The 4th of July Post, 3 months overdue

The new house is within walking distance of two parks and I'd often ventured there in my childhood to watch the 4th of July parades. This year the whole family took advantage of the park to see the parade; my wife's friend and her kids came along too.

We set up shop on a corner across from the park.

As is our tradition, the kids were decked out patriotically.

We brought bags for the kids to grab candy as the parade passed, but I didn't think it would amount to much. Wouldn't ya know it they all went home with a Halloween's worth of goodies.

Parker really seemed to enjoy himself. Note how he reacts to the music.

He loved Bango the Bucks' mascot

and the Brewers' Klement Racing Sausages

At one point he even ran into the road and down the street chasing after an RC car, to the laughter of the crowd.

* * * *

Later, in the early afternoon we were going to take the kids to a Decorated Bike contest at the park, but on the way to the event YaYa's bike's chain slipped off and it had to be abandoned. While the family pushed on I took the bike home and quickly slipped some of the decorations onto her scooter, then took that back to the park.

We arrived too late for the contest, and even for the ride across thestage. I got them in anyway, and they strolled across - albeit during the 'Boys 8-12' division.

I also managed to get the kids the goodybag and ice cream given out to contestants. I seem to have a modest knack for making the world conform to my wishes.

Lisa and YaYa then decided on the spur of the moment to join a pair of Chicken Dance contests. By coincidence both were assigned GHW Bush's #41!

First prize in each division was a surprising and excessive $50, with the smallest (3rd place) prize being $25 . . and we didn't crack the top three in either!

Listen, it was rigged! There's my wife, 1 month from giving birth and a dancer for years, doing a flawless routine and they give away the prizes to two hot young things and a crippled old man who's mind gave way back in the early nineties!

Rigged! And I have video to back up my tale!

That evening we went to the fireworks in the park and ran into the family of Lisa's maid of honor, and my Dad and sister Katie joined us too. Then it was back to the house to enjoy a warm summer night in July.

A very nice holiday indeed.

Lauren's First Week - Sunday

Sunday morning we had breakfast together then packed off the whole family to church. We didn't make it through the entire mass (Lauren's first!) but it wasn't Lauren's fault; Parker was terrorizing an autistic boy in the crying room by simply being his typical two-year old self, so we had to leave early.

We then picked up AnnaBelle, the girl Lis had watched all summer, to fufill a promise I'd made all week: to take the kids on a picnic.

We debated going over to the playset by Miller Park but instead went to 'the deer park' aka Whitnall, where we found a beautiful, empty spot by another play area.

The meal itself was standard fare- PB sandwiches, carrots, etc. But the company was great.

In a desperate attempt to knock out the jaundice and end the daily trips to the Dr, we put the baby out in the sun.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Worst Picture of Me since freshman year yearbook:

Unfortunately YaYa had a hissy fit at the park (jealousy over the baby?) and we packed it up and left. It was getting hot anyway, and I'd realized that we'd screwed up our schedule. Lisa's cousin was due to drop off a dinner for us that morning, but I'd forgotten and packed the family off for church. D'oh!

[BTW - Lauren's belly-button fell off later that night]

It was then time for yet another Dr. appointment, and I dropped the family off at Lisa's friend Jolene's house to wait out my trip with Park and Lauren. Good news - the billibrubin was on the way down and her wait up, ending the need for the trips, and Parker's infection was better.

Sweet!

Here's Jolene and her kids with Lauren:

Later that evening Uncle Kenny stopped by with Aunt Carol to see the baby:

And that pretty much ended the honeymoon . .the next day I had to return to work. As I told my boss, 'it was the best week of my life. Bar none'.

Why? The birth, naturally, and the baby and Mom safe and healthy . . no worries about work . . relaxing trips to the library . . evenings alone with the baby . . endless time to interact with the kids . .

I should be rich so I could do that full time. I'd do right by it, honest I would - I just enjoy time with the family.

One thing: Lauren merged seamlessly with the family. It was as if we had 3 kids one minute and four the next (which I guess technically, is true). But do you know what I mean? She was a part of our family right from the start, like she belonged.

And she does.

Our family is complete.

9/11 Six Years Later

Here's a link to my memories of that horrible day.

What I find incredible is the overall lack of emotion/interest/horror the event inspires here in 2007.

It's been SIX years folks, not sixty, and yet everyone seems to have pushed the day into the history books and out of the mainstream. I'm guilty of it myself, but six years ago I'd have taken bets that the day would perpetually loom front-and-center on the American consciousness.

Maybe it's a good thing - certainly it shows that our country is more than capable of absorbing a tragedy and pushing forward - but somehow, in my mind, it just seems to brand us as shallow.

"Never forget. Never forgive."

Potty Training P-Diddy Wee Diddy

On September 3rd, the 24th anniversary of my maternal grandfather's death and the 19th birthday of my cousin Elliot and most importantly for 2007, a day the Brewers blew a big game, we tried potty training Parker.

Yeah, it didn't go well.

I mean, there was some success. At 5:08 pm , after literally an hour of keeping him on the toilet and singing and reading and blah blah, he peed  . . and peed . . and peed.

Ditto 9:02 am the next day.

But in between he shat his pants several times (tho' he did walk to the bathroom after doing the deed) and peed all over the house.

I should mention that the boy shows unusual . .dexterity with his, uh . . .well, yeah. He amused himself to no end with the acrobatics he demonstrated. I was impressed enough to consider contacting the circus . .

Anyhow, on a serious note: we have temporarily suspended the activities until the chaos of four kids has settled into a reasonable mode, and until Park shows more interest or vocal skills.

Lauren's First Week - Saturday

Saturday started with a bang. Parker couldn't put weight on his leg and was crying in pain. Overnight the scraped knee - this piddly diddly scrape - had become infected and swollen his knee.

Crap, and on my watch too.

So we loaded him up to piggy-back Lauren's appointment. This time Lis went too, in part because she is very close to Parker and sometimes the boy all but refuses to acknowledge I'm alive. Largely however, she was just p.o'd at the doctor about the comments she'd made yesterday.

Well, naturally the clinic spat out a different doctor, one who was quick to point out the fast-acting infection in Parker's knee. He drew a line around the site to track the progress of the infection and gave us two prescriptions. He also ordered some blood work, and brother Parker did NOT like that.

The baby's blood was drawn again and the count had climbed to (if memory serves) something close to 13.7. We were instructed to take her in AGAIN on Sunday.

 

There was another trip to the library that day, but I did it on my lonesome.

 

That afternoon Lisa left to go pick up a lot of premie girls clothes she'd seen on Craigslist (including an awesome baby binding blanket called a Kidapotamus, which I constantly and mistakenly call 'the papoose', genuinely at first and now for effect)

 

Meanwhile I set out to cut the grass, and just as I finished - I mean literally as the engine sputtered from a lack of gas and the last blade was trimmed, company arrived in the form of my Uncle Ken and my cousin Becky and her husband (w/ their new baby in tow), and her sister Mindy.

 

Here's a completely out of place pic of Lauren and YaYa, but what the heck.  

 

 

Here's Lauren with my cousin Becky

 

 

 

Here's LuLu's Godmother, Becky's sister

 

 

Becky's husband Pon

 

 

My Uncle Ken

 

 

Here's Becky's son Gentavon

 

 

 

 

 

and Caitlin, who went home that afternoon, with Parker

 

 

To try and snuff out the jaundice we put Lauren (still refered to by me at that point as 'the baby', 'it', and other generic terms) on the porch

 

 

 

meanwhile her siblings joined us. Keep in mind, the shirt Park is wearing at age 2 fit YaYa loosely when we bought it in her K4 year!

 

 

 

I don't remember much about that evening in particular, save that it was wonderful and relaxing and full of love and all that good stuff. Sometime that weekend or thereabouts Lauren also had the joy of seeing ARod hit a homerun (albeit on TV) - indoctrination to Yankee lore is an important aspect of raising any child!

 

[note: I have some footage of me and YaYa during the 2001 World Series, screaming and scaring her as the Yanks hit a homer to win the game]

 

[note#2 - just to F with me, as she is now happy to do, YaYa will go around professing her love for the Red gag Sox and the (vomit) Cubs . . then giggle while her eyes sparkle. Disgusting!]

 

Sometime this week Lisa and the girls also had a talk about breastfeeding, 'tho I think that took place much earlier in the week . . by Saturday the baby was being supplemented with formula for a number of reasons, including the fact that formula fed babies tend to fight off jaundice earlier. . . .

 

 

Quote of the Day - or at least pre-1pm

From a clerk at my place of business, greatly annoyed at my protests of ignorance after being informed that I had to run the show solo while my staff attended a baby shower:

"Dan stop pretending to be incompetent and just fess up to being lazy!"

Lauren's First Week - Friday

Friday was a heck of a day [sadly, one with few if any pics worthy of inclusion however].

To start the day I had to take Lauren in for the scheduled jaundice checkup. Bear in mind I didn't have to - Lis was certainly willing - but a newborn isn't exactly difficult company. They just lay there sleeping while you soak in praise for the 'bravery' you showed in taking them with you.

Actually I took all the kids, which (pat on the back) is a wee bit harder, but not exactly the equivalent of climbing Mt. Everest.

We waited for the doc in relative peace, then waited some more in the examination room itself. At some point Park spilled water on the exam table, making a puddle on the paper sheet.

Naturally the doctor walked in and had a cow, making a relatively big production out of a small matter.

The checkup proceeded and all seems ok, tho' the Doctor was still worried about jaundice. She left to go get a lab order for bloodwork and said to me, as she left the room, 'Don't let the baby fall off the table'.

A. The baby's newborn  - she can't roll.

B. She could roll like a ship in a tsunami and I wouldn't let her fall.

I let her know my opinion of the statement, although it amused me more than I'm letting on here.

Give her credit - she apologized when she returned and even complimented me on bringing the kids, saying her husband would never have managed the feat.

She went all overboard on the potential jaundice, saying I'd have to bring the baby back every day, blah blah.

Look, YaYa was so jaundiced you could have mistaken her for a highlighter. I wasn't worried about a kid who had a taste of the stuff - I think it eventually tested at ~ a 12 or so.

The worst part was of course the bloodtest, holding my newborn as her heel was pricked and blood drawn. I'd done that for YaYa too - it sucks.

So I leave the Dr's office and on the way home call and update Lisa. By the time I got home the Doctor had called LISA and updated her too, saying she didn't trust a man to relay the message.

SWEET!

I found it amusing but it really pi**ed Lisa off.

After lunch and a nap I took the brood out again. To the appliance store (we'd gotten the wrong part) - but this time I remembered quarters for the candy machine - and to another appointment we had.

At this second appointment Parker fell and scraped his knee. No big deal - he's pretty tough that way - but it had ramifications later in the weekend.

Now you may recall I'd gone to the library -our local branch - the day before. But the book I REALLY wanted was only available downtown (Scalzi's last old man novel). So I decided to take the kids down there, to my old stomping grounds.

Only I had my fill of watching 'em all, and no way was my anxiety ridden self going to watch all of them in the huge central library.

Thus, I drafted my niece Caitlin to go with us.

Not much to note there, save the fact that the kids LOVED the lightower in the children's section and played up there forever.

[note: one neat thing I love about my kids. They are such frequent patrons of the library that they request you go to a specific location, identified by the activity in the children's room or the shape of the building: the 'round library' (Zablocki), the 'robot' library (Washington Park), the 'Lightower' (Central), etc. ]

[a librarian heard yelling from the tower and came to scold me (being a man) for not watching my kids. I'd had enough testosterone bashing for one day, thank you.  "Those are boy's yelling. Last I checked, I have one boy and he doesn't talk. Go talk to her" I said, gesturing to a nearby Mom.]

The kids rebelled a bit at the checkout desk, leading one punk clerk to say "That's why I don't have kids". Lucky for the world, a*hole, lucky for the world.

At my girl's request Caitlin stayed the night at our house.

In the evening word came back from the Doc - Lauren would need to be seen again tomorrow.

* * * *
One more thing, and I don't know if it was Friday or Thursday, but my sisters made my family dinner and dropped it off at the house to ease the post-birth burden on us. Mashed potatoes, roast, corn . .yum. It's such a good idea, and so helpful to the family that I think it will become our new 'gift' to new parents.

Some pics of Lauren circa 8/9 or thereabouts

I say 'thereabouts' because the date on the camera is often off; but I'm reasonably sure they were taken Thursday night.

[Tho' the background might fool you, 'tis not man-boobs you see, but a hardy mix and match of my hairy self.]