My Son, The Alien

I love this picture of our alien child.  We have quite a few pictures like this, to be honest.  I'm also relieved to hear that even Dooce has problems like this in taking pictures.  I love our digital camera, but I definitely have problems with indoor lighting.  BTW, the one hint I know from taking pictures of babies is not to use the flash.  Let the natural lighting color the picture.  The result, of course, is that your alien children become more apparent.

Babysitter, Alcohol and People I Like

Last night was Dave's Christmas party at work.  It's an annual gig and a lot of fun because I like his co-workers.  However, I was bouncing off the walls while I was there, frightening the other guests with my over the top enthusiasm like a high school boy on a date with a supermodel.  It was our first party experience in which someone else was in charge of the baby.  And shocking the other guests, when I was asked whether it was hard to leave the baby with a sitter to go out, I replied "Not So Much."  Of course, the sitter was Jennifer, my friend/colleague, so I knew he was safe.  (She, on the other hand, we were worried about, especially if Conor spent the night crying!)

So after calming down a bit and not scaring the other guests off with my loud and rapid voice as I barely contained my enthusiasm over talking with adults outside my home, I started trolling for other parents who bring their kids to bed.  And yes, we found the two other couples out of the 9 who bring or have brought their kids in and they mentored us a bit.  (BTW, note that means that a third of the folks do that)  Both the other couples' children are older.  Both no longer sleep with them.  Both said it felt Natural and Right for them.  And neither of them were real crunch buds.  As one woman pointed out:  We can sleep with our pets, but not our kids???

The surprising part is that I'm still looking for validation from real people in my real world.  I can read about it every morning at AskDrSears.com, but it's not the same as having real couples share their real experiences and say they wouldn't have changed anything about it for the world.

7:58:42 AM