Barnabas Monkeypants

We are back (and I apologize for the infrequent posts during vacation, but, really people, it was vacation; what did you expect?).

I have to say that, with very few exceptions, this was a great, great week. We had a blast in Maine (oh, the lobstah), and Boston was wonderful (especially the wedding).

Henry was, as you’d expect, universally adored everywhere. As Kristen wrote in the “What We’ve Learned” post last week, we could barely walk 10 feet without a “cute baby” comment or someone taking him from us and carrying him and cooing. During the wedding weekend, someone would invariably come up to us, ask to hold Henry, and then bounce away, Henry laughing like he was watching a Three Stooges marathon.

Now he’s only 11 months old and I’m not sure how much Kristen and I have had any real influence, but people universally said how happy Henry was, how pleasant. And it’s true. He smiled constantly. When he wanted to be coy or flirt, he’d lay his head on someone’s shoulder and hug them and coo. (That’s a killer.) And if someone wanted to go crazy and play a little peek-a-boo, well, I think we all know how that ended up. (Hilarity.)

The only complaint I have is the shoddy cribs at the two hotels, meaning that Henry slept in bed with us instead of on his own. The one crib, at the ultra-swank Langham Hotel, was a bit shaky. Compared to his sturdy crib at home, this one would, with a little nudge on Henry’s part, rock to and fro. Of course, instead of sleeping he rocked the crib back and forth, so much that I was afraid it was going to collapse. So, into the bed he went.

The best part of the trip, however, wasn’t the wedding and reception (which were lovely and touching and all that good stuff) or the lobster (though that sure was tasty, especially Kristen’s BLT [the "L" being lobster, people; LOBSTER]) or all the great times with Henry. It was that I now have my wife back.

What’s that, you ask? Haven’t you always had a wife? Well, I have until the blanket came between us.

Kristen decided in April that her gift to Jodi and Kate would not be a glass bowl or a place setting or a membership to the ham of the month club (note to readers: I would certainly not mind such a gift) or even what they requested (which was nothing for them but instead a donation in their name to one of several wonderful charities). No, her gift would be a large afghan that she was planning on knitting. All by herself. And when I say large, I mean large. (When finished, it was more than 4′ x 5′!)

This was also not your standard knit-one-purl-two job. This was one with these crazed bubbles running throughout that caused more than a few curses and lines that had to be redone. And it was time consuming. For months (yes, months) after Henry was put to bed, I’d make dinner, serve it, feed it to Kristen, wipe her mouth (there may be some slight exaggeration here), do the dishes, and then fold laundry as Kristen, the wife I hardly knew, slaved away knitting.

From 7 until 10 each night she knit. On the weekends she knit. On the train, at lunch, waiting for the cable guy to show up, she knit. But you know what? It was completely worth it. The blanket came out wonderfully. All of Kristen’s hard work was more than apparent in the final product.

And frankly, neither Kristen nor I are really great at following through on projects. (There are many unfinished ones in this house.) But she did it! She worked for countless hours over months! Months!

And I couldn’t have been more proud, and I’m sure that Jodi and Kate will spend many wonderful hours curled up under the blanket watching bad TV (because that’s what married couples do).

Best of all, I now have my wife back. So this means no more cleaning, cooking, or laundering for me! I’m king of my castle again!

This entry was posted on Monday, August 3rd, 2009 at 9:10 pm and is filed under Barnabas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.