Twenty Ten, The Year We Make Contractual Agreements

Already a week into Twenty-Ten at breakneck full speed ahead. Everything's all fresh and new, squeaky clean glistening with hope and optimism.

Less than a hour after the discarded Christmas tree was placed on the curb, the Boy Scouts jumped into action and took it away to tree heaven. The needles were quickly vacuumed up, the fireplace mantle was wiped clean and the leftover candy canes were stashed in a box. Even though all of that happened just a mere week ago, it feels like much more time has passed. It could be attributed to the fact we have an addition to the family, who seems to keep us in a constant state of dreamland with awakenings during the usual hours of sleep. Everything is more fuzzy: blankets, toys, and our minds.

Thankfully, my body trained well back in architecture school to learn how to function on minimal sleep. Back in those days I was actually able to recover from a cold with only five hours of sleep, and diets laced with mass quantities of Mountain Dew. I'm not exactly sure if any of that neon green soda is still coursing through my body of not these days since I haven't drank any in years. Maybe it's partially because I got both of the flu shots last year, but up to this point while all of my co-workers seem to be getting ill, I keep pushing on. Sissies.

Mighty Magnus has continued to grow and was easily off the charts at his first checkups. The Teacher and myself have great hopes for where he will end up, size wise. Of course, basketball star Yao Ming and his wife are trying to steal our thunder:

76 percent of more than 29,000 people voting said that Yao's child was likely to grow taller than 6-foot-8, while 33 percent said the baby would grow taller than 7-foot-2. However, according to the calculations of medical experts, cited by China Daily, if the child is male, he probably will reach a height of between 6-foot-6 to 7-foot-3. Translation: the kid is going to be huge.

I predict if they have a girl, we'll win, but if they have a boy, it's GAME ON!

That is, as long as Magnus inherits The Teachers mad basketball skills and not my lack of them. Then there could be a future full of contractual agreements in his future. Optimism and hope? You bet. Of course this line of thinking might all be muddled by my lack of sleep, or too much coffee. We'll just have to wait and see.