Tao Of Foo

I wouldn’t have thought it was possible, but Ben just keeps getting more and more adorable. Amy and I got a few amazing pictures of him with Daisy this weekend. He had his first major trip last night over to my parents house. Other than a little “blowout” he was just perfect.

The war is really starting to depress me and make me realize why I have always hated but been fascinated by politics. I am frustrated by anti-war protests because they trivialize the fact that our troops are risking their lives, yet protesting is a fundamental right that our troops are serving to protect. AGH! Saddam is really an evil man and the Iraqi people (and the world for that matter) would be much better off without him. We are not targeting the Iraqi people with our bombs, we are targeting the Iraqi government!!!

So I’m laying on the couch last night with (a very full and content) Ben falling asleep in my arms. I can’t help but be touched by the incredible love I feel for my 2 week old son. The sense of contentment and relaxation is overwhelming.

At the same moment CNN is broadcasting President Bush giving a 48 hour exhile ultimatium to Saddam Hussein. In 2 days our country may very well go to war.

I’m holding Ben and thinking how much I wish he wouldn’t ever have to go through any of this. Like any parent I don’t want him to have to fight in any wars.

I have this mix of emotions regarding this whole international issue. First and foremost I believe Saddam is a dangerious dictator who has used chemical weapons on and tortured his own people, attacked neighboring countries and made a mockery of the UN for the last 12 years all the while continuing to advance his chemical and biological weapons programs. He needs to be removed from power. The Iraqi people need to be freed of this tyrant. I fully support the use of force to reove him from power.

At the same time I think Bush may be a little anxious not to loose face internationally over the lack of support our allies are showing for the war effort. I think more clear cut and undeniable evidence needs to be made publicly available and our friends will understand the gravity of the situation and will back our calls for military action. I guess I just wish we would explain our actions a little better.

It’s been a while since I wrote, not because I haven’t had stuff to write about but because it’s been a little chaotic lately. Ben was born 1 week ago today. All the preparation and planning didn’t prepare Amy or me for the emotion of his birth. What a sight!

Yesterdays visit to the doctor gave us one more chance to hear Ben’s heartbeat. Everybody said he sounds great and his stress test looked good. Amy has started contractions but they are too small to feel and spread pretty far apart. We are scheduled to head to the hospital Sunday night to get started and settled in. They will begin inducing early Monday morning. That’s only a few days away! Hard to believe.

We had a pretty bad ice storm Monday night through Tuesday evening. San Antonio really shuts down for these things because nobody around here knows how to drive in bad weather. I was a little worried about Amy going into labor during all of it because I-10 was completely shut down in our neck of the woods. We would have been forced to call EMS or have her air lifted to the hospital. Thankfully all the highways reopened yesterday morning.

No baby yet. We were hoping they would want to induce today, but no dice. March 3rd is the drop-dead date though. Until then we’ll just keep our fingers crossed and wait it out.

We are so ready and anxious though, the sooner he gets here the better.

Sorry I haven’t posted in a few weeks. Amy and I have been making some last minute preparations for Ben’s arrival. The nursery looks awesome (I need to post a few pictures of the final product), we have everything we need: crib, car seats, clothes, toys, bottles, stroller, pack-n-play, etc. Oh, and did I mention diapers? Yep, we have diapers. We have more diapers than I think he’ll ever use. Ok, maybe not, but still! We are prepared!

This weekend we got so much done. I built some shelves and a workbench for the garage and Amy got to do a little gardening before it turned too cold.

Tomorrow we go to the doctor for the weekly checkup. If they think he is getting too big, they’ll want to consider inducing Amy to get him out beofre he get’s too big for a normal delivery. We’ll keep everybody posted.

Amys visit to the doctor today went very well. They say Ben is turned already and that everything looks great. We met with the pediatricians here in Boerne and they are both really nice. Everything is planned, we are packed, the nursery is ready and we have everything we need. Wow, I guess we’re as ready as we can be.

A couple of times this week I talked to Jonathan about watching Jarek grow up. He has so many wonderful stories about Jarek learning something or doing something. I get a little giddy just thinking that Amy and I are about to have a baby who will grow up to experience these same wonders.

When we get to that point though, we’ll probably just wish he was a newborn again.

I created a new theme for the site. I borrowed ideas from a few other PostNuke themes and came up with this (admittedly bare) theme. I really wanted simplicity. I’ll probably be tweaking it over the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

The nursery is pretty much finished and it looks awesome. Things are really starting to hit home now. Part of me is a litle scared to be a dad. Can I really do this? Am I going to do a good job? Part of me knows that every new father goes through this period of doubt. But most of all, I can’t wait until he’s here. I can’t wait to show the world to Ben.

I bought my Gateway Solo 9550xl in January of 2001. This sweet laptop came with a came with 512MB RAM, a 30GB hard drive, an awesome 16.1 inch screen that runs X at 1280×1024 and 32bpp, built in 10/100 ethernet, CD-RW/DVD, USB, FireWire, and 801.11b wireless. I love it. I played around with WinXP for a day or so before I installed RedHat 7.2. It was a little more work getting everything to function properly, but it’s worth it.