We had a great time visiting my family on Friday, and my wife’s family on Saturday and Sunday. The weather was beautiful (once it warmed up from Friday). On Saturday, the sun was shining and the sky was bright blue - we took a few pictures of the E-man, including my favorite:


On Saturday night, E-man was a little grumpy, so while mom watched a movie with her family, I did my best to put him to sleep. Lately, when he’s tired I can get him to fall asleep by singing to him. It works in the car too, which is nice. So he fell asleep in my arms as I was singing some made-up song to him and rocking in the guest bedroom, and I was left thinking about the past and the future. A year ago we were still new to this whole parenting thing, and we wouldn’t even know for another month that we were having a boy. Now I can’t remember life without him, can’t imagine a day without him. That unmistakable smell of baby, a mixture of clean clothes, lotion, and wipes, will eventually fade away as he gets older and more independent. There will be a day when he wants to do everything himself, when he doesn’t always want our help. I know there will be times ahead when I can only wish to hold my son that close, to keep him safe and happy in my arms. For now, at least, I can hold my son close enjoy every passing moment.

Speaking of the past, yesterday I got a message from futureme.org, a site where you can send an email to the future. On the 13th of November of last year (2004), I sent myself an email to be delivered on the 13th of November, 2005. Here’s some of what I wrote, “Today is November 13th, 2004. [My wife] is 15 weeks pregnant with our baby, which we think is a boy. Today is Saturday, and we’re spending a quiet day at home. [My wife] is upstairs taking a nap. How is the baby? How was the rest of the pregancy and the birth?”
Turns out we were right, it was a boy! And ‘a quiet day at home’, remember that?

Here’s a set of photos from this weekend.