So for 2010, which starts on February 14th in the lunar calendar, we approached my mother-in-law with new respect, hopeful that our horoscope for the year would provide insights as to how we should face the year. If it was going to be difficult, or amazing, we could prepare ourselves to act accordingly. My wife emailed her to find out what the scoop was. Tonight she got the reply and we excitedly opened the email. Here it goes:

type the following into google, “what happens to the rat in the year of the tiger”

We reacted with cries of, “She knows something we don’t!” or “She’s on to something, we have to ask her”.

Aw well, looks like another turbulent year but we’re ready for it. And we know what to do next New Year

Just in case anyone needs it:

Rat in the year of the tiger 2010

which immediately conjured memories:

I used to work in a warehouse as a “picker”. I’d drive around on a little electric vehicle picking up boxes from shelving units in long isles, assembling them into neat little cubes (yay for spatial training!) and delivering them to waiting semi’s. We used to compete on who could be the fastest, or just have yogurt fights. I was likely in the best shape of my life; who wants yogurt all over them? And I made some money to put me through university….and worked with some great people, some great memories.

And now, it appears we wouldn’t have as much fun:

Autonomous Robots Invade Retail Warehouses

but wow, how awesome is that? Another notch in Skynet’s belt.

What continues to amaze me about parenting is how it simultaneously expands and condenses time. The days can seem long, but the months fly by.

That really captures it for me. I feel like a goldfish sometimes. So I take video and photos in the hope that they will keep triggering the memories for me one day.

I went to the first video he did, ‘You Won’t Remember This’ and my wife spelled it out for me – that phase of our life is over.

There is something about the omnivorous now in parenting, and the constantly shifting challenges and demands of the moment, that creates a kind of rolling amnesia for everything yesterday.

I sure hope I got enough video of it cause I’m not much of an animator.

So, was this normal? Was he colicy? Were we doomed to the horror stories I’d seen on Nanny 911?

We very quickly accumulated a stack of books about 3 feet high on helping babies sleep. They spanned a spectrum from letting them cry it out to never letting a tear touch their cheek. As this was our first and we hadn’t been around babies very much we tried just about everything to “help” our child get to sleep and this went on for a number of months. Eventually we got onto “Healthy sleep habits, happy child” by Marc Weissbluth (disclaimer, I setup an amazon affiliate account and I may get a few pennies if you buy it). It helped us to understand what was “normal” at the various stages of our childrens lives and for my next children they had it much easier. They got more sleep, we got more sleep (more, that doesn’t mean enough…). Everyone was happier.

So, I sometimes come across first-time mothers and the inevitable question comes up, “does it ever end?” followed by, “how?”. I’m going to send them here because a) I can never remember his name and b) maybe it will help.

I’m partial to this one: Rancid Billy Dread

Get your own using this easy generator or do a more involved quiz at PirateQuiz.

Arrrr!

Now admittedly I didn’t build it. But I realized in that moment, in my son’s eyes, I could have.

I’m a geek, and a dad, and I’m proud.