Skills
 

An observation.

We will never be the same
 

So baby dL decided to make an early appearance last weekend. Mrs. dL's waters broke on Friday afternoon (her last day of work, natch) and the little guy was born the next morning, by Caesarean. He's 3 1/2 was weeks early and has some lung immaturity, but is otherwise doing perfectly. Mrs. dL continues to astound, as she is already off her pain meds and walking around like nothing happened...

We will never be the same
 

Congratulations. Glad to hear everyone is doing well, and he will catch up soon enough. Is everybody home yet, and if not, how soon?

We will never be the same
 

Congrats. And if you need any help getting rid of those extra pain pills, just let me know.

We will never be the same
 

Thanks, Spooky. Mrs. dL was discharged last week (4 days after the C) and Mini Me should come home this week, assuming that he stops being lazy and kicks the O2 habit. :)

We will never be the same
 

She went home on nothing but high-dose motrin. I'm not sure what the street value of Advil is, but I don't think it's more than $8.95.

We will never be the same
 

Now you pipe up...I flushed a whole bottle of oxycontin down the pot just last week.

Congrats to the whole dL family! And especially to the Mrs., because, well, she did all the work.

We will never be the same
 

Congratulations to you and the Mrs. My best wishes to the little one.

We will never be the same
 

So, how much did he weigh, etc.? Who does he look like? Is he just so cute you can hardly stand it, or do even you have to admit he's a little on the homely side?

Enquiring minds want to know.

tm

Hey, you guuuuuuuyyyyyyysssss!
 

How cool is this?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/ima...F8&n=130&s=dvd

Buy it with the lawtalkers link.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...v=glance&n=130http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0...CMZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Disney Princesses
 

I can now report that at least on ice, while Jasmine is indeed quite hot, she doesn't hold a candle to Ariel.

Apparently, on ice, for Ariel, fins = pants, and no fins = no pants. And she's already wearing a seashell bikini top. Wow.

We will never be the same
 

7 lbs, 10 oz, 20". I think that he looks mostly like his mother, but people have said that he looks like both of us. Whatever, he's beautiful, and having been born by c-section, doesn't have newborn squishy head.

We will never be the same
 

HEY! My kids didn't have squishy (or pointy, or misshapen) heads - and were not born by c-section.

We will never be the same
 

Was the "no C-section" specifically mentioned in your contract with the surrogate?

We will never be the same
 

Bitch, please. There are some things I have to do myself. Quality control, you know.

We will never be the same
 

Excellent! Congratulations to you and the Mrs., best wishes to the little one.

We will never be the same
 

Were they really teeny, or should we extend our sympathies to your husband?

We will never be the same
 

Congratulations! As you sit pondering that age-old question: "NOW what the f--- do I do?"

S_A_M

We will never be the same
 

dtb,

I think what you meant to type was "Alex, that's wonderful, I am so happy for you on the birth of your first born." Somehow it came out "It's all about me, again." You might want to check your keyboard and/or meds.

Best,

Flinty

We will never be the same
 

That's so awesome. I'm so very happy for you guys. Congratulations.

We will never be the same
 

To be fair, she also seemed to be admitting to a gaping gash. NTTAWWT, and all.

We will never be the same
 

He still has the soft spot, though, in case you want to pick him up with just your thumb. Great bar bet, that one.

We will never be the same
 

Fuck. Off. I can tease dtb because I love her like a sister- and I will not let the likes of you mess with my sister.

dtb did not post to talk about herself- the purpose of her post was to temper Alex' unbounded joy. dtb's post roughly translates to:

• "Alex, I know your child seems perfect to you now, but you must know that there are other people (me) who have children that are more perfect and your child will have to compete with them, but it won't be much competition because, as I say, my children are actually perfect. don't be too depressed- look at you- I'm more perfect than you and you survived.
  dtb

We will never be the same
 

I don't think so. Is 9 pounds teeny?

And as to the sympathies, not sure exactly what you're getting at, but seeing the other replies, and knowing the sort of guy[s] you are, let me answer with the following:

A friend of mine who had her first a few months before I had mine was telling me about how she had to get sewn back up after [natural] delivery. I was expressing horror/fear, and she she sagely replied, "You know, if you have a regular delivery, and you have to get sewn up, the doctor makes sure it's tight. Boys like that."

So, with the c-section, you still get stretched out (you know, hormones and all) without the corrective plastic surgery.

We will never be the same
 

You complete me.

We will never be the same
 

You're so easy these days. First some little Faggeleh with the boobies, then the Russian Bubbe with the Tuchis, now ou're falling for some goyishe schnorrer.

I don't even know you anymore.

We will never be the same
 

Bunk.

We will never be the same
 

Agreed.

There's got to be some benefit to having major surgery for something you shouldn't need it for.

I mean, other than a healthy kid and all...

We will never be the same
 

Easy? Moi? Perhaps. I draw the line somewhere before incest, however.

We will never be the same
 

Oh, come on. Surely you know that "love her like a sister" crap is just science/math/chess club nerdspeak for "I say this because I know if I aske her out she'll laugh in my face, but if she thinks I'm harmless, maybe I can get lucky and be there when she decides to get even with the captain of the football team for dumping her."

He wants you so bad even Spanky can taste it.

Children's Books
 

I am really an addict for all these colorful, cool books for my 3 year old -- we have The Giving Tree (my favorite), Where the Wild Things Are, Goodnight Moon (though I don't rave like others do about this one), Chicka Boom Boom, Guess How Much I love You, Counting Kisses, a few Dr. Seuss like the one about the bird's nest, Snowmen at Night...... What's great is there are not many words per page so we can read a bunch in one sitting (and the idea of reading those longwinded books right now is scary.).

So...I have a little time before a meeting tonight near Barnes & Noble. Any recommendations on some more?

As always - thanks!

Children's Books
 

The baltspawn are currently enjoying One Afternoon:
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/05...CLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

However, I think we picked it up on clearance a few months ago, so it may be hard to find.

The Boynton books are all bright and short. As are the Eric Carle books. There's also the Carl the Dog books, which have no words.

Also, books by Mo Williams. Both Leonardo the Terrible Monster:
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/...CLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

and Knuffle Bunny:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/07...CLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

are in heavy, heavy rotation. His pigeon books are well regarded, too.

ETA: All of these are really short, and can take as little as two minutes to read, but much more if you stop to look at and talk about all the pictures.

Children's Books
 

You need more books. In the Night Kitchen, Runaway Bunny, Starry Safari, Curious George galore.

Children's Books
 

The pigeon books as in "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus"?

My 3 y.o. LOVES that book. It's the first book he ever really loved, I think.

Children's Books
 

Yes. There's one about a hotdog too. The baltspawn don't have them, but they have a friend who loves them.

Children's Books
 

And a couple others--The Pigeon Loves Things That Go or some such. Very popular.

Also, highly recommend the Richard Scarry books, but really only the original ones--none of the recent ones compare with the older stuff.

Children's Books
 

BTW, for the growing number of parents on this board for whom it is relevant:

This book is great for younger kids whose parents are going through a seperation. For kids who are young enough to not really get what a "divorce" means. It just normalizes the idea that some kids have two homes. The baltspawn understood it immediately.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/07...CLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Children's Books
 

Maybe because he's dead?

I loved the Richard Scarry books we had growing up, even though they all had eat-holes in the binding from my baby brother. Sigh. Cars and Trucks and Things that Go was one of our favs.

Children's Books
 

[All the book recs]

This was wonderful!!! Thanks!!! I hit Barnes & Noble on my way to a meeting and scored the following:

Knuffle Bunny
Leonardo The Terrible Monster
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive The Bus

The rest of all of the recs, I'm getting on Amazon. I also picked up the following tonight which looked cute:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/06...CLZZZZZZZ_.jpg http://images.amazon.com/images/P/08...CLZZZZZZZ_.jpg http://images.amazon.com/images/P/08...CLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

I also got some Dora books because she really loves them - they're simple, have some easy Spanish, and she likes the predictable things like Swiper. Some others we have at home that I would recommend:

"The Mitten", by Jann Brett

"If You Give A Pig A Party", Laura Numeroff

"I Like Me", Nancy Carlson

My personal favorite (the illustrations are incredible - some look like they're partly photographs): "Africa Calling; nightime falling", Daniel Adlerman

So much fun! Thanks again!

Also Bread and Jam for Frances is wonderful. Both my babies like the Brown Bear book and the companion Polar Bear book.