hannah and caroline and me
(part three)


really??? this time next week caroline will be two months old? that's kind of hard to believe, but not in the "man, time really flies" kind of way. i don't feel like the last two months have dashed by. i know sarah does. the calendar had not flipped over to october before she was stressing out about having to go back to work. and i understand that. every time i have two days off, i feel like i could never go back to work and be completely happy. that idea, in and of itself, i know is ridiculous. usually around midday of the second of any two consecutive days i have off i will find myself bored and pacing around the house looking for someone to annoy or some cat to wake up. but i couldn't imagine having a couple months off with a brand new baby girl, each day filled with not much more than taking a walk and snuggling and feeding the baby and napping, and then coming to grips with the idea of not having that anymore. coming to grips with taking that sweet baby girl to daycare and "only seeing her at night and on the weekend." it's a sad thought, but it's part of our reality. i've mentioned here that sarah and i, both, are the kind of people that need more than their kids for stimulation. i think sarah'll soon enough realize how much she likes work and helping people and it won't seem like too much of a burden. and that time at home with the baby girl and the baby, baby girl will seem even more precious. and rare. and priceless.

these first two months in the life of caroline lilla o'kelly have treated our family well. we've seen each other a lot. we've gotten on each other's nerves. we've done fun things together. we've visited with family. we're getting back into church. we're finding new friends. not giving up on old ones. we are wondering when our back yard will start to not feel weird. we've discovered the best tv show since arrested development. we laugh together. as of last week, we feed the baby together. mind you, things could be a lot worse.

and so we turn the page. we will begin to write the next chapter. the one that's titled, "caroline goes to school". it will be different, but different isn't a bad thing. it's just...different.

that next chapter will include the resurrection of the halloween carnival. it will include a new basketball season. it will include sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top and dressing. it will include my old ass turning 31. it will include christmas, which should be a new and exciting ballgame this year since we will be scaling back our commitments. i can see it also including my sunday school class deciding what direction we really want to go in. do we want to embed ourselves into every committee and ministry of our old, tired church and try to "corrupt" from within? or do we just turn the bastard on it's head and go in a new direction? i don't want to try and be the northeast birmingham annex of ginghamsburg united methodist church, but, hell, i am not above stealing anyone's good ideas. this sunday could be a turning point. the pastor comes to our sunday school class. for 45 minutes, we'll either scare him to death or excite him because he's just learned he has 15+ good soldiers to add to his army. we'll see. one thing i do know. i am certain that our class is ready to be much more than "all talk." i'll let you know what happens.

if this current chapter ends with alabama kicking tennessee's ass saturday, that'd be cool too.