Chris Penningroth’s Weltanschauung

     Little DJ may nearly be what my friends call a "Sucker Baby."  He’s pretty easy to care for.  He sleeps 6-7 hours per night most of the time.  The only drawback is that he gets fussy from 7-11 PM, so it’s tough for us to get to sleep on time during the week.  Luckily he lets us sleep in on the weekends. 

     During his fussy times, I’ve found one of the best ways to calm him down is to simply march in circles around the dining room table while cradling him in my arms.  He seems to enjoy the festival of lights from the kitchen, the dining room, the living room, and outdoors as they briefly come into and out of view.  The other standard techniques of putting him in a car seat and driving, or taking him for a walk with the stroller also work nicely.  But when I march him around the table I can quickly put him back to bed, or at least watch (parts of) the news, listen to a CD, or just chat with Christina while she cooks or cleans. 

     I just hope my table doesn’t collapse on the seventh day! If seven priests with rams horns show up, I’ll stop marching, and hope that the resultant baby wailing doesn’t finish it off!

     The primary thing that made today a lousy one:  I had just finished my sortie and was getting ready to deal with other happenstances when I got paged to go to the Ops Desk.  Corey, the Samurai’s Aviation Resource Management Journeyman extraordinaire handed me the phone and said "It’s your Mom." 

     I think I said something to the effect "You mean ‘My wife,’ right?"

     "No, it’s really your Mom," he replied.

     Thinking this had to be some sort of joke, I took the handset and answered "Major Penningroth." 

     It really was my Mom.  She had called to let me know Grandma Penningroth had just passed away.

     So as I was heading earthward from the heavens from my sortie this morning, her soul passed by.  I’m sure she blew me a kiss.  That was what she did. 

     Perhaps I should say "Landing of the Stork."  Christina and I just welcomed a healthy baby boy into the family. 

     Mother and son are doing splendidly! Christina spent 2 hours, 19 minutes in labor.  This was our first kid, and since I figured she was going to be in labor for a good long time, I suggested she take the epidural.  She elected to go with no drugs.  I’m pretty proud of her!

     Immediately following the birth, I started trying to teach the kid Faraday’s Law, but then I realized I forgot it after the physics final back in 1989.  I settled with reciting the equation for general relativity.  The nurses then suggested I try a lullaby.  I don’t know what’s more sleep-inducing, the barely-remembered songs of my infancy, or the partially-remembered nuclear physics from college.  Either way I went, he fell asleep pretty quickly. 

     I’d best start teaching him how to play football.

     . . . That would be NFL football, the other game is called soccer, no matter what my European wife says!

    As I mentioned before, my wife and I are finally living together.  Happily for me, she seems to enjoy cooking.  I personally don’t understand how anyone can get any enjoyment out of the act of cooking, but I do understand how to enjoy home-cooked meals! Needless to say, I think I’m getting the better end of this deal!

    The only idiosynchracy I’ve noticed and had to adjust to is her habit of leaving the caps off of pens.  Her left side of the road driving is coming along nicely, and she’s adjusting well to military life. 

    I’m really enjoying this husband-wife thing!