That's a pretty dodgy title, I know, n im sry 4 dgnr8n n2 txt 4m. But rehashing "Jessica's Sweet 1/6th" as "Jessica's Sweet 0.66666666666667th" didn't really work either.
Anyway, today is indeed another special one because...(drumroll please)...Jessica is 8 months old tonight!! She's currently celebrating (celebr-8-ing?) that milestone in a most subdued and solitary manner: she retired to bed about 30 minutes ago. Yes, it's a disappointing social performance on Jessica's part, especially considering her past form as quite the late-night socialite: at 6 months she could stay up partying until at least 11pm; at 4months she was often up until 1 A.M.; and from birth to 2 months she would routinely be up with us until 4 in the morning! A sad deterioration, but I guess that's the trouble with getting older. At 8 months, Jessica is doing beautifully. She is really vocal now, and will sing/scream/yodel/cluck/giggle away very excitedly for ages. She has a little monkey-piano plaything (one of a growing number) that plays a jamaican-inspired version of 'heads and shoulders, knees and toes" (complete with steel drum) over and over and over. It lets you add extra riffs of guitar by sliding the little guitar lever, or add a jazzy piano if you smash the little piano keys, and Jessica just loooooves bashing away and singing very very loudly over the top of it all:- Jamaican music centre with possessed circus-monkey perched atop it (did I mention a little monkey spins around and kicks in time with the music?): $26
- Nutritious but high-energy meal of apple, pear & avocado: $1
- Witnessing 8 month old, fructose-fuelled, popstar bashing away at the keys and guitar while screaming a very enthusiastic melody and shrieking at the rude monkey when he turns his back to her for a second: Priceless.
I could go on and on about how much she has changed in the last month or so, but I won't. Suffice to say she is just wonderful, and becoming a little more so each day.
In fact, as it is Fathers Day here tomorrow, Jessica (with some help from Mel I think) painted me a Fathers Day card. It's on our new fridge at the moment (the last fridge became an oven last week after at least 15 years of faithful, rusty service) but I will go and take a snapshot and try to post it (the snapshot - not the fridge) tonight.
Come to think of it, with all my jabbing about how well Jessica is doing generally, I neglected to say that she has actually been terribly sick this week. We all have, actually, but it's been heartbreaking to see Jessica crying and exhausted and unable to breath freely and therefore unable to drink properly and therefore unable to sleep and therefore exhausted and...etcetera. She is definitely getting much better, as am I (I had to have yesterday off work), but Mel has either fought it off well or is yet to get the full brunt of it. Hopefully, and quite probably, it's the former: she's a tough little cookie that wife o'mine! We inherited this bug from a family visit last Saturday, and I apologise profusely to anyone we may have unwittingly given it to this week. If it makes you feel better, you can smack me in the face when you next see me: I think that really does help sometimes.
Well, since we don't have Jessica up with us to have a 2/3 birthday party, and I need to mark the 8 month occasion in some way, heres some useless trivia involving the number 8 (it's only from wikipedia, though, so don't go quoting any of it in a school assignment).
- it's the number of legs on an arachnid
- It's the atomic number of oxygen
- it's the number of teams in the AFL finals series
- it's the most significant ball in snooker
- it's figure represents infinity, when shown horizontally
- it's the number of pawns, per side, in a game of chess
- it is (or at least, was) represented in slang terms as "one fat lady"
- October was originally the eighth month of the Roman calendar
- it represents "T", "U" and "V" on most phone handsets, but "B" and "N" on a BlackBerry handset
- it's the number of notes in an octave, the number of sides in an octagon, the number of faces on an octahedron, the number of days of Hannukah, and the number of children in an octuplet (and the first, recorded octuplets to have survived are apparently the Louis-Chukwu Octuplets, born in 199?....yes...8).
- there are 8 fluid ounces in a cup, 8 pints in a gallon, 8 tablespoons in a gill, 8 bits in a byte, 8 vegetables in V8, 8 apparitions in "Macbeth", 8 pinches in a teaspoon, and 8 furlongs in a mile
Did you remember all that? There will be a test.
it's now getting late, and much like Jessica, I'm becoming a bit of a piker. I'm afraid that'll have to do for tonight, and the posting of Jessica's Father's Day finger painting will have to wait until tomorrow (which is, after all, Father's Day). As much as it's a nice idea, Father's Day seems to me to be the most redundant 'day' of all: an unnecessary garnish atop an already extraordinary feast. Eleven and a half years ago I was given the most wonderful partner in Melissa, and just eight months ago we were heaped with the extraordinary blessing of Jessica. I have the privelege of sharing everyday with these beautiful people, and I know that I am blessed and loved. What need do I have for Father's Day?
Still, as quickly as I've written this, I realise that my situation is probably quite uncommon, and that many Fathers and their Children will have long ago drifted apart. It's pretty selfish of me to dismiss Father's Day so flippantly, just because I happen to have a wonderful family around me every day. I simply can't imagine what it would be like to be cut-off from Jessica or Mel, or God-forbid, both. To the fathers for whom estrangement is a source of anxiety, regret and longing, I pray you'll have a suprisingly wonderful Fathers Day this year.
Goodnight.
Matt
