Party of Five

RETRO POST: Originally posted on 9/23/2014

Not including cats (sorry Corgan and Sophie), we are now a Party of Five.  I make that reference, even though I managed to hate that show without ever watching one second of it, because Melissa, Benjamin, Alexander and I have been joined by Evelyn Rae Householder. 

She was born May 18, 2014.  She managed to be born one day before her due date.  Melissa went into labor with Alexander on her due date, but he managed to take his time and arrived past midnight into the next day.  Benjamin was a week early due to a C-section because he couldn't manage to flip around.  Figures.

But she is great.  I don't now how I'll handle the idea of her growing up and dating boys or even picking one to marry.  I might have trouble with that.  I could transition the family Puritan and relieve myself of most of that worry, but 1687 is farther and farther back as the days go by, so it's not altogether practical.  Neither is locking her in her bedroom, so I might have some adjustments to make.  The only thing I know for sure is I have a limited supply of brown hair remaining. 

Boy, Oh Boy

RETRO POST: Originally posted on 2/25/2012:

Looking over my infrequent posts, I see that I failed to mention that my fiancé Melissa and I had a child back at the start of 2011. And if I failed to write about that one, I likely failed to mention the second child that we just had last week.

Benjamin Raymond Householder (7lbs 15oz) was born at 9:02am on January 5th, 2011. He is now big brother to Alexander Richard Householder (7lbs 14oz), who joined us at 3:31am on February 19th, 2012.*

You're reading that right. They are 13 months and 14 days apart. They call them Irish twins and they are sure to be a handful.

*Benjamin was really the only boy name we even liked the first time around. We settled on that one pretty quickly as I remember. Raymond was my paternal Grandfather's name and also my middle name. The second time around we couldn't decide. We both liked Ryan and I liked Thomas and David. We went all the way to the day Melissa's water broke before settling on Alexander. It was a nice normal traditional name and we both liked it. My dad and I are both named Richard, so he got that for a middle name.

Melissa had Ben via c-section because he was a frank breech. Beyond that it's been a good first year. He only spit up once or twice and started sleeping through the night pretty quick. We were able set a sleeping and eating schedule pretty quickly and stick to it. I cross my fingers and thank my lucky stars that he's never really been sick. He's had one ear infection and a few colds, but other than those and a bad butt rash or two he's been good--health wise.

With Alex, Melissa was able to have a natural birth. Most women can't go back to natural birth after a c-section, so high-five to her. That whole scenario--from water breaking to giving birth--is pretty wild. Once her water broke (in several stages on several spots on the floor in our apartment), we headed to the hospital for the long wait. We got there around 11:00am and 16.5 hours later, Alex decided to join us.

Having two boys so close in age seems like it's going to be pretty hectic. We've seen it so far in just a few days. But it should be rewarding in the end as we raise these two little firecrackers. So I think we'll transition this blog from the drunken stupidity that it was before to discussing our growing family. And the Red Sox. Of course. And maybe the Patriots. If I can get over the Super Bowl.

Stay tuned.