A Mission Statement of Sorts

Welcome. Kind of.

The problem is that - statistically speaking - you probably won't like this blog. It's not your fault, it's just meant for a rather limited audience.

I (we?) am/are creating this blog because of our recent less-than-immaculate conception. Because this is not only our first, but the first grandchild on either side, every doctor's visit and wave of nausea qualifies as breaking news. To us.

While I am by nature pretty self-involved, I'm not SO self-involved as to assume everyone on Earth is on pins and needles regarding my child's gender (male, for the record). In fact, one of my favorite anecdotes from telling people Sarabeth was expecting is the person who asked, "You're not going to be one of those people who converts their Facebook profile and status updates to child-related nonsense, are you? Also, congratulations."

My answer, then and now, is that I'm not. My profile pic will continue to be whatever recent picture of me looks the least awkward. My status updates will continue to focus on, e.g., how sucky Avatar and/or IU are.

The problem is, as noted above, the Ratliffs and Polloms are entering a brave new world here. There is a near-disturbing level of excitement; as I've noted elsewhere, the child was spoiled before he developed fingers. There's a certain amount of excitement, and a certain amount of clamoring for information. Hopefully, this blog will become a repository for that information.

In other words, this blog will largely be focused on our family. Insanely child-centric. (But not entirely so, I'll probably bash Avatar over here, too). No hard feelings if you're not interested; I'm fully prepared for a readership of two grandmothers only.

There's a good chance this won't work and it will languish in the ever-expanding internet trash heap. I've missed non-legal writing quite a bit, though, so maybe not. A lot of it will depend on the exact level to which this arrival rocks our lives. (Babies won't interrupt my sleeping patterns, right?) At worst, I get lazy and never update it. At best, it's a place to learn wildly inconsequential details about our child. Consider yourself warned.

Also, seriously? "Unobtainium"? Don't spend any time on it or anything.