Stay a Thousand Years

As one of my favorite people, Mike Shinoda, said last September, “It's good to see you again.” Quite a bit has changed in the last year. My favorite band, Linkin Park, had cryptically announced their return after an eight year hiatus due to the passing of Chester Bennington (also a great human who passed away on 7/20/17 that I was fortunate enough to spend 30-45 seconds with a few different times). I had a career change, continued to shrink my assortment of cars by selling the Mclaren, my wife and I made a last minute decision to go to Norway/Sweden to see Taylor Swift and my uncle had passed away (this is a two part post so more to come on that). It was a roller coaster to say the least.

Through all that, my wife and our fur babies remained rock solid as we navigated through life. Our core unit had remained intact for more than seven years, but we were realistic about life and the inevitable losing battle with time. The understanding of time has been perhaps the main pillar of my processing of loss. It's usually one of main plot lines of my favorite movies and the Hans Zimmer score, "Time" is my favorite score to date.

My wife and I made the decision very early on that we did not want children so the concept/experience of birth was something we never spent much time around. By some freak twist of physics and dumb luck, our oldest boy Nizmo and matriarch, Waffles, procreated midway through 2017 and we were thrust into an abbreviated birthing schedule. We knew whether Waffles had one baby or seven, we were going to do everything possibly to keep the whole litter. Halfway through her pregnancy, we found she was having two babies which would give us a pretty solid starting five. Now in the mid 2010s, food named pets were all the rage on social media. Waffles was definitely a front runner I came up with that begrudgingly stuck, but was clear to both of us that I should take a back seat with the upcoming naming task.

Game of Thrones was cemented in the cultural zeitgeist. Daenerys and her three dragon scale babies were an intriguing choice for names. Drogon and Dracarys were two names that started rising to the top depending on the sex/healthiness of the two we were expecting. September 3rd came, Waffles clung to my wife while she was going through her contractions and I was making sure all the materials were ready. It was about as real as it gets that this was happening. One amniotic sac is out after about 45 minutes of contractions. Waffles has zero clue what the hell just happened. We gave her some mild help with the sac then instincts took over and baby number one is squirming and letting out the smallest cries we've ever heard. Seeing the first breath of life was something I had never experienced and it was something I'll never forget (even though both my wife and I probably held ours for two minutes while the process unfolded). Shortly after Waffles cleaned up baby number one and herself, baby number two is somehow already out, squirming and being attended to before we could even process what just happened with the first. Baby number one is a boy and baby two is a girl. Drogon for the boy and Dracarys for the girl were locked in.

Drogon very early on was a doppelgänger to his mom. Some slight white coloring differences on an ear/shoulder plus one beauty mark on his left cheek, but otherwise, carbon copy. Baby number two, Dracarys, shared her dads long Himalayan hair with a charcoal coat with brown accents. and a tick that involved vigorous chest licking. Both grew into two of the best babies you could ask for. Drogon nearly twice the size of his dainty mother, but a gentle giant. If I had to associate him with a fictional character I'd land on a young Hagrid. Always a champion to make sure we were aware it was time that his dad got his special wet food. In the morning this would usually involve Drogon climbing onto one of our chests with slight tongue smacking sound, but quickly he developed the nickname 'Meowlnir' due to the sheer downforce on your chest cavity (Mjölnir is Thor's hammer that is unliftable by any other than Thor.). Drogon was loved on social media and in text chats for his tongue "bleps" with his innocent golden eyes. I'm a pushover for our babies and that face always earned him a treat. 

Sadly due to unforeseen and sudden medical issues we had to say goodbye (for now) two weeks ago to our baby Drogon, Waffles' and Nizmo's first born, Dracarys' big brother. and nephew to Luna. Thanks for everything Dro Dro, Droggy, Droggy Doughgy, BoBoDroDro, Derpy Dro..

My wife and I are forever their biggest fans making that abundantly clear to anyone who interacts with us., but it's still very raw and we'll have to table more storytelling for a future date. We wanted to extend heartfelt thank you's to everyone who physically stopped by to check on us and stayed connected with us over the last two weeks. Your warmth, empathy and generosity have meant the world to us. We can't thank you enough.

"They are my children... they are the only children I am ever like to have."