Thursday, March 31, 2005

A Moment of Praise for My Wife & Thoughts

Something that I've not done yet is to speak really well of my wife. Lyuda is an amazing woman and deserves a moment of praise here.

First off, she's an amazing mom. She's taken to being a mother for our new daughter like a duck to water...and this is her first child. Avrora couldn't be luckier! Lyuda never flips out. She never gets angry with our daughter. I've seen so many first time mommies go nuts at some time in that first month as they get used to having their passenger become a the new family backseat driver. That's not my wife. Even in moments that would have embarrassed my wife to no end before she had a baby - the 3 ft projectile feces aka the Poopizooka - do not phase her: it blew away and upset the lactation nurse, but not my wife. Whether its three am or the middle of the day or whenever, she's always there for Avrora even if it means disrupting our own plans. Even if it was something she wanted to do. My wife is trying for patron saint of newborns.

Let me also say that my wife is still the most stunningly beautiful woman I have ever met. Her gorgeous green eyes are set off wonderfully by her long black hair. Her high cheeks are simply amazing and totally unique. Her figure, while a bit abused by carrying a Baird child, is snapping back rather nicely as she breast feeds and starts exercising. She can kiss and make me see stars. I love her. I try my best to tell and show her, but sometimes I feel that I cannot even come close to what I feel in words. I love her. I love her like I have never loved before.

In other thoughts, my wife wants to go on a trip in May or June. A road trip or flying trip. Either we're going to roadtrip to LA and Las Vegas or we're going to fly to LV. I have a friend there that I have known for a decade now - since college - that really wants us to come. She wants to meet Lyuda and Avrora very much. Suzanne is great, but a little...different. She's a chemist and married, but sometimes doesn't know when to leave comments "in the box". She's one of those that I want to do the phytomining business with, her and a female friend (Sarah) that's a biologist.

Avrora still hasn't decided on her hair color. She has a balding man's fringe around the sides (think Patrick Stewart's hair here) and back of her head that's very dark like her mother's and atop her head is blonde like her father's. Everyone keeps telling me that all of this will fall out and her final hair color will be revealed then. FYI, mine didn't when I was a child. My mother says that is really unusual. It would be very unusual if Avrora was blonde: there are no blondes in my wife's family AFAWK ever. Both the dark and light hair on her head is growing longer so neither looks like baby fuzz.

Her eyes are changing color. They were a dark, dark blue like all babies. They're lightening and seem to be taking on a green color. That's not a surprise considering my wife has green eyes and I have blue-green ones.


Saturday, March 26, 2005

Oy! What a bit of catching up to do!

Well, first off, sorry for not posting for so long. I've been rather busy with Baby Baird. Actually, I'm pretty darn tired as it is. Baby and Mom are down for a nap. Last night was the hardest so far. I'm sure that there will be harder, but in general she's a VERY happy baby.

First off, clearing up the name. Avrora Devika Baird was born on Feb 28th, 2005 at 8:17 am after an 8 hour labor and 20-30 minute delivery. She was 5 lbs 10 oz and 18.5 inches long. My wife moaned through the first 4 hours of labor saying that she wasn't built or meant to have babies. After the speed of having her first baby (labor and delivery here, folks), the Dr's and nurses came to me afterwards and told me to get my wife to the hospital ASAP next time cuz the baby was going to be coming uber quick.

How did she end up Avrora instead of of Aurora like I thought we were doing? Well, my wife pronounces it that way with her Donbass Ukrainian accent. She snuck it on to her birth certificate when I wasn't at the hospital. I caved. I've learned when to pick my battles. I just tell everyone that its the Latin spelling...which seems to confuse some Hispanics for a moment. How did we pick Avrora? Well, actually it was on my list originally of favorite names. However, my wife hated everything on my list when we compiled our mutual lists. She had one of her own...which she ended up hating too. She started hunting through literature for names. She remembered a favorite author (George Sand) was a woman and wanted to know her real name. One of them was Aurore. We discussed it. My wife liked it. We anglicized it. She then Ukrainianized (?!) it. Devika came about because it was really, really close to a nickname that Lyuda's mother had for her and her sister that came from the Russian word for little girl.

I just revealed to my wife that Aurora was on my original list that she rejected a day or so ago. She was stunned. Originally she was supposed to pick the first name and I was going to pick the middle name. Even though my wife technically picked the first one and I technically picked the middle name, it seems more like the opposite really ended up happening. *chuckles* A well...

Anyways, I've been off on paternity leave since the 28th. I'll be returning to work on the 4th. A lot of hairy stuff has happened in the project I was working on, but I'm actually glad to be standing aside at this point. The political nonsense just got too deep and I was going to end up lobbing a grenade at some point. My new, beautiful daughter has given me some perspective.

Tomorrow was her original date that she was supposed to be born. Had Avrora been born then, she'd have been a mongo baby on the order that my family runs to: I was the smallest baby at 8 lbs 6 oz. My brother was ~50% heavier. It's Easter tomorrow and I've done up some baskets already for my wife and daughter. I know I'll end up with Avrora's candy but it was fun to do our first Easter like this.

Anyways, I've started trying to get up at my old times (pushing back the alarm to 5:15 am again) and started exercising again as well. I've started reading the phytoremediation book again. I am planning on starting to read and right alternate history, sfnal stuff and ahf hud again. Time will tell how successful I am.


Tuesday, March 01, 2005

QUick Note: Baby born

Aurora Devika Baird was born at 8:17 am. She is 5 lbs 10 oz and 18.5 in.

Mom is doing wonderfully. Dad's tired.