Going to be a Dad

Well knowing that I'm going to be a Dad is quite an experience. Mostly, I'm still in some sort of state of disbelief. It probably won't really start sinking in until Melissa starts showing. I feel pretty useless at this point as my part in this process is essentially done. All I can do now is stick to what I know best. To me it seems that I am in charge of two major things: making sure that the baby (i.e. Melissa) is getting the proper nourishment, and ensuring that the technology that will support our family is up to the task.

The former is a daunting task mostly due to the unique eating habits of the mother. But I believe I am making headway. I shudder to think, however, about what will be consumed next week when I am away. For instance, this week I had to make sure that doughnuts was not the only thing that was eaten for breakfast.

The latter task to me is a much more exciting prospect. I know and love gadgets, and having a baby opens a whole new realm of gadgetry that before never existed. My first task was to change our phone system. I know we will be making many more calls to Canada after the baby is born so I took advantage of the Vonage VoIP system. This gives us a phone line using our existing broadband internet connection, and it is considerably cheaper than our land line with free calls to Canada. This means that we have to put the phone in the living room though, where our cable modem is, so the search began for a cordless model. We were able to find a nice cheap one that uses the 5.8GHz spectrum (i.e. no interference with our 2.4 GHz wireless network or a 900 MHz baby monitor). I think this will be a better system for all those involved, but I still need to do some extensive testing today and tomorrow before I leave to make sure. The trip to Babies 'R' Us woke me up to the new and exciting world of baby gadgets. Technology has come a long way, and made a lot of these projects multi-taskers, which appeals to my frugal side. For example, take the stroller that we picked out. It is a stroller (all tricked out with one handed operation) which also serves as a baby carrier/baby car seat/toddler stroller/diaperbag carrier/sippy cup holder/baby restraining system. For some reason though manufacturers make everything HUGE (which I think equates to safe and sturdy in the minds of parents) so we selected the smallest and lightest one they had. I'm really very impressed with the technology that goes into this thing. The other big thing we looked as was a high-chair. The one we picked has adjustable height, again full restraining system, and will convert to a booster seat when the baby is old enough. It's also upholstered with plastic so you can just hose it off in the bathtub when the damage is done. It was also the smallest of the bunch, which is important considering that our dining room/kitchen area is so small. The other exciting thing we looked at was a rocker chair, which includes an ottoman. This should make for some very pleasant nights holding the baby. Thinking is on this one that you can't be asleep in bed, so you might as well be comfortable with the task at hand. The ottoman means baby does not fall off your lap when you both fall asleep together :) This is multi-tasking in the sense that it's a nice rocker that will be used long after the baby is grown up and moved away. Now for the best part about all of these gadgets...they all need to be assembled! I can't wait, I'm going to have so much fun putting stuff together, something which I hope little peanut will appreciate more when it is older.

So these are my duties for now. I'm sure as time progresses I will be expanding my job description, but for now I'll just enjoy what I've got. I looking forward to finding out how exactly we are going to survive this experience!