Cancer Nose

Between my melanoma at the tender age of 22 and the basal cell skin cancer Jim recently had removed from his nose, it appears our kids don't have a chance. 

Jim's surgery was over two weeks ago.  The doc cut a chunk out of his nose and then tested the margins.  He hadn't gotten it all, so he took some more out and did a skin graft with skin taken from behind Jim's ear. 

We're not sure whether the graft actually took.  The giant purple wound on Jim's nose has gotten more and more mountainous as time has passed.  It's a giant scab with stitches that look like blonde hairs sticking out of it.  Pretty hot.  Jim has continued to cover it with a bandage-type thing during the day just so people don't have to look at it. 

I should have gotten a head-on shot to show how thick the thing is, but these will have to do:

Cross your fingers we get to remain cancer-free from now on. 

American Experience

Jim and I recently watched the Clinton documentary from The Presidents collection in PBS's American Experience series. 



It was absolutely fascinating.  We're watching the one on George H. W. Bush now and intend to watch all of them.  It's like getting to watch a totally entertaining movie every night, except you feel really good about it because you're learning history, too.  I highly recommend.  They're available on pbs.org, and Jim got us all fancy so we can get it onto the T.V.  I don't understand how this HDMI thing works, but it's excellent. 

This little tidbit wasn't in the movie, but Jim read an anecdote about the Clintons that we thought was pretty funny.  Apparently Chelsea Clinton was sick one day, and the school needed parental permission to give her medicine.  She told them to call her dad (who was President at the time) because her mom was too busy.

Happy/Sad

The other day, I was putting away a plastic dry cleaner bag, and Ever thought it was the funniest thing to hit the world since the word "stroganoff."

Happy:

 
You heard Jim, in the above video, ask about doing "the whistle."  Ever is a fan of regular whistling, as evidenced by her smile in the beginning of the video below.  Jim recently discovered, however, that when he does this weird sucking-in thing with his bottom lip, Ever is completely terrified.  We promised not to do this to her again after we captured it for posterity.

Sad:

I think she's a sensitive one.  She melted down a few weeks ago when we took her to a gathering at some friends' house.  It was kind of bright and loud and there were a bunch of people all up on her.  Her startle reflex seems to be in overdrive.  The other day I went to get her up from a nap.  I'd heard her and knew she was awake.  I wasn't trying to be quiet or anything, and I walked over to the crib and said, "Hi, Dolly."  She jumped and then cried a little bit.  She startles even when I'm holding her and I speak after being quiet for a moment. 

In other news, she hasn't continued to wake, crying, in the middle of the night.  She is, however, still waking up around 5:00 A.M. or shortly thereafter ready to start the day.  She just squawks and talks and rustles around until I get her up at 6:00, but we can't sleep through it.  Then, of course, she's ready to go down for nap no. 1 by 6:30 or 7:00, since she's already been up a while.  I have to figure out how to get her to sleep later.  Maybe that would help her be less naptastic, which, in turn, would make it easier for me to leave the house. 

Night Waking

Ever has always been a terrible eater.  Even with bottles, she is difficult.  She usually eats about 2/3 the amount she's supposed to eat in a day.  And often that's after I've struggled all day to get milk in her.  The thing she's always had going for her is her sleeping ability.

This, however, makes two nights in a row that she has awakened without an interest in eating.  I've read that it's normal for a baby this age to need to eat once or twice a night.  I have not begrudged her a bottle in the early-morning hours, especially because she eats so little during the day.  But waking with no apparent reason, other than perhaps to start the day at 3:00 or 4:00 A.M.?  Not happening.  So it's 4:40 A.M., and I've been listening to her cry for an hour so far.  Jim puts his deaf ear up and sleeps through it.  I am downstairs listening.  I assume she'll fall back asleep eventually.  If not, I'll go to her at 6:00 A.M., when she's allowed to get up for the day.  Fun times.  Mamo would not survive here. 

P.S.  Suggestions welcome.

First Things First

At her fourth-month checkup, Ever weighed in at a whopping 11 lbs, 10 oz (9th percentile) and measured 24 1/2 inches or so long (45th percentile, I think).  She was going a little nuts on the exam table, kicking and flailing, and the doctor noted that she was very active and strong (all muscle, he said).  She does have nice definition in her arms.

The doc told us to start her on solids.  So far, we've given her rice cereal and bananas.  She hasn't rejected either, but she hasn't totally embraced (or figured out) eating, either.  This is how her very first taste went:

She generally eats by sticking her tongue out repeatedly, thereby pushing out what little food I manage to get into her mouth.  During one feeding, I thought to myself how pleased and surprised I was that although she had food all over her mouth, it was contained to that area; she hadn't stuck her hands in it yet.  Right after that, of course, she put her hands to her mouth and then rubbed them all over her face.

 

In the last few days, she has also figured out how to roll onto her back.  She hates tummy time so much that we couldn't leave her on her belly very long.  Thus, we thought she'd never learn to roll.  (This is really mean, but a few times I used tummy time to get the boogers out of her nose.  After a minute, she'd start crying and rubbing her face back and forth on the blanket, and she'd rub her nose yuckies right out.  It was kind of neat.)  Turns out maybe her hatred of tummy time was incentive; now she can flip right over and avoid it altogether. 

Sometimes she hangs out on her side and makes it a two-step process.  She's just happy not to have to rub her face into the ground and cry anymore. 

It's so fun to watch her grow and develop.  She's incredibly alert and active.  Makes me wonder what we're in for...

Pat's Run

Every year, our friend Derrick Karner does Pat's Run with his brother, Chris.  Sometimes Melanie (Derrick's wife) does it, too.  The "Pat" of Pat's Run is Pat Tillman, the NFL player who gave up a multimillion-dollar contract and said goodbye to his wife (his high school sweetheart, to whom he was utterly devoted) to enlist with the Army Rangers after 9/11.  Pat was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan while he was going back to help the other group in their convoy, which included his brother.  Derrick went to high school with Pat in San Jose and has friends who are friends with Pat's wife, Marie, so he feels a special connection. 

The 4.2-mile race (Pat's football number in high school and college was 42) takes place in April in Tempe, Arizona, where Pat played football for the Sun Devils of Arizona State University and then, professionally, for the Arizona Cardinals.  Jim and I decided to crash their party this year.  Since I was going, Melanie and kids (Christian and Kara) came, too.  We all stayed at our friend Deb's condo in Scottsdale and were lucky enough to experience record high temperatures while we were there. 

We got there on Thursday night and went for a quick swim in the warm pool right next to Deb's unit.  Ever enjoyed her first dip in a pool. 

Friday afternoon the boys played golf while Melanie and I stayed at the condo with the kids.  Mel and I finally got out to the pool at about 5:30 P.M. because one kid or another was napping until then.  Melanie said she now understands why I'm a shut-in:  Ever likes her beauty sleep and doesn't stay up long enough between naps to allow for much in the way of outings.  She napped; then Christian napped;  then Ever napped again; then Kara napped.  We had a nice time at the pool, except for a run-in with the "president of this regime" who was convinced Melanie was going to let one of her kids drown on his watch.

The race was Saturday morning.  Unfortunately, Chris was the only person who was registered.  When I asked about it a couple months ago, Derrick said not to worry, and I was under the impression it didn't sell out.  Apparently it used to not.  This year it did, as Jim discovered when he checked the week before the race.  So Mel, Derrick, Jim and I had to sneak into the race sans numbers and red race t-shirts.  Given my fear of breaking rules, that made me a little concerned.  There were gabillions of people there, all organized into sections based on how fast they expected to run/walk.  We hung out off to the side and tried to merge in toward the end but were denied because all stroller-toters had to go in the very last group.  So we waited until stroller time and then merged in without a problem.  (Note:  we bought t-shirts for all three of us after the race, so we did contribute to the Pat Tillman Foundation.) 

We tried to run, which was hard to do because we were stuck behind the slowest people who intended to walk the whole thing.  Jim made enemies by weaving around people.  It was so crowded that we had to walk for some of it, which I didn't really mind because I'm insanely out of shape.  And it was hot; the temperature got over 100 degrees that day, although it was probably only in the 80's while we raced.

Getting lubed up on race day:



Walking to the starting area at ASU near Sun Devil Stadium:

This picture doesn't really do justice to these most gorgeous yellow trees we saw all over Scottsdale/Tempe.

Waiting in the lua lines:



Team Kringel, with the 30,000 legitimate runners corralled behind us:

The whole gang:

Left to right (back):  Chris, Derrick, Melanie, us.



Ever was super excited about her first race.



Starting out:

Walking:



Running:



The race finished inside Sun Devil Stadium, which was cool.  Heading toward the finish line:



Posing with the winner of the "unregistered four-month-old" category:



Heading up in the stadium:



Pat used to climb up on the light posts at the top of this picture to think.

Photo shoot in the stadium:





Christian and Ever taking in the scene.  He likes her despite her giant bald spot. 

Enjoying the free water and fruit:



Dean slept through most of the race.  Still looking tired:



We hit the mist machine on our way out:



That afternoon the boys played golf again.  (This trip is Derrick's golf version of Jim's surf trips.)  Mel and I hung out at the condo and ventured out very briefly to visit the pond by our building.  The kids didn't last long, but we had a minute for pictures.  Ever's bib ruins all the photos, but I'm finding it very convenient for drool and spit-up to just leave it on her. 



Back at the condo.  Christian was smitten.

How could one not be?

Jim and I went back out to the pond for a minute on Sunday morning.

Ever practiced her walking.  

We were so glad the Karners let us join them for this trip.  We loved the race and would really like our fam to run it every year.  I'm currently reading Jon Krakauer's Where Men Win Glory:  The Odyssey of Pat Tillman.  It gives an interesting (and devastating) history of Aghanistan and the wars, as well as of Pat's life.  He was a pretty amazing guy.  Haven't gotten to the part about the cover-up of the circumstances of his death yet.  But what a tragedy.

 

All the Talents in the World

While boogie boarding in Hawaii, Anders once said, "Now I have all the talents in the world except singing and dancing!"  That is one of my all-time favorite quotes. 

We are determined to help Ever develop ALL the talents in the world, especially singing and dancing.  We spend so much time singing and dancing with her, in fact, that it's hard to get anything done.  It begins first thing in the morning.  Before changing her diaper, I sing, "What's goin' on in your pants, Dolly Girl?  What's goin' on in your pants?" - repeated about 10 times.  Once we discover what's going on in her pants, we also sing about that.  Other favorite songs similarly consist of one line repeated ad infinitum, such as "Your mama [or 'daddy,' depending on who's singing] loves you" and "Hey, my little love, my little love, my little love."

For a long time, we had post-change dance parties on the changing table.  She loved dancing. 



(Jim's bedhead is my fave.) 

Of late, she seems to have outgrown this sort of dancing and doesn't smile and laugh as she used to.  But there's still plenty of signing and dancing around the house. 

Music is optional.

Sometimes, though, we take breaks from our song-and-dance training to talk...

... and eat...



... and hug it out.

I love her laugh.  Once, I entertained her for several minutes by saying the word "stroganoff" over and over in a loud, weird voice.  She was in a particularly silly mood, apparently, and she laughed so hard for so long that her face was red and she had tears in her eyes.  I recorded a little bit of it on my phone but can't get the file to open on my computer, unfortunately. 

We want Ever to know how wonderful and talented she is, so Jim has been announcing the daily winner of the No. 1 Baby Award.  Amazingly, Ever wins pretty much every time. 



Kitchen Completion

In the beginning--that is, after we scraped off the terrible chicken and sponge-art wallpaper and painted it--our kitchen looked like this:

Action shot:  I'm cooking for our 2010 Halloween party.  Jim had already taken out the fluorescent lights (leaving a gaping hole in the ceiling) because a leaky pipe had caused mold.  We had virtually no light in the cooking area for a year and a half.

Picture included in remembrance of my ridiculous attempt at an ice cream cake for Jim's birthday last year.

Demo occurred in the beginning of September 2011.  Here's how it all went down:







Footings for the steel beams.



Jim made a pocket door to replace the old swinging-like-a-saloon-door door that separated the kitchen from the formal dining room.

 

Our view for months looked like this:



We had a makeshift kitchen under the stairs.

We later moved the fridge out to the garage and stuck a little cooktop and convection oven that were lent to us under here.



At its peak, our temporary living/dining/kitchen space looked like this:

The obstacle-course passageway.  The washer and dryer were in the entryway at this point because Jim was simultaneously working on the garage.




Eventually, we got it cleaned up to look like this:

At long last, the kitchen finally looks like this: 

It was a painful, frustrating, and incredibly long process.  I'm still trying to clean up the living room and finish moving things back into the kitchen.  The other side of the room, where the T.V. and fireplace are, is still unfinished.   Jim's going to build that out - cabinetry, a table, etc.  Then there's the living room.  And the master bathroom.  And the loft above the garage that we want to enclose.  Years of fun await us.  But for now, let's rejoice in the fact that I have a functioning kitchen, and it's really pretty.