The Littlest Locke (how’s that for alliteration?)

Posted on September 11th, 2004 by Neal Locke

Introducing…Grady!

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A Family is Born

Posted on September 11th, 2004 by Neal Locke

The very first Locke family portrait:

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Grady Jeremiah Locke

Posted on September 11th, 2004 by Neal Locke

He was born at 12:11 pm on September 11th, 2004, after a long night and morning of labor (his mom did a great job).

He weighs 8.0 pounds. He is 20 inches long. He seems to have his father’s mouth and his mother’s nose.

He likes to be held, and is extremely vocal when not being thus accomodated.

Best of all, he’s our son. Welcome to the world, Grady Jeremiah Locke.

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Delivery Room

Posted on September 11th, 2004 by Neal Locke

We’re here. Amy just had her epideral and is dozing peacefully, for which I am grateful. It was hard to watch her endure the pain of contractions, and hers were especially brutal. I didn’t feel very useful. The nurse just informed us that her water has broken, so all seems to be progressing as planned. Looks like our son will be born on September 11th. Not sure how to feel about that yet…

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He Must Be My Son After All…

Posted on September 10th, 2004 by Neal Locke

His “due date” was two days ago, so I was beginning to think that he was his mother’s child: frequently late. But today I finally got my classroom ready for my weeklong paternity absence, graded all my ungraded papers, had “closure” with my students, and finished packing my side of the hospital bag (all but the laptop).

And Amy has now started regular contractions. They’re still 15-20 minutes apart, and far from consistent, but things are definitely underway. I don’t think she’ll need to be induced on Tuesday–in fact, I think he’ll be arriving pretty soon now.

So, I guess he was just waiting patiently and politely for me to take care of everything on my list (Amy’s been ready for awhile now), and as soon as that happened, he got busy. Now that’s perfect timing. He must be related to me…

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Thoughts on “Chrysanthemums”

Posted on September 7th, 2004 by Neal Locke

Elisa Allen, the protagonist of Steinbeck’s short story, “Chrysanthemums,” is from the beginning not quite content with her life, her marriage, her place in society. What do you think she really wants? And why is she so proud of her flowers? What do they represent?

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Labor Day, but No Labor…

Posted on September 6th, 2004 by Neal Locke

We painted his room. I assembled his crib, varnished his chest of drawers, put together his rocking chair. We plugged in the nightlight, hung all his little clothes, got all the diapers ready next to the changing table. I even put together his toys and played with them.

So where the heck is this kid??????

I think he’s decided to stay in the womb. I mean, who wouldn’t? He’s got food, shelter, warmth, and whenever he wants attention he just plays trampoline on his mother’s bladder. Yep, that must be the life…

Since Amy’s official due date isn’t until this Wednesday, I guess I could be jumping the gun a bit. I guess I just spent the past month thinking, “I’m not ready, I have to finish…” but now that I’m finally ready (I even vacuumed the entire house yesterday) impatience kicks in. Waiting has never been my strong suit.

In other news, two of my favorite students have joined the blogosphere: One is Ana, who graduated from Sunset in 2003 and currently attends Brigham Young University in Utah. The other is Francis, who was the editor-in-chief of last year’s Bison Bits and (for the record third year in a row) is a student in my Creative Writing class. Drop by, say hello, and leave them plenty of comments to make them feel welcome in this crazy blogging community of ours.

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