the unlikely orange

having a baby makes it seems like that baby is indeed the axis of the universe; that everything revolves around this tiny helpless little human. who knows, maybe in some ways it does. and yet, the rest of life marches on, too. for those of you not looking for a baby fix, i thought i would include these collages for your perusal and possible enjoyment. i've had several guests to the blog over the last few days, and i want to welcome all of you and let you know that i hope you will not only stop by again from time to time, but also that you will be a part of the conversation by leaving a comment. my whole intention in creating this web log was to have dialogue about faith and culture and art and football and music and good food and baseball and hope. so, please visit again, but, more than that, please leave your mark. now, more than ever, we need to hear one another. "as a flower" paper collage with beeswax on a paper backing gregory a. milinovich i made this one in clas...

wow. i forgot how much babies cry. not during the day, mind you. during the day he is as silent as a photograph. cute. cuddly. tiny. and absolutely quiet. but at night he comes alive. those seemingly glued down eyelids rip open to expose eyes that are ready to mock you with their incessant wailing, crying things like, "ha ha, you thought you might actually sleep for more than twenty minutes at a time tonight. what are you, crazy? its MY world, now, old man. you just have to find your little place in it." at least that's what it sounds like to me. here's the little nocturnal creature during his first sponge bath. you know, later on this morning i will be preaching on the 23rd psalm, and it occurs to me that the psalmist is really excited about his dependence on God. a sheep is pretty dependent. the shepherd leads him and provides for him and comforts him. sort of like what a parent does for a baby. in a culture (and in my own mind) which values independence, this...

hello friends. i just got home from the hospital and am only here for a few moments to put these pictures up here so that all of you can meet our new baby boy: caedmon charles milinovich. here is his first picture. right after delivery. this is him on the scale. you might be able to see that he weighed 7 pounds 6 ounces (exactly a pound less than jack). he was also 20 inches long. my mom and dad are in town, which is a huge help, and they brought jack in to meet his baby brother. here he is with his pappy holding cade. there's me. the proud papa. i cried like a baby when he emerged. i'm such a softie. i can't believe how little and light he is. i guess i forgot. he has a little bit of hair, and its red! he's got a much lighter complection than jack did when he was born, and his eyes are blue. i've been calling him my little irishman! here's cade with his mommy. she did an awesome job all through labor, and i'm proud of her. she looks beautiful...

april 22, 2007 to my unborn son, its spring out here. it beat you by a few days, and it brought with it buds and blooms and bugs and the kind of warmth that calls deep into the dark grave, loud enough that your snow-shivering soul can hear it. the feeling out here is the kind that can make you believe that you can come out and breath again; that you can dig your hands in the dirt, take your shoes off. there is life everywhere out here. the world seems ready for you. you can come out now. we await you. we have dreamt about you. we've prepared for you. your older brother has been yelling into you through mommy's belly (have you heard him? he's the one who's been shouting, "come out baby brother!"). soon your mother will labor for you. you will hopefully build up the courage to make a daring watery escape, an exodus of sorts, from darkness to light; from dependence to a new kind of independence (you'll have to eat your own food now!); from safety to r...

"jubilant song" paper collage gregory a. milinovich thursdays are typically my day off, and i was really able to enjoy it yesterday. i was able to: make the above collage; take jack on a walk in which he was mesmerized by construction vehicles; watch the yankees win an awesome and dramatic game by a walk-of home run in the bottom of the ninth with two outs; shoot some hoops; do a crossword puzzle; replace the batteries in numerous noise-making-light-flashing toys, restoring the proper atmosphere in the toy room; eat leftover lasagna for dinner; listen to coldplay; and hug my very pregnant wife (hugging is remarkably difficult, considering that she is 9 months pregnant and i look like i am 9 months pregnant. we have to kind of stand next to one another and hug sideways. if we are belly to belly, forget it. we need inspector gadget's go-go-gadget-arms for that!). so it was a good day. the doctor told shannon that she is 1-2 centimeters dilated and 50% effaced, for t...

we have these magnetic letters on our refrigerator that are there to help jack learn the alphabet and the sounds letters make. it is actually a really cool toy made by leapfrog. one of the things i love about this toy is that i get as much playtime out of it as jack does. in case you didn't know, i love playing with letters. anyway, yesterday shannon and i decided that we should close our eyes and randomly choose some letters from the front of the fridge, scrabble style, and find a way to configure those letters into the name for our soon-to-be-born son. i chose 7 letters for the first name. she chose 6 for the middle. i got a Q-X-L-P-U-H-A and she got a M-K-B-E-N-Y. i don't know what you would have come up with, but we have decided that our son-to-be will be known by the (i think rather sophisticated) name Qulphax Nembky Milinovich. it is pronounced QUALL-fax NEMB-key. what do you think? on an unrelated note, i sometimes wonder if my son is really my son. for example, this mo...

'tinicum" paper collage gregory a. milinovich so i started a little class at a local art studio on collage. it is only for three weeks, and our first session was yesterday. looking back on it, i'm glad i went, and i intend to go to the other two classes we have. but in the middle of class yesterday, i seriously felt like i was in the wrong place. first of all, there are only four of us, including the teacher. all of us have been to art school and received some formal education around art history, form, and function. all of us, that is, except for me. i knew a guy named art once. that's about the extent of my art education. oh, that and i once made a turkey by tracing my hand and cutting it out. that was in fourth grade. art school schmart school. anyway, i felt like i was just slightly out of my league. when i mentioned that i really had no real training, the instructor said, "oh that's ok. outsider art is really popular these days." what...