Oorgo

Salsa Colombiana

I'm pretty excited, get to see a Latin band tomorrow night, La Sonora Carruseles from Colombia, they've never been here, let alone western Canada so it's a pretty big thing. Our band does covers of a few of their songs, of course not as great as this one but hey... we try.

So anyways with every good thing of course comes bad, I have tickets for both Amber and I to go, we asked her mom back in January to babysit for us and she said yes. We've reminded her many many times since then and she's said 'no problem'. Well then a week or so ago, indirectly we find out her and Sam are going to Halifax for a week or so and it just HAPPENS to be at the same time as the concert. Yet another example of her family letting her down, it just seems to never end. I'd like to say thanks to her for letting us know, at the time we thought we would have to either sell the ticket or get someone else to go and Amber gets to stay home. Luckily our friend Dan agreed to go, perhaps it could have been the pictures of the attendees in the facebook event, :).

Grandma

Last Monday my Grandma died and on this past weekend we traveled 8 hours to attend the funeral in the little town where she lived and where Mother and Father live now. She lived to the amazing age of 98, had 8 children and now has a huge family. We all loved Grandma, I don't think anyone in all the branches of the family tree held anything but love for her.

The turnout in the little hall was really good, it was packed, but even then about 35 people from the family didn't make it. All things considered it's December now, and roads can be treacherous and unpredictable in western Canada. Saskatchewan is nuts, I mean you drive a couple hours and you go through 2 different weather fronts.

It's hard to describe the effect that she had on her family or the town she lived in and the ability she had to give and love. Even after her family had grown up and left home she took in 2 children at separate times, I believe both of them lost their mothers. Grandchildren also went to stay with her, almost every summer there was one there when I was growing up. Every year when I was growing up we had reunions in her yard: a double-lot with a little house a big garden and a crazy amount of plants. Sitting around the campfire my Mom would play guitar, we would sing songs from a songbook someone made up.

She didn't always agree with how someone was living, in fact she would tell you straight away what she thought, and made sure you knew the consequences of your actions. She never ever gave up on anyone though. she had no problem setting you straight, with some wise (sometimes stern) advice on the path you were heading down. Your acceptance of that advice was sometimes negligible but if you fell she always welcomed you back, no question about that.

I'll miss her, and I'm a little sad but I think she lived a good long life and she provided a wonderful role model along with the cement that holds our large family together.

Breeding Hooligans

Ever day many of us read in the paper or hear second-hand about a teenager or young adult, or pre-teen that is completely out of control, a vandal, a thief, has committed assault or worse. I can tell you what's causing this but you probably already know.

Last Tuesday Xavier was playing in the playground outside his preschool, Amber was standing along the sidelines with our 1 1/2 year old. Amber saw a boy the same age as him pick up sand and threw it in Xavier's face so she went up to the kid and said "You don't do that, you apologize". The kid went running back to his parents who just said in a somewhat condescending tone"'Oh, are you being bad?" but did... you guessed it... SQUAT. No "Go apologize" no reprimand, no "I'm taking you home", no "Go sit in the car" no .. anything.

If my mom had seen me do that when I was a kid she would have either reprimanded me right there, told me to apologize, or grabbed me and we would have went home where the punishment would be much worse.

You know what? 4 year olds make mistakes, they can be mean and malicious and stupid and everything that their parents are, but if you are a responsible person you say "Don't do that" and "Apologize right now!". You don't act like your little angel could do no wrong or that you are better than everyone else so you don't have to apologize, it would be too embarassing. That's right, it's embarrassing to you, because he's acting just like you do.

How the effin' hell are kids going to learn unless we teach them? How did you learn? I don't think any of us magically had all the social finesse that we have today, we all bumped into kids, threw fists, got into trouble, yelled and screamed. We made mistakes, we were corrected (sometimes too corrected) and we learned how to act in our society.

We wonder why kids are such a problem, we wonder why there are such terrors in middle upper-class neighborhoods. It's not the poor kids who are the problem anymore it's the kids of the "I don't have time to discipline you or be a parent I have a golf game/massage/spa day/club to go to" generation. The "My kid could do know wrong" parents are breeding bullies and sociopaths because they're doing what the single parents and work-all-day-and-night-to-make ends-meet parents have been accused of --> neglect.

Xavier and our Fit

I love the new car, I really do, and I can't say enough nice things about it. Xavier loves the car more though, to him it's the best thing that's ever happened to us. For the first month after we got the car everyone he happened to talk to he told them "We have a new car! It's a Honda Fit and it's red!" Of course most of them just said "Oh, that's nice dear" and patted him on the head. Every time we go out he talks about it, "that car looks like the Honda Fit... those are the same wheels as the... that car is red just like the.." etc. etc.

The other day I had turned the wrong way down a side street so I said to Xavier "Check this out" and I pulled a U-turn, damn the thing has a great turning radius, anyways he goes "Wow! The Honda Fit is Cooool!" all the while giggling.

I'm pretty sure we have a car nut on our hands.

Feliz cumpleaños a mí

On this day, 37 years ago, after waiting 2 weeks past the due date my mother gave birth to a screaming redheaded boy named Dave.

And I've been late ever since.

Thanks Mom! Thanks Dad!

Happy Birthday to me! Happy Birthday to me!

Pattycake, man

We keep getting little insights into the future and the relationship the two boys will have. This afternoon my wife came out of our room, she had asked Xavier to watch over Griffin while she went out of the room, to find them just laughing and cackling. She overheard Xavier playing pattycake with the G-man, and his alternate lyrics for the age-old classic.

Pattycake pattycake bakers man
bake a cake with a rolling pin
First you bake it and make it
make it man
You bake it, make it
make it with a friend!

I had to share it, because I laughed with tears in my eyes while she recalled it to me over the phone.

Mischief

Our oldest is officially in his 3's.

Monday morning I woke, heard him talking to the dog, and what sounded like feeding him; no big deal, sometimes he does that in the morning. Our border collie / german shepherd cross stays in a kennel in the house and is outside during the day, so in the morning X-man grabs kernels of his food and feeds it through the bars. So anyways I grab a shower, and as I'm towelling myself off I hear more noise, sort of a 'click click click' like the dog's walking around in the kitchen. I hurriedly get dry, put on some covering and go out to see what's going on. I went to the top of the stairs, called out his name, no response. Called out again, and here comes the dog, then a couple seconds, the boy, with dirt on his face, no pants, and bare feet. That night I found out the dog had also taken a huge crap by the kitty litter down there, luckily it's all cement and I had an easy time of cleaning it up.

Later on that same day my wife told me that she fell asleep on the couch so he took advantage of the situation and went downstairs into the computer room. He turn on the computer, the monitor, the radio, the webcam and also let out the cat. My wife went downstairs because she couldn't find him, she heard some noise from the room, opens it up and here he has some programs open and is dancing in front of the webcam. She said the look on his face was priceless, I really wish we could have gotten a picture of it.

I really had a hard time being mad at him since we never at any time specifically said he couldn't do any of that. He figures since we can do it, hey why not right? Plus the dog complains alot in the morning to get out, so he was being nice to the dog by letting him out right? Of course we clarified it after the fact, and we are also locking the doors downstairs now. The little bugger was in my room again this morning, this time it wasn't funny and I made sure we knew that he knew better. Obviously I have to do a better job of locking the doors, on the way home today I'm going to pick up a hook and eyelet for the other door, the one he lets the cat out of (no, it's not a closet, it's 2 unfinished rooms, I love my cat).

Polite but bossy

Recently Xavier has discovered the world of manners, which is great because he says "thank you" "sorry mommy/daddy" at the appropriate times and "please" if he really wants something. It's surprising that at 3he has such a good grasp of it, but unfortunately on the other side of it he takes us to task whenever we don't follow the rules.

According to him if you do anything wrong you have to say sorry (now, this doesn't have to be towards anyone, just anything, even dropping a spoon). You also have to say thank you if he does anything for you. He's like a tyrant in this, "Say sorry Daddy" is something I hear like... as soon as I get home. I'm going to be saying that when I get home tonight as I left the stroller in the trunk and they needed to go out on the bus today.

"Awesome" has come into his vocabulary recently, which is pretty cute and for some reason he seems to only use it with me. Yesterday we played the "sloop your pasta" game, everytime either of us slurped our pasta, the other would have to say "Awesome!" and clap. It was pretty entertaining, although after awhile we both tired of it. Once again though he's mr. bossy telling me "Say awesome, Daddy!"... "Clap, Daddy!". I'm a sucker for the cuteness so I fall in line.

We have to watch this kid or soon he'll be running the family instead of us.

Christmas Present

Hey so I thought I'd show you folk the biggest Christmas present we got this year.

Our little fella Griffin, not long after he got home, sleepin in his Bassinet.

Happy Time of Year to everyone and their families.

Red hair and screamin'

I praise the Merciful God that guides us and created us, I am the father of a beautiful 7 lb 1 oz (I'm not 100% sure on the length, of course it IS 4 am) red headed boy.

We went in at noon to be induced, probably 1 or so she was jelled up. Everything was going ok, but there was a problem, the baby wasn't moving down as fast as she was dilating. Not good, and later on the labour was getting really bad, she almost looked like she was going to pass out. Not long into that labour the doctor checked her and her water broke, only it wasn't the water it was what's called a Placental Abruption. The baby's heart rate dropped to 1/3rd what it should be, and they rushed her in to do an emergency C section. Probably 15 minute or more later we get the good news. I was overcome with relief and joy! Mommy is doing fine but on a long road to recovery and after a bit of oxygen baby came off his tube and breathing on his own.

His name is Griffin, and he is chubby with (what looks like) red curly hair. It took 4 women to hold him down to give him a needle. I think he was aptly named; the head of an eagle and the heart & body of a lion.

Update - Griffin is 18 inches long and was born at 11:15 pm.

It's a biggun'

So Amber went in for another ultrasound today, the baby looks good but it's big: 6 lbs 8 ounces! Nuts! The kid is that big at 35 weeks, what would happen if she actually went to full term, 10 lbs? Oh lordy. Probably gonna happen next week or for sure the week after, because of the amnio that'll be performed, it apparently brings on contractions most of the time.

Baby is very active, even though it's big and doesn't have a lot of room to move, it is trying to make more room (not a pleasant feeling apparently). Here's an idea on size, we thought it was pushing it's foot against her ribs, no, it was apparently it's knee!

{off-topic}
Here's a weird thing, there was a comment on this post (spam) that was something like 500 characters or more long, it was not deleted by fluffy, but it was also not added to the blog or emailed to me. Wacky eh?

7 hrs in the RAH

I must have some sort of sixth sense for things happening, as I had almost no sleep Saturday night, for no reason that was apparent at that time. At 7 everything became apparent, Amber woke me up saying we would have to go to the hospital for non-stress tests, as she was feeling contractions, strong pains wrapping around her side timed about 2 minutes apart, when she laid on her side. I suggested she sit on the exercise ball that we have, which lessened the pains quite a bit, but at around 10 we went to the hospital to make sure everything was ok.

Baby was very active the whole time, no issues there, and after 2 or more hours on the monitors they said they were definitely contractions, but nothing else was advancing. We stayed for a handful more hours, as they were reducing in strength and they wanted to make sure everything was continuing to calm down. Basically this all resulted from a tour of the department we took on Saturday, which existed of a little over an hour of walking and standing, 2 things that previously brought on contractions in past pregnancies.

Xavier was amazingly good, we were there for 7 hours and he only really cried once, and that was when he slipped off the visitors lounge couch onto the floor. Oh, and he almost did when he thought we were leaving mommy behind in the hospital, we weren't though, just feeding the ridiculously expensive underground parking machine.

Amber is on strict no stress, no exercise, no exertion orders for the next while so we can extend the time until the baby comes. It's 33 weeks right now so that's good, everything is developed the baby just needs to gain more weight and grow some. Even if it came in the next couple weeks it wouldn't be bad, although we're really not ready for it quite yet, tonnes of stuff to do.

X man

Well Amber finally got in to see Xavier's Neurologist today.

Not terrible news, and definitely not as bad as it could have been. He basically said that Xavier might have Cerebral Palsy in his leg(s) when he grows up. It may very well be minor, or so slight you don't notice, or there is a possibility he may have no recognizable problems.
He will most likely take longer to sit up by himself, and walk, but that's not so bad, we have to learn how to keep our house clean before he starts boogie-ing around.

He will have to go through another MRI (poor bugger), to make sure the blood clot is going away. If not, he will have to go on blood thinner.
He's so darn cute though if the blood clot is still there it can't be severe. He's got amazingly good vision for a baby, he can sit in his swing (which is probably 7 feet from the tv) and when something comes on the tv he thinks is funny he actually grins. Hilarious.

Xavier has been teething alot lately, so he's a bit crankier than usual, and the slightest bit of gassy food puts him pain. Amber is banished from chili, beans, cool whip, etc. :)

Anyways, that's the latest news on the X front.

whoa... post lag

I can't believe it's almost a month since I posted last... well ok, I'm exagerating but whatever.

So Xavier is growing rapidly, gaining weight and being an all-around stinker (sometimes literally). It's awesome. Yesterday I was sitting playing with him, and he grinned really big, then stuck his tongue out at me. Hilarious, since we play the "stick out your tongue at each other" game often, I think he wanted to start it. I swear the kid is really smart.

Did I mention he can roll over by himself already? YEah, supposedly that's a 4 monthish thing, but he's doing it now. He's not great at it, and it takes awhile, but he's very stubborn (like mom and dad).

Crazy stuff is happening at work.. 35-40 calls a day, extra core products to support, people quitting out of the blue with no notice. Others ready to riot.

Oh, and dammit I got sucked back into Neverwinter Nights , this time Multiplayer. It's much more fun than single-player, you have all the cool mods, and weapons, it's faster paced, and plus there is the social aspect of it. A few of the guys here at work hooked me on it again. Damn them! :)

New Xavier pics

New pics of Xavier up!

http://members.shaw.ca/oorgo/pics/Xavier

I'll have more soon, just have to develop some film ;)

Thanks to for the majority of the "at home" pictures, you'll be able to notice, because the resolution and color is better :)

Xavier is home!

Well if anyone hasn't heard yet, Xavier is home! yay!

He came home Wednesday, January 1st, and so far it's been a great New Years. He's doing great, eating like a pig, growing... he's up to 22 inches (probably more now), and 6 lbs 13 ounces (also probably more now). Eating about 4 ounces of milk every feeding, crying... pooping.... all the good stuff.

And on top of it, we found out our horrible awful neighbors are getting their house sold by the bank, because of her not complying with seperation agreements with her husband. These people neglected their dog so badly that the SPCA had to take it away, they had been leaving it in the house in a kennel on the weekend while they went out camping. The poor dog ate all it's food and had to eat it's own feces, it was so badly malnourished the SPCA had to put it down. I think they deserve much more than they are getting, I wish you could file criminal charges of neglect.

ANYways, glad they are going, it's about time, and super glad that Xavier is home now, even though I've lost a fair amount of sleep so far. The little bugger thinks it's great to stay up really late, or get up at 2am and go to sleep at 5 am

Gone!

Well... we got a new pediatrician. Found even more fuel for the fire last night when Amber actually read the Sleep test.
Sleep test result: "This infant has mild sleep apnea(sp?), most likely because of prematurity"
Doctors description "Oh, he's got sleep apnea, we have to leave him on that O2 for longer" (no mention of Mild or Prematurity)

New pediatrician comes in , looks at everything, examines Xavier, says "We'll do a sleep test next week and if the tests come out well he'll be going home soon" Yay!

Gee ... look what happens just by changing doctors

Anxiety levels... decreasing.... calm... approaching

Well eveythings much better today, we had the doctors appointment yesterday and baby is strong as a horse. Apparently she/he has definite opinions on how things should be, how Amber sits, etc., she/he will boot pretty hard if Amber leans over. It's not painful kicks yet, hopefully it will stay that way :)

An Aunt of mine, when she was pregnant with my cousin, said one night the little bugger kicked her ribs so hard his foot went inBETWEEN her ribs, and got stuck there. She had to actually push it through, apparenlty making my Uncle pass out. Quite a hilarious story when she tells it.

Anyways, everythings better and I'm not ripping out customers hearts to feed them as a sacrifice today.

whew...

Well everything seems to be better now, the ultrasound was good, apparently the techs were remarking "Oooo how cute" because they could see eyelashes. Baby is acting like nothing happened. Yay!
Unfortunately Amber will be on strict bed rest... she can't do ANYthing.. that will sorta drive her nuts (wait, what am I saying sorta)

At least the tightenings have stopped, and there's no early early birth. AND everyone is healthy

Scary

Well last night at 8:00pm we had a little scare, Amber had major back cramps, and couldn't walk up even the stairs in our house. I had to help her. Once we got her to bed the back pain went away, but then she starting having little tightenings, 6 every 15 minutes... Needless to say she phoned the labour and Delivery wing of the hospital we're delivering in, and they told us to come in.
We went in, they put her on a monitor, and we sat .. and watched it... baby's very healthy, kicking, heart rate good, mommy's fine. She had contractions every 2 minutes or so, just little ones, and they just kept on going. They admitted her, for observation.

So... she's still at the hospital under observation, our OB is coming in later for a checkup and ultrasound. And I'm at work... fretting ...
Really she should be ok, they said they would give her something to calm down the contractions, but after last time I'm just naturally going to be worrisome

(no subject)

Well here's my first entry, and boy oh boy is it a doozy... really... (no)
Here's the update for all who don't know... my wife's pregnant, due in November (probably, we don't exactly know for sure) she's doing great, no probems, we're very excited.
We bought a 93 Grand Am a few months ago and the more I drive it the more I like it... vroom vroom! Take that Honda Civic! vrooom
I'm not exactly happy with the seating arrangement at work, and so this is a constant thorn in my side 8 hours a day 5 days a week. Joy! Oh, and we're super dead because it's summer holidays, so that leaves room for many great boring snoring conversations that I don't care even a bit about.
There... that's my first post.. hope it enlightened you..