Thoughts of Impending Father-hood and Other Things

Ok.. I believe the event is impending now. It is only a matter of time and before I realize it, my life is going to take a sharp turn. I think I am adequately prepared. Let's see...

• Organize room for the baby.. check.. had to do a lot of manual work on this. Move around furniture, put up shelving (read countless hours at Home Depot), put up Disney wall borders, get basic day 1 supplies ready and stock them... have not done anything fancy for the nursery yet, but I figure it will be awhile before the baby can even notice what we've done with the room, ok seems to be about ready.
• Attend Lamaze class.. check.. I must say that this was an informative class. We did breathing exercises, guided meditation, mingled with other parents-to-be. Overall very interesting. So all that is now left is to see is if we even remember any bit of this while the chaos unravels around us.
• Buy the baby's first wardrobe.. hmm.. check.. Receiving blankets, body suits, wash cloths. Got a list from a friend. Saw no point in re-inventing the wheel here. After all, with 6 billion people in the world, atleast 2 billion of them have done this before. A couple of 'surprise' baby showers also helped I must add, and the kind generosity of several friends who shared some of their recently out-grown 0-3 month clothing. I can't quite figure out how to organize such small pieces of clothes. The socks for instance. They quite literally can slip through my fingers. I am guessing here that each wash cycle will see a few pairs missing.
  
• Buy car seat.. check.. now all that is left is to get it 'professionally' installed. Have to go to a police station or a fire station to get that done right.
  
• Trade in car for SUV.. almost check.. I'm going to miss my Audi A6. I've picked out an SUV and the transaction may happen as early as this weekend. I don't see myself as much of a mini-van kinda guy. But the gas prices.. ouch!
• Get ready with mental image of being a father.. hmm.. In the beginning, I rationalized that this is going to be rather straight-forward. After all, it's my wife that's undergoing the physical and emotional transformation. All I had to do was to keep my cool and be there to support her. But as I have shared that journey with her, I've felt emotions I never knew I had. It's incredible how much love you feel for someone you have never met and who is going to keep you on your toes for the rest of you life. To feel her move has also been an incredible experience. I find myself thinking about holding my daughter's tiny hands and taking her to interesting places and teaching her everything I wish I knew when I was younger. That's been a very new set of emotions. Very different from the way I thought about the same things before. So I guess I'm getting there .. so I would say.. almost check..
• Have a name ready.. well, not quite yet. We have a shortlist but I think it's going to be a spur of the moment decision.
  
• Prepare for baby number2... WHOA!! Hold it right there. My wife apparently believes in striking the iron while it is still hot. Not if I can help it missy.. so we'll leave this topic right there for now.

And... while there is a raging discussion going on in Sougata's blog about Creationism and Intelligent Design vs. Natural Selection, I'm kinda in the middle of the potential consequences of both.. as we speak..

Calling All Anons

For those of you who feel the need to hide behind the 'John Doe' tag of cyberspace - 'Anon' to post a comment, here you go. Feel at liberty to post your thoughts or comments.

P.S: This is in response to Anon's comments on Sougata's Blog.