A good headline in search of a story and not really finding it. Sorry.
Fathers Al Larkin and Bill O’Connell, Roman Catholic priests, stopped this evening for a visit. They’re heading north to Washington at a slow but steady pace and Salem happened to be one of the stopping points. Father Al was the priest at Erin’s parish in Los Altos when she was growing up, so it was a great opportunity for them to see one another and for us to introduce Jonah.
The Fathers are well-travelled. Much of our dinner time discussion at the Amadeus Cafe focused on the various trips we’ve all taken, but it was their tales of Italy that sparked my imagination. I was in Rome only briefly back in the summer of 1990, and I could stand to see more of what the country has to offer. I thinking the next time we go to Europe, we may do a France/Italy trip. That’s gotta be years away seeing as how our oldest is not quite seven weeks, but the Fathers’ stories reignited my interest, that’s for sure. Many thanks to both of them for making us a stop on the journey.
Jonah was fairly good during dinner and took to the bottle reasonably well. I should backtrack and say that Erin started using the Medula breastpump yesterday which it why we were able to use the bottle this evening and which is what enabled us to drop Jonah off at my parents and go see The Matrix Reloaded yesterday. I tried serving him up some bottled breastmilk earlier today, and it proved not to be an easy task, mainly because I have no idea what I’m doing. I figured you just shove the bottle in his mouth and let him go at it. That seems to have been in large measure correct since he ended up draining that bottle (and was very unhappy when no more was forthcoming—Erin was out shopping). But I think the first run-through felt a little awkward for both him and me.
By dinner time, maybe I’d gotten the hang of it or he had or we both had. Whatever the case may be, he fed fine, and initially at least it doesn’t appear to matter to Jonah whether he’s fed by bottle or breast. This is a relief, because Erin starts classes at Western in a couple of weeks and unless Jonah and I are going with her every day, he’s going to have to be bottle fed at least once or twice a day.
One other item of note: Jonah slept 8 hours last night, allowing us to do the same. Perhaps a fluke, perhaps not. We’ll see how it goes tonight. Oh it would be a heavenly thing….