Oh Son-day Son-day

Let me tell ya. It's been a week folks. I have worked a ton and I got to work today. I was not looking forward to it at all. I am kinda fried on being at the clinic.

But, my super-awesome-amazing wife decided to make the day tolerable by bringing Jojo and lunch down to the clinic. It completely made my day.

Here's a video she took a few days ago. It's adorable.

Happy Son-day

I've been using the Son-day posts to post some photos from his first couple weeks of life. This is one of those.

My father is really into genealogy. One of the things he knows is that Josiah is the first-born son of a first-born son of a first-born son...and so on for a few generations. I think there is a first-son-born (two older sisters) in there somewhere. I'm not just super-clear on it. I should be, my dad's explained it like 9 times.

"back in 1736...something something something"

So my dad really wanted a 4 generation photo. So he got my grandfather to meet us for some photos. Here is one of the better ones.

"who are these ugly...ah crap"

Happy Son-day

We did this ultrasound package at a place called A Glimpse Before and After. The place was great and the experience was totally awesome. I've posted some of the videos we got.

One of the things attached to the package we did was a portrait session with this lady in Harrah. If we had known then what we know now, we would have just taken a pass on that part. We were really displeased with Tamara Tigner's prices, options, and business model. The entire time I felt we were being taken advantage of and I think we were. There are vastly more convenient and reasonable photography options in the OKC area. On a scale of 1-10 she gets a 1 because the photos themselves were good.

but I could be biased

Happy Son-day

Yes. I am totally calling it this.

Yes, it is complete silly.

But you know what?

My mom will love it.

Resolutions

That is such a heavy loaded word. In the context New Years Day it means:

1. a resolve or determination: to make a firm resolution to do something.

2. the act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure, etc.

That's right, I used a dictionary. Jealous?

 I prefer the word Goals, but meh, semantics. 

 

Last year, these were my goals and the degree of success I achieved.

1. Read 12 books - I started like 4, finished 1.5. The others I decided I hated.

2. Have a baby - Done and done. 

3. Finish Mass Effect 1 & 2 - I did neither. Getting it to run on my computer was just more than I could deal with. I have got to get a copy of XP service pack 2 and get 7 off my computer.

4. Learn a little about photography - I dabbled, but never got too deep into it. I learned it can be expensive. 

5. Make an Airbender movie - following my hatred of that abomination Shyamalan heaved upon us, I took up the notion of editing the entire first season down to 2-3 hours. I got through a couple episodes. I still think it is a cool idea. 

6. Pregnancy flip book - This is actually in the works and now that Mo is done being pregnant, I plan to finish it. I also need to finish the "expansion" video. 

7. Reduce possessions - I took a ton of stuff to good will this year. I bought a few things are there are more things I want to get rid of. So I made some progress. 

 

So I made some small gains, no single goal was an outright failure (well, 3, and to a lesser degree 4). 

 

So this year I have some goals. 

 

1. Read 3 books. 

 

When I made the 12 books goal I hadn't read for fun in years. Grad school demanded the majority of my reading time to get through horrid, dry, psych text books. Having learned it takes me about 3 to 4 months to get through a reasonably long book, I think 3 books is an attainable goal. 

 

2. Post a picture or video and something about Josiah every week. 

 

I have a friend who posts a picture and short message about his son on Facebook every day. I freaking admire whatever it takes to pull that off. It's impressive. Totally not something I am going to do. Imitate? sure as hell.

 

3. Attain a blue belt. 

 

Typically it takes about 40 classes to get a belt. I usually average 2-3 classes a week (some weeks I go 5 or 6 times, some weeks I miss entirely). That means it takes about 20 weeks to get a belt. There are some weeks the school is closed. So, I should get about 2 belts this year. 

 

4. Lose 30 pounds. 

 

How cliche is this? But it's true and closely tied to #3. I need to eat better, and now that I don't live with the machine of eating (pregnant Mo is amazing) it is more likely I can. I'm not going to go all hard core. A few small changes I started working on in Nov. and have kept up with (ignoring the last 2 weeks) started to help. I think I can keep that up.

 

5.  Learn sign language. 

 

This is my "yeah right" goal. I am horrid at languages. I have an auditory processing disorder. I hear things but unless they are very clearly spoken, the part of my brain that translates sounds into meaningful words can't do it. For example, the words "Bees" and "Beads" will only be distinct if they are said clearly and free of distracting noise. People who mumble drive me nuts. Also, learning languages is hard. But, as a student pointed out to me, sign language plays to my visual processing strength and completely bypasses my auditory weakness. More over, many children can learn a sign language before the important parts of their ability to speak fully develop. So, plenty of motivation. Maybe I will take a class somewhere. I get some credits @ UCO from my job. 

 

6. Reduce possessions. 

 

I started this goal late last year. I'd like to keep it going. I need to let some things go and there are somethings I just don't need. More on this one later, for now it remains a vague goal.

6 Reasons 2012 is going to be awesome

2011 started with Snowmaggeddon and adventures with IVF round 2. Let's just be honest and recognize that as a rough start. Seriously, the second round of IVF was rough and dominated the first half of 2011. But then, it went pretty damn well.

But this post is more about 2012. I think it has good potential for a great year. I mean, it has all it needs to be great. Here are few things that are going to help.

1. I have a son. That alone is pretty damn cool and will likely dominate the entire year. There is so much happening this year. Lots of developmental milestones and fun firsts. Mo and I can legitimately celebrate mothers day and fathers day. First Easter (oh yes, the outfit will be adorable). Halloween will be epic (oh yes, the outfit will be adorable) and we can go to haunt the zoo and not seem entirely awkward. Granted, next holiday season will be just all the more busy with Josiah's birthday 12 days before Christmas (oh yes, the outfit...you get the idea).

2. Movie. Oh my lord, the movies! John Carter (YES!), Wrath of the Titans, The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, The Hobbit, Brave, and several others. Now, if I can just con my folks into watching the munchkin....

3. Lego Lord of the Rings. (cue angelic choir). I am going to spend so much money on this. Seriously. So much.

4. A Dave & Buster's in OKC. Again, might need someone to watch Jojo, but totally awesome.

5. This tax year we have a dependent. Apparently a kid for 18 days counts as 365 days. Sweet. Now I might be able to afford all previous entries to this list.

6. The Olympics. I love the Olympics. As it will be in London I hope to God David Tennant does something there. I mean, has the Doctor ever gone to the Olympics? I would think he would go to the first ones, or start them, or something.

Couldn't get through one whole day

So my parents "left" yesterday. They wanted us to have some "nuclear family time" before I had to go back to work. Yes, my dad says stuff like that. We love him for it.

"let me tell you about post-modern...something something something..."

Mo and I were happy to have the apartment back to ourselves and spend some time with Jojo and each other. We started looking for some daycare options. We were given the idea that getting into the Integris facility was not going to be a problem, but now it is. Oh well.

Then Mo went into the shower. When she came out she seemed a bit haggard. She told me she wasn't feels so well and threw up in the shower. I told her to call Dr. Thomas. Getting in to see Dr. Thomas is not easy. A few months back one of the other doctors she shares the clinic with quit or left or something. Dr. Thomas went from 5 patients a day to 25 patients a day. I don't blame her, she's good at her job and that makes her high demand.

So of course, there was no way to see her today. They could get us in to see one of the other clinic doctors but not till 4. So we just went to one of the Urgent Care centers. After they took some vitals, they asked me to come into the exam room. My heart rate went from "normal" to "sayoc-krav maga-kill" almost instantly because that has never happened before. They showed me the vitals (which mean nothing to me) and I am thinking "are you leading up to cancer or heart disease or something?" But then he (finally) told me she seemed anemic and he wanted us to go to the ER and get some fluids.

So we went home, loaded up supplies for Jojo (bottles, diapers, etc) and went to the ER. Or rather, we took Mo to the ER and I took Jojo to the main lobby. I really, really, really, did not want a 2 week old in an ER. nothing about that seemed smart. I didn't want Jojo in the hospital. His immune system is nothing like fully developed. Granted, we hope he gets his mothers immune system, but still.

So I was in the main lobby keeping in touch with Mo via iPhone and taking care of Jojo. That, as you can imagine was less than ideal. I hadn't eaten in hours by this point, mo is alone getting paler and more miserable by the minute, and I can't risk Jojo to be near her. If I want to go to the bathroom I have to load everything up. If I want to eat, load everything up.

Now, I know for a 100% fact that I have a good half dozen friends who would have been there to help in under 15 minutes. (you know who you are and you are awesome). But I also knew I would need to facebook these events at some point.

The first step is admitting you have a problem...but screw that.

More over, I did not want my folks to completely freak out. So I texted them to let them know what was going on, but everything was manageable and I would let them know if we needed them. So of course, they showed up within a half hour.

Mom took Jojo (home eventually) and I went to Mo. Dad hung out in the waiting area the entire time, even after we went to an exam room. We really wanted to minimize exposure. I didn't hold Jojo until after I got home, changed clothes, and washed my hands to the elbow.

Mo was very tired and pale. ER service is slooooooooow, but oddly busy. You are in a constant state of intense awareness that something important will happen any second and that is exhausting. They took blood, urine, all the normal stuff. She had a fever of 103.4. They got her some pain killer, anti-nausea, fluids, and so forth and got the fever down. She got some sleep. Eventually after running a few dozen tests, and Mo was doing much better with the fluids, meds, and rest, they couldn't give a solid explanation for it all. Everything pointed to a virus, but it wasn't any of the obvious culprits. Just a unknown little flu-like bug. We got more fluids, her fever was down to 100.7, a script for anti-nausea meds, and went home. Basically to treat it like a virus.

One of the sad parts was we had her pump in the ER (mainly to give her some relief and keep her supply up). Sadly, the milk was contaminated by the virus and the meds. Thankfully, my wife is brilliant and had built up a small extra supply. Not too much, but enough for a day or two. If her fever is gone before that runs out, awesome. If not, we will get to do a little formula. That's not a big deal, mainly I just wanted to brag how awesome my wife is.

So now we are home after one hell of an exciting day. My folks took care of Jojo last night so Mo and I could recover. Which really plays to what my Mom wanted all along, that is, more time with Jojo. She basically had him to herself the entire day and the following night. Which begs the question, was it all part of my mother's plan? Did she poison Mo? In the absence of any evidence, I'm forced to assume yes.

The face of a super-villain

 All kidding aside for a moment, thanks mom and dad. We seriously appreciate it.