the heart of the matter...

What is this? Trouble in the Crayola factory? Not quite...

This is the first creation by my son... not even 6 months old! I got a new laptop and I thought that he and I should spend some creative time together and he just went to town. He has banging his hands on my laptop to the point where I thought my new toy was in danger of being abused! I had to help him out though. I held the button to allow him to paint and changed the colors once he started losing interest!

And then to top it all off, this afternoon my wife and I took him to the hospital for a little check up. He has a bigger heart than most babies his age as he is bigger than most babies his age! Ha! Its so simple it makes sense! So the doctors thought it best just to make sure all was good because they were hearing a murmur. So we went in for an ultrasound and I got to actually see his heart. I saw it beating and pumping blood. I could look into his body and see him from the inside out. He was blissfully unaware of everything that was going on. He was having fun looking around and being distracted.

I have to say it was amazing to get that perspective on him. To see his insides working while he is just lying there smiling was a once in a lifetime thing. I wish that I was a ultrasound technician so that I could understand it more. And then I started wishing that actually seeing his physical heart meant I could see his "actual" heart. The heart that will control his emotions and not his bloodflow. Who is he going to be? I want to know, there are pieces of me in there!

Then I thought back to his painting. He was just banging on the computer not realizing that his hand was controlling what was up on the screen, but just enjoying the whole ride. I am going to keep doing the same!

six days and counting!

preparing.for.fenix, originally uploaded by impactmatt.

Ok, yet another post about babies and my journey to becoming a daddy!

So, for mother's day I took my lovely Claudia to a tattoo parlour to get some body paint done on her belly. I wanted to her know how much I already consider her a mother even though we are technically missing the main component. The work that she has put in to take care of him though she has never met him is very impressive. The food she eats, the places she goes, the company she keeps... all revolve around our little one. I am not joking... you ever hear of slippery elm? Its a native american herbal secret for sore throats, however it also makes your uterus slippery... for those of you who have them. I find this incredibly amusing to think of my little baby shooting through the uteran canal at high speeds. I can imagine him like a little kid (which is what he is... my imagination is in overdrive..) screaming "WHEEEEEEEEEE!" as he plummets head first on the waterslide to life. A little more blood and sticky stuff though... So yeah, she takes very good care of him and is making preparations to make the birth as fun as possible for both her and the baby. Claudia works really hard at taking care of the baby and so I already consider her a mother. Hence, the mother's day trip to the tattoo shop.

She was very excited to have some work done as we look forward to getting something a lot more permanent soon. So we walk in for our appointment and we are greeted by our artist for the day who promptly advises us how hungover he is!!! Huh! So glad we aren't using any needles today! Now, a few days previous our painter had asked for images and sketches so that he would have something to work on and I sent them out promptly. Of course he didn't have them and fortunately I was able to pull them up from the email that I had sent from my inbox. So our hungover guy started working on sketching it out and about an hour later we were ready to go! Its fun sitting and waiting! So he gets to work and he advises us how nervous he is because he has never done any work on a pregnant woman before. He was sweating quite a bit and was freaked out when the baby decided to move and kick the canvas. He also told us stories from the tattoo parlour world. I felt like I was in an episode of "Montreal Ink." One tattoo guy just broke his wrist because he got into a fight with his present girlfriend's exboyfriend, right in front of the shop! Our artist told us about how he had to do some work on a woman's "titties" and how that made him nervous (the manager poked his head around the corner and advised him to use the word "chest" instead of titties to maintain a certain level of professionalism... too little, too late!) He also told us the stories of how he used to run in a gang in El Salvador and how he got shot and he had to move away to escape from it... I could keep going

But in the end it was a lot of fun and we chatted with him during the whole hour process of getting the artistic creation. It was a unique experience to have her belly tattooed and all these hardcore tattoo guys come by and say how cool it was that we were getting some work done. And then... as we head back down the street to the car this African guy stops us and talks all about pregnancy and motherhood and his experiences as a father and blesses us as we walk on. I love this city!

Anyhow... that is really all I have to say... no deep thoughts or nothing other than I am excited for the next week. I am excited to be a dad. I am excited to go through the whole process and be there for my wife and child. Love to hear from those of you with similar stories and have any advice or tales of your own.