The FTF is Back....

The FTF is Back…

Pop quiz time, kids.

The FTF has been missing from the blogosphere because:

1. He was abducted by aliens and suffered a series of physical indignities that cannot be recounted on a family blog.
   
2. He joined the Peace Corps and has been performing emergency appendectomies on the good people of Tuvalu, who, for some reason, have genetically weak appendixes.
   
3. He put his money where his mouth is and moved to Virginia for two months to go door-to-door for Barack Obama.
   
4. He’s a lazy doofus who simply can’t be trusted with the responsibility of a blog.
   

If you guessed anything other than 4, well, then, you’re not too bright. Like all of you, I have been busy the past couple of months, but that’s no excuse. I’ve neglected the sacred blogging duty entrusted to me by me, and for that I am contrite.

So, what’s been going on in the world of the FTF for the last 45 days? Here’s a summary of what you’ve missed:

• The FTM and I took the FTS on his first vacation, to Lake Champlain. He slept in the car all the way up, spent three days being passed around (from one eager aunt to the next) like a joint at a Grateful Dead show, and slept all the way back. All in all, a great trip.
  
  
• The very next day, the FTS started daycare full time. A few minor bumps along the way, but it’s been a mostly positive experience…Except, of course, for this week’s battle with conjunctivitis. (The name of which sounds more like a chronic inability to link words and phrases than a gooey eye condition, which is precisely what it is.)
  
  
• I had my first post-daycare business trip, and the instant I left the FTM took sick – 103 degree fever – while she was the sole caregiver for the FTS. My sister (the FTA) came over to help, but I still felt like a rat for being away.
  
  
• 
  The FTF won a “Post of the Day” Award from Rising Blogger. Hey, thanks, Rising Blogger, and thanks Always Home & Uncool for nominating me! Now I need to pay it forward and nominate one of my favorite blogs….Hmmm…. I have to think on that one for a day or two.
  

Milestones in these 45 days include much stronger neck muscles; an interest in and (almost) ability to hold and use the pacifier on his own; a steady stream of drool and grunting, signifying, we think, early onset teething; rolling over, sometimes…when he feels like it; a bigger, longer body; and even more I just can’t remember right now. (It’s 4 a.m…. The boy often now sleeps better than his dad.)

Of course, all of this has been taking place against the backdrop of an increasingly alarming presidential race (when did John McCain become such a creep? I used to kind of like him, even if I didn’t agree with his policies); an economy in complete free fall; and the most frustrating and heart-wrenching end to a baseball season since…well…last year. (But it ain’t over yet.) With the world seeming like it's imploding, how can I worry about things like Pink Eye?

This is how: Life goes on. It’s still the little things – the Pink Eye, the teething, the FTS’s seemingly ceaseless ability to smile and laugh, the daily visual improvement in motor skills – that make all the difference. The rest of it matters, but not nearly as much. It’s window dressing.

(That said, before I go, here’s a piece of window dressing you might enjoy. A friend and I conceived and wrote this anti-Palin ad, and I slapped it together.)