Science Project!

UPDATE: There's a third frame that got cut off. Please click on it to read the rest!

My dad found this comic in the paper he was reading on our flight back from upstate New York on Monday. I think it will be quite applicable to Louis and I in the future... hopefully I can set aside my perfectionism to let him make the project ;-)

Busy

Sorry everyone. Life has been extremely hectic. I'm so busy at work that I have no time for anything else besides hanging with my family. Well, and updating Twitter. I highly recommend you follow that instead of this blog, as it's gone by the wayside unless I have something really great to talk about that a few tweets can't handle. Anyway, once I get some time I hope to pick the blogging back up, but for now, you're stuck with endless status updates.

Anyway, for a life update, all I really have to talk about is my family. If you didn't see on my website, I graduated with a combined BS/MS in mechanical engineering this past December and am currently working toward a PhD in the same field. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm real excited about my PhD research because it's a little more mathy (dynamic modeling) than kinesiology (for my MS). Linnea is great, she's got 2 part time jobs, one of which she works from home to spend more time with Louis. Louis is amazing. Every day something new happens, and it's so exciting. He recently learned to crawl and can pull him self up to stand. It's been very exciting (and scary) watching him move around and become more independent. Unfortunately, he'd rather play with the dog's toys and food bowls than his own toys. If you'd like more of Louis' updates, let me know and I can add you to the list. We're too chicken to un-password protect his blog for now...

Too long...

Sorry for the huge gap between posts. I guess it's been a busy month. I assume that since I haven't posted in a while, nobody will read this anymore, except the possible few who might subscribe to the feed. I find my free time dwindling, and when I do get some, I'd rather just relax or hang out with my son. There have been countless things I've experienced since my last post that I really wanted to write about, but just didn't pick up the computer. Maybe I'll add a list at the bottom of the post. Anyway, my iPhone is still great, a month later, except that it needs to get charged at least every other day. That's a little annoying. Man, that just reminded me of something else I've been putting off. I have $50 from my birthday to buy music, which I haven't done for 2 weeks. I really need to re-stock my collection.

Ok, so as a recap of the last month (since my last post), I gave 2 conference presentations (that took up way too much time, now I'm behind on my thesis), Linnea was Matron of Honor in Angela's wedding (where Brandon and I made quick friends with bartender Tom, and got free shots for trying a "cement mixer," and my iPhone rocked it out so we were able to keep track of the Illini tear it up against Indiana), We went to a Chinese Halloween party (where Louis dressed up as a horse, and Linnea and I dressed as babies, diapers and all), we had a great birthday dinner for me at a decently cool pizza / arcade place with ok pizza, started going to a bi-weekly bible study / dinner with people our age at church, witnessed the Change (we'll see if I believe in it, but at least the next Pres is a Sox fan!), turned 24, Louis got baptized, Illini football sucked, Louis went to his first Illini basketball game, and most recently (i.e, right now), waching the Bears blow chunks against the Packers. Absolutely horrible. Oh yeah, and I told Linnea not to let me buy Call of Duty: World at War until I finish my thesis. I'm thinking now that that was a big mistake.

Finally, a list of random thoughts that have popped in my head since last time. Why do I see some girls riding their bicycles wearing skirts? Why do people talk on their phone while riding their bicycle, in the middle of the road, almost getting hit by cars? Why do people cross the street without looking, assuming the drivers see them, rather than being safe and waiting for them to stop? Why does EVERYONE constantly talk on their phone while driving? Why doesn't my iPhone have a video camera? Why did I see a girl driving a sport motorcycle with a dress on? Why are people dumb? Is it a stereotype if it's true? And finally, why do some girls ride their bicycles wearing skirts?

It's a boy!

Well, it happened. We thought he'd never come, but Louis IV was born on Monday, July 7th 2008, on his due date ironically enough. He was born (naturally, with medication thank God) at 4:08 pm, 10 pounds 11 ounces, 21 inches. I'll talk about him more after describing the events preceding his birth.

It started on Sunday night, well Monday morning. We went to bed around midnight, planning on sleeping in since we had to go to the doctor as Monday was Linnea's due date. Linnea was up constantly with some more pain than usual, but nothing as regular as contractions. We should have thought something was up; for a change I was waking up when she would get up. I usually sleep through her midnight bathroom breaks. She started feeling strange and called the Labor & Delivery nurses at the hospital. They said it was probably nothing, but she could come and get checked out if we wanted. As soon as she hung up the phone she started getting strong pains about every 4 minutes. Contractions 3-5 minutes apart is the usual go to the hospital time, so I guess we were lucky she wasn't feeling strong contractions before then. Most people feel them for quite a while (5-12 hours) before going to the hospital. We got to the hospital at 5:00 a.m. on Monday. She was at 3 cm. Later in the morning her doctor showed up (just back from vacation, fortunately. We gave her another day away from the office), and Linnea was almost at 4 cm. The doctor decided to get things moving along and gave Linnea something to strengthen the contractions. By noon she was set up with the epidural and ready to go. We got a scare when it stopped working for about an hour, but it started working again just in time. Linnea was fully dilated around 2:30 p.m. and with only an hour of rock star pushing, we had our son.

I can't even describe the moment my son came into this world. I was overcome with unexplainable emotion and started crying. Not sobbing, but they were definitely rolling down the cheek. I couldn't even say a thing, maybe a squeak, but no words. It was all I could do to even smile at Linnea. The moment was easily in the top two of my life. I can't choose between my wedding and my son's birth, because they're totally different. In a way they were both an affirmation of overwhelming love for somebody, but the indescribable nature of watching your child come into this world sets it apart somehow. I still can't believe he's ours when I hold him, but big things tend to take a while to sink in for me. I'm sure bringing him home tomorrow will help. I really can't wait.

Back to the little guy. If you don't know babies, he is absolutely HUGE. Babies are about 8 pounds on average. He looks like he's 1-2 months old already! Every time I walked by the nurses station yesterday I heard some mention about the "big boy" or heard his weight being mentioned. One nurse told us that he had the biggest hands she's ever seen on a newborn. I guess we're going to be throwing away all the newborn diapers (up to 10 lb) we already opened... We had a couple of slight scares, but he is absolutely fine. Right after he was born they needed to take him to the nursery to monitor him. The reason was unclear at first (I think the nurses don't realize the terms they use are way over everyone's head), but since he was so big he had trouble adjusting his blood oxygen levels. Unfortunately that means we couldn't hold him until about 8pm. By that time my anxiety had definitely built up, but it was a huge release to hold him for the first time.

Everyone was here when we got to bring him to our room for the first time (Grandmas Krista and Laura, Grandpa Lou - Louis Jr., and Uncles Dylan and Christian). We passed him around and took pictures of him with everyone (email me if you want the link). We fed him and convinced the Grandmas to change his diaper. We chose to have him sleep in the nursery so we could take advantage of our last two solid nights of sleep. This morning we got the second scare. The pediatrician who checked out all the babies in the morning came in at 8:30 a.m. to inform us that the murmur she heard last night (normal for newborns I guess) hadn't gone away by the morning (not normal). My heart sank as I stared blankly at the doctor trying to not look too much in shock. Linnea and I were pretty bummed, and we couldn't get him from the nursery yet again. The doctor came back at 10:00 a.m. to let us know the eckocardiogram (sp?) showed no holes in his heart (which would cause a murmur), so we were sufficiently elated and went to get him! Everyone came back today and we all hung out with the little guy. Unfortunately, my family had to go back home, but will be back in a few weeks. Grandma Krista was pretty sad to say goodbye to her grandson. I'm sure Grandpa Lou and Uncle Christian were too, but they didn't express it as much. Grandma Laura will be staying for a week to help take care of everything, and Uncle Dylan is in charge of Bailey.

Anyway, my battery is about to die, and I don't feel like reaching for the cord. From now on, baby updates and links to all his pictures will be on his own blog site. We're paranoid, so it'll be private and you'll have to get invited to see it, so email me if I don't send you an invite tomorrow.


- Dad (Louis III)

Weekend recap

I guess I forgot to post about all the awesome stuff that happened this weekend. First of all, my parents and brother came down to visit, so that was cool for Fathers' Day. We went golfing on Saturday, and I won! Granted, I shot a 104, but hey, I still won. Oh, by the way, that's a 104 playing by all the rules, like the actual rules in the rule book, unlike everyone else I know who says they shoot in the 80's and suck worse than me. O.K., so I accidentally dropped my ball on the green once and didn't give myself the 2 strokes, but it rolled down the hill and I was putting up the hill, so I saw no gained advantage there.

Sunday was eventful too. First we went to church, then had my dad's famous fried eggs. In case you live in a hole, this thing called the U.S. Open was going on, with a dude named Tiger in the lead after Saturday's round. He's never lost the lead in the 4th round of a Major tournament. Never. Well, he sort of lost it during the final round, but fought back and made a huge birdie putt on 18 to force an 18 hole playoff on Monday, messed up knee and all. It was crazy. So Monday it was Tiger vs. Rocco Mediate, a 45 year old with a bad back. This dude is awesome. Now normally playoffs are sudden death, and EVERYONE crumbles under the pressure of playing against Tiger. This playoff was a whole extra round, and Tiger was up 3 on Rocco at one point. It's in the bag. But no, Rocco somehow jumped back ahead of Tiger by one stroke by the last hole! How awesome is that dude? At this point I'm torn between rooting for Tiger or Rocco, but I stick to my guns and root for Tiger and his messed up knee (almost made him fall to the ground after shots). So what happens? Sand for Rocco, and Tiger birdies to tie it back up! Now, after 90 holes of golf, they're going to sudden death. Tiger wins the first sudden death hole as Rocco hits the beach again. Too bad for Rocco, but he might be the only 2nd place finisher everyone remembers, a truly awesome performance when most would crumble. Anyway, congrats to Tiger. He won his 14th Major and set a record for most wins at a single course (7 at Torrey Pines, I played there - 98 I think).

FINALLY, Dale Jr. won! For the first time in over 2 years. He won on a fuel mileage deal, but I don't care, HE WON!!! He's got enough top 10's this year to prove he's as good a driver as anybody in NASCAR, and this win is a huge morale booster for a team already 3rd in points. I can't wait to see what happens now.