In Like Quinn

The past month has been just awesome! Best ever, that would not be a stretch. I've been home constantly with the family, and I count my blessings that I'm able to do that. We've watched Quinn grow steadily into a solid young lad of easily ten pounds now. He's taken on a typical baby shape with round cheeks and flailing, strong limbs. He sleeps soundly for about two hours at a time (made it past three hours last night for the first time), and when he's up, he wants to be held. If we put him down, it's only a short time before he's calling for us again. Music to our ears! Baby cries means baby wants and needs us.

Most nights involve me on diaper duty and Bethy manning the feeding station. Sometimes in bed, sometimes she gets up to sit in an armchair. The diaper loads are nothing difficult yet, cleanup is easy. Bethany treated me on my birthday to a whole night's sleep, uninterrupted, which came out to about seven hours. That's the last time either of us slept even half that time!

We're both starting to talk of a limited return to work, though there's no hurry at all. When the time comes, it will be an adjustment to be away and to be home alone with Quinn. Direct contact with both parents is vital in these early weeks, so both of us being around constantly has been invaluable. We'd like it to continue forever, but y'know...

We had the pleasure of introducing Gramma Dodie and Grampa Jim to their first great-grandchild this past week. They were delighted to hold the boy, and to share memories of their own babies with us. In keeping with the theme lately, it was kept to a short day visit -- overnight company is just not in the cards yet. In recent weeks we've seen parents, siblings, close friends, aunts and uncles, cousins, so lots of folks have made the trip for several hours with the new star of the family.

Action-packed Denman Island is moving steadily through the winter months, though real winter feels a long way behind us now. There's been plenty of rain, but temps are mild. Enough water to fill the well and the reserve tank, and to give the early flowers a push. We'd like to do a better job of preparing the garden this year, so that means collecting some seaweed to rot into the soil. Also some fruit tree pruning can be done anytime... anytime...

The fire department was called out to a pretty wild one last week -- a garage going up in flames near the ferry terminal to Hornby. It was the first structure fire for several of us rookies. Very exciting to hear the word over the pager! It shot down our Monday evening plans, but Bethy was a great sport and very supportive to stay home with Quinn -- turned out to be about six hours I was gone. She was supposed to jam with her band Full Circle that night, but that went poof when this garage did. It's a scenario we knew was coming, and it must have been hard for Bethany to stay behind while I sped off to have all the fun. After all, she joined the department the same as I did, and she was well on her way to becoming an excellent firefighter -- she's got all the tools. But, as she puts it, if only one of us can go, it can't be the one with the boobs. I owe her big time for this one!

The call was made right away to take a defensive approach -- there was no saving the structure or anything inside. To make things extra exciting, the shack was littered with several dozen propane tanks, a handful of vehicles, and surely an unhealty mix of other ingredients. Every so often we would hear the POP!! of a tank letting go. Luckily, none of them blew apart at us. We took special care with the hoses to cool off what tanks we could see. My big moment came when paired up with Jeremy (fellow class of '09) to relieve one of the initial attack teams. We basically put a bunch of water on the worst of it to cool things off, used up our air and went to 'rehab' in the back of an ambulance. That means drinking lots of water, cooling down, eating some food while the paramedics monitor our vitals. When they give us the OK, it's back to work with a new bottle on our backs. Second time through, I worked with several others to wade through the debris to douse hot spots. I thought we did a good job, and that was confirmed at the regular weekly practice where the chiefs had plenty good to say about the operation. So, great to have a proper structure fire under our belts now -- and we're also glad to have some soot on our brand-new, shiny turnout gear (clean = not cool).

Bethy and I have been jamming with two other island musicians, with an aim to perform at the February open mic in a few weeks. Two, maybe three songs for now -- that's plenty to get us going. It seems likely we'll keep playing together after the show, it's sounding very nice so far. Quinn spends the jams mostly strapped to my chest, with the bass guitar leaned against him. This kid has been awash in music since conception, so he sleeps as soundly as ever with his parents rocking all around him.

Thanks for reading our update.. and keep checking back, as I plan to do some fun posts in the near future.