The name is Jack. Jack Barac

The little guy has been chilling out in Anne-Renee for almost 9 months now, and as the 4th of July (his scheduled delivery) draws near we are both excited to see his arrival.

We spend nights and days rubbing the tummy and wondering what he’ll look like. Sometimes when his little feet or hands push out we tickle them wondering which part of him it is. Are we tickling a foot or hi-fiving a little hand.

Come little boy. Come into the world and make us all proud. Come and share the love that your mummy and daddy have for you.

Hello World

The first words that any techie should ever write. So if one is the son of two techies…

… and it seems that he has beaten us to the punch by posting his own “Hello World” copy live on the web.

After 26 hours of labour, baby Jack has been born to his parents Rob and Anne-Renee. Newborns are ugly. Really ugly. I was happy to be there for the labour, but the actual child birth is no place for a man. Under no circumstances, should there ever be an exception to that rule.

I should write a lot more, but needless to say I should be in the hospital right now with my wife and boy.

Well… the boy has really been exercising his lungs. Day and Night. It never seems to stop and it slowly erodes your confidence as a parent when your child just keeps crying and crying. There have been times already when I have asked myself “Geez do I really want a kid?” and buddies of mine tell me that I’ll ask myself that question many more times in the months and years to come.

Anne is struggling to feed the little bugger. He is happy as Larry to suck on a finger, but to get him to take a nipple is an ordeal and a half. The other night was hot and we were worried that he might be dehydrating so Anne got out the pump and we ended up using that milk to SPOON FEED him. He loved the spoon.

On the upside, we have finally seen our first little smiles and are noticing the searching looks he gives us as he identifies our voices. After what felt like 3 hours of straight crying and attempts at feeding the other day, I took him from Anne to give her a break and stop the tears. Two minutes later he was asleep, five after that, the boy and I were dazing away on the couch together. Him on my chest, me watching Star Trek.

The little fella is sleeping and eating well. Our nightly “Fall asleep on daddy’s chest while he watches Stargate SG-1″ ritual is great. It gives Anne-Renee a chance to sleep and me some time with the boy.

Life is slowly settling in at home. Anne has some great confidence now with feeding and the boy sleeps pretty much all day and night. We went for our first real car and pram rides yesterday and had a nice walk down through the main street of town. The local folks had kindly erected a bunch of stalls and a stage in homour of baby Jacks arrival… well sort of.

He was hit with all the ladies.

These are the things that are relevant to my birthdate:

I was born on a Sunday under the astrological sign Cancer.
My Life path number is 8.

The Julian calendar date of my birth is 2453554.5.
The golden number for 2005 is 11.
The epact number for 2005 is 19.
The year 2005 is not a leap year.

As of 7/18/2005 4:51:13 AM CDT
I am 0 years old.
I am 0 months old.
I am 2 weeks old.
I am 15 days old.
I am 364 hours old.
I am 21,891 minutes old.
I am 1,313,473 seconds old.

There are 350 days till my next birthday on which my cake will have 1 candle on it.

That 1 candle produces 1 BTU’s, or 252 calories of heat (that’s only 0.2520 food Calories!) . You can boil 0.11 US ounces of water with that many candles.

My birthstone is Ruby
The Mystical properties of Ruby

Ruby is said to open one’s heart to love. Some lists also consider the Carnelian to be my birthstone. (Birthstone lists come from Jewlers, Tibet, Ayurvedic Indian medicine, and other sources)

My birth tree is theApple Tree.

Apparantly I will be of slight build, have lots of charm, appeal and attraction, a pleasant aura, be flirtatious, adventurous, sensitive, always in love, will want to love and be loved, faithful and tender partner, very generous, scientific talents, live for today, a carefree philosopher with imagination… I sound like a bloody hippy.

There are 160 days till Christmas 2005!

The moon’s phase on the day I was born was waning crescent.

Yesterday was a big day for the little bloke. He officially moved up a nappy size from “N” for Newborn to the next size up (yes that’s right, I don’t know what the next size is called).

He celebrated the monumentous day by delivering one of his finest, the 3am Satay Poo.

This was our first day over the border into the states. Jack spent most of the trip looking out the window. We managed to see a moose by the side of the road, had a mad wasp attack us and slept all the way home.

Nice…

I just got my first smile from the boy…

and it was cuuuuuute!!!

They say that you’re supposed to love your children and all they do unconditionally. This is a myth that is foisted upon all new parents who have not yet awakened to the reality of parenting.

My first real realisation came the other day while I was wiping the little fellas bum and changing a nappy. I had both ankles in one hand, feet high in the air and was looking downstairs to make sure I had not missed anything. I noticed some action happening between the cheeks and before the horror of what was about to ensue hit me; I was hit in the face with the full force of an infants fart.

There was even some hellish follow through, but luckily I managed to avoid it while not releasing his ankles or dropping the nappy.

Now that’s parenting.