Like Father Like Son

Here is one of my new favorite pictures of Riley. It gets me every time. The word is that Missy was holding Riley in her lap and said, "Riley, here is your inspiration: I want you to make a face that reflects your assessment of your daddy's intelligence level. GO!" Here is his interpretation:

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Riley is going through, let's call it, an interesting stage. He is certainly more interactive. He is starting to smile which is awesome. He makes cute sounds. He looks at us. He looks FOR us. But he also freaks. Alot. He cries to the point where he has no air left to push out and he just sits there with a red contorted face, mouth open and nothing coming out. Then he catches his breath and winds up again. The amazing thing is that these two sides of him crash together within seconds of each other. You can watch as the transformation happens. His smile melts into the face of fury in a matter of moments. And then we are in for an extended period of shushing, swaddling, swaying and the other two S's that I don't remember - I think they are Swearing and Screaming. That transformation has led me to my summarization (thus far) of parenting. It just came to me after one of his episodes:

Parenting is a minute of bliss and an hour of misery with a second of rest.

I have found parenting to be the most humbling, maddening, selfless thing I have ever done. And I am a selfish person. When I got married, I knew that I was going to give some things up. I was going to sacrifice. However even in that, I could be selfish. It was called "compromising" or "negotiating".

Ryan: Missy, can I go golfing?
Missy: Only if I can get a new purse.
Ryan: Done.

(Later that day)

Ryan: Missy, can I go fishing?
Missy: Only if I can get blonde highlights.
Ryan: See you in two hours.

It has worked beautifully for the past (almost) four years. However, with parenting, there is no negotiation. There is no compromise. There is no reasoning. You can't promise to do something in exchange for this child to stop screaming. If so, I would have promised to be a junior high cheerleading coach (my idea of the fourth stage of hell) if he would just stop crying. But it doesn't work that way. He cries. You spend hours calming him down. Then the phone rings or a car drives by or a fly runs into the window and the scream returns. Begging, pleading, cajoling, offering every penny in your bank account - it doesn't work - believe me I've tried. You just have to take it. With a calm smile on your face. Because if you don't, Mr. Hyde will emerge and you won't remember what Dr. Jekyl looked like.

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

Thank God for showers

Right up there with Columbus' finding of the New World, the discovery of penicilin and the uncovering of the Dead Sea Scrolls was our discovery of an invaluable treasure over the weekend. We learned simply by dumb luck that the sound of a running shower INSTANTANEOUSLY transforms our son from a screaming, hysterical, inconsolable wreck to a quiet angel whose face resembles the look I had every time I sat through an 8:00 am lecture in college. It looks something like this:

I'm pretty sure that half the Delaware River has run through our shower head over the past 4 days but I don't care. I wouldn't care if nuclear waste was pouring out of there, if it makes him quiet, I'll take it.

Actually, it looks like we may need to have an visit to the shower very soon.

Finally.....

I have thought about this blog every day for the past 2 1/2 weeks. A number of my friends have recently had babies and within a day or two there are pictures galore up on their blogs of the baby and their trip home and their first bath, etc. I had EVERY intention to do that. Then parenthood set in. Two weeks of long nights, dirty diapers, blood curdling screams and most importantly intimate stares and quiet kisses - all of a sudden we are a day away from Easter.

As most (or all) of you know, Missy and I had our son on March 22nd. His name is Riley Grason. Riley is a name that we both liked plus it sounded like "Ryan" without being "Ryan". The earth would explode if there were two Ryan Delp's on the planet. Grason comes from the name of the town where our family has had a summer home for over 30 years. I spent most of my summers there growing up. It is a place I hold very dear to my heart. It is also where I proposed to my wife and where we found out we were pregnant. We had the middle name picked out before the first name.

Missy went into labor at around midnight and by 3:41 pm, our son was here. I was positive that I would be a blubbering mess when he came out. I was ready to bawl my eyes out. But I didn't. I couldn't. I couldn't do ANYTHING. I just stared at him, all beat up and slimy, with nothing but an awed look on my face and perhaps a gasp of amazement and excitement. No words could describe what I had just seen. It wasn't horrible, it wasn't disgusting. It was the kind of event that renders a communication major speechless. I have seen the Grand Canyon. I have seen the Atlantic Ocean at sunset. I have seen the coral reefs of the Caribbean. But I have never seen anything more incredible in my life than this. We had a son.

Since that day, I have had enough experiences and thoughts to fill 100 blogs. From the humorous - a six day streak of being peed on - to the beautiful - lying Riley on my chest and watching him stare at me until he fell asleep. I could spend a year writing about the experiences of the past two weeks. However, I don't have that kind of time (and I hope you don't either) and actually I (obviously) have less time now than I did pre-child. My hope is to write shorter and more frequent looks inside the phenomenal world of being a parent. I have already been hit with lessons of patience, love, teamwork (NASCAR teams would envy Missy and my efficiency at changing Riley's diaper - all we need are pneumatic wrenches) and most poignantly the relationship I have with my heavenly Father.

So here is an early favorite picture of our son. I probably won't have tons of pictures (unless requested) and give weekly updates of how much he has grown (1 lb. 2oz. since leaving the hopital - he was 8lb. 8oz. by the way). This blog is my take on life and all that goes with it. My life has changed forever. My hope is that I can communicate this life change not only so you can read it but that I can always remember it.