The fear

Round 15: Days 71-75

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Narrated by Adam Gottlieb

Athena is about halfway through her pregnancy now and she's lucky she's got a chef for a husband. She's hungry pretty much all day so I'm always serving up extra food for her. I even leave stuff in the fridge for her when I go to work.


She's also been getting pretty chummy with her cousin Samson lately. He comes over to visit a lot.

He's into music too, just like Athena. So they mostly go up to her music room and jam, or whatever you want to call it. The kitchen is my domain.

Uh, maybe I'm not as much of a chef as I thought I was.

Athena had a craving for turkey and I tried to satisfy it but everything came out a bit...burnt.

Athena was nice enough to eat it anyway. I could do without Samson's smart-ass comments though. Let's taste his cooking!

Athena's getting huge, eh? Don't tell her I said that! The baby's coming soon and Athena is spending her time studying for a promotion at work.

Yes, I'm reading the newspaper. Athena told me that it might take a while for the baby to be born, so I was prepared. Yeah...she wasn't too impressed with that.

In the end, she had quite the audience around her when she gave birth -me, Samson and Dad.

And we have a son!

Wade Spencer Gottlieb was immediately bombarded with doting grandparents. Wade is Mum and Dad's fourth grandchild but they're still as excited as they would be if he was their first.

Mum is so excited that she's already started harping on Athena about when the fifth one is coming! Athena was not impressed. She got pretty sick in her first trimester with Wade and she's not in a hurry to get pregnant again.

So Mum will have to make do with Wade for a little while. He loves it when Grandma comes over and plays with him.

Then again, there doesn't seem to be a lot that he doesn't like. Even chewing his own feet seems endlessly entertaining to him.

Wade also has a bouncy chair that he sits in while Athena gets ready for work in the morning. I'm not sure what the thinking behind the bouncy chair is...

...but he usually ends up falling asleep in it.

Wade has grown out of that stage now. No, right now, I'm trying to teach him how much better it will be for everyone if he does his thing in his potty and not his diaper. It'll be better for him but it will be so, so, so much better for me!

Athena is trying to get him going with his musical education, just like her father did for her when she was little.

I'm not so sure it's working. The sounds that come from that xylophone are horrendous...

...and he usually just sits there gnawing on the stick. Musical genius he's not!

I think nature is more Wade's game. It's spring right now and whenever he's downstairs (he can't negotiate the spiral stairs on his own), he waddles outside to go chase butterflies.

Notes:

• I put some grass down in the Gottliebs' backyard. I'm so much happier with it. I didn't realise how ugly it was until I saw the difference it made.
• Right before I exited the house, I realised Athena is pregnant again! She'll be thrilled, I'm sure. Petra will be though. She had the "Have a Grandchild" want roll up as soon as Wade was born!