It seems that with summer you have the ever present games that come with it. For me one of those is baseball. Tonight we went outside and let Zach play around on the grass and sidewalk and as well with the little kids that were down there.
One of the kids who was older (his name is Elijah, and yes all the kids were black kids which I think is totally awesome, I didn't grow up around kids of any different ethnicity from my own) was hitting the old ball around with a bat. It was fun to see a 7 year old playing the game that I played for 10 years of my own life.
From the perspective of adult and now person looking back at my own experience at that age he was doing it all wrong. I didn't want to teach him to hit well enough to break my car windows, but well I couldn't stand to see him suffer so many misses. He was trying to maul the ball with his swings and his footing was all over the place. So I showed him how to do it better and well he did it better. Hit my kid, car and nailed a window. Luckily he is still a small kid and the one that got Zach was innocuous, and well the window was lucky to not have been broken.
I think that it is a law of nature that when a kid hits a ball around with a bat that the ball will hit a window or something that just doesn't need to be hit. Oh well.
Zach had a lot of fun down there, he got to watch the bigger kids do their thing...He is really a lot like myself. I am a sit back and watch the crowd and other people type person. I am shy but only initially, and Zach is shaping up to be like myself. I guess I am his father and he is around me all the time. He is shaping up to be a lot like us (he is even showing to have the same growth patterns that I did. He is hitting a big growth spurt at the same time that I did (18 months)).
Alison went to the doctors again today and everything is going well. So good times there. I went to work and got my project moving a bit more forward again after we had so many appointments last week (8, this week we are up to 4).
I am as well getting close to publishing the website that has been to long in the making. Oh well. That is life, things are definitely going well for us.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Jumping and Rolling
Well after a day of traveling to appointments for Alison and helping the missionaries we were totally beat. This coincides perfectly with a time that our son Zach will have boundless energy. It doesn't help things that he got to play with his little friend (they seem to mutually gain large amounts of energy from each other and carry it even after they part for hours) Tanner Hemming (his parents are our friends, ironically we are all brought together by our children and now we probably could care less if our kids were same age or playmates) twice.
He was trying this afternoon and evening to Jump. He is still learning how to do that. It is something he considers pretty cool. I guess there is not really a way to teach it, you just have to do it. He probably isn't strong enough yet but soon he will be jumping all over the place (just the other day he jumped off the high chair and got a bloody lip and nose, I wasn't watching but really I can't catch him every time (says the bad father).
He has learned to do somersaults. He carefully gets himself into position and then after a few efforts will push himself into doing it, or commit himself to the point that his scareddy cat side (which he got from me I am sure) can't resist gravity any more and he will roll over. He will usually do this several times then go play with something else and come back and do it again.
To add to his new tricks he is growing into the firstborn roll and trying to do things that impress us and test us at the same time. He will let us tickle his chin forever it seems but will also make us physically remove him from something he needs to not be doing again and again. Argh and sigh, I do enjoy being a parent. It would just be easier if I didn't need to help him leave the caveman mentality behind. I guess I am really just a social reformist underneath it all when it comes to my child. Ha Ha.
He was trying this afternoon and evening to Jump. He is still learning how to do that. It is something he considers pretty cool. I guess there is not really a way to teach it, you just have to do it. He probably isn't strong enough yet but soon he will be jumping all over the place (just the other day he jumped off the high chair and got a bloody lip and nose, I wasn't watching but really I can't catch him every time (says the bad father).
He has learned to do somersaults. He carefully gets himself into position and then after a few efforts will push himself into doing it, or commit himself to the point that his scareddy cat side (which he got from me I am sure) can't resist gravity any more and he will roll over. He will usually do this several times then go play with something else and come back and do it again.
To add to his new tricks he is growing into the firstborn roll and trying to do things that impress us and test us at the same time. He will let us tickle his chin forever it seems but will also make us physically remove him from something he needs to not be doing again and again. Argh and sigh, I do enjoy being a parent. It would just be easier if I didn't need to help him leave the caveman mentality behind. I guess I am really just a social reformist underneath it all when it comes to my child. Ha Ha.
Update on the Baby Girl...
So the latest news is that the baby isn't yet born so I should refer to her as the future baby girl...
Regardless, today we went for another check-up and found that the state of her heart is going really well. So well that we we told by the fetal cardiologist specialist that we only need to see him every two weeks instead of weekly. Exciting for us. For me as well because monitoring is very routine and I can go to work or tend Zach rather than going to those appointments as well.
At least we thought. Today the babies heart rate was all over the place in bad ways (ranging from 60 to 130 beats per minute). This may have been stress or just her rolling around all the time at the wrong times. Alison as well was having small but consistent contractions. So we got sent to the hospital after 20 minutes of monitoring for 4 hours additional to be sure that nothing was really wrong.
This was stressful because we had to drive across town and then check in Alison at the hospital and I had to leave her and get Zach from the sitter who was planning on only about 2 hours. Long story short, I stressed, Alison stressed but was then relaxed and then she was done and I wasn't stressed anymore and we came home and all was well.
She does have to go on a medication that stops contractions, for obvious reasons, but all else was basically a non worry eventful day in the end. Wow.
So another day of appointments come and gone and we are still doing well. Parents of one toddler and a baby brimming with excitement to get out. Ironically she is already getting us all knackered out. This is what parenthood is all about...
Regardless, today we went for another check-up and found that the state of her heart is going really well. So well that we we told by the fetal cardiologist specialist that we only need to see him every two weeks instead of weekly. Exciting for us. For me as well because monitoring is very routine and I can go to work or tend Zach rather than going to those appointments as well.
At least we thought. Today the babies heart rate was all over the place in bad ways (ranging from 60 to 130 beats per minute). This may have been stress or just her rolling around all the time at the wrong times. Alison as well was having small but consistent contractions. So we got sent to the hospital after 20 minutes of monitoring for 4 hours additional to be sure that nothing was really wrong.
This was stressful because we had to drive across town and then check in Alison at the hospital and I had to leave her and get Zach from the sitter who was planning on only about 2 hours. Long story short, I stressed, Alison stressed but was then relaxed and then she was done and I wasn't stressed anymore and we came home and all was well.
She does have to go on a medication that stops contractions, for obvious reasons, but all else was basically a non worry eventful day in the end. Wow.
So another day of appointments come and gone and we are still doing well. Parents of one toddler and a baby brimming with excitement to get out. Ironically she is already getting us all knackered out. This is what parenthood is all about...
Baby Names
Okay so the last post was kind of depressing or overwhelming. This is not to bad, we really feel okay about what is going on and what will happen in our future.
So we have been thinking about baby names. We love to think about baby names to be honest. We love calling our daughter different names every day. Doing this overall we end up with a good idea what names we really like over the 9 months. With Zach we thought Alexander, Zachariah, and Abram as top names. I was leaning towards Abram and well when we saw him and met him we decided he was a Zachariah to be sure. It was lots of fun. It almost seems that we have more fun with playing around with names than any other aspect of the pregnancy.
So for our daughter I like the following names (I think that Alison likes some of the same as well, some on this list are her alone some days...);
Abigale
Kaitlin
Catherine
Katie
Alexandria
Andrea
Emma
Emilee
Shaharizod (okay all me)
Nichole
Well those are the ones that come to my mind most readily, and I think that today the three favorite are
Andrea (what I would name her today), Catherine, Kaitlin
I think that today Alison may like Andrea the best, but she is still toying with lots of new names as she comes across them. I love considering new names for girls as well so we will see what happens when she is born...
So we have been thinking about baby names. We love to think about baby names to be honest. We love calling our daughter different names every day. Doing this overall we end up with a good idea what names we really like over the 9 months. With Zach we thought Alexander, Zachariah, and Abram as top names. I was leaning towards Abram and well when we saw him and met him we decided he was a Zachariah to be sure. It was lots of fun. It almost seems that we have more fun with playing around with names than any other aspect of the pregnancy.
So for our daughter I like the following names (I think that Alison likes some of the same as well, some on this list are her alone some days...);
Abigale
Kaitlin
Catherine
Katie
Alexandria
Andrea
Emma
Emilee
Shaharizod (okay all me)
Nichole
Well those are the ones that come to my mind most readily, and I think that today the three favorite are
Andrea (what I would name her today), Catherine, Kaitlin
I think that today Alison may like Andrea the best, but she is still toying with lots of new names as she comes across them. I love considering new names for girls as well so we will see what happens when she is born...
Our Daughter...
We found out about 3 weeks since we found out that our daughter had a heart issue. Well here is about what happened looking back on 3 exciting, disappointing and relieving weeks.
Well here are the details about what we know. First of all we are going to have a girl. We said many times that we decided to wait to find out the baby's gender until it was born. Well we were in a routine appointment for a checkup and they listened to her heart. It was about 2% slower than normal and they said go and see a specialist to be sure everything is okay. We said sure since our insurance will pay for everything anyway. And because we figured that it was no big deal at all.
At the specialist (sadly I wasn't there because we thought nothing of it) they said things like we can't find this part of the heart and where is such and such. Ali was overwhelmed and stressed. They also sent her to the best fetal cardiologist in the west (nicely, also in Las Vegas) the same day, asap (getting appointments with this guy is a priority situation only). He said you are okay for today, but come back in 3 days and we will take a much closer look at things on a better machine, which is at a different office (he has 5 offices that we can tell, he goes around to each to accommodate the most people possible, ironically making it hard for us each time we have met with him).
So I went with her to the follow up specialist specialist appointment. At that appointment we found out several things. First of all a bit of background. If you don't know, your bodies heart is made of 4 chambers. It is also broken up into a left half and right half. Both halves take in blood that is oxygen depleted from veins, and pushes out from 2 arteries blood oxygen enriched. Well for our daughter she is lacking the blood returning section in her right side, so at best she is running at 60% return to the heart. She also lacks the Lower Venecava which is an intake area for the right side. This is kind of bad news, but if she makes it to birth she will likely live a life like any other child and never know the difference (you could say she would do everything almost half heartedly, kind of funny but not I guess).
The most serious problem she actually faces is that the Foramenal Valley is much smaller than it needs to be. Usually this is 8-10mm and in her it is 2mm. This is essentially a hole in the middle of the heart in an area that divides the heart into two. What this does is allow breathing through the umbilical cord. After she is born it will close and she will breath through her lungs. If it closes she will slowly suffocate inside Alison. So this means that we have to watch very carefully to be sure that it maintains at least the constant size it is at. If it decreases we will take steps to deliver her early. So to watch it we have to go to the doctor three times a week.
So far after 4 check ups we have seen the Foramenal Valley stay constant in size. If it stays constant then she will be delivered normally and likely have few if any problems. I will be honest however that her chance of survival to birth isn't 100%. She has many obstacles to overcome and things to do before we can really breathe easy (no pun intended). At this point she could very easily die in a multitudinous number of ways (luckily these are things that probably won't happen, and aren't things that regularly happen). I personally am preparing for things that hopefully we won't have to do or deal with but may have to. Alison isn't worrying about those things because it would likely cause her more stress than is needed. Regardless, our and our daughters outlook is very good.
We have prayed and I have fasted (obviously Alison can't) and we feel good about things. I don't know that we feel that things will be okay for sure, but we feel totally confident in dealing with and accepting whatever the Lord sends our way. However the ball rolls we will be prepared for what comes our way. The nice thing is that both of our families have felt the same thing as well. This is really comforting, especially because we don't feel like we have a false sense of security.
Well that is the background of what is going on with our daughters development. I will keep all posted.
Well here are the details about what we know. First of all we are going to have a girl. We said many times that we decided to wait to find out the baby's gender until it was born. Well we were in a routine appointment for a checkup and they listened to her heart. It was about 2% slower than normal and they said go and see a specialist to be sure everything is okay. We said sure since our insurance will pay for everything anyway. And because we figured that it was no big deal at all.
At the specialist (sadly I wasn't there because we thought nothing of it) they said things like we can't find this part of the heart and where is such and such. Ali was overwhelmed and stressed. They also sent her to the best fetal cardiologist in the west (nicely, also in Las Vegas) the same day, asap (getting appointments with this guy is a priority situation only). He said you are okay for today, but come back in 3 days and we will take a much closer look at things on a better machine, which is at a different office (he has 5 offices that we can tell, he goes around to each to accommodate the most people possible, ironically making it hard for us each time we have met with him).
So I went with her to the follow up specialist specialist appointment. At that appointment we found out several things. First of all a bit of background. If you don't know, your bodies heart is made of 4 chambers. It is also broken up into a left half and right half. Both halves take in blood that is oxygen depleted from veins, and pushes out from 2 arteries blood oxygen enriched. Well for our daughter she is lacking the blood returning section in her right side, so at best she is running at 60% return to the heart. She also lacks the Lower Venecava which is an intake area for the right side. This is kind of bad news, but if she makes it to birth she will likely live a life like any other child and never know the difference (you could say she would do everything almost half heartedly, kind of funny but not I guess).
The most serious problem she actually faces is that the Foramenal Valley is much smaller than it needs to be. Usually this is 8-10mm and in her it is 2mm. This is essentially a hole in the middle of the heart in an area that divides the heart into two. What this does is allow breathing through the umbilical cord. After she is born it will close and she will breath through her lungs. If it closes she will slowly suffocate inside Alison. So this means that we have to watch very carefully to be sure that it maintains at least the constant size it is at. If it decreases we will take steps to deliver her early. So to watch it we have to go to the doctor three times a week.
So far after 4 check ups we have seen the Foramenal Valley stay constant in size. If it stays constant then she will be delivered normally and likely have few if any problems. I will be honest however that her chance of survival to birth isn't 100%. She has many obstacles to overcome and things to do before we can really breathe easy (no pun intended). At this point she could very easily die in a multitudinous number of ways (luckily these are things that probably won't happen, and aren't things that regularly happen). I personally am preparing for things that hopefully we won't have to do or deal with but may have to. Alison isn't worrying about those things because it would likely cause her more stress than is needed. Regardless, our and our daughters outlook is very good.
We have prayed and I have fasted (obviously Alison can't) and we feel good about things. I don't know that we feel that things will be okay for sure, but we feel totally confident in dealing with and accepting whatever the Lord sends our way. However the ball rolls we will be prepared for what comes our way. The nice thing is that both of our families have felt the same thing as well. This is really comforting, especially because we don't feel like we have a false sense of security.
Well that is the background of what is going on with our daughters development. I will keep all posted.
Friday, May 18, 2007
A Disappointing Tragedy - A Month Later
A month ago more than 30 people we killed on the Virginia Tech Campus. It seems that we have simply moved on. I really understand the feeling of the VA faculty and students wanting to be left alone so they can work out the terrible thing that happened. For the rest of the nation I believe that we should not forget. I will not be one to say what we should do but it seems that we try and deal with these things by just forgetting.
These problems will always resurface in one form or another because people allow themselves to think that their problems are due to other peoples actions. We like to blame others for what isn't going well for us. We are so accustomed to not taking our own responsibility that we will let things grow in magnitude on us as we shirk them continually. I believe that this was one problem likely faced by the killer. I feel so bad for him that he didn't consider that maybe there was a different solution that would if anything benefit him alone.
I hope that we can grow from this tragedy in ways that will benefit everyone, if only by benefiting ourselves.
These problems will always resurface in one form or another because people allow themselves to think that their problems are due to other peoples actions. We like to blame others for what isn't going well for us. We are so accustomed to not taking our own responsibility that we will let things grow in magnitude on us as we shirk them continually. I believe that this was one problem likely faced by the killer. I feel so bad for him that he didn't consider that maybe there was a different solution that would if anything benefit him alone.
I hope that we can grow from this tragedy in ways that will benefit everyone, if only by benefiting ourselves.
Work and Slavery
I have been trying to plan for the next year here in Vegas, mainly concerning our budget. We have been running things on 1500 a month plus a few sub jobs by Alison that pad the budget. Well I asked my boss to turn me into a full time player from part time over the summer so that we could save for later when we won't have the option of Alison doing the sub job.
My boss said that he wouldn't make the change for me. His reason was basically that I wouldn't possibly be able to save any money because (I don't really know what his reason is) I supposedely wouldn't save anything. He said that you will spend whatever you get and so getting more to save for later would basically do no good because later when you get less you will go into shock. I am pretty disgruntled over this because he is not giving me the money for work I will be doing so he can keep his own salary padded long after the project is done with. It also is boiling down to the fact that he expects me to work full-time and more for only part time pay. Why should he pay more I will do the work anyway. I guess he assumes that I will be resourceful so that I won't starve while working. This is the way things go I guess. This is a situation that I will basically have to bend over and take.
I think that overall I am most distraut because I am being taken advantage of. That drives me nuts more than anything else. Arggh.
Besides the money, the good news is that I will be able to probably get all my research done so that in the fall and spring I will be able to just doing something else besides research to supplement the income. So basically I can earn myself more time for later when it might be able to pay. I just like everyone want the payoff now however. Oh well.
This is really not that big of deal in the short term round of things but for me it is another thing to worry about on the pile of things in life. We found out our child that is soon to be born is facing a serious heart problem that could result in her dying before she is ever born. This means that we will have to go to the doctor several times a week to check on things among other things. I will write a total blog about this later but basically I was hoping for a small thing to bouy us up during this slightly depressing time (We have moved on and are looking toward the future, no use in rotting in the past).
Anyway that is all for now...
My boss said that he wouldn't make the change for me. His reason was basically that I wouldn't possibly be able to save any money because (I don't really know what his reason is) I supposedely wouldn't save anything. He said that you will spend whatever you get and so getting more to save for later would basically do no good because later when you get less you will go into shock. I am pretty disgruntled over this because he is not giving me the money for work I will be doing so he can keep his own salary padded long after the project is done with. It also is boiling down to the fact that he expects me to work full-time and more for only part time pay. Why should he pay more I will do the work anyway. I guess he assumes that I will be resourceful so that I won't starve while working. This is the way things go I guess. This is a situation that I will basically have to bend over and take.
I think that overall I am most distraut because I am being taken advantage of. That drives me nuts more than anything else. Arggh.
Besides the money, the good news is that I will be able to probably get all my research done so that in the fall and spring I will be able to just doing something else besides research to supplement the income. So basically I can earn myself more time for later when it might be able to pay. I just like everyone want the payoff now however. Oh well.
This is really not that big of deal in the short term round of things but for me it is another thing to worry about on the pile of things in life. We found out our child that is soon to be born is facing a serious heart problem that could result in her dying before she is ever born. This means that we will have to go to the doctor several times a week to check on things among other things. I will write a total blog about this later but basically I was hoping for a small thing to bouy us up during this slightly depressing time (We have moved on and are looking toward the future, no use in rotting in the past).
Anyway that is all for now...
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