Friends and family

Well, when Seth and I went to our first childbirth preparation class a couple weeks ago, we were hoping we might meet some nice couples we could make friends with, people we could share this experience with. After we left the first class, Seth said, "We're not going to be friends with any of those people." Not that they're not nice people - most of them, anyway, as far as I can tell. But I think we both realized that the shared experience of being about to have a baby is not enough to constitute a friendship, if that's all you really share. One woman said she and her husband were in the middle of renovating their house, and I thought, "Okay, we have something in common..." until she mentioned that they were late for the class because they were waiting for the contractors to show up with their new cabinets. The minute I heard the word "contractors" it became clear we didn't have so much in common - we'd be waiting a long time if we had to wait around for contractors!
But this is what I really realized: we don't need new friends. We already have wonderful friends, and wonderful families, with whom we already share a great deal of common experience and understanding. It just so happens that some of our very best friends, and almost all of our family members are far away - some much further than others. So we don't get to see you or talk to you as much as we would like. But we want to stay in touch, particularly now. This blog is my solution, at least for now - a place to unload some of my thoughts, and feel like I'm addressing all of you in some way. Also a way to pass the time, which definitely feels like it's dragging at this point...
And one more self-serving (or baby-serving) motive: I've just had a local baby shower, but some of you who are further away have expressed interest in knowing what sort of baby gear we still need. My wonderful mom was looking into "online baby showers," but they turned out to be kind of complicated. If you are hearing about this blog, please don't think that it's only because I'm hinting that I want presents! But for those of you who did want to know what we have already and what we don't have yet, I'm going to post a wish-list with, if possible, links to things I've found online that are something like what we're looking for - just to make it as convenient as possible. Maybe my mom can serve as the running inventory of what has been taken care of, to prevent doubling up? If anyone does not know how to get in touch with her, let me know and I will email you her contact info.
So that's the raison d'etre for the blog! We're also setting up a flickr site which I will post a link to, so that you can see (if you want) semi-exciting pictures of me getting bigger and bigger, and soon enough much more exciting pictures of Mark Timothy Ross Wood!