And we couldn't be happier
14/10/14
New Life
A personal diary on how our lives are about to change with the arrival of our first child. The experiences of a soon to be dad who is still a child at heart. And who knows. Maybe one day he/she will be reading this
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
First Scan
thump thump thump thump thump...
Hearing the heartbeat of something that is 3 millimetres big is quite an experience. Even saw you on the monitor. A tiny white smudge within the blackness of the womb (I'm pretty sure you look just like me). Doctor says so far so good.
Pleased to meet you kid
Your dad
29th July 2014
Hearing the heartbeat of something that is 3 millimetres big is quite an experience. Even saw you on the monitor. A tiny white smudge within the blackness of the womb (I'm pretty sure you look just like me). Doctor says so far so good.
Pleased to meet you kid
Your dad
29th July 2014
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Friday, July 18, 2014
Reality
This is something that I have
been thinking about lately and has made me wonder if, after all, a truly happy
childhood like my own will eventually mean a rough landing to the realities of
the world, a very rude awakening if you will.
You’re a lucky kid, kid. Privileged
even.
I already know that you will be
brought up showered with love from your adoring parents, you will have a home,
you will never go hungry, you will be spoilt rotten by your grandparents. You
will probably have a brother or sister to play with, you will have a mountain
of presents under each year’s Christmas tree, you will get an education, have
many friends and go on holidays to countries far far away. At least I hope this
will be the case as this is the childhood I had and yes, it was a very very
happy childhood.
Growing up you will be acquainted
with the world on the best possible terms. It will be a beautiful and happy and
safe place. For everyone it will seem. At least for a while.
First glimpse of reality will
probably be something you see on a news report while playing with your toys in
front of the television. You will be four maybe five years old? For me back in
1987 it was the starving children in Africa. I probably asked and I’m sure your
grandparents did tell me that the world is not a happy place for all. That these
children had no food was inconceivable for a child that has never known hunger.
Did anything other than a young boy’s fleeting concern, truly register?
Impossible, for any happy child would be my guess.
Then it was the nukes. Late 80s,
the cold war, the warplanes. Did anything register besides a bedtime
fear that The Bomb would be accidentally dropped on our house? Again, it would
have been impossible. As a kid you cannot understand the mechanics of the world,
the concepts of greed and hatred are kept confined to the playground.
I grew up sheltered from reality,
from all the wrongs of the world and all the misery humanity is capable of. It
couldn’t have been otherwise no matter how many times your grandparents
explained some things, no matter how many dire news reports I happened to witness.
I was incapable of processing the facts.
But as you grow, you will eventually
start to understand (to the extent that a person can understand a situation
they have never experienced), you better process, you start asking why. You
will slowly become more aware and one day you will wake up and realize you are,
for the first time, seeing the world’s true face and that your happy carefree childhood
was, to an extent, fabricated and did if nothing at all, very little to prepare
you for reality.
And the dilemma I am having is
how best to raise you in view of the above? We will not compromise your happy
childhood I promise. But I fear we will at some point need to find a way to
gently acquaint your innocent soul to the often dreadful realities of this
world.
I’m not sure how I’ll do it but I
have this image in my mind. Something I was thinking about last weekend when I
was in the exact same situation I am about to describe to you: So the time will
come when we will have just finished playing in the sea by the beach house, sitting
on the pebbles in the late summer afternoon looking out at sea and I will point
to you in a direction across the open water. And I will explain to you that a
few hundred miles in that direction, you could have driven there in just a few
hours if not for the water, there is a lot of sadness. A hell of a lot of
sadness. See, it’s this place called Gaza and it is next door to us and life
there is a glimpse of everything that is wrong with this world. As I write this,
innocent people and even helpless kids are dying there (being killed to be
precise) and unfortunately something tells me they will still be dying when we
are sitting on that beach together in a few years time. I will try and explain how
they have done nothing wrong to deserve their fate and that they are the
victims of a situation where the people in charge are filled with hatred and
greed and value power more than human life. I will do my best to explain all
this.
And then I will take you for ice
cream. 3 scoops on a chocolate cone.
Note: I just re-read the above.
What a depressing second post! Listen, the world can be a wonderful place kid.
And humanity can be spectacular and kind and ethical and loving. There have
been situations in the last few days that have really got to me. Gaza, Ukraine,
Iraq. Depressing or not, I’m posting it nonetheless as these are my thoughts
right now and this is the reason I started this blog in the first place. Now I
need to go as it’s your mum’s birthday party tonight, we have friends coming
over and everything will be good again. And don’t worry I won’t let her have any alcohol.
Your dad,
July 18th 2014
Labels:
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Tuesday, July 15, 2014
And so it begins
New Life! Quite literally
I got the call from your mother yesterday around
lunch time while daydreaming in the office. What it was that she said to me
exactly I can’t remember now but it was some smartass remark, you know what she’s
like. Bottom line, well in fact, the bottom line was that there was a bottom
line. Faint, but definitely there. Google* says, faint or not, it is a
positive, no doubt about it.
I’m not sure how I felt at that moment. Don’t get
me wrong, it was mostly excitement mixed with joy all with a hint of sheer
terror. An emotional overload but disappointment, I promise you, was not part
of the cocktail. I calculated your estimated birthday but later realized I had
got it wrong by a month or so. I couldn’t even add ‘9’ to July.
Forty minutes later we are in the car, in the mid-summer’s
midday heat heading to the clinic for verification. Not that I needed it by
that point but it seemed an important milestone to be completed, a sort of
officiality to it. A simple blood test the results of which would come 3-4
hours later, not instantly as we thought/hoped.
Six in the evening I am back at home staring at
your mum staring at the phone. Three hours pass, four hours pass, the phone ringing
a few times in between and anxiety is rising exponentially. I am smoking and
drinking cold rose wine. I am trying to convince your mum to have a small glass
-surely she would have joined me if we hadn’t found out today- but no. No way. Five
hours pass and it is now time to act. Your mother has just obtained the doctor’s
mobile, a desperate text, a reply that he will shortly be in touch, another
hour’s wait, smoking, drinking, ordering Chinese takeaway and then the call comes
through. Brief and to the point:
You’re on your way kid and things are about to
get interesting
Your dad
15 July 2014
15 July 2014
(ETA 8,5 months)
* a popular internet search engine we use in 2014. Google it, or whatever the equivalent is these days
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