Originally my son, Victor, was supposed to be born on January 11, 2010… which, to me, would’ve been awesome. I had plans to call him Binary, at least as a middle name.
But December 12, 2009 is cool too. I guess… as long as he’s healthy, and all that crap. Binary would have been an awesome middle name. Just saying. So… today, not yesterday, is his birthday.
And Victor is a month old.
My son and I have been spending a lot of time together since I started recovering from a prolonged cold / flu. My girlfriend and I live in an apartment building, but in different apartments. So most evenings I borrow Victor for a few hours and we watch movies, listen to music and power nap.
…I’ll also spend a few nights a week with her four-year old son so my girlfriend and Victor can have some decent nap time together. Her oldest son and I will go shatter chunks of ice in the Church parking lot, or roll down snow hills. He’s pretty good at both.
So far Victor and I have watched ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Empire Strikes Back’ — as far as he’s concerned that’s the series. If he wants to watch the other four he can do it when he’s older. I figure, when a kid is this young, they should believe everything about the Universe is Good, so I’m trying to keep the Crap to a minimum for now.
We also saw ‘Bullitt’, with Steve McQueen, and ‘The French Connection’, with Gene Hackman. They’re two of the greatest car chases ever put on film. I’m trying to have theme nights.
We discuss them afterwards… he mostly waves his arms around, but he’s getting the hang of verbal communication. For the past few nights he’s been very vocal, lots of gurgles, sighs and squeaks. Victor’s been very quiet until now, so it’s fun watching him amuse himself with his own voice.
He’s smiling a lot recently as well. And laughing. And he’s definitely dreaming. During his first week I’d watch him move with his dream, and wonder what he could possibly have to dream about. But now I figure they all have to do with giant boobs and reactions to milk / no-milk situations.
He really gets into his dreams. His eyes practically vibrate behind his eyelids, his hands ball up into fists, and every once in a while he’ll be really quiet then suddenly his arms will spring apart… it’s like he’s saying “okay, okay, whoa… stop… wait a minute… where’d the boob go?”.
Unfortunately, Victor’s mom has horrible taste in music, so when Victor’s with his mom he’s listening to Rihanna, Beyoncé and Pitbull. I finally had to make her a deal, so now every time she plays her Pitbull CD she has to play Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Complete Greatest Hits”.
I’ve expanded our deal to include “The Best of John Lee Hooker 1965-1974”. My girlfriend is adamant about not playing Rancid in her apartment, and she’s not fan of Led Zeppelin… it’s a good thing she didn’t tell me about this before she got pregnant.
So I’ve made a Little Victor playlist, for when he’s here. It’s a work in progress, but so far there’s Fleetwood Mac; Tragically Hip; Massive Attack; Bruce Springsteen; M.I.A; Bob Marley; Led Zeppelin; Big Country; Cat Stevens; Rancid; Johnny Cash; Daniel Lanois; Elvis; Tom Waits; Jay-Z; The Knux; Paul McCartney & Wings; Kris Kristofferson, and; Miles Davis.
…I think there’s a possibility here I’m making him too cool.
I’m still pretty new at this, so I’m not even sure if one month is a birthday we’re supposed to be celebrating… but I think, technically, we’re all just making stuff up as we go along anyway. So…
Happy Birthday little Victor.
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...salted lithium. 
YAY! A month!
Congrats Victor!
He’s very cute 😀
Fun times. My daughter and I discovered (at someone else’s house) that “Waiting Room” by Fugazi would soothe her to sleep, or at least a happy calm. Still works and she’s three and a half now. She also loves the Slits and Television. I would play random songs until I got a happy response from her, then mine in that direction til we hit a wall, then try random songs again. This was how I found that jazz, math rock, and Johnny Cash didn’t meet with her approval when she was still to young to sit up. Also, she would have a meltdown if the person holding her bounced out of time to the bass part. It’s weird knowing yr kid is cooler than you are, but it’s good weird.
…and for his birthday we got him a circumcision.
I forgot it was scheduled for today. My girlfriend felt it was important, but it isn’t. The health benefits are generally overstated and absolutely marginal. I was most concerned about the pain issue, both during and after the procedure. But after the pain killers were injected Victor just stared into the distance, and he hasn’t been crying any more than usual since the procedure.
If it had been up to me Victor would still be whole. But I couldn’t think of a decent reason to stop it from happening… happy birthday, buddy.
Aww he is such a cutie pie. Happy birthday Victor.
To Gabriel RE:circumcision
I think you should do an Bar Mitzvah-Bar Barakah type of celebration-party to compensate him for the loss, age 13 , and announce publicly hes officially a man, so he doesn’t feel he got a bad deal.
Happy birthday cutie 🙂
That kind of sucks as a birthday present, but maybe his 2-month gift will be better. Happy 4 weeks Victor & Gabriel
Cute stuff! Bit of a drag about the circumcision. But as far as the music is concerned, keep fighting the good fight!
Before age 1 I think all monthly birthdays are milestones, actually so much growth and learning happens monthly the first 12 months, it’s going to be noticed by you. Many behaviors and abilities are almost clockwork the first 12 months. I sound pretty boring here don’t I? lol
I loved watching babies grow up, learning to talk and walk and all of that. It will be fun to read all of the milestones and birthdays here.
Bummer about the circumcision, I had 3 daughters so never had to lament about that, and always worried about boys and the pain, good to know he made it through his first trauma!
After watching that video I couldn’t help but think of the diaper you had to change. 😉 Victor is a beauty!
happy happy birthday victor!