Week 2: A House Divided

Sunday, October 19th, 2014

This was a big week for Grant.  First off, I want to update everyone on Grant's weight gain.  This Friday he had another appointment and he was back up to 8 pounds, 2 ounces, which is 1 ounce less than his birth weight, which is right on schedule!

On Thursday we went apple picking on Carter's Mountain with Nunu and Big Papi.  It was a lot of fun, plus Katie was able to try out the Ergo Baby, which worked great.  It has great views of Charlottesville and the Shenandoah Valley, and we were able to get a few good pictures.

On Wednesday he had a newborn photo session with the professional photographer, Angela McNaul.  Back before Grant was born and Katie brought up the idea of getting professional photos taken, I was a little skeptical.  I figured that because we have a really nice camera we would be able to take nice newborn photos by ourselves.  After I told Katie that, she found this picture and showed me.  I laughed and then agreed that maybe we should get a professional.

Let me tell you, it was quite the experience.  The room is kept at 85 degrees so that the newborns are comfortable while being naked, and the higher temperature also helps the newborns fall asleep easier.  The photographer prefers the newborns to be asleep, because it makes it much easier to manipulate their limbs and body position.  Angela started with Katie holding Grant...and I'm glad that she did it in that order.  Less than a minute after stripping Grant down and getting him in Katie's arms, he pooped all over Katie's shirt.  Instead of taking him off and cleaning him and Katie's shirt, Angela told Katie to continue to hold him for the pictures.  So Katie had to smile and pretend to be comfortable while holding Grant with poop all over her shirt, but out of view from the camera.  My turn was next, and I was lucky because he only peed while I was holding him.  And luckily I had him with his back toward me, so he just peed onto the floor without any getting on me.

We still don't have the pictures yet, but Angela posted a sneak peak, and we have three pictures with her watermark on them.

The last picture leads into the big event of the weekend.  The Notre Dame vs. Florida State football game.  One of the many things that I love about my wife is her passion for college football and her Seminoles.  I also love college football, and I am a huge Fighting Irish fan.  So our house was divided for this game.  But it wasn't just a normal game.  Both teams were undefeated at 6-0 coming into the game, with Notre Dame ranked #5 and Florida State ranked #2, and Florida State the defending National Champions on a 22-game winning streak.  So yeah, it was a BIG game.

Weeks ago we were looking forward to this game and trying to decide what he would be dressed in:  ND or FSU clothes.  So Grammy decided to make two onesies, each of which had both teams' logos on them.  They were not exactly equal onesies, though.  One of them had a big ND logo on the front, and two small FSU logos attached to the big ND.  The other onesie had an FSU tie stitched on the front, and a shamrock with the ND logo on the butt of the onesie, almost like he was pooping on ND.  Katie and I each prefered the onesies with our respective teams more dominant.  So we decided that he would wear one for the first half of the game, and the other for the second half.  And of course we decided which one was first with a coin flip.  Since FSU was the home team, I was given the choice of heads or tails as the visiting team.  I won the coin toss and deferred to the second half.  So Grant wore the FSU dominant onesie during the first half of the game, and the ND dominant onesie during the second half.

The game did not disappoint.  It was the most watched college football game of the year, and the game literally went down to the wire, with the outcome of the game not decided until the final play.  Unfortunately for me, Florida State won the game 31-27.  The game also ended on a controversial call on the last play that had me jumping out of my seat in joy to plopping me back down in stunned disbelief.  If this had happened in the past I might have cursed or yelled or stormed out of the room.  But I have a kid now and I need to set a good example, so I sat silently in the chair for a few minutes.  I eventually got up and went over to pick up Grant, which actually took some of the sting off of the loss.  I picked him up and said to him, "Grant, I am so sorry that you had to see that at such a young age."  He experienced his first Notre Dame heartbreak before he was two weeks old, and he will experience many more throughout his life.  It is what ND fans do.

Well now that the game is over, Katie and I can both go back to rooting for each other's teams.  However, there is a small possibility that they could meet again in the first ever College Football Playoffs later this year, and if that does happen, I cannot imagine how intense our house will be!