Finally...a snow worth mentioning!

With only 27 days to go until the official start of spring, we have finally had a storm that actually required shoveling and was worth going outside to play in. To top it off, it was good packing snow too! So although the kids spent a lot of their day playing in the snow at day care, they took full advantage of romping with Daddy last night and building a snow man. There's just something magical about playing in the snow at night time!!

Where has that finger been?

Some of you may have heard the story from a couple of months ago when Matt decided to put one of our cats into the toilet. Yeah, I know, it was pretty darn funny and Gipper handled it quite well, all things considered. But the biggest obstacle back then was keeping Matt from doing it again or taking it a step further by attempting to flush him as well. We were succesful in restraining him as Gipper has not seen the inside of our toilet bowl since that day.

However, Matt decided to "investigate" something else entirely different last evening...

As we were winding down the evening and getting the kids ready for bed with their milk and cookies, Bill plopped down on the floor in front of the love seat. Matt wandered over towards him and Gipper followed, jumping up on the seat cushion. I glanced over at them and did a quick double take as I noticed Matt was very intently viewing Gipper's rear end which was right at eye level. Unfortunately, not only was he looking, he was um, should I say, poking and prodding the poor cats nether-regions.

As I hollered over at him, Bill looked up and pulled Matt away from the cat and onto his lap. With both of us reprimanding him to leave the kitty alone and not touch their "hineys", Matt popped that finger right into his mouth.

Now I can only assume based upon the "non-reaction" from the cat, that there was no penetration involved. However...I will say that my gag reflex kicked in at that moment.

Where does the time go?

With the kids' birthdays coming up in March, I was just thinking about how quickly the past 5 years have flown by. My babies have turned into "little people" with their own little personalities and independent streaks. I love that I can simply supervise them with things such as getting dressed, etc. and that I can now ask them to handle little responsibilities around the house. Their independence will certainly be a blessing when baby #3 comes along.

I know there will be rough times ahead with another baby - sleepless nights, crying for no reason (although Megan still does that to us...and a little too frequently, I might add), packing multitudes of items in a diaper bag just to leave the house for an hour, going out for a bite to eat and ending up getting a "to go bag" because one or both of us wasn't able to eat our dinner since we spent the entire time pacing the restaurant with a crying infant, etc. But at the same time, I can't help but miss that sweet smell of an innocent baby that snuggles up and falls asleep on my chest after I nurse them or the way that they smile in their sleep. The difficult times are so easily forgotten when I think back on things like that.

So here's a little trip down memory lane from when my "babies" really were babies...

Our one kidney kid

Well - it's official, baby #3 has only 1 kidney. And so far, the other kidney remains in good working condition. It's amazing to me that a human being can be lacking a vital body part without any major repercussions. But so far, that seems to be the case here.

However, the doctors at Yale will continue to monitor the baby throughout the rest of the pregnancy to ensure that the remaining kidney continues to function well. After the birth, we'll be referred to a pediatric urologist for further testing (got to make sure that the kid can pee without any complications!) but other than that, odds are the little one will grow up strong and healthy.

On a seperate but related note - although we do not want to know and will not find out ahead of time, all signs have been pointing to this being a boy. Here's the list of reasons so far:

1. The ultra sound technician referred to it as a "he" last week. Could be just a reflex thing as she has 3 boys of her own, but...
2. We've been having a hard time settling on a boy's name. Girl's name...no problem. We had the same problem with Megan and Matthew and both times the baby ended up being the sex of the one we were struggling with, name wise. (Ok, not exactly scientific, I know.)
3. According to my google search on babies born with one kidney, the majority of the time this occurs in males.
4. Just recently found out that my cousin's husband was born with 1 kidney - obviously he's of the male persuasion.
5. Mom had a dream that she was babysitting for us and it was a boy.
6. And on a more spiritual note - it seems as though when God takes someone away, they are replaced just before or after their death by a new baby in the family. After the passing of my Father-in-law, can we now expect a boy?

Robert Baker - 2/10/43-2/6/07

Due to the death of my Father-in-law, the past week has been rather crazy. Now that things have quieted down again, I just wanted to take a minute to remember this very loving man, Robert Baker.

Bob was diagnosed with a brain tumor the Friday after Thanksgiving and was operated on that Monday. Although the surgeon successfully removed the tumor, we were advised that there were many cells left behind that even additional treatments of chemo and radiation would never get rid of them all. It was just a matter of time and we were all hoping to enjoy another year with him before the inevitable.

There were some mile-stones that we had set in our minds for him. For my husband it was the Rod Stewart concert and his 64th birthday in February, Red Sox games in the spring, the birth of our baby (Bob's 6th grandchild) in June, vacations and trips to the beach throughout the summer, and if we were really lucky, Notre Dame football games in the fall. The saddest part of all was that he didn't make to any of those milestones. In fact he came within only one day of making it to the Rod Stewart concert on 2/2.

On Thursday morning, 2/1, my Mother-in-law called to inform us that Bob was having terrible pains in his lower extremities. She had taken him to the hospital that morning for his regular radiation treatment, they then sent him to the ER and by 4pm that afternoon he was admitted to MICU.

At 6pm that evening, I received the call at home that a DNR was signed and they were planning on intubating him due to his oxygen levels being so low. We knew then that this could be the beginning of the end, but were hoping that his stubborn personality would prevail and he would end up surprising us all once again.

Bill was able to get there ahead of time, but I didn't make it into the hospital in time to talk to him one last time before he was intubated. The sad part about that for me is that I can't remember the last conversation I had with him. Was it that Sunday while visiting him at home or perhaps on the phone...I just can't remember?

Bill spent as much time as possible with him in the hospital that weekend and I finally ran over on Monday during my lunch break. It just so happened that this was the exact moment that my Mother-in-law was speaking to the Doctor and the news wasn't good - he had 3 blood transfusions that weekend but nothing was helping. The infection in his lungs wasn't getting any better and with his platelets so low, things did not look promising. He was also being treated for pain, but they had no idea where or what was causing it and it just seemed like one thing after another was piling up at that point.

At 9am the next morning the entire family met with his Doctors and the final decision was made to extabate him. By 9:45am his breathing tube was removed and approximately 25 minutes later, with his family by his side and praying all the way, he took his final breath.

I couldn’t imagine death coming so peacefully like that but it really was a wonderful thing. Just knowing that he didn’t suffer - no gasping for air or any of the other horrible things that I feared could happen. Instead he quietly took his last breath and that was the end.

We continued to pray over him even after the reality that he had passed had struck us all. It was as though we were simply holding his hand through prayer as he transitioned to a better place. A place that we can only hope really exists. After a few more tearful goodbye’s the group of us left with jokes and wise-cracks already being made as we walked back down the hallway.

Bob wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

(Kevin, Bob, Sandy, Bill, Nanie and Matthew - at Matthew's Christening, 2004)