Just a Swing

So here is my first and only post (I think...).  Dixi is in bed with a terrible headache and  I have been sitting here for ten minutes trying to figure out how to add a picture to a post.  I mean how was I supposed to know that the big colored icon of a picture directly above the space I am typing in that says "Add Image" when I scroll over it allows me to add an image? Anyway, you must be wondering, "Russ, why, after all this time, do you decide to post?  Don't you have more important, manly things to do like change the oil in your car or win an arm wrestling match?"  Well the answer is, yes, yes I do; but this is important.  

My wife is 33 weeks pregnant.  I will have a baby daughter in 7 or so weeks (or 10, if things go like they have been lately with all of these mothers-to-be).  I have a closet full of tiny, pink clothes.  I have been to baby showers, I have more bibs in my house than I do dollars in my checking account.  My wife looks like a normal sized person for once in her life.  All these things should of slapped me in the face by now to make me realize one very important thing: I am about to be a dad.  But to tell you the truth, they really haven't, until tonight...

      About a third of the clothes; with two baby 

      showers to go.

Now don't get me wrong, I realize that my life is about to change.  I realize that for years to come, I will never have a visitor at my house that is here to see me.  I know that I'm about to never get any sleep.  I know that I'm going to have to learn to get used to seeing some gross things.  But tonight something happened.  You see, I am somewhat of a baby myself and there is a side of me that would get me laughed at by many of my male friends if they knew what a sissy I really am.  One thing this emotional, girly side of me makes me do is go into the nursery and lay in the floor, and try to comprehend what is really about to happen in my life.  Tonight, we had a baby shower put on by the amazing people at Chick-fil-a (more on that from Dixi later I'm sure).  But as I was sitting in the nursery tonight, trying to organize all the things that were given to Caedmon today, I looked to my right and saw this...

Just a swing.  I am around lots of babies, and I see these all the time.  This one has been sitting in the nursery for several days and I have looked at it many times without a second thought. But tonight, when I looked at it, it was different.  Instead of just seeing a swing, I saw a swing that, in just a few short weeks, will be frequented by none other than my own daughter. Caedmon Clair Burnett will be laying in it (and I will surely never take my eyes off of her for fear that I put it together wrong and it breaks.)  All I could do was picture her, with one of her many adorable outfits on, looking up at me with her inevitably beautiful eyes (if she looks anything like her mom), and it will all become real.  I will not go into detail about how I reacted to this realization, but let's just say I was trying to think of excuses of what to tell Dixi just in case she happened to get out of bed and come to the nursery ("I was just thinking about how bad the Braves played today", "Just reminiscing about the good ole days", "Remembering the end of 'Marley and Me", "I just have something in my eye"...).  Thankfully she stayed asleep. 

As I regained my composure, I started to think about the fact that this isn't "going to be real", it already is real.  Inside my wife is a tiny little girl, with innumerable little functions happening in her body and Dixi's body that make me dumbfounded as to why some people try to explain it as anything except divine.  She is real.  I cannot wait to see her.  To touch her tiny hands.  To hear her cry.  To take her to her first Braves game.  So I will wait patiently (okay who I am kidding, very impatiently) for her to come into this world while my amazing friends and family continue to give and give and spoil my baby before she is even here.  Let's just hope she's not as girly as me...