E and the baby

I have been very worried how E was going to handle having a baby in the house. We realized that, except for the 4-5′ish months in day care, she has had one on one attention her whole life, and I was worried how she was going to react to sharing the spotlight.

So far? She has been GREAT!

Some highlights:

• she tried feeding J some of her cheerios
• when J cries she gets his bobo (pacifier) for him
• she gives him his pacifier
• she usually does a ‘taste test” of the pacifier before handing it off
• usually she tries to stick the pacifier in his eye or ear :-p
• she gets him his bottle
• she tries another “taste test” before handing it off to momma to feed the baby
• she tries to feed the baby
• she usually tries to stick the bottle in his eye or ear
• she kisses him
• she tickles his feet to wake him up while he is eating (he falls asleep 2 seconds after he starts eating)
• she pats his back
• she “helps” “find” J a new outfit because babies are GROSS!
  *and by help and find i mean push her way through our legs while we are changing him to get to the, what we thought would be, baby proof containers. Then she proceeds to open and spill said containers all over his room and the apartment.

someone gave her her very own “baby” before J was born (THANK YOU KARLA) and we pretended that was a real baby, and that has helped E to transition as well.

• she takes her “baby” and tries to swaddle it
• she takes her “baby” and tries to burp it
• then grabs the “baby” by its ankle and drags it down the hallway
• she tries to gouge out the “baby’s” eyes
• she even tries to feed her “baby”

yes, with a mustard squeeze bottle.

it’s amazing how fast she catches on, and how fast she wants to imitate what we do with J. (and no, that does not include feeding him with the mustard squeeze bottle. she did that on her own)

all in all the transition has been rather smooth. the only downside is since she doesn’t want to miss anything her naps have been really short. Hopefully she’ll realize that  a baby that sleeps for 22 hours a day isn’t all that exciting.

Until next time . . .

 

Baby: Part Deux 2

After our son was born I cut the cord. The nurse was warned about my possible passing out so she asked me 1,200 times afterwards “is daddy ok?” I was totally fine. I moved to the warming station and just stared at my boy. It was so cool seeing him for the first time!
The nurse was checking him over and was relaying all the critical info to Tova.
She said “you have a healthy baby boy. He has 5 fingers, 5 toes, and …”
She looked the baby, looked at me, then looked at Tova and paused. Then she said
“And he has blonde hair?!?!?!”
She then looked at the baby, looked a me, and looked at Tova one more time trying to figure this all out. I am fairly certain she was waiting for a Jerry Springer moment. Then Tova, about 5 feet away said
“REALLY? DANIEL! WHO HAVE YOU BEEN HANGING OUT WITH?!”
There were about 8 people in the room and everyone started cracking up. But, seriously, I would be lying if right then and there I starting wishing I paid more attention to that whole punit square thingy in my basic biology class :-p
But in all honesty, even though the nurses were looking at our brown hair and trying to figure out what the deal-i-o was, I knew that me being 1/2 irish was the answer.
I stayed in a lil longer and then realized I had my daughter and pops waiting for some kind of update.
I headed towards the waiting room and opened the large doors and E started running towards me. My dad looked at me with a sense of anticipation in his eyes. I looked at him and with a serious tone, and even seriouser face said
“it’s a girl!”
My dad literally did a little hop in his seat, and with the most astonished look in his face belted out
“WHAT?!”
I then laughed rand told him it was a healthy boy, and I even cut the cord. (I hadn’t planned that at all, but it was awesome)
We waited a bit and at first intolroduced E to her lil’ bro. E immediatley said “BABY!” when she saw him. Then we introduced him to his paternal grandparents. It was a cool thing, for sure.
T and J stayed in the hospital two nights and went home not even 48 hours later. My mom stayed for a bit to help ease the transition and it’s been nothing but sleepless bliss since.
Tomorrow* another post

Baby: Part Deux

So, we have another kid . . . Kind of crazy! Seemed like a good thing at the time time to update the blog.

For any/all that are interested here is a quick recap of the events of one week ago today . . .

T had been extremely uncomfortable for the past month (and more) of the pregnancy. It had been a pregnancy COMPLETELY different from her first. During her first pregnancy we were hiking in mountains to see waterfalls, walking through caves etc, and with this pregnancy T was TIRED/IN PAIN all the time.
She went in to the doctors office and the doc asked if she wanted to be induced and T was elated. Our baby would be born just a few days early and that made us happy. We also laughed at the fact that our baby boy would be born on Valentines Day, and our baby girl was born on our wedding anniversary. (I blame Julie since she was the first to bring up this possibility. Also, we are scouting dates for T and I where we can have a romantic night that isn’t taken over by the birth of one of our children! Right now June 17th is #1))

So anyways . . .

The night before we hardly slept. We had my parents come down, so it was nice to have family there, but we couldn’t sleep . . . especially T.

We wanted to leave for the hospital at 7 (even though the appointment was at 8) and somehow ended up leaving the apt. at 7:50. We left the chica with the grandparents so she was well taken care of. Then we were off to the hospital. We were anxiously, nervously excited during the literal 2 minute car ride to the birthing hospital.

The rest is a general time line of the days events:

7:55 – We got to the hospital, and we started getting situated in our room. (T was wheeled in with a wheelchair, she needed to have the baby!) We met our nurse who was insanely AWESOME!
9:30 – The induction was started. Don’t know why it took 1.5 hrs, but that’s what happened.
11 – I almost passed out. I will not get in to the gory details, but I left the room, went to the waiting room and plopped on the sofa across from my dad and the convo went something like this:
Pops: You OK? (while chuckling at my wussiness)
Me: The things that I have just experienced…
Pops: Already? What happened? You wuss! (while chuckling at my wussiness)
11:40 – Contractions started. They would last about 15 seconds and then T would have a 2-4 minute break in between. T was gearing up for when they would get worse (we’ll revisit this in a bit)
12:35 - The nurse said “You can knock me over with a feather if this baby is over 8 lbs” (we’ll revisit this in a bit as well)
2:10 – T officially moved to the “not-a-fan-stage” the contractions where still 15-20 seconds long with a 2-4 minute break in between. They were very consistent. During this time T was on her i-phone looking at facebook/pinterest etc. She wasn’t having a blast but she was relatively comfortable. We were still waiting for the contractions to get longer and A LOT more difficult. (During this time I was on a reclining chair with my feet up still recovering from the earlier episode. Remarkably T didn’t need me by her side.)
3:15 - Contractions were stronger and still lasting 15-20 seconds, but T was tensing up a bit in between the contractions. The nurse suggested taking some medicine to help her relax.
*FLASHBACK* In Korea T wanted pain meds/epidural and was assured she would receive them. When she asked for the pain meds she got NOTHING. Not even aspirin (like that would have helped)
*BACK TO BIRTH DAY* We talked about T taking meds, and T didn’t want to take any for this birth, definitely not an epidural, but she would be open to taking a little bit of meds to take off the edge. She/we weighed the pros and cons and we came to that decision. (It was easier to make that decision since T already went through labor/delivery without ANY meds and she knew she would survive without them) We were informed that the meds weren’t pain meds, but instead would help T relax in between contractions which would help speed things along. This fell in to the area of comfort-ability with us and what meds we felt comfortable with so she got the meds.
3:30 – T is HIGH AS A KITE!!!! And by high as a kite, I mean HIGH AS A KITE! It was hilarious. Some of the highlights. (These are actual quotes from T)
-”You can tell I’ve been on Pinterest. Everything is made of FROSTING! Right now, Daniel, you are on the green frosting”
-”Why do you keep kicking the blueberry?”
-”OH, DANIEL, OH, THE ROOM IS TILTING. Oh, it’s just the meds. And seriously, if the room was tilting what could you do about it anyways?”
-”Daniel, our nurse . . . she’s the tiger from Kung-Fu Panda. Seriously, she is the tiger from Kung-Fu Panda. Do you not understand? Daniel, do you know Kung-Fu Panda? She is the tiger from Kung-Fu Panda!”
*NOTE These are word for word. I risked my life to write them down as they happened on paper and on my i-phone.
While T didn’t like being high, the meds definitely worked and things started moving along. And within 2 hrs from the meds . . .
5:13 - Our baby boy was born!

AND I CUT THE CORD!!! I AM A MAN! :-p

Getting back to the labor: In Korea the labor pattern was this: 2 minutes intense labor pains 10 seconds of “relief”. For this it was the exact opposite. T was waiting for the “real labor to start” since the only other thing to compare it to was her previous labor. This labor was “easy” compared Korea. We told the nurse about the contraction pattern in Korea and she was intrigued as to the induction protocol in Korea, and wanted to to investigate it further. The nurse definitely said “what did they want to do, explode the baby out of the belly?” uhmm . . . yeah :-p

No more than eight pounds . . . uhm . . .yeah. Our “lil’” guy came in at a whopping 9 pounds 1 oz! Yeah, no wonder why T was SO uncomfortable for so long!

It was amazing. Seriously. People have told us “Every pregnancy is different” “Every birth is different” but honestly? The two births could not have been different. An hour in to the labor for E T was barely lucid trying to fight through the intense pain. She sweated through a pillow and was put through torture. This one? She was on her i-phone until 2 hours before the baby was born, and she was talking the whole time. Unbelievable.

So that was the birth. Tomorrow* we’ll be doing one more post for all that care.

Next Phase part 2

So its been 2 months since we updated this thing and we thought it would be good to update everyone since so much has changed over the past two weeks. I would like to try and promise it will be short, but you know how that goes. So here we go:
When we left Korea we assumed that Tova would go back into teaching. Out of the blue she got a job as a supervisor-type at a daycare roughly two weeks after landing in the US. This totally changed our plans and we thought that the daycare would be a long term thing. Tova couldn’t shake the idea of teaching though. We wanted to look at schools in Jax but none were hiring, so we had to broaden our search. We kept it in Florida because Tova had her teaching license already in Florida. (and I am now allergic to winter)
Then, with the school year was fast approaching, she got offered a full-time 5th grade job at a school in Polk County (about 3 hours SW of jax, right in between Orlando and Tampa Bay). The offer was so sudden that she had to leave her daycare job that Friday. Then Saturday Tova and I drove down to the area and found an apartment.
That Sunday we packed everything that we had at the house.
Monday Tova drove back down to fill new-hire paperwork.
Tuesday we loaded up the truck.
Wednesday we unpacked. Thursday/Friday was new-hire training.
Monday (of last week) was her first day at her school, where Ellie and I helped move all her boxed up teaching supplies to her new classroom.
Last week was filled with start-of-year-meetings and setting up her classroom.
And today? The first day of school!
Crazy, crazy.
(during this whole process my dad said “don’t you guys do anything normally?” my response was “no dad, no we don’t”)
How are we handeling it? Fairly well. The apartment is nice, and Ellie has a ton of room to roam. She likes that.
How’s Tovas school?
Awesome. And we are not just saying that. The teachers and administration are awesome and have helped a lot.
What is Daniel doing?
I am working 100% from home. The nice thing about video editing is that you can do it anywhere.
What about filming?
Since it is so close to Jax it isnt a problemo at all. In fact I just got back from shooting another course.
How long is this move?
We anticipate staying here for quite a while. We like it here and are happy, and we want to be settled SO BADLY.
So that, in a rather large nutshell, is what we’ve been up to. We are excited to see what this next phase has in store for us.

Next phase!

Have I mentioned that Tova and I love planning? Before we left the states we had a dry-erase calendar that was of vital importance to our household. When we came back and got our things out of storage it was still intact! I looked at the calendar and was shocked at the uncertainty of our lives right before we left. The first week and a half on the 5 week calendar was filled with errands to run. The other 25 days all had question marks! Every Single Day! It made me think “What were we thinking?” Talk about uncertainty!

Little did we know that when our Korea adventure was over it was pretty much the same thing. A lot of question marks and uncertainty.
One of the question marks was what kind of job would I (Daniel) get. That was and is a good question! I really feel lead to be in the ministry and to prepare people to live Godly lives. One thing about that leading is that it doesn’t necessarily mean that I am supposed to be on staff at a church.
Over the past 3 months, I have been working on something that I am really excited about. While in Korea, I was approached to start a new venture in video-taping college courses for a college that specializes in distance education. This is something that I was very much interested in. It really made me feel like I could contribute and be a part in ministry.
Over the past three months I have been getting my feet wet with different software, different computers, different web sites, reading books on the subject, figuring out how to make a decent website by myself and so much more to get as prepared as I can to start shooting classes.
After four months, the time has come to show the fruits of my labor.
I have started a new company called Logos Educational Videos!

I created a website that explains a lot of what we are about and what we offer. I hope you will check it out and bookmark it. In a nutshell, we offer DVD courses to help Christians get closer with God. The awesome thing about this new endeavor is that people can purchase the DVD courses for their own benefit, or they can apply the courses to a full-fledged undergraduate or graduate degree right from the comfort of their own home, or wherever they want to watch the courses.
Right now I have two courses finished, with at least 4 more in the wings. Over time I hope to develop a full catalog of courses that will meet a wide range of needs. It’s a busy time but I am really enjoying it.

This affects this blog in a couple of ways
I won’t be posting much, if at all anymore. Moving back from Korea, there aren’t as many funny anecdotes. Also, I am too busy trying to get this business off the ground to blog. We will still update this blog every now and then, but it is probably going to be a scrapbook of the past 2.5 years of Tova’s and my life. (unless something crazy happens)
I will be blogging over on the new site. Those posts are going to be centered around Christianity today, and Christian education. I am going to try to post once or twice a week. I really hope that you check it out.

So that, in a nutshell, is what I have been up to. A lot of unknowns and question marks, but if we knew everything the future had to offer then life would be boring.

Random quote for the day

“Man was designed for accomplishment, engineered for success, and endowed with the seeds of greatness.” ~Zig Ziglar

Don’t know why I like it, but if it comes from a dude who has the same first name as last name (pretty much) then it must be good, right?

A dead squirrel

I looked out the back window today and saw a dead squirrel who happened to land on top of the screened in porch. I felt sorry for my little fury friend. I left him there. Then I walked by a little later and he was still there. Now he was giving me the heeby-jeebies. I had to get him off the screened in porch.
I went to get the broom and I thought I could poke him off and he would drop on the ground. It wouldn’t help the dead squirrel but then I wouldn’t have to see him every day. I got the broom and I opened the door to poke him. When the door opened the squirrel rose from the dead! He looked around, then jumped to a tree and ran away.
Either he rose from the dead or he decided to take a nap. I am going with the dead and now alive story.

We are true Floridians!

Growing up in Chicago it always annoyed the EVERYTHING out of me when people would say they were from Chicago when in actuality they were from the suburbs. The best story was when I was working in Florida and I encountered a man with a cubs hat on (from here on out we will refer to the man as “dork-butt”,you will see why in a minute) Dorb-butt had a Cubs hat on.

I tried to bond with him and I said “Are you from Chicago”

Dork-Butt: Yes

Me: Me too! What part of Chicago

Dork-butt: Oh, I am from outside of Chicago

Me (already annoyed with the imposter): Where from? (Since I also lived in the ‘burbs for a while)

Dork-butt: I am from Gary.

OK SERIOUSLY!?!?!?! YOU ARE FROM INDIANA!!!!!! YOU AREN’T FROM CHICAGO!!!! YOU AREN’T EVEN FROM ILLINOIS!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways . . . I try to make it a point to say I am not from Florida since we’ve only lived here for two years, but I think we are officially Floridians.

Why? It isn’t cause we go to the beach year round (even though we do)

It’s not cause we got sunburn in February, or ’cause we wear sandals to church. It’s not cause we’ve weathered the outskirts of a tropical storm, or even cause we almost got killed by a giant palm tree crashing in to our apartment just feet away from a bed!

We are true Floridians ’cause we had our first encounter with a roach the size of a Buick! I am not talking about a 2011 Buick. I am talking about those ’50′s Buicks that could double as a bus/house.

Here is how it went down.

The baby is asleep and Tova runs from the bathroom saying “There’s a HUGE roach.”

Now when it comes to approximating the size of bugs Tova usually is a little off base. I rolled my eyes and went to investigate.

I looked in the shower and I almost screamed like a little girl. This thing was HUGE!

The edges of the shower were slick enough so roachasaurus couldn’t escape so I told Tova to keep an eye on it while I got the bug spray.

I came back and Tova got out of the bathroom as fast as she could

When I started to spray roachasaurus the can was broken and ended up spitting out spray. This just made roachasaurus MAD!

He started running around, staring at me, and in fact I think I heard him cursing at me. (What a rude roach. But I forgave him since I was trying to kill him. I prolly would do the same thing if someone was trying to kill me.)

After a bit I thought the spray can was broken. I asked Tova to get another can of bug spray to kill the epic-roachasaurus while I continued to try to kill him with the can I had.

It was taking her a while so I tried to fix the can of spray. It finally started to work and I started to kill roachasaurus.

What seemed like 5 minutes later Tova came back to the rescue. She didn’t have any bug spray.

What did she come back with?

She came back with this:

and this:

Yes, she came back with reynolds wrap and a can of pledge.

I about LOST it. Oh wait, I DID loose it. I tried to be the supportive husband saving his damsel in distress, but I laughed in her face.

I mean seriously, reynolds wrap and pledge?

While roachasaurus was dying feet away from us I stopped laughing at her and asked her why she got what she got.

Strangely enough she had a perfectly logical reason why she got those items: She couldn’t find the bug spray so she was going to disorient the roachasaurus with the pledge and then poke it in to the corner with the reynolds wrap freeing me to find a working bottle of bug spray.

It was a great idea, and it would have worked. BUT, it was hysterically funny to see my wife running in with a can of pledge and reynolds wrap to kill roachasaurus.

So we have taken care of roachasaurus and we are “true” floridians.

SNAKES ON A PLANE!!!!

or maybe just in the garage.

yesterday i went to the car to get something. when i got to the garage door something was squiggly and moving underneath our stuff in the garage. I hopped and skipped and almost screamed like a little girl when I realized it was a BOA CONSTRICTOR!!!

I wanted to see if it left the garage or made a permanent residence in the garage so i set up a video camera on a tri-pod and left it on for almost 2 hours. I won’t bore you with the video of my car, BUT I GOT THE PYTHON ON TAPE!!!!

here you go:

crazily enough i thought i was going to get video of him leaving. instead it got out of the garage while i was setting up the camera, and then the king cobra decided to make his presence known about an hour or so later.

at least that is the story i am telling myself so i dont get freaked out while i am in the garage.

The Zoo

We love going to go to the zoo. The Jacksonville Zoo is phenomenal and it is one of our favorite spots. We love it so much that the day before we left to Korea we went to the zoo.
The best thing about going to the zoo are the people. The people that go to the zoo are rather smart. They are able to identify every single animal at the zoo without looking at the signs. I didn’t have to look at a single animal sign while we were there, I just listened to the people tell me what they were.
While we were there I was able to take some pictures of the animals. Enjoy:
This is a cute frog:

Here are some rhinos:

 

These are some sharks:

And these are some sunburnt pigeons:

At least thats what the people around me said they were.