego to spend time with your grandkids, and for making Baby C a beautiful quilt, and for taking the time to give him a Chinese name, and for basically being the only one to lend him any cultural heritage from the Asian side, because I only speak English and German.
Also, to both sets of parents: thank you for taking the trouble to raise us. We didn't know, and now we're starting to know.
-Thank you to Lauren White of Lauren Alisse Photography for taking the time to patiently capture our entire family over Thanksgiving. I'm grateful to have your work before you get famous and too busy booking celebrities.
-Finally, thank you to M for saving my sanity by taking the baby with you while drinking your morning cup of coffee so I can sleep in a little. Thank you for changing out the diaper pails, and for rushing home from work to help put our son to bed by changing him into PJ's and reading to him. Thank you for being willing to be the main breadwinner so that I can stay home and raise our baby in my sweatpants. Thank you for never saying anything about my sweatpants.
All the cliche things that you hear parents say are true. Life has changed for us in countless ways, and we're overwhelmed by the love our baby inspires, and I don't feel like I deserve this kind of happiness. Even when I'm feeling desperately tired or am busy throwing myself a pity party when times with him are rough-ish, I never take a day with Baby C for granted.
