Don't Forget To Breathe: Keeping Up With Lily, Part 2

Once again, things have progressed with Lily faster than I've been able to blog. I am normally a world champion procrastinator, but even at my most diligent I'm having a hard time keeping up. They took Lily's feeding tube out a few days ago because it was irritating her breathing. Preemies are often nose breathers, and Lily was quite sniffly. The plan was to put it back in when she needed it, but she has taken all her feeds by bottle since then. I know I have described her as a rock star in the past, but she has gone from driving to gigs in a mini van and playing in smokey bars where you can hear the crowd over the music to flying in a private jet and playing to sold out audiences in stadiums that have been specially built to accommodate her massive crowds. She's just not wearing the leather pants yet.

Amanda and I are furiously getting the house ready, crossing our T's and dotting our eyes, I mean "I's." We are crawling out of our skin in anticipation of bringing Lily home, and see the light at the end of the tunnel. God, I hope that's not a train!

Also, I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to post this yet, but Lily was thrilled with the election results. We watched the coverage in the room with her on my laptop, and it was so amazing to be with my wife and newborn child to see the color barrier finally broken in this country. When I grew up, we were told we could be and do whatever we wanted; when Lily grows up those words will have meaning. When I grew up we were told all men are created equal; when Lily grows up those words will have meaning. I know we still have a long, long way to go in this country to erase racism, sexism, nationalism, and intolerance of so many different kinds it makes the head spin, but to think of how different a world Lily will grow up in than the one I started out in a mere two years before the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy can't help but to instill a sense of hope that I haven't felt for a long time. I always tell Lily, treat the universe well, and the universe will treat you well. I sure hope that's true.

Don't Forget To Breathe