Lee Feigenbaum's Life in Words

That’s where we sit right now. Eight days until our lives are changed forever. Eight days until we’re put in charge of a little boy and all of his yet-to-be-developed hopes & interests & dreams & needs & wants. Eight days until no one is any longer interested in what Lynn and I are up to, but focused almost entirely on Seth.

I’m pretty excited. I think it’s going to be a blast to raise a kid, despite the lack of sleep (been prepping for that for years, to a mild extent), my penchant to worry (comes with the territory), the challenges of being a good parent (lesser people than Lynn and me have raised pretty decent children), etc. I get pretty jittery thinking about things like the first time he holds my finger, the first time he (sort of) smiles, the first time he falls asleep in my arms, and much more.

But all of that’s still for a week away. I’ve still got 8 more days to reflect on the other side of the coin, to marvel at the strength and beauty of the woman who is making this at all possible for us.

I told Lynn the other day that she’s been a pretty fantastic pregnant woman. In reality, I can’t imagine a more strikingly noble way to grow and carry an unborn child for nine months then what Lynn has done. She’s selflessly labored through each nauseous morning, each pang of heartburn, each restless night’s sleep, all with an unwavering sense of good humor.

It hasn’t mattered to her that she’s basically been turned into a human science experiment – regularly poked and prodded and measured and interrogated and examined. She’s just smiled and joked and devoted as much time as she needed to preparing for Seth’s arrival.

I’ll never be able to repay the debt of gratitude that I feel to my wife as I think about what will greet us in eight days’ time. Even were I physiologically equipped to do what Lynn’s done, I could never have done it with the grace and the dignity and the spirit that Lynn’s brought to her pregnancy. Seth’s going to be a lucky guy to have a mom so full of unending love and devotion to him and to our entire family.

Thanks, Lynn.

Trying to get some more pictures up while I still can. Randi, Scott, and Julia came to visit Memorial Day weekend. We spent Saturday walking around downtown, including Faneuil Hall, the Holocaust Memorial, and the Common and Gardens. We hopped on the T over to Kenmore to take in some of the atmosphere before the Mets/Red Sox game, and then grabber dinner at Boston Beer Works while we watched the game. We got back to JP after dinner just in time to see the momentous game-changing home run that Omir Santos launched against Papelbon, much to the chagrin of Dennis Eckersley.

We stayed close to home on Sunday, splitting our time between playing some Rock Band, watching the Mets, and grilling some chicken and hot dogs.

Check out the pictures of the Marshalls’ visit to Boston.

Today, after walking to the mechanic to pay the bill on a bajillion dollars of car repairs, we headed over to Home Depot to pick up a pegboard and cable ties of various sizes. Back at home, we took all of our network electronics—cable modem, wifi router, VOIP device, and NAS—and strapped them to the pegboard. We included a power strip and stuck the whole thing out of sigh behind our TV stand. (This is all originally inspired by Declutter Your Desk, which I’ve been jealous of ever since I first saw it a couple of years ago.)

One step closer to having a baby’s room instead of an office!

Ah yes, I remember it fondly. The weather grew cooler and the nights gained a bit of a chill. College kids flocked back to Boston and the economy collapsed. And, yes, Lynn’s belly was devoid of human cells not strictly her own (at least, as far as we knew at the time).

Over the course of a few weeks, Lynn and I got out to admire the foliage a few times. We took a couple of trips down the block to the Arboretum, and we also went with my mom over to Houghton’s Pond at the Blue Hills Reservation. Enjoy some pictures from back in the fall of ‘08.

(You can click on a thumbnail to see the full picture; when viewing a full picture, you can click on it or use the left and right arrow keys to move through all the pictures.)

So it turns out that real life is really quite similar to what’s in my imagination.

There seem to be several universal truths to being pregnant. People will give you lots and lots of advice, most of which is useful, and a lot of which is not. (Yes, there’s so much advice that the minority of it which is not useful is still a lot!) People will begin to treat you a bit like an invalid. People will give up their seats on public transportation for you. And, inevitably, people will ask if you’ve taken pictures of the pregnant belly.

So Lynn and I have now taken two sets of belly photos. The first was in New Jersey at 26 weeks, and the second was at the Jamaica Pond earlier this week (31 weeks). Please enjoy all of the belly pictures, and in particular my favorite one, over there on the right.

A month ago, Lynn and I saw our first Mets game at the Mets new home, Citi Field. Despite some odd ‘bugs’ in the design (why in the world do the flags need to block the scoreboard?), I thought the park was beautiful. Love the wide open concourses, and love the fact that our seats are both better & cheaper than they were last year at Shea.

Please enjoy a few pictures from our first visit to Citi Field.