Nursery

Despite what you hear, the dad really doesn't have to do much during the pregnancy. If you are thoughtful, attentive, and patient, you'll do fine. The mom does the work.

Just about the only tangible thing I could do was to redecorate our office into the nursery. While I'm no Bob Vila, I consider myself to be of sufficient handiness to complete this task.

It's hard to pick out a color that a baby will like. Do babies know colors? Can they tell the difference between lettuce and pistachio? Do they care? Do I care? (The answer to that last question: Only if my wife cares)

We had a friend of ours design some wall decals for us featuring the letters of the alphabet and children's book and TV characters. I stole this idea from Ken Jennings of Jeopardy! fame. Now, he had the talent to physically paint each character. For as much as I'm not Bob Vila, I'm even less of a Bob Ross.

All in all, I think it turned out rather nice. Charming, perhaps.

I enjoy receiving compliments about the nursery...it's a nice pat on the back.

More enjoyable? Seeing my smiling wife, 9 months pregnant, sitting in the rocking chair.

Most enjoyable? Well, that hasn't happened yet. But, eventually, I'll see my smiling (or exhausted) wife, sitting in the rocking chair, holding our son...in the nursery I redecorated.