Because It's Breaking

Spring is in full swing out here.

The weather's been really nice the last few days, although Io and I don't get much chance to go out in it, alas. We've come to the reluctant conclusion that Gabriel is afflicted with the Dread Colic. You hear about this when you're having a kid, but it's supposedly a 20% chance so you just hope it doesn't happen to you. But it looks like we're it.

Colic is pretty bad stuff. Gabriel cries for no reason (i.e., he's fed, changed, and the right temperature) for at least an hour or two several times a week. Some days he's great and doesn't cry at all except when there's something actually wrong, but some days he'll cry for 3 or 4 hours straight.

Which is really stressful. I mean, any loud noise for hours at a time is stressful, which is why my government uses it to torture -- I mean, enhancedly interrogate -- prisoners. But a baby crying is even worse. Your brain is hard-wired to respond to a crying baby, especially your own crying baby. I can be in a deep, dream-state sleep, and the second Gabe starts crying I bolt up in bed like it's electrified. So to have him crying for hours, even if you know what it is and that you've done everything for him you can, it abrades your nerves to the breaking point. I've been told of couples who had a kid with colic, and abandoned their plans to have further children. And I assume it's worst of all for Gabriel himself, who is presumably genuinely uncomfortable for some reason that nobody can figure out or fix, which just kills me.

So far, everyone is mostly pulling together and getting through it despite all the frayed nerves, so that's good. We're trying one colic remedy after the next, and most of them work to one extent or another, at least for a little while. They say colic lasts until the baby is 3-4 months old, and Gabe is already five weeks. So there's light at the end of the tunnel. Io's theory is that babies are so cute because if they weren't, none of them would survive. She's probably right. It's amazing how Gabe can be so stress-inducing when he's crying, but when he's sleeping or smiles or is looking around at stuff, he breaks your heart. Even if, like me and the Tin Man, you have no heart.*

This was a very important week in our household: the Steaua-Dinamo soccer match. Steaua and Dinamo are both soccer teams from Bucharest, and are arch-rivals. This dates back to Communist times, when sports teams obviously couldn't be privately owned professional enterprises, so each team was associated with some institution or another. Steaua was the team of the Romanian Army, and Dinamo was the team of the MAI -- Romania's secret police, equivalent to the Russian KGB. Those two institutions were often at loggerheads, and with both teams based in Bucharest and being the #1 and #2 teams in Romania, they couldn't help but hate each other. Fans from both sides, but especially Dinamo, routinely get in brawls and engage in other sorts of hooliganism. In 1997 Dinamo fans set Steaua's stadium on fire. The photo at right is from the match this week. Dinamo players apparently smuggled smoke grenades into the stadium, and then tossed them to their fans. The city had a full unit of SWAT police already in the stadium, who moved in with riot shields and truncheons.

So the match was a big deal in our house. Everyone was looking forward to it all week, and once it started Gagi, Io and I were glued to the screen most of the time. Tania's not a soccer fan. Neither am I, actually, but I wanted to watch since it's a big deal. Although I've always said that soccer is boring and lame, after watching this game I have to say that soccer is also way too long. What kind of sport goes for 90 minutes? Sports are an hour. It was fun to watch with everyone and cheer for Steaua, even though we lost 1 to 0 (that's ONE SCORE IN NINETY MINUTES), but I am definitely not a soccer guy.

Moment of Zen:

**

* With that image, The Wizard of Oz now has two photos on this blog, tying them with Back to the Future.

** OK, now they're winning.