Freeloading Phill and ...

Hulk - The Early Weeks

When one began composing this post it was rather naively entitles - Hulk, the Early Days.

Well since then the piecemeal nature at which one was able to add ones brilliant thoughts to the draft had made me believe that I was looking at having to re title it as - Hulk. Year One. While one would surely have enjoyed basking in the kudos this would have brought from such graphical story telling literati as Zombie Monkey and The Real Greg Dean, it has eventuated that my deadline has stretched out to mere weeks.

In any case many are the things that have occurred during the early days weeks of the time of Hulk.

One has been head down in reading materials wide and sundry - finishing long bookmark-laden tomes and making visible progress on one's to-be-read stacks, various. In fact all but the nigh insurmountable penultimate Wheel of Tedium volume have fallen beneath the scythe of my reading gaze.

One has had occasion to watch many a late night movie and has begun filling in may of the glaring holes in ones experience of the past few decades cinema. For example one now knows that Tom Hanks gets off the island.

One has even managed to make some small steps of progress in ones gaming projects in a way that may even make Fantomas believe that they could become real when one next attends the Tuesday Knights.

One has had several meetings in passing with Salsa Girl and even shared several meals.

Of course there has been some time spent with young Hulk. Why we've had special daddy-daughter time watching the mighty pies (and another team that looks similar but seems to have lost the mighty bit).
Hulk unable to bear the skill errors.
We also tried our hand at bonding over some solo gaming - managing to see off those pesky Persians at Thermopylae and winning the Battle of the Five Armies for the Orcs.

There have been visit from relatives various, a handful of friends, and late night hallucinations of the interesting kind.

As predicted by FridgePower one has been able to indulge in the ancient art of poo smearing - although much of the training I undertook cleaning up after The Tiger has gone to waste as there has been a suspicious lack of any positing (the nice word for baby vomiting) particularly of the furball kind.

In amongst all this Legion2 and the BrotherStealer have seen fit to try and steal my hard-earned spotlight by delivering their second a full six weeks early. One can only be glad that Freeloading Mum and Handy Dad have been away all this time so there would be no unseemly squabbling for the favour that is rightfully mine.

In any case this disjointed report has brought you up to date with the trials and tribulations we have been undergoing for the past few days weeks.

It only gets easier from here they tell me.

And then they snigger.
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Hulk's Grand Entrance

So things have finally settled down a bit and I can do my duty by you all - my patient readers.

Word may have gotten about in the rumoresque sense that Hulk has finally made good her appearance in the flesh and right into the middle of Salsa Girl and my world, putting a rather abrupt end to my laid-back paternity leave holiday time.

It was an eventful event full of eventualities so sit back and listen carefully as I regale you with the tale of Hulk's Grand Entrance.


Our story begins in the early hours of Thursday past when my beloved Salsa Girl was awakened by the gentle actions of her body vigorously preparing itself for what was to come later that day. Naturally we thought little of it having been in a state of disbelief about the whole pregnancy thing for several weeks by that stage. Still, to humour everyone, we went for our regular scheduled hospital appointment and cafeteria lunch in the early afternoon. Even then as we tried to play along midwives various told us it was nothing, could stop any moment, and that we should head home and let them know if anything interesting develops.

Well.

Once we were home it did become quite interesting in short order. So interesting that one even forgot to partake of the evening meal which is an essential meal on account of, well,  being a meal.

Anyway, eventually one's expert supportiveness was no longer enough so we made the decision to head into the Family Birth Centre for the professional supportiveness on offer at that most excellent venue - not to mention the free meals and other assorted bonuses like double beds for partner rest, couches for partner rest, and shower facilities for partner use.

After much fiddle-fallying we managed to make the move and had ourselves installed in our assigned room shortly before midnight. It wasn't long before Salsa Girl decided to avail herself of the amenities by taking a dip in the pool and then retiring to our room's private bathroom for a nice hot shower.

It wasn't very much longer after that that Hulk burst onto the scene.

There followed a blurred several hours of follow-up activity including much cuddling and bonding with the newly emerged Hulk. We were so stunned that we took some time to come up with the moniker with which to dub her and, worse by far, almost forgot to partake of breakfast!

Here's a Caution for you all: if you take a lazy, It'll come to us, approach to naming your progeny you may find that said child can go almost a whole day without any nomenclature other than Baby of Salsa Girl. A terrible situation, I'm sure you'll agree as it in no way reflects one's input into the whole process.


After the usual couple of days enjoying the room service and other facilities, visits from family, and just generally letting it all sink in, we made the short journey home to get little Hulk slotted into the smooth running of our flat.


As the passing days (it may be weeks now, one has somewhat lost track) have since proven it appears that Hulk is the one making the flat slot in around herself. Why, even The Tiger has conceded defeat and relocated to the depths of the study - although i a show of defiance she is using the change table as a sleeping platform.


Family have made quite a few welcome visits and we are muddling our way through even though one's Googling has failed to find the instruction manual.


Oh. Hark! Duty calls once more with it's dulcet ear-splitting tones so I'll post this and get back to you when I once again attain some free time...
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