Somebody's got a case of the Mondays...

So, today is day one of Michele back to work for real and us pretending to be grownups again. I'll let Michele tell about being back in the lovely hamlet of Warren (she went sans wig!), but so far the big difference for me is in morning prep time.

I remember a day when I was up at 5, shower (no need for shampoo!), dress, make lunches, make breakfast, watch the better part of Sportscenter and at work by 6. Today we got up at 6, Michele took the little one to daycare... and I still didn't make it to work til after 8! Turns out there are a few more steps to the routine now, including:

• label and fill four bottles (all food must be labeled, dated for daycare...every day)
  
• label food
  
• pack Alex's food
  
• wake up the monkey ("ahhh... how cute are you?")
  
• smooches for monkey
  
• change the diaper
  
• more smooches
  
• prepare food for monkey (banana oatmeal!)
  
• feed monkey ("om nom nom... look, I can eat it... come on...")
  
• clean monkey
  
• label clothes (that's right, labels on all the clothes too)
  
• dress monkey
  
• undress monkey to change diaper again (nice timing sweety)
  
• more smooches
  
• oh yeah, smooches for Michele too
  
• load car with baby and stuff, and Michele and stuff, and some stuff
  

I think we may have to come up with a chronological checklist for each morning's routine... yeah, Michele is gonna love it!

Same blog...

...new look. What do you think?

No stone left unturned...

I consider myself a man of simple tastes. I like a good burger, a good scotch, and occasionally a bad reality television program (seriously, have you watched Flipping Out?). My only expectation from life is that it stop kneeing me in the gnads, every once in a while, long enough that I can have a laugh. I'm easy. I don't even mind changing diapers... but...

It was nap time for Alex this afternoon so I threw her in the crib. White noise on, blinds closed, Mr. Frog and binky in place... check, check, check. I usually let her play for a little while and then go back in to let her know it is time to get serious about napping, somehow this actually seems to work. I go in and she is on her belly playing so I roll her over... sweet mother of all that's holy!

I've seen my share of blowouts in the last six months. The leg blowout sorta creeps out past the elastic band and gets on the clothes (think hair net over bad jheri curl). The back blowout oozes up and out of the diaper to schmeer up the spine (think bad, brown Jackson Pollack). I can handle it. But as I roll my beautiful child over I see a new one... the out the front, soak the entire onesie, brown/orange stain on the bedding, wet oval of fecal destruction blowout. Poop on the bed people. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.

Luckily Michele was home and we teamed up. Strip baby. Strip bed. Jump in shower with baby. Go to happy place. Start laundry. Restart nap. Wash hands in bleach. All while resisting the temptation to take pictures and share it with all of you.

The things you do when you're a parent...

On to normal

This weekend Alexandra has her first exposure to swimming. We went to my brother's house and took a dip in the pool. She really did well. She went under water a couple times and wasn't too freaked. She enjoyed being held the most but we also had her in a covered floaty- the sun is pretty much evil to our fair skin. After a bit she was done with the pool and let us know- by crying. We will try again soon.

My mom reminded me of another exciting event at our house. Some of you may know that we had a hummingbird's nest in our front yard. I had never seen a nest before and was super excited that it took up residence in my yard. I thought it must have something to do with my awesome garden but that might be my wishful thinking. Anyway, I was checking out the nest this weekend and wouldn't you know there were more than one hummingbird. It had babies!!! How exciting. So I included this picture of the nest and babies. The picture was actually harder to get than I thought because of the wind blowing the branch but I think it came out ok.

Cancer free...and still worried?

Surgery was just about two weeks ago. Since then, I have had my follow up visit with the surgeon and oncologist. The results are excellent-
- the two lymph nodes that were removed are benign
- only scar tissue remains in the area of invasive tumor- the chemo killed the tumor
- the tissue taken had over a cm of clear margin- healthy tissue
- this was the best result the surgeon had seen
- this type of result leads to over 85% cure rate
- I am officially cancer free

All really good things right- Right! And yet I find myself focused on the negative. At first it was the surgeon who said that she found ductal carcinoma in- situ (DCIS) in one of my ducts. It was taken out during surgery but of course I focused on the fact that there was another type of cancer - stage 0- that I hadn't known about. After much discussion with both doctors, I found out that this cancer sometimes leads to invasive cancers. It doesn't respond to chemo because it grows so slowly. It didn't show up in the biopsy because they took the sample from the middle of the tumor and this was to the side. Finally, this cancer is treated with surgery and they took it out - No worries. Only I was worried after the surgeon mentioned the DCIS...I had more cancer than originally thought.

The other thing that made me worry was my discussion with the oncologist. We talked about genetic testing and future children. I started these discussions so I should have beeen prepared but it still was depressing. Basically, my cancer does not display as a typically genetic cancer but since I am under 40 she recommends that I get tested because ovarian cancer (also linked to the gene) is much more difficult to catch early. Meaning that if I came back positive, she would want me to take out my ovaries. OK, while we are on the subject what about more children- Wes doesn't see the point if it is a risk to my health. She confirmed that the pregnancy hormones didn't cause the cancer, they just revealed the cancer. If I were to get pregnant again (she would do all sorts of test prior to us getting the green light to try) and I were to get cancer again then it would mean that all this treatment is just extending my life but not killing the cancer. At that point I would be dealing with an incurable disease.

So all of a sudden, I forget that people with my type of progress have over 85% cure rate and focus on the negative. This cancer thing is a huge emotional roller coaster. Now I am pretty positive and if you ask me if I think I am going to get cancer again, I would say no. So why after this conversation do I automatically think that one of these negative possibilities is going to happen to me? No clue. I think it is easy to believe the negative and try to prepare ourselves in case that happens. Now why I am doing that for something that might happen years from now, I do not know. The good thing is that this discussion happened on Thursday and by Friday I wasn't freaked out about it. But I am a bit disappointed in even going there...I know how important it is to stay positive and have done a pretty good job at that this whole time (minus the very beginning when I couldn't imagine having a child and cancer at the same time). I don't know. Maybe I am hesitant to stop holding my breathe and accept that I am healthy and things are getting back to normal.

Happy July 4th!!

A little bit of everything as we prepare to celebrate our nations birthday...

• Alex is working on her second red, white, and blue outfit of the day (the first one is now red, white, blue, and sweet potato orange).
• Michele must be feeling pretty good because she is full of sass.
• Alex has her first tooth! Well, she has a jagged little tip of a tooth ice burg poking out on the bottom. Quite exciting.
• US Presidents who died on July 4th: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died in 1826, James Monroe died in 1831. We will just be grilling out.
• Michele is officially back to work... she had a conference call this morning and several heated conversations since.
• Alex is sitting up almost like a pro now... with the occasional head bonk mixed in.

Happy Independence Day everyone... have a fun and safe weekend!

6 month checkup

We went for Alexandra's six month checkup with the doctor. In the waiting room she was "talking" to everyone in the room. We then went into the exam room and got her stats:

Weight: 17lbs. 14 oz.
Height: 27"
Head: 17"

That translates into:
the 75% for weight
the 90% for height
the 75% for head

After she had the weigh-in, Wes put her on the table. She immediately started crinkling the paper on the exam table. She would not stay still for pretty much any part of the exam. This is an example of me trying to get a picture prior to the shots and she is such a scwormy girl that she would not sit still. The doctor was happy with her development (rolling, sitting for short periods, grabbing) and her physical stats. She mentioned that she had been tracking the same way most of her life- and no she is not too thin for her height. Our doctor always seems so amazed by Alex's disposition. I value that a lot because I figure she must see tons of kids. She mention that the day care must love her because she is such a great baby. That was nice. We also got the green light to move to #2 foods and introduce water. Our girl is growing up!!