After they gave Michelle the anesthesia, they called me in at 12:32pm. At 12:42pm, Ava was born. At 1:05pm we were out of the operating room and in recovery. Is that amazing or what? Right around 30 minutes: and that include them removing a couple moles too!
Ava was incredibly purple, but within minutes, her body was normal color and her hands & feet followed within a couple hours. Her fingers & toes are quite long. She looks nothing like Laci (we don't think). I will write more when it's not midnight and I have time.
If my family were a corporation, I would be the President & CEO, and my wife would be the CFO and CMO (chief mother). It's easy to run a business (family) when there are just two of you. We hired an employee a year ago who had very little on her resume (breathing, sleeping, eating, etc...), but she is our most cherished person in the company. Then things happened so fast that we had no choice but to bring in a second employee - who starts Friday (or earlier if she can get out of her current situation). This one too is very young and actually has nothing on her resume other than a pulse and some practice kicking.
We are growing so fast as a company and we signed these two employees to life-long contracts. Are we ready? We don't want to be another AIG and none of us have golden parachutes - nor would we ever think of using them if we did. We do have a business model that we try to emulate and that model is unequivocally fool-proof. We will succeed if we follow the model, but it can so often be hard to follow and sometimes confusing as to which avenue to take. Fortunately we have other corporations that are in the same business that we can call on for help. We are in no way competitors and often work together as coalitions for further success, but imagine being a CEO and then asking another company for help. It can be hard sometimes. For now, though, I am going to stick with the parts that you tell to the stockholders.
It is incredible having success in life. Our company is growing and I know both the CMO and I have no doubts we have and will have the best employees our corporation could ever hire. No matter how little experience they have, we know that we can build their resumes. They will learn the business and how to run one of their own someday. Yet they will never leave this company as we will make it a great investment for them. We will share with them our business model and we will give them all the profit and all the shares that we do not need to survive.
The executives of any company do need their own profit and their own shares. The employees need to know that everyone is well taken care of and also that the President & CEO will never leave....
That he is fully committed to this corporation; that he doesn't need a parachute; that he does not want to resign and work elsewhere; that he has his whole life invested in this business model and this business; that he has faith in his employees; that he believes in their future; that he feels fully secure in his choice of CFO & CMO; that he believes in this company; that he is here until the end; and that most importantly - he sees this corporation as his family and that he loves them all very very much.
Laci's first birthday party was fun but rather uneventful. She had tons of friends over and of course many pictures and some video were taken. She loves all the gifts she got and has been playing with many of the toys. Laci treated the cake with suspiscion - I guess not knowing what it would taste like with all the colors it had. In the end, I think she was just too tired to really dive in. Plus I'm sure it was sugar overload as she has never had anything close to that sweetness. It was a very pretty "cake" (made of cupcakes) displaying a large butterfly. Her birthday theme was butterflies.
Just as exciting was over the past week, Laci has been taking her first unassisted steps. It's amazing how fulfilling it is to see your kid walking on their own. She's so proud of herself too. So far, Laci can't go for more than 6 or seven steps, but her confidence in those few steps is increasing. Ans she's getting close to being able to stand up without any assistance from furniture. I'm excited becuase she is just that much closer to helping me mow the yard and clean the garage. It will be a great day when that parental dream is realized.
You might nix those last two sentences as far as legitimacy is concerned.
OK, it's almost been 4 months since I wrote anything here. Not bad I guess - right?
Since then, we have done not much of anything. (Thanksgiving, Christmas, the usual) In January, I went camping with a couple friends from church. We thought it might get a little chilly, but it turned out to hit 32º. That was a pretty cold weekend. I needed the experience however as a few of us intend to summit Mt. Rainier in August. It'll definitely go below 32º there and the windchill will be far worse. I got a 0º mummy sleeping bag for Christmas which makes sleeping in that weather extremely comfortable. Now if I could only get around to getting in physical shape.
For Valentines Day I thought I'd take my family somewhere they would both enjoy. As my wife has a severe fascination with exotic animals, and my child (11 months old) has animal characterizations all over her room and is learning to imitate the sounds of dogs, monkeys, and lions - I though I'd take them to the zoo for the first time. We went to the Fort Worth Zoo (which BTW is open 365 days a year - didn't know that). The first thing Laci saw were the pink flamingos. There were a ton and you could get very close. She was mesmerized by their noise and color. We then passed by the zebras and some other odd animals. Unfortunately, the monkeys were not out (atleast not the Gorillas). She also saw the hippo, giraffe, and rhino, but they were too far away to really get her full attention. The elephants were obvious to her and she reached out wanting us to take her over closer to them (fences prevented that).
The highlights were twofold. The first being the lion. Not only did she get to see it fairly close, it put on a show by letting out a couple roars. We've been teaching Laci to roar when she sees a lion and for her to hear a real one get that loud was very intimidating to her (to us as well). There's nothing like it and imagining how it would shiver your body if there were no fence and chasm between you and it is incredible. She now knows what that roar is really supposed to sound like. If you look at the pictures you can see the lion (and his spouse in the one picture where Laci is giving my wife Michelle a kiss). She also saw the "small" cubs playing with their mom and each other.
The second highlight was not reserved just for the zoo, but still: Laci got to feed a parakeet with a popsicle stick covered in seeds. I thought she'd not hold it still for the little bird so I held her arm out for her. For a better photo op, I let her do it on her own the second time and she was as steady and gentle as could be. (see pic).
Unfortunately, timing (naps and etc) prevented us from seeing probably 1/2 the zoo, but I know she'll go back again and again. Nothing else really approaches the same excitement for her than seeing (and touching) animals of all sorts. My only fear is that in the future, I will have to hold back both Laci and my wife from approaching every wild animal they can that have teeth (or beaks), so that neither is ever at the hospital getting precautionary rabies shots.
Take your kids to the zoo, it's cheap and they will probably love it, and there's never a day where it's unavailable.
Gone on several camping trips recently - each with it's own significant event. First of all, Laci loves to camp. She loves to be in the tent; she loves to be out doors; and she loves to hike. You can tell by the pictures here. She is starting to teeth and getting close to crawling. Since I've been so lax with this site recently, I'll have to condense everything for time sake.
First trip - to Eisenhower State Park (Lake Texoma) - definitely recommend. First time for me to camp just with my wife and child and no one else. lots of work to cook and clean all on your own.
Beautiful place.
Coolest thing was wearing a headlamp at night and seeing several gem-like blue shimmers on the ground. Thought it was really a gem and looked close to find it was a spider! Got Michelle to show her and pointed one out and - bummer - it was just a piece of glass. Thought I'd try another and found to be a spider! and another! and another!
In the end, when you knew what to look for, we saw HUNDREDS of little spiders - their eyes sparkling an eerie blue color. Kinda scary seeing as though they were all pointing at our tent - but still really cool.
Second trip - Eisenhower again with friends from church. Pretty little beach. Nice to have church service in the park.
Third trip - Loyd Park at Joe Pool Lake. Friend from work and many many others. This was cool because it was "Halloween" in the park. Everyone dressed their campsite like halloween and hundreds of kids rode through in pickups or hayrides and people threw candy to them. Ours was 60's style. Michelle and Laci loved it. (see pics of pumpkins). I burnt my arm hanging a coleman lantern. That will be a nice "temporary" tattoo for quite some time.
We may be going camping again soon. You can always invite us with you or come with us if you know we are headed out. I love having a wife that enjoys some outdoors.
Laci is teething, but that hasn't stopped her from having fun. Her eyes are still blue and can be really striking at times.
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/268780.aspx
I had never heard of this video, much less seen it until this past weekend when I saw it recreated live. Evidently millions have seen it, so I'm in the minority. However: If you haven't seen, or want to see it again, follow the above link. Do know the following info:
- it is religious in nature - but isn't preachy at all.
- you have to have sound (and no distractions) for it to make it's point. (headphones or a room where you can turn it up an not bother (or be bothered by) anyone.) The only audio is the song "Everything" by Lifehouse.
- It's less than 5 minutes long.
- it's great on video, but even more impactful live.
- 90% of those who watch it will need atleast one Kleenex®
- the above stat includes guys - so I probably wouldn't watch it at work.
We had about 2,500 singles fly in from over 50 countries for the International Singles Conference in Grapevine. (If you include those living in the U.S. already, there were citizens of over 90 countries represented).
http://www.isc-2008.com/
My wife and I were volunteers for the event.
Had many interesting thing go on recently:
* Fixed our A.C. unit - twice. Only cost $44 - so far.
* "Someone left the oven on" - and no I'm not talking about food.
* Purchased a notebook computer - we're getting on the information service road.
* volunteered for the ISC (http://www.isc-2008.com/)
* found a new respect for african-americans
The only thing I'm going to mention here is the last bullet. The captain of my hockey team is black. Over the past 5 games or so, it has become apparent that he does not get any calls (penalties charged toward opponents that did something to him - hooking, tripping, interference, etc...). This last game, it was blatantly obvious he was intentionally tripped atleast twice, as well as other events that could be iffy. I just about lost my cool and yelled at the refs that they were missing things that should have been called. When they wouldn't hear me, I went a route I never have been before. I said it looked as though they were being racist. I pulled the race card.
Not being black, I've never realized how easy it is to bring race up. My captain has never brought it up and these things happened to him. He's talked about growing up and trying to play hockey in Philly, but never complained here. I brought it up and after talking with some other captains, I beleive the refs were only biased against the best player on each team (which my captian probably is) and it had nothing to do with race, but I found it so easy to suggest it.
So I am saying that for all those friends (and strangers) out there that are african american and never pull out the race card - I really admire your restraint to do so. You are less judgemental than I.
This past week has been full. I was sick for really most of the week, though I did work. Laci has been sick too - mostly with bad cold symptomes. Our house was (and still is) invaded by ants. They aren't everywhere, but we keep finding a few in our bathroom (around the sink) and Michelle found a bunch in Laci's dresser, though they have mostly gone away.
Also, our A.C. unit went out on Tuesday. Good news is I went back there and took a few things apart and made sure the connections were secure. It came back on (yes I turned off the electricity while I was working on it) and has been fine ever since. Made me feel like a man to not have to call someone to service it.
I sitll need to replace the fence, and plan our anniversary (a couple weeks away). Work has been very busy, but also very fulfilling. I'm earning alot of cred.
Laci is now 3 months old (13 weeks). Everything is progressing along normal lines (height, weight, skills, feeding, etc...) The only things that stand out are her head shape becoming more normal; her lower eyelashes growing towards her eye (websites say this is found mostly among asian babies, but should correct itself as Laci grows. No cause for concern so long as there are no visible irritation issues); and her sleep patterns. As far as sleep patterns, Laci has been sleeping 9-11 hrs per night for probably 4 or 5 weeks. I would attribute this to Michelle's constant following of the principles found in Along the Infant Way (also known as BabyWise - please do take the good and bad reviews both with a grain of salt. I can tell you after 3 months - it's working for us as well as with several other families we know who highly recommended it. I cannot say it will work for you.)
Laci has just started trying to grab things. She is very happy and goes to bed relatively quickly (usually less than 10 minutes of fussing). She talks alot and once in a while sounds like she is trying to mimic something we said. She still leans her head one way often, but it's less than before.
Michelle and I have already given our deposit to Mike Kopf for the Beach Trip 2008. This will be our 'big' vacation for the year (no more Paris and Swizterland now that we have a kid). Hopefully many others will be able to attend.
And finally, congratulations to my parents for 40 years of faithful marriage. That's a long time to put up with someone.
I went on my first overnight hiking trip this past weekend. Jonathan Williamson and Marc Pond joined me in hiking over 13 miles in two days. I had never before had to worry about how much drinking water I had or how light my tent was. This was one of the mose grueling events I have ever participated in. Six miles each day wasn't the hard part. The hard part was the number of hills we had to climb and descend and how steep some of them were. I also never realized we would have so much weight carried in our backpacks. I would estimate each of us had 20-30 pounds of water and equipment.
In the end, we climbed and descended enough hills to equal taking the stairs to the top floor of the Empire State building and back down - twice. The trip out was about 5 - 6 hours of hiking. The trip back was a speedy 4 hours. I am so sore today, I walk as an old man. If you see Marc or Jonathan and they are fine - don't tell me or I'll feel like a wimp.
The experience really helped me to see how much I take for granted in my brick house with running water and bathrooms and A.C. I have never had to worry about what I would eat or drink (as in if I would get to). I reccomend it - even if you don't take as harsh a trail or go as far. I think we pushed ourselves - especially on the way back. If you left at sunrise and planned on arriving at sundown, it would be a much easier trek.
The trail is beautiful and there are many scenic views over the water. It's only 90 miles from DFW. I wish Robert Garcia and Cory Daniels and Chris Layton could have come along. That would have made a greater chance for me to not have been the one always dragging behind (not saying I would pick any of those to be the one - just saying more people lowers the likelihood).
I posted a few photos on the HIKING page.
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