My gosh. It’s way past my bedtime, but before I can sleep I have to tell you about the coolest thing that just happened: I just played with my son for the first time.

Okay, so maybe Daniel’s reactions were motivated more by grumpiness than by a playful spirit, but either way we interacted through Mama’s side!

We noticed during the ultrasound procedure at 19 weeks that he kept pushing and shoving at the probe, and by the end of it he was kicking and flailing in obvious disgust at his mistreatment. We felt so sorry for him. Of course, ever since that visit I’ve been hoping to get him to react to me the same way. I’ve literally been trying to provoke my child to anger, but without much luck.

Well, a few minutes ago Mama and I located some baby hands in a certain area of her tummy, and when I started pushing on them he pushed back! And not just once, either! I kept moving my hand up and down from that spot, and he kept moving his hands to press back. At one point I think I was pushing on his face, and that earned me a heartier response.

I’ve said it to Mama lots of times, but every time I see her belly recoil from one of his super-duper roundhouse kicks I know with growing certainty that Daniel’s going to be an energetic little squirt. I’ve just now started slowly getting back into shape, and even though it’s going to be a long process for me I know it’s one that will be well worth it. I just can’t wait to play with the little guy for real.

Mama and I have pretty much finished up the gift registries for Daniel, so we’re ready for you to buy us stuff.

Just kidding. But seriously, if you look at them you’ll notice a lack of something in particular: toys. When Mama and I went to scope them out at the store, we were shocked to discover that not a one of them was made in this country.

At this point in time, a small-to-medium percentage of Chinese imports are simply unsafe, and we ask that you not buy anything from China that can’t be washed and detoxified. We have pretty high confidence that everything on the wish list–Chinese or otherwise–can be rinsed or aired out well enough, but we simply don’t have the same confidence in those toys and other things that will spend a lot of time in the little guy’s mouth. Most of them are probably fine, but we won’t risk his safety and so we decided not to accept toys made in countries where human rights are largely ignored. 

We have no intention of depriving Daniel of his fun, but we’ve decided to buy only high quality toys for him. Thanks so much for your understanding.

– Papa

This is my healthy boy in utero at 19 weeks. His name is Daniel Evan, and if all goes as currently expected he should be here on May 7, 2008.

His blog is extremely late in coming, I know, but there were lots of things to take care of before we could start posting pictures of him here.

Also, I do realize that this is a mighty skimpy introductory post, but I’ve actually added a few entries on my alter-ego’s blog (in which I refer to him as Carter Mills). You can read those here.