Like Mother, Like Son

Life has been somewhat unfair to my wife in regards to our two sons. While she was the one who carried both of them in her belly for the traditional 9+ months, my genes are so super-strong that both boys are full-fledged phenotypical Meaghermen. Lochlain is often referred to as "Lil' You" (meaning me - though I have been thinking of giving him the nickname of "L-Jax" to make things simpler for one of my sisters). He looks like me and acts like me - he's my little buddy.

Sean - though only a little over two weeks old - looks to be headed the same way. He's got the Meagher fingers and toes. He appears to be developing deep blue eyes like his brother. But there is one thing that he and his mother do the same:

Yes, they both sleep like the dead. -brrrrr- Creepy.

SEAN'S WORDS OF THE WEEK: ehhhhhn, wahhh!

Captain Loch And The Lochmen

I know, I know. I owe you a Sean entry - but Mommy is not cooperating (that will make more sense when I do the posting I have in mind) and let's face it, all the kid does is eat, poop, and sleep. There are no spooky bathtubs, no startling developments, no growth in the vocabulary (which prompts a new feature - LOCH'S WORDS OF THE WEEK [see below]), no rides on a carousel, no foiled robberies (or successful ones, for that matter), etc.

Anyway, a few months back, my Dad got into the habit of calling Loch "Captain Loch", likening his activity and attitude to that of an adventurer a la Doc Savage (go here to figure out who that is) . As Doc Savage had his "Fabulous Five", so "Captain Loch" should have his "Lochmen", whom my father had decided in his head should be me, my brother, and a bunch of our longtime friends from childhood (prompting one of my well-known family quotes: "I'm not his sidekick, he's my sidekick!"). Dad even went so far as trying to commission a piece of artwork from one of the aforementioned longtime friends (artist extraordinaire Bobb Decker), which after a slight concept change, turned out like so:
Personally, I love the depiction of Rich as The Graduate Student - the nightgown, nightcap, and slippers are quite fetching (do all doctoral candidates dress like that?)! This one-ups Captain Loch & the Lochmen because it has Carter in it teaming with Loch - giving off a Wondertwins vibe; I am not my son's sidekick; and the aforementioned Rich-in-a-dress-and-pointy-hat-look.

LOCH'S WORDS OF THE WEEK: brother ("Lift it up, brotha!"), buddy, am-i-nals / animals

The Mystery of the Spooky Bathtub

Now that Sean is home, the Bean and I split to a man-to-man type of defense (as opposed to a zone defense - though that is used on the rare occasion). I cover Lochlain mostly, which includes baths. Loch loves his baths. Or rather, USED to love his baths. Two weeks ago, he hated getting in the bath. Actually, hate is a weak word. He FREAKED OUT when getting in our downstairs bathtub - when placed in, he would scoop out all his toys, cry, scream "No no nononono......" and point in one particular corner of the bathtub - seemingly at the corner of the bathmat that was in the tub (we did not tell Aunt Gail this so when she tried to give him a bath of her own volition, the same thing happened to her & Uncle Joe). Soooo, problem solved. I got a nice new bathmat - "Daddy fix!" Well, I did say seemingly earlier. I got Loch ready for his bath, showed him the nnew mat, and -bang!- it was worse than ever! He freaked out even more - screamed bloody murder. It was so bad, Bean had to put Sean down and run (best as she could) for the bath. The only thing that calmed him down (though he did not stop crying) was Daddy stripping down to his boxers and getting in the bath with him, while Mommy held his hands. Then, when getting out of the bath, he did something else out of character. Normally, he does not like to have his head covered (hat, hoods, etc.) and does not like the hooded towels that babies/toddlers use. This time, he had to have his head covered, and REFUSED to take the towel off his head, even after he was dried, diapered, and changed into his sleepwear. He then proceeded to walk around real slowly with a VERY serious look on his face which made Mommy laugh so much, she popped her stitches a little bit. This is what he looked like (though the picture does not convey his gravitas):
Pope? Klansman? Superhero? Let me know.......but just so you know, it has been theorized that we have a ghost in our downstairs bathtub. Loch now takes his baths in our upstairs tub, and all is almost back to normal (except for the part where Daddy at this point still has to get in the tub with him......but we're working on that).

SeanWatch - Day 2

That boy is amazing. Normally, in the first 24 hours, "they" want your baby to have one #1 and 1 #2 ("Hey Number Two!"). Seanie-boy had about 4 #1s and 9 (Count 'em - NINE) #2s. I personally changed two of the 9 and witnessed firsthand one of the #1s. In honor of the momentous occasion, I have written the following haiku:

Has it been so long?
I forgot the golden rule -
Sons pee on their dads.

Who could get unhappy with that face? All that pooping and peeing means that he is eating well, so that's good. My next entry will deal with what happened to Loch while all this was going on...and hopefully shed light on a disconcerting mystery that has been plaguing us at bath time. Until then, I leave you with another picture of Sean. And me.

Huzzah!

Sean Richard Meagher joined the world today at 8:59 AM. He weighed 7 lbs., 15.5 oz. (why not just call him 8 lbs. even?) and is 20.5 inches long - both half a pound and half an inch behind his big brother Lochlain. Other births of note today include deceased tennis star Arthur Ashe, deceased Protestant reformer John Calvin, and deceased actor Fred Gwynne - looks like Seanie won't share his day with anyone! Here is a short video of Seanie right after his measurement thingy:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=713375111330724020