Birth of Bongo

June 7, 2001

Our first baby was born. Wife Klem had been anticipating the projected June 7 date and made up her mind that she was done lugging the guy around in her belly. She took it upon herself to get this thing underway.

We engaged a lengthy and vigorous walk after dinner the evening of June 6. I was somewhat alarmed at her tenacious pace and was mentally making emergency preparations in my head in case we didn’t get home before the birthing commenced; ‘If it happens right now, I will run home, get the car, come back to retrieve the laboring Wife Klem, rush to the hospital . . .’ Luckily the contractions didn’t begin until after we returned from the walk.

At 10:00 pm we arrived at the hospital and had the whole place to ourselves. We were early by several hours, as it was explained to us, and other than the appearance of a few medical professionals, there wasn’t any real commotion until the morning.

The boy was born at 10:30 am ranking in at 7 lbs. 13 oz., 21” tall, roughly a 2-Regular in suit size, we’ll say.

He came out looking like an ape what with his purplish wrinkled skin. Luckily, he quickly morphed into a lovely little guy. This was the first grandchild on both sides, so you can imagine the fawning reception as he was being passed around the horn to family members.

Those first 24 hours after birth were very hectic. At one point while Wife Klem and the baby were still in the hospital, I made a return visit home. Retrieve some gear for another overnighter at the hospital, feed the dog (Kira), take her out for her toileteering, and refresh her water bowl. We were advised by the dog trainer, a few months prior, to bring a blanket home that had wrapped the baby to let the dog get familiar with the scent. By doing this, when the baby comes home the dog will have had some introduction to this new animal in the home.

So on this trip I let Kira smell the baby blanket. I was very busy so I put the little blanket on the floor for her to smell while I completed my checklist of things to do. When I finished my chores I found Kira lying on the floor with her nose on the baby blanket. I took this for a good omen as to how she would be with the baby. A good dog.

When the boy arrived home from the hospital the dog’s tail was wagging vigorously like I’d never seen before. This was the first time they met, she and the baby boy, and she wanted to see what kind of little beast we had brought home in mommy’s arms. She got in many good snufflings of him. The next day the dog slept on the floor at the foot of the boy’s crib during his nap, just as Wife Klem had hoped.


The baby’s first Friday Night Movie Night was Castaway with Tom Hanks. The boy was one week old. We didn’t want to break completely from household protocol just because of a baby, so we continued our FNMN tradition, but slimmed the viewings down from two videos to one.

Those first few days we occasionally thought it odd to be handed the kid and sent home in fairly quick succession. ‘What? No manual for this thing?’

Eight years later and he’s still alive! Thankfully he’s shown more resilience than pet guinea pigs and hamsters I’ve had as a kid.

‘Considering all the time and work that babies require, good thing they are cute so that parents would fall in love with them,’ observation from Wife Klem.


Happy Birthday, Bing! We love you, man.
-klem