Baby = God's opinion that life can continue.

Kurt Vonnegut, renowned author/award-winning writer, once said: "…we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different." Wiser words have never been spoken.

For the past three days, Rachel and I have had one mission: Get the gas out of that baby! Here is the breakdown of the Furp Cycle (fart and/or burp)…

20 Minutes = Feed Tenzin
10 Minutes = Burp Tenzin
5 Minutes = Fight Hiccups
5 Minutes = Change Diaper
3 Minutes = Sleep
Repeat x 9.

By my calculations, we've now had - on average - 33 minutes and 16 seconds of sleep per night…about what we expected. God love our little bubble machine.

And for some reason, I want to get back to it as fast as possible. There is no greater anxiety than restarting full days back at work. I'm now toiling from 7:00am to 5:00pm, Mon-Thurs, and 7:00am to 12:00pm Fridays (actual hours may vary depending on gas cycle above). I miss the little bugger so much…from the moment I kiss him goodbye, to the moment I kiss him hello. It just feels weird to be back again. I know there's a job to do and I know it pays the bills, but there's a bigger job at home.

You just feel like you're abandoning so much by tackling on pre-existing responsibilities. I can only compare it to our hospital experience. The blinds were closed for three days straight and we had very little time to watch television. We finally turned on CNN and it felt weird, after all that time, to see news stories. News? What do you mean, news? Didn't the world stop with the birth of our child? We made life, damn it! Why hasn't somebody hit the pause button?!?! Acknowledge our friggin' miracle!!!

So, coming back to work simply seems bizarre. It's almost like your at a really bad party, and you know there's a really good party going on at your friend's house just minutes away, but you've already promised the first friend that you would go to their party instead. Then, the next day, everybody tells you about all the really cool stuff that happened at the "fun" party. "Man, you should've been there!" So I'll get home (the fun party) and Rachel will tell me about everything Tenzin did while I was at work (the not-as-fun party), and I'll spend the next day at work wondering why I'm not down the road rockin' out with my son. But noooooooooo......We need money. Damn capitalist society.

I'll get used to it, I'm sure. For now, let me pout.
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Rachel is still being a big ball of amazing. The breast feeding schedule is so demanding, but she doesn't ever complain. We're finally at a place where we can store some milk, too, so it's great for dad to get some "bottle time" in. [This is usually the point in the blog where I'd usually say something crass about enjoying the new "twins" that came with the baby, but I'm a sensitive husband and will not do so] I just can't believe how the human body works...its resilience, transformations, modifications, and so on. The preparations and changes made both pre and post partum are astounding. She's really taking it all SOOOO well.



And we're all REALLY REALLY REALLY looking for to the Thomas Family's arrival. Mom and Sis will be here on Friday, with Dad and Brother following soon after. I can't tell who's more excited? Rachel wanting to show Tenzin off, or Aunt Ashley wanting to see him! We're definitely counting down the days.