Urban Outcast Music #37 - The Mother by Brandie Carlile. Back to back for Brandie. If only I could play the guitar and/or sing I could get Orrin to sit still for 4 minutes...
Kal was born on March 17th, 2020 with his full complement of digits and is fluent in guinea pig. Even though he arrived a month earlier than his brother, he came in 1 oz heavier at 8 lbs 12oz. He was borderline on jaundice readings so we had a superhero conversion system in our house for a week.
Born into a hospital with covid-19 cases and no visitors allowed, the birth wing was quieter (if you blocked out the warrior yells) and more serious. No photographers allowed either so Kal gets no glamour shots. Just the first entry for his case that big brother got more love. Maybe not the most productive thought experiment but I kept thinking of what his early days might have been if he had arrived a few months earlier. With daycare, state parks, zoos, clamming/fishing, etc all closed and work suddenly much less demanding, its both exhausting and amazing to see what the toddler mind dreams up for games or scavenger hunts that will drive tomorrow's agenda.
We are staying close to home so Kal is missing those critical early exposures to the wilder outdoors and is instead content to be on lock down with big brother and big brother with a tail. As soon as the state opens back up we will be taking full advantage of getting Kal ready for the outdoors and his role as the junior, junior correspondent on the Urban Outcast beat. For now we are pushing a double-decker stroller to the forgotten corners of Seattle's parks and working on our bird identifications.
I'll let Orrin sing us out with his soulful rendition of twinkle twinkle little star:
P.S. Kal is a shortening of a name from a partially completed Brandon Sanderson fantasy book series that we both enjoyed. Fingers crossed he doesn't go to the dark side! You earn bonus nerd points is you knew that Kal-El was Superman's, the man of steel's, name at birth (we didn't). Furthermore, if you knew that Kal Kent is Superman's descendant from the 853rd century then you lose points.
