Videos - July 30th to August 8th

Seven weeks in

We're seven weeks in and everything's going well. He's focusing and tracking our faces, eating loads and, for the last 2 nights, only woken up once or twice. It's wonderful to be awake again. No kidding this is the hardest thing we have ever done.

We've been able to get out the house more, taking him to local eateries with outdoor areas. It's great, when he cries it dissipates rather than reverberates like it does around the house. And - these places supply new parents with booze! I did fall asleep into my beer at the hopmonk last week back which Heather managed to capture on film.


The hounds have adjusted well - apart from When Jack farts - it scares Gus; he jumps back, ears up and attentive wondering what's going to happen next. Lola is healed and looking better than ever, even with her poodle-like shaving where her IV's were.

I went back to work on Thursday and it was, I guess fortunately, still there. The guys in my department, Rob Noah and Matt seem to have held the place together very nicely - even cleaned the place up a bit, which made me suspicious but eventually thankful. Thanks for the extra effort fellas.

Two groups of friends had babies this week, Stephanie and Jason gave birth to Tanner Kai, Doug and Julie to Katherine Olivia. I can now challenge you to a "weigh the pee and poop competition".

This one is 5 1/4 oz (taking off 1 oz for the diaper itself). Let's see what you've got up your sh*t sleeves bi***es.


Here's a whole bunch of pictures over the last few weeks. I'll get some videos together for the next post (I promise nanny Ruder).

Mark

Lola

Last night I rushed Lola, our Belgian Shepherd, into the emergency pet clinic due to her stomach expanding right before our eyes. She was in obvious pain, hunched up and anxious.

Heather knew it was bloat immediately. Bloat is a condition where the stomach swells and sometimes rotates, twisting and trapping in air and obstructing veins which in turn damages other internal organs. A bad situation.

Lola is a rescue dog, we picked her out because she was opposite from the Rottweiler we had - subdued, calm, just hanging out behind the bars of the Hayward animal shelter at a discounted $25. They thought she was 7 at the time which makes her 12 now.

Due to Lolas’ age and hip issues I’d convinced myself if anything bad happened to the old dog we’d let her go. I assumed it would be her hips and that would be it; no hard decisions, just done.

The clinic explained the diagnosis, the risks, survival rate, etc. I received a quote for the emergency operation – about 2000 Starbucks coffees. Honestly, I tried to find excuses not to do the operation. Not only for the cost but because of her issues; hip strength, fusing spine, age. I asked the doctor to diagnose her pre-existing conditions before we made a decision. I called Heather, we were in agreement that if her spine and hips were as bad as we thought Lola wasn’t coming home.

Then the doctor came back and things changed. X-rays showed the spine was only fusing in one place, nowhere near the back of her body like we thought. Her hips were not likely to just give out; she has arthritis, nothing fusing her spine to her back legs. No cancer in her mouth, no cancer showing up anywhere else. Her vitals were great.

We signed up for the operation. Here's to Lola being around for another bunch of years.

Jack goes to the pediatrician

It's amazing how a baby can go from idilic cooing baby to screaming murder. The 4th and 5th pictures below were taken only seconds apart!

We took some video and pictures before a doctors visit. The last video should be of particular interest to those expecting parents (or should that read those expecting children?!)

Babies Smell!

Jack's a real man. He's started to stink! I'm very proud.

Heather swears his poop smells like English muffin, even though it can't be because Heather doesn't eat English muffins, they are "Thomas' Hearty Grains" which look like muffins but really aren't. What do you call and English muffin in England? Assuming "muffin".

Anyway, you know what love is when your child wee's over you, twice in a row, and you find it amusing and cute. Fortunately, since his cord and willy holder (plastibell) has fallen off we can now give him bath! See pictures and video evidence below.

Video - Jack's First Week

My excuse for the delay in posting is twofold. The first is to spend time with the new science project rather than just document happenings around it. The second is that my machine is having meltdowns, crashing mid edit, unable to post to blogger, etc. I plodded blindly on. I could have used Heathers machine, but no, I tenaciously worked on the videos, determined to discover the root of crashing evil before doing anything else. Which basically means that I'm about two weeks behind and nobody bothers to check this site anymore!

I've got the videos sorted, here are two more videos from the first week.


At the hospital - July 15th & 16th





Back Home - July 19th