We're all home now and Gideon is adjusting well.

My day started at about seven thirty this morning when I woke up with Isaiah sleeping next to me. I shook him and asked him if he was about ready to wake up. He replied with a very groggy "about..." so I got up and took a shower. When I got out I tried to wake him semi-successfully. He woke up cranky and was squawking and griping all the time I was getting dressed and hassled and fussed while I got him dressed.

He was happy by the time we got to the hospital at about eight twenty, though. He had preschool this morning and the plan was for Isaiah and I to stop by and visit Ruth and Isaiah and then have breakfast in the hospital cafeteria.

After a hugs and kisses all around, Isaiah and I headed down to the cafeteria. All he wanted for breakfast was cantaloupe and apple juice. Unfortunately there was no cantaloupe available so he had an apple and apple juice. I, on the other hand, had a plate of bacon and sausage. For cafeteria bacon, what I had was tremendously good which was nice cause it balanced out the tremendously bad sausage. Isaiah wanted his apple cut up so I sliced four big hunks off it for him and as we left the cafeteria he was munching on one and I was carrying another for him to finish on the way to preschool.

After I'd dropped him off I came back home and went to work making the place look a little like the kind of environment Ruth would want to come home to. I put Led Zepplin in the stereo, cranked it on up and worked myself into a flying frenzy of flash stashing. I say 'stashing' because about half of what I did consisted of finding someplace to put boxes, piles of papers, laundry baskets, etc. The other half was vacuuming, putting Isaiah's toys away and some actual real cleaning, though not much. Such a task is all about the angles. I'd stand in the entry way and look around- see what could I see from that angle and if there was anything that didn't belong I'd find a place for it that wasn't visible. I knew I didn't have enough time to do a real job and not even enough time to create the illusion in anymore than the dining room, family room, and living room. I was pretty impressed with what I accomplished in an hour and forty minutes, but I'd worked up a sweat and had to cool off under the ceiling fan in our bedroom before I changed my shirt.

When I showed up back at the hospital, Ruth and Gideon were doing fine. He's adjusted very quickly to extra-wombal life. He doesn't cry very much and when he does he's easily comforted. Ruth had the good idea to turn off most of the lights in the room and when we did, Gideon started opening his eyes more. He'd peeped at me a bit before, but it wasn't till this afternoon that he took a good look at me. Right now his vision is probably about as good as mine without my glasses which means it's great for distances up to about six inches and after that- forget it. When I held him very close, though, he did seem to be studying me. I guess I made the cut cause he kept looking and didn't start crying.

Isaiah's preschool gets out at two thirty and we were borrowing Ruth's folks car to take Gideon home so that Ruth wouldn't have to try to climb up into the van so I went back home at about two fifteen to put Gideon's carrier base in Nanie's car and then go get Isaiah. He'd said he wanted to help us bring the baby home. When I got to preschool it seemed like he wanted to stay and play a while (Ruth says he usually does) till I told him it was time to go take Gideon home.

He asked my what the white thing next to his car seat was and I told him it was the base for Gideon's car seat and that his carrier snapped into the base just like a module. Isaiah knows all about modules. He's been able to say "lunar excursion module" since he was three and a half. He knows exactly what the phrase means, too. "A module," he said, "Cool!"

When we got to the hospital Ruth and the baby were almost ready to go. Isaiah wanted to go to the cafeteria for another snack and though I initially balked, I relented when I realized it wasn't worth him throwing a fit. Normally I'd not give in to such tactics, but under the circumstances I've been trying to be extra patient and lenient with him and Ruth wasn't quite ready to go anyway. Our trip all the way across the hospital was a waste of time, though. The cafeteria was closed. Luckily there was about half a big bag of Doritos left from the supper of Subway Isaiah and I got to have last night and that was acceptable to him.

Soon all the paperwork was done and it was time for us to go. I hauled all the stuff out to the car and then after taking a picture of Gideon on the bed in the same outfit we'd taken a picture of Isaiah wearing as he lay on the hospital bed just before departure when he was born, we all went out and with a modular snap of Gideon's carrier, we got in the car and drove home.

Kroger, our dog, was thrilled to meet Gideon. I think she vaguely remembers Isaiah when he was that age. She used to lay on the couch and sigh in frustration when he wouldn't stop crying. We have a much bigger house now, so when Gideon starts wailing she can find a quiet room to take care of her serious business of idling in. Nijal, the cat, was typically uninterested in the boy. She paused to sniff in his general direction and then moved on along to her destination in the other room.

We had the kind of evening that isn't very interesting to write about. We just sat around being happy and holding the baby. Isaiah is doing very well adjusting. He did a pretty good job of being quiet tonight and though the family room is thoroughly strewn with his toys, there are none out of place in the family room.

Now it's time to go upstairs and put Gideon to bed in his bassinet for the first time.