Sleeping Like a Baby

Nathan Asleep on the Sofa

After my last post was published, I learned from my email reader timezone definition that the official name for the zone here is now Romance Daylight Time which sounds particularly apt for Paris in the spring. I’ve moved back to PINE for email, one of the first mail readers I ever used back in 1993 is still available and going strong. Better still, it hasn’t changed much in look and feel. It’s still text only and efficient because everything can be controlled by keystroke combinations.

Pictured here looking a lot like I’ve felt over the last few days, Nathan took time to adjust to daylight savings time. You probably don’t want to actually sleep like a baby, by the way.

Nathan is now eating some solid (well, puréed) food and is down to four meals a day. His hair is getting lighter — much to my delight — as he’s looking more like I did when I was a baby. His latest toys are getting noisier – he has a piano toy with five keys that plays nursery rhymes and classical stuff like Pachelbel’s Canon in D and Für Elise by Beethoven. You can also play your own melodies on it, but with five keys you’re a little bit limited in scope.

Thinking about family and the little boy growing up, I wrote an article “Childcare and the Telescoping Family” for publication at Urban Semiotic. You might enjoy a trip over to that blog, whether it’s to read my piece or the other excellent posts there.

6 Comments

  1. Simon

    2/4/2006 at 8:35 pm

    Hi Paul

    Nice to see you here.

    I don’t think my days of singlehood were quite “care free”, but I suppose that they were relatively speaking.

    The new commitments in life as you get older do help change perspective on what life’s objectives are. Giving knowledge and training to others (or to your kids) becomes more and more important than your own development. That said, your development continues on a different level, as well as vicariously.

    I don’t think that once you have reached a stage in life (in a couple, engaged, married, children, etc) that you should look back with regret. Just with fond memories and positive nostalgia.

    -Fruey

  2. Cute kid. I can relate to your article. As a 26 year old winding my way down to 30, free time seems to grow less and less as the demands of work and married life eat away my days. But still, I wouldn’t trade it for the care free days of singlehood…

  3. Firstly – he’s adorable (as you know) and I love that sacked-out look of blissful, peaceful sleep. Ahhhh….

    Secondly – your article is spot on. Our world these days just doesn’t make sense!! I’m trying really hard to remember that life happens OUTSIDE of work and I just have to be here to pay the bills…sadly I have to spend 40 hours of my week here to pay the bills. I wish more significance was put on simplicity, living a life that meets your needs but not drowns in excess and finding happiness in people, relationships, walking in the woods and family than in acquiring ‘stuff.’ There’s got to be a balance out there somewhere. I’m 32 and soon to be married and hopefully soon to have kids after that and I really hope I can figure it out a little bit before then. We’ll see…..

  4. Simon

    5/4/2006 at 9:42 am

    Hi Carrster,

    Striking a balance is one of life’s main challenges!

    Thanks for the compliment on the article. It’s nice to write somewhere else and change tone a little from time to time. That strikes a balance too 😀

    -Fruey

  5. What a cutie!

    Somehow, your article at Urban Semiotic slipped right by me. I just read it now. I would have preferred to comment during the heat of the exchange, but what you wrote was very good and captured a lot about what life is like in today’s world. My compliments!

  6. Simon

    6/4/2006 at 9:46 pm

    Hi Dave,

    Thanks for catching up here! I have another post in my head which I’ll try to get typed some time soon. It should expand a bit more on “today’s world” as you aptly put it.

    -Fruey