Coming to Our Galaxy This Summer

The Civee and I are having another baby.

The Civee is 18 weeks along and is feeling a lot better than she was a few weeks ago. The baby is due around June 27. It’s been tough to keep this news off the blog for as long as I have, but The Civee and I wanted to go for her ultrasound before making it public.

Because Hope was born with a cleft lip and palate, the chances were greater that any other children of ours would be born with one also. Hence, the waiting and a slight bit of nervousness leading up to today. However, in an ultrasound session that seemed like it lasted all day, the technician and doctor declared the baby healthy. While they can’t tell about the palate, the lip is intact, which has taken a lot off of our minds. We also chose not to find out whether the baby would be a boy or a girl, and even now after the ultrasound, we’re fine waiting until late June.

We know Hope will be a great big sister. But she doesn’t know yet. While we’re very excited about the new addition, part of me wishes we could have Hope to ourselves for a little while longer. But I think just like Hope, the new baby will be a lot of fun.

It seems like right now, the baby is enjoying itself in its current environment. The technician managed to capture this shot of the baby giving us the thumbs-up sign, telling us everything’s going to be okay.

But that means more than just everything’s going to be okay. Because Hope has some speech delays, we’ve used some sign-language with her. In our family, the sign for Da-da is the thumbs up. I don’t know how baby number two knows sign language already, but its first recorded communication has made me happy.

*and yes, the titular line of this post is a Star Wars reference

Like Her Dad, Hope Loves Weezer

Yes, I’ll admit it- I listen to a lot of Weezer around Hope. I listen to other music too, but it just so happens that I listen to more Weezer than anything else.

And Hope has picked up on the Weezer awesomeness. As I’ve mentioned before, Weezer has a lot of kid-friendly videos. And every now and then, Hope and I will watch Buddy Holly or Keep Fishin’ (for some reason, she cries when she sees the puppies in the Island in the Sun video). Earlier this evening, we were watching the Buddy Holly video and she started going crazy.  I captured some of it on camera, but this is tame compared to what she was doing at the start of the video.

I don’t know what’s better- her reaction to the video or her correctly identifying The Fonz at the moment when he walks in. Although, the whole going to get No Neck and fixing the chair thing is cute too.

The Parents Doctors Get Warned About

Earlier, at the behest of The Civee, I read a blog entry written by a mother whose daughter was recently denied for a kidney transplant at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

The story stuck with me in a disturbing way. Not only was the daughter denied because of developmental disabilities, but also because of the general attitude of the doctor and social worker in the story. I’m not the only one who felt this way- a slew of people have blogged about this and commented on the hospital’s Facebook wall, enough to make the hospital put up a special  response to this case. It’s an interesting occurrence- an entity responding publicly to a private matter- and one that is likely to happen more frequently as people air their grievances electronically.

But as a parent, the line in the original story that I keep going back to was something the doctor said: “I have been warned about you. About how involved you and your famliy are…”

I’m surprised that a medical professional (or anyone involved in caring for children) would be amazed that a family would have that type of reaction to bad news. These days, people can educate themselves (with varying degrees of credibility) on medical conditions. And they have the right to ask their medical or care providers for their options.  Parents want what’s best for their child and will be involved as much as they can to make things right.

When The Civee and I found out Hope would be born with a cleft lip and palate, we did a lot of research. One of our doctors told us if we ever read anything online, feel free to ask him to clear up any confusion. Even with that advice, we didn’t always get the answers and guidance we needed. When Hope was born, the staff at the hospital did not know how to handle a cleft baby and we did not get some necessary services or even simple answers to our questions. Because we were in a hospital and first time parents with a newborn, we were overwhelmed. We didn’t know how persistent we needed to be when the head nurse did not visit as promised, when the lactation specialist told us to Google advice on pumping or when the occupational therapist never showed up despite us being told three times that she was on her way.  We were counting on them to care for us and our child. We won’t make that mistake next time.

As for the care she’s received since then, Hope has gotten nothing but excellent care from her cleft team at Columbus’ Nationwide Children’s Hospital. They’ve been responsive and have continued to improve their services.

And the asking questions/being involved as a parent thing doesn’t just apply to medical care. Because of the speech delays that typically accompany a cleft palate, Hope receives services from the county’s early intervention program. Hope goes to a school three days a week where she gets speech, occupational and physical therapy.

Last month, The Civee and I were in a progress meeting with Hope’s teachers, therapists and the center’s director. We are very happy with the care she receives and we let them know that. We also asked a number of questions which were answered and we feel good with their plan. Considering I was the only man in the room and how extremely welcoming they were, I had a feeling that not a lot of fathers show up at these meetings.

Not every parent has the time, skills or knowledge to be as involved with their child’s care as they’d like (and The Civee and I still feel we can do more).  Sometimes it seems the system would prefer parents who were more passive rather than those who bring up the difficult questions.  But those providing care should not be surprised when parents ask questions or simply express their desire to be more involved.

Grilling Season Starts When I Say It Starts

Late yesterday afternoon, the temperature in Columbus hit the fifties. That combined with the fact that it was a Friday and I had some pork chops in the fridge made me feel like if I didn’t grill dinner, than I would be wasting a perfect opportunity.

I started things up right around dusk, about the same time the outside temperature seemingly dropped 20 degrees. Even with less light than I’m used to (thanks to the shorter daylight hours) I was able to get the grill started. I had to scramble to find all of the grilling equipment that we had put away for the winter.

Even though I had a good flame, things felt different. Not just the cold or the dark, but even the flame, which stayed blue the whole time I was warming up the coals in the chimney starter. I’ve never seen a blue flame last that long, because usually it dies out once the top coals start burning.

Along with the pork chops, which I had brining since that afternoon, I made some potatoes on the grill and some peas on the oven.

As expected, dinner was great. And it was nice to have some food fresh off the grill in early January.

Merry New Year!

Have a great 2012!

Weezer in ’97-’98: Indecision and Abandoning the Past

I originally wrote the following for the All Things Weezer blog a year and a half ago. However, ATW recently went through a redesign and the blog is no longer available. So I’m reposting it here, in one part (it was originally broken up into three on ATW). This was written before Death to False Metal, Mikey’s Facebook posts and the release of the Pinkerton Diaries. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.

“…and tomorrow we go to LA to make our new record”

Rivers Cuomo spoke these words to a Boston audience on January 14, 1998. With Pat Wilson manning the drums, Weezer’s fans, both those in attendance and those who would later hear the show through tapes and MP3s had reason to be optimistic. Sure, Pinkerton wasn’t a commercial success, but for the band’s fanbase, it was the perfect album. There was some discord among the band during the post-release promotion and tour schedule, but here, in Boston, half of the band was on the same stage, playing together once again. And while Rivers slowly began to distance himself from the Pinkerton material, fans were pleased with these new songs.

Indeed, Weezer was off to Los Angeles to make a new record. But Weezer’s third record wouldn’t hit stores for another three years, during which time the band lost and gained a bassist, the fanbase would swell thanks to filesharing and Rivers Cuomo and his music would each undergo dramatic changes.

This is not the story of the third album, 2001’s Weezer (The Green Album). Rather, this is the story of Rivers’ final months in Boston through the time the band ceased recording in the fall of 1998. Just as information from this time period is sparse, so is the musical output. As Karl Koch put it, the band “refused to let their management even hear what they were doing for the most part, and shared only a small fraction of the music then or since.” Pat calls the time period “one of indecision and abandoning the past.” This is an attempt to explore the time period using the little available news from the era, along with the words of the band and their friends, and to shed some light on one of the most fascinating (if only because little is known about it) periods in Weezer history.

In August 1997, Weezer returned to the United States after supporting No Doubt and headlining their own shows overseas. The band had been through a heavy period of emotional turmoil; dealing with the reaction to Pinkerton, members wanting to focus on their side bands and the deaths of fanclub founders (and some of the band’s earliest supporters), sisters Mykel and Carli Allan and their sister Trysta.

Continue reading Weezer in ’97-’98: Indecision and Abandoning the Past…

The Pinkerton Diaries Finally Arrives

For a while (a few years now), Weezer fans have been waiting for the third installment of Rivers Cuomo’s Alone series, containing not only a CD full of home demos, but also a 200+ page book, the Pinkerton Diaries, focused on the years surrounding Weezer’s second album.

The book and CD, which were self-published by Cuomo, were shipped this week. And I got mine today.

I haven’t been able to read or listen to everything, but so far, it’s incredible. The songs on the CD (only a few of which actually ended up on Pinkerton) are a lot rougher than on the other Alone discs. The book is detailed, with content from the day The Blue Album was released through the fall of 1997. There’s a lot of insight, whether it’s on the development of Songs from the Black Hole, his Harvard essays or plans for music after Pinkerton.

As an added bonus, the small run of books was individually numbered, and the first 500 ordered received signed posters. I ordered within ten minutes of the Twitter announcement last month. Somehow, my poster is numbered 34 and my book is numbered 387.

It’s clear that Rivers and crew put a lot of work into this. The book/CD cost $75, which, from my knowledge of the printing industry, is worth it. It’s a small-run self-published project and I wouldn’t be surprised if this doesn’t make money for Rivers.

Of course, I’d like it to- I’d really like future editions, particularly one covering 1997-2000. And I haven’t even finished this one yet.

Twitter: a Place for Celebrities to Answer Your Questions

Over the past month or so, The Civee, Hope and I have developed a breakfast routine on weekends: waffles and/or pancakes. Hope loves preparing just as much as she loves eating- she and The Civee mix the ingredients and I cook.

This morning, while getting some pancakes ready, The Civee informed me we had twins- the egg she just cracked had a double yolk (stupidly, I forgot to grab a camera and document this, so you’ll have to take my word for it). We went back and forth over whether the recipe should be modified- would the added protein in the second yolk throw a monkey wrench into the balance of the recipe? Ultimately, we decided to go with the recipe as is and the pancakes turned out fine.

But throughout the day, that question was on my mind. Did we make the right call? What if we had been cooking something where the egg played a key role? I’m sure I could have Googled an answer, but I’d rather hear from an expert.

I’ve followed Alton Brown on Twitter since he started his account. I’ve watched his shows for years. He’s one of two people on the Food Network these days that actually knows anything about food. If anyone could answer my question, it would be him. Still, he’s a busy guy and even though he answers a lot of questions on Twitter, odds are that mine would fall through the cracks. Still, I decided to send my question out into the ether:

And before you could say egg-salad sandwich:

I was quite surprised. The Civee and I made the right call. Alton Brown answered my question and he did it rather expeditiously. I did sent Alton (I figure we’re on a first-name basis now) a follow up thank you, because he didn’t have to answer my question.

This goes to show that you never know until you ask. And thanks to Twitter, at least one celebrity has acknowledged my existence.

It’s Time to Watch the Movie

It was a rainy day and The Civee and I had to do something with Hope this afternoon. We decided to take her to a movie.

We went to see The Muppets. It was age appropriate for her, The Civee and I wouldn’t be totally bored and Hope is familiar with the Muppets from Weezer’s Keep Fishin’ video (Weezer has a surprising number of kid-friendly videos).

We were concerned that we wouldn’t be able to last the whole movie. Hope gets vocal and likes to move around a lot, but we were willing to try.

The theater wasn’t that crowded, so we got seats near the aisle. There were a number of trailers and a Toy Story short before the movie started. Hope seemed to get the idea of watching what was going on on the big screen, although she often stood on her seat and talked (asking for more popcorn, mostly).

We did have to take her for a walk a few times and she got real antsy towards the end (damn those previews and the short feature!). But overall, she enjoyed the experience. The Civee and I liked the movie. And I’m glad to know what happened to the world’s supply of New Coke.

Also, when we were on our way into the theater, I saw a poster for the next movie I’m taking Hope to see:

Housekeeping

If the blog looks a little out of sorts over the next few days, don’t worry.

I was looking at the blog and noticed my Google Reader widget on the sidebar hasn’t been updated in forever. That’s because the Google Reader no longer supports sharing through RSS, but rather they’ve moved the sharing to Google +. So I’m trying to update that.

Then I noticed that my archive was getting real long. So I have a new archive widget.

I’ll be making some other changes too (hopefully).

Of course, the best way to get the Kingdom writing better is to write more, which I’ll try doing also.