We spent our morning in Anaheim with Rob reading to Mandy and Simone from a very special and seemingly interminable book with a long history in our relationship. The book was, in fact, presented to Mandy by its author, Brandon Sanderson, whom science fiction buffs will recognize as the author who has taken over the Wheel of Time series by recently deceased sci-fi powerhouse Robert Jordan. This book, however, is the first in his own series, entitled Mistborn. Rob began reading it to Mandy, enthusiastically pronouncing the outlandish nouns characteristic of the genre, while she did dishes in order to make a tedious task less noticeable. Almost two years later, we found ourselves in the NICU, sharing our common literary odyssey with our daughter on her two-week birthday. She seemed to enjoy listening to her dad's voice while laying calmly in her mom's arms and hearing of the Skaa rebellion in the Final Empire of the violently repressive Lord Ruler.
As soon as we arrived at Irvine the nurse in charge of our son told us that the OB-Gyn was on his way to perform the circumcision. We walked over to the nursery to watch the procedure through the window. A very tall doctor approached us as we stood looking in. "Are you the anxious parents?" he asked, grasping our hands in both of his hands. He spoke with us about the reasons for performing circumcisions as well as the risks associated with it. As we watched them prepare their implements, Rob positioned himself at the far window for optimal photographic opportunity. They Velcro-ed Robert's legs to a baby-sized table, gave him an injection of some local anesthesia, put a little sugar water on his tongue and cut away his tiny foreskin (which Rob later asked to keep, to Mandy's great astonishment, as usually she is the one with strange acquisitive urges--speaking of which, does anyone have any tips on the archival preservation of foreskin?).
After it was over, we returned to the NICU and Mandy settled down for her first true breastfeeding session with Robert. He seemed to have no trouble grasping the concept and fed for about twenty minutes before tiring out. Mandy handed him to Rob for some skin to skin time while she pumped. After, we watched two videos, one about finer points of car seat safety ominously entitled "Don't Risk Your Child's Life", and the other about infant CPR featuring an inflatable mini-baby and a rather plastic instructor with impeccable personal grooming (Mandy marveled at the way her even coat of raspberry-colored lipstick did not leave any mark on the baby's inflated rubber face). It's getting late. Let's end the post here. Through all this we forgot to say HAPPY TWO WEEKS, BABIES!!!
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