Perhaps the best gift I’ve ever received arrived this Christmas, elegantly wrapped in gold paper and given to me by my lovely wife - the final gift I opened during a suspect, stressful 2008 holiday.
Two silver frames, simple yet stylish, and inside of one was a beautiful photo of sleeping Constance as a baby, sucking [...]

Filed under: 2nd trimester, Baby Prep, Husband & Wife | 8 Comments »

Last night the baby ran an internal marathon while we were in bed. Constance had been in a training session all night and by the time she got home there weren’t enough hours or energy bursts to do much more than make her lunch for the next day and lay down. When I rolled over [...]

Filed under: 2nd trimester, Husband & Wife, When I'm a Dad ... | 7 Comments »

Following the extended holiday weekend I arrived at my desk to photos of my cousin, Amanda, her husband and her brand new baby boy, Gus sitting in my email inbox. Gus is adorable (and now sports one of my favorite names!) and Amanda looks pretty ravishing for a lady who just pushed something large out [...]

Filed under: 2nd trimester, Baby Prep | 10 Comments »

Opportunity costs are often even more outrageously expensive than the fiscal deficits created by the price of entertainment. I’ve lived in a home with cable television since I was in the 7th grade, but this morning I took hold of that lengthy string of overly entertained years and cut the cord.
The Millers officially are living [...]

Filed under: 2nd trimester, Husband & Wife, Reinvention | 15 Comments »

Today is the 365th day, the final page in the book of a year that is hard to think about as a whole. To anoint 2008 as a fractured piece of living would be an understatement, and for as much joy as there has been - the triumph of conception - there is too much [...]

Filed under: 2nd trimester, Baby Prep, Matthew I.V.F. Miller | 6 Comments »

It was not the best of times, it was not the worst of times - it simply was time that passed by in a wrapped and snowy form that felt something like Christmas. My in-laws came to spend the week in our too-small-for-guests condo, and it became apparent quite early in the visit that it [...]

Filed under: 2nd trimester, News from the Parent Front | 5 Comments »

One hour from now, Constance and I will be awaiting our last appointment with the OB/GYN before we move across the office to finish off our pregnancy under the care of midwives.
Oh, did I fail to mention we’re switching to the midwives? Did I, in the midst of all the stupid things I do remember [...]

Filed under: 2nd trimester, Baby Prep, Doctor, Doctor, Midwifery | 3 Comments »

A few years back, I was lounging in bed while Constance was getting ready for work. She had been trying to lose some weight for a month or so, stepping for 30 minutes at a time and doing an ad-hoc version of Weight Watchers, and when I looked up at her, gazing at my lovely [...]

Filed under: 2nd trimester, Husband & Wife, Oops …, When I'm a Dad ... | 1 Comment »

To say that Joel Osteen and I posit ourselves on opposite sides of the globe in terms of values, beliefs and lifestyles would be an accurate statement, if not a wee bit of an understatement. That’s not to say I think he’s a bad guy – my knowledge of him extends to accidental pulpit sightings [...]

Filed under: 2nd trimester, Baby Prep, When I'm a Dad ... | 13 Comments »

Babies R Us hasn’t exactly emerged as a significant fount of knowledge during my adult education. I always have loathed the placating backward ‘r’ and I still harbor resentment for the time they wouldn’t let me send a gift to my sister with the always controversial word “poop” digitally printed on the card. My preconceived [...]

Filed under: 2nd trimester, Baby Prep, Husband & Wife, When I'm a Dad ... | 14 Comments »