DrewMyler.com


Up for Air

Jul 28, 2008

The gentleman of the manor has arrived! Bennett Anders Myler was born on Wednesday, July 23rd at 3:46pm.

He’s lucky to be so flippin’ cute because sir is a taskmaster; we change him, feed him, burp him, change, rock, try to sleep, feed, burp, feed, burp, change, try to sleep, change, feed, change… I’m fortunate to check email twice a day or sleep for 3 hours straight. Honestly it’s tougher than I thought it would be. But it’s also amazing.

I’d love to post more, but I think he knows I’ve found a pocket of free time. Quickly:

The deets:
8lbs, 15 ounces
21.5″ long
Born 3:46pm, 7/23/08

How it went down:
Renate woke me at 4:30am. Nine hours of labor and pushing later, the doctor held Bennett up for me to see. He was as blue as a blueberry, which they say is normal, and silent, which is seriously freaky. But he wailed like a banshee after they sucked the snot out of him, and a nurse pointed an oxygen line at his mouth, flushing him with a healthy pink tinge starting from his head and moving slowly to his feet.

The hardest part? Having no baseline. He’s so new that nothing is normal, and everything slightly odd is worrisome. He just ate an hour ago, how can he be hungry again? Is his umbilical cord infected? What does that scream mean? Did he seriously just pee all over himself while we were changing the previous dirty diaper?

The best part? When he opens his eyes.

More when he’s 18 and out of the house. Until then, I’m posting pics on the photoblog.

Women’s marketing expert and author Andrea Learned hired me last fall to combine her website and blog into one easily updatable site. I quickly realized the company I was keeping; Andrea is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and eBrandMarketing.com, and was very recently quoted in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal within the span of a week. Yow.

We pulled back the curtain on her new online home just in time for the media blitz. The new learnedonwomen.com runs on WordPress as a CMS and blogging platform. I imported 4 years of posts from her hosted blog and used mod_rewrite to preserve permalinks to the existing posts and categories.

The switch from Typepad to a self-hosted blog also saves Andrea money; Typepad requires a tiered monthly subscription fee.

All in all a fun project; I really enjoy nerding out with a good WordPress customization. Also, a fun client; attending Feist concerts makes Andrea possibly my coolest client. Oh, and that whole New York Times thing helps, too…

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Browsing le Boobtique

Jul 06, 2008

A large wall decal featuring a woman nursing twins used to hang over the breastfeeding aisle at the local baby boutique. She held one in each arm, like footballs.

The first time I saw this poster, a “woop” slipped from my lips. Renate rolled her eyes.

Breastfeeding doesn’t make me uncomfortable. I’m just a bit caught off-guard by the imagery associated with the product packaging.

Honestly – you don’t see this kind of thing every day:

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Raise the Drawbridge

Jun 28, 2008

“Ferris – he never drives it. He just rubs it with a diaper.”

When I turned 30 last September, both sides of the family kicked in to help me get a new bike as a present. Touched, I decided to wait until this spring to make the purchase; no need for the bike to sit in the garage getting creaky in the cold Chicago winter. I would take care of this gift.

Last month, after several weeks of comparison shopping, I finally bit the bullet and brought home a new hybrid road/commuter bike. It cost a bit more than I wanted to spend, but it rode so smoothly and leapt ahead like a racehorse when I’d pick up the pace. I envisioned long rides up and down the Lake Shore bike path; me and this bike, we had a bright future.

The next morning I took it for an inaugural spin, not bothering to remove the plastic wrap protecting the handlebar brake controls. I just wanted to enjoy the newness of it for a bit, like those first few days of a new pair of shoes, when they’re scuff-free and you look good.

It didn’t last; the bike was stolen out of our garage the following day.

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For frustrating days (like today) when you need to smile.

There’s also more where that came from.

Rearrangements

Jun 22, 2008

Renate and I have reconfigured our apartment at least thirty times since moving in. Why? Because someday one undoubtedly looks back and says, I wish I’d spent equal amounts of time in the dining and living rooms.

Last fall we retooled our dining room into a sitting room. Two leather chairs face the television, with a bookshelf standing nearby in case the power should go out and we need either a) entertainment, or b) fuel.

The rearrangement was a smashing success. We now spend a good portion of our evenings on those leather chairs, either engrossed in our laptops (yes, we have become those people) or watching the tube (we’ve always been those people).

We’re usually enjoying a quiet moment in these chairs when the cat wakes from a nap and comes shooting into the room, squawking as if her tail is on fire, just to let us know that she IS HERE and she IS NOT HAPPY ABOUT SOMETHING.

Now that the guest room has morphed into a nursery, the cat largely avoids it. I think she’s protesting the loss of her favorite hiding spot beneath the guest bed, or perhaps ignoring the impending reshuffling of the pecking order. (Maybe I’m alone in that.)

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The last rough edges have been sanded off, and the lacquer is dry. Introducing the Myler Family Photoblog.

You may notice all the posts have been authored by me, but that’s temporary. Some of us here are still breaking in our blogging shoes.

We’ve backdated a bunch of pics – cruise around the archives or click ‘next’ to check it all out.

Built with WordPress in eager anticipation of the actual new family member.

Date Night is Not Dead

Jun 12, 2008

Overheard in the line for movie tickets tonight: “One for Iron Man, one for Sex and the City.”