Everyday I have to wade through the Laundry Monsters Layer. He grabs at my ankles each morning and evening, sometimes he throws a sock or a sports bra around my foot. The other morning it was a pair of sweat pants. Like long arms they reach out and trip me as I try to balance my bagel and orange juice out the door. Yesterday I confronted my fears and wrestled the beast into the living room. It was time to face it head on and just do it. I want to point out that the Laundry Monster has an interesting arsenal of weapons at his disposal. I wanted to share these with you.

1. Socks, he likes to torment by hiding socks. This is one of the most common tactics they use. Hiding a matching sock is done to torment the folder (that being me) and play mind games. Yesterday I ended up with 5 misplaced socks. I did not even know I had five different types of socks!

2. Womens Clothing, is another way the monster thrives the way it does. Trying to fold womens clothing is like trying to tie a shoe with one hand. There are strings where the shoulders should be. There are undershirts attached to regular shirts! Trying to untangle a shirt that has another shirt inside it is next to impossible. Every shirt is a different size and shape. I know the female body is built differently, and thank God for that, but my goodness could it be any more difficult? Between skirts and pants and dresses its next to impossible to have a neatly folded pile. Laundry Monster Wins!

3. Baby Clothes, this is new ground for me. He has evolved and showed no mercy. I have not had to deal with this one much until recently. How do you fold baby clothes? They are just too small! Plus different sizes! I also have a habit of folding socks inside themselves so they stay together, of course we all know how that works out. But have you tried folding baby socks into themselves? You end up with a golf ball size piece of lent! Laundry Monster Wins again!

4. Fitted Mattress Sheets, this to me is the worst! How in the world do you fold a fitted sheet? Every time I fool myself into thinking, this will be the time I get it a perfect square……until the very end when it all goes south and I have a hot mess of wadded up blanket, again Laundry Monster Wins!

The above photo is not my laundry monster, I was too embarrassed to show you ours, so I thought I would show you some one else’s. I will link to her blog so she can get the credit, but its a close representation of what it was like.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBM854BTGL0&eurl=http://www.fistofblog.com/?p=6772[/youtube]

Today is my Dad’s Birthday, his new name is pops, until Desmond makes his own version of that. Desmond and pops have not met yet officially. So we decided to make a little music video just for his Birthday. I think this will be the 1st of many new videos, because we had so much fun doing it. Even in all the madness, I can still find the time to make it look like I have too much time on my hands. :) Happy Birthday Dad, we love and miss you.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKAAt_KTWQ0[/youtube]

For those without youtube access here is a link. VIDEO

Desmond, here is a list of the things you can do at 6 weeks.
1. Hold your head up.
2. Smile at us when you are happy.
3. You grunt when you eat, its very cute.
4. Sleep for 4 hours stretches at night! ( I hope I didn’t just jinx that)
5. You love to sleep on Mom and Dad’s chest.

Life for us at six weeks is still insane, I do not expect that to change, but I think we are getting use to the new insane life style called parenthood. Here is a list of things that are different for us.

1. It now takes 2 hours to watch a 45 minute show.
2. It takes 3 days to watch a movie.
3. I have learned to function on much much less sleep.
4. I feel I have gained more knowledge on breastfeeding then any man should ever have to know.
5. Kelly was right, the laundry monster does exist, and I can’t make him go away. He attacked me at the back door yesterdy when I came home from work, and again this morning as I left.
6. Eating dinner with Jackie just does not happen often, eating is now done in shifts.
7. I have lost 12lbs since you have been born. You are giving me a workout like no other.
8. You stir up emotions from deep inside when you look at me and smile.
9. You make me laugh out loud every day.
10. I can’t imagine life with out you.

There is a known condition that has now been documented by doctors all over the world that people will hear or feel their cell phone ring even when they do not have it on them. I have experienced this known condition 1st hand. I am now however developing a new condition. I call it Phantom Poop Syndrome or PPS. Sometimes sitting at my desk at work, away from Desmond and all things diaper, I will get a whiff. Has anyone else experienced this as a new parent? And yes I washed my hands!

The title of this post is from Superman Returns, it is one of my favorite lines….because it speaks so much of passing the torch. Meaning I was the son, and now I am the father, my Dad has passed the torch to me, and it is my turn to prepare the way for Desmond.

Everyone asks me why I wore my Superman shirt the day Desmond was born. I wore that shirt on purpose. I have some personal reasons, but it was important I did. Not because I wanted to be Superman. It is just such a bright shirt, the colors pop, and Superman was a huge figure I looked towards when growing up. I wanted Desmond to see me in those colors and associate those colors and that symbol of Superman with his Dad. I know that is sooo cheezy, but I never claimed not to be.

Anyway, Jenn framed the below pictures for me, and I just love them! It paints the picture of what I am trying to say in this post. I hope to one day catch that same pose of Desmond and his child.

Being a parent involves a lot of trial and error, as someone who works in the IT world I am very familiar with troubleshooting and errors. Being a dad requires the use of those skills. Desmond seems to have trouble sleeping, its a hit or miss process. Some nights are great, some nights not so much. Danyelle recently informed us that he REALLY needs to burp! I knew the burp was important, just not how much. If I could not make him burp, I moved on. That was rookie mistake number one. So the last 24 hours he has slept a lot! Which has been great for us, it has given us some time to refresh and focus again. We have been working extra hard to make him burp. That leads me in to rookie mistake number two. Last night I wanted him to burp so bad that I have gave him a little squeeze. It made sense to me….he has a burp in there that wont come up, so a few good pats and a little squeeze will make that burp shoot right out! Well it did work, but what followed the burp I was not expecting. As he burped, a warm river of milk flowed down my back as he lay across my shoulder. This was no spit up as I have experience before. This was Desmond’s first puke up on Daddy. The circle is now complete, I have been peed, pooped, and puked on. I know that circle will just keep rotating as life goes on.

Valentines Day is here, and Desmond had his cute little outfit on last night that he got from his Mumeire, but he really was not up for taking pictures, so we did the best we could, as you can see he is very much asleep. Picture number two is fomthe other night and he shows off how he can prop himself up all by himself! Anyway we will get some more today. So Happy Valentines Day to all.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a4NdohmQBk[/youtube]

Desmond and I have been playing and making noises to see what works for facial reactions. The one that seems to work the most if me making a pig noise. His eye’s get wide eyed and he looks around frantically. It is a lot of fun for me, and he seems to get a kick out of it. I would say this is his very first trick. I was able to get it on video, so enjoy!

So we are one month into this new life as parents, and there is no doubt that it has been very hard. What has been the hardest you might ask? Sleep has been the hardest for me. I know, I know, I can see all my sister-in-laws rolling their eyes now and saying “ohh whatever suck it up Hogan!” (cue violin) But in my defense, I am a light sleeper, and have difficulty sleeping in general. So when Desmond farts, I wake up. When he gurgles on some spit-up I hear it and jump up in a flash. The good thing is, I seem to be able to function on a lot less sleep then necessary, but going to work each day after about 3 hours sleep is proving difficult some days. I am a little less understanding when someone forgets how to plug a computer in! Another thing that is weird is, when he is sleeping during the day, I find myself lost as to what to do with myself! Its like I don’t know what to do…so I sit down or pace around the house waiting for him to wake up and be changed or whatever. I think that will pass, but its just weird. I think I am just always in go mode, that when there is some down time I am lost.

Lately he has been making faces that make me laugh out loud. I just love it! He grunts a lot, usually that is followed by a rumble and a smile. We went to church today, he was a celebrity of course. He did pretty good, we had to step out towards the end, but all in all he did real well. I have made Desmond his own gallery, and will put photos in there as each month goes by, you can visit that here.