Baby-proofing - and more

What a crazy week. How crazy was it? Well, there's no picture for this post, so that might give you an idea. As an aside, we (and by we, I primarily mean I) are (unless you take it that we means I, then am) still looking for a new camera. As a reminder, this will be our Christmas gift to each other. Hopefully we'll get one before Christmas 2007. There are lot of new cameras coming out this spring, so hopefully one will look good and Best Buy will actually carry it.

Back to discussing the week...

Sunday
We returned home on Super Bowl Sunday after having spent the weekend up in GB and Fenton. The main reason we headed up was to spend some time on GnGT's frozen pond. Pete and my Dad helped us clear a section of ice, and then Dan and I skated while the women watched from the comforts of the condo. Alison and Colin also had fun playing on the ice as MPnA and DLCnM also came over.

When we got home, our house was not nearly as comfy as GnGT's condo. At some point, over the weekend, our furnace stopped working and our house was a not-so-toasty 54 degrees.

We immediately tried calling people to take a look at the furnace, but between the insane cold (Global Warming?) and the big game, we were only able to get a friend of a neighbor to come take a look. He determined that the electronic gas valve was not opening. Unfortunately, he would not be able to get the part until the following day.

Michele took Jake back up to GnGT while I headed over to the Pruss house to watch the game and then camp out.

Monday
On Monday, Michele took Jacob over to MPnA while she went to a conference in Lansing. Alison's school was canceled, so she got to spend the whole day with Jake and Meme.

Down in Livonia, where the house dipped to 41 degrees overnight, we were able to get the gas valve installed and the furnace fired up... for about 5 minutes. Once the furnace began to run, the service tech noticed that there was some "flame back" that caused one of four temperature sensors to trip thus turning off the furnace. He then determined that the furnace had a cracked heat exchanger. While this does not allow for proper heating, it also posed a risk for elevated carbon monoxide levels.

After a few phone calls we found out that it would be less cost-effective to have the exchanger replaced than to replace the whole thing. We got a quote and hired out the job to a local heating place.

We were able to bypass the heat sensors that allowed us to keep the furnace running and get the house back up to a livable level, and we were able to sleep at our own house.

Tuesday
With Michele at school and Jake at day care, I was able to work from home while we waited on the crew to pick up and install our furnace. By the end of the day, the house had only dipped to 61 degrees, and they had our new furnace "temped" in. It was able to heat the house, but things like the cold air exchange among other odds and ends were not finished.

Wednesday
The crew came back fairly early in the morning to finish their work. Right around noon, they had completely installed our new Lennox furnace including an upgraded air filter and a humidifier. We are hoping that these two upgrades might help with Jake's respiratory issues. They should also help when we go to sell the house.

Wednesday was also my Dad's birthday. Happy Birthday!

Thursday/Friday
Nothing too much out of the ordinary happened on these two days, which was a nice way to end the work week. And, we had heat, so that's good.

Saturday
In the early evening, we packed up and headed to Rochester for Maiya's baptism. The service was held at St Mary's of the Hills in Rochester. After the 5:00 Mass, five children, including Maiya, were baptized by the Deacon. The service was very nice, which was bad for me (explained in a bit). Maiya ended up sleeping through a lot of the ceremony, but woke up as she had the water poured over her head. You can find some photos of the event here.

Immediately after the baptism, I headed downtown for the annual UM/MSU hockey game at the Joe. Since I was asked to be the Godfather (and Michele the Godmother), I couldn't miss out on the Baptism and had to meet up with the gang afterwards. I got there with about 5 minutes left in the first period, and MSU was already up 2-0. After extending the lead to 3-0, Michigan slowly chipped away and tied the game up with a few minutes left. The game ended in a 3-3 tie after an overtime dominated by Michigan, but shutdown by the MSU goalie.

Sunday
After a busy day of baby-proofing much of the house, including the all-important gate to block the stairs, MPnA and Great Grandma Stewart stopped by. After a quick visit, we all met Mark and Kelly at Champps for a birthday dinner for Dad. Hopefully there will be another post in the next few days with the photos that were taken at the restaurant.

Hello February

(Please click on the photo to view some non-MRI pictures .)

I just thought I'd throw a post up real quick to get some photos and videos uploaded, and to give a quick update on Jake's melon.

First, as we posted last time, Jake has learned all about being mobile. We need to get another video soon because his progress is unbelievable. He has no trouble getting where he wants to go. He doesn't quite army crawl, but rather just pulls himself around by his arms, dragging his legs. This technique works very well on the hardwood floor, but not so well on carpet. His favorite mode of transport, however, is still riding in one of our arms.

We recently found out from the pediatric neurologist that the MRI showed that there is SOME extra cerebral fluid, but barely even enough to be considered excessive. Regardless, he has suggested we get an appointment in with the neurosurgeon for a second opinion. We are currently in the process of trying to get that appointment made. Michele found out that we're about number 15 in line just to be considered, so it could be a while. In the mean time, we got some paperwork and a CD with MRI images from MIND. If you would like to read all the "doctor speak" click the button below to open or save the PDF file with their scanned results. Some of it is redundant, but a lot is pretty interesting.




You can also click on the YouTube video below to see almost all the MRI photos strung together to form a mini-movie.

Bust out the Baby Gate

I guess we called it! Jake took his first crawls (?) forward this morning while Michele was playing with him before day care. Per usual, he did much better before the cameras came out. You can still see a little bit of it in the video below.

While we can still catch him pretty easily, gone are the days we can leave the room while he's playing on the rug with his toys. Who knows where he might end up?!

Just Past 10 Months Old

(Please click on the picture to view more 10 month photos).

The OTHER thing we did on Sunday was get a few shots of Jake since he turned 5/6th's of a year old!

We tried to get a picture of him crawling backwards, since that's his new favorite mode of transportation, but, as you could guess, he did not cooperate. He still hasn't quite figured out how to propel himself forward, but it probably won't be long.

Pretty much at the same time that he learned to get up on his knees and scooch backwards, he also figured out that the knee makes a better pivot than his belly. He can spin around on a dime now, and is VERY quick about it.

Looks like we're going to have to start baby-proofing!

The Week Flew By

(Please click on the picture to view more photos.)

I should have never said this in the last post,

We're kind of going through the post-holiday lull right now. There's not a ton going on, but we're keeping busy.

We had quite the week this week.

Monday
After spending the day with Jake, I went to the Red Wings game with Jason. We had great seats given to me by a friend, and got to watch the Wings beat the Habs 2-0. We also had a great view of the CCHA and GLI banners. It was a beautiful sight (bottom of the photo on the left - spoiler alert: they are both green and white)!

Tuesday
Michele had a snow day, and spent the whole day entertaining Jake and doing some chores, as the photos clearly show. All I know is I don't get the camera out every time I do chores, but maybe I should. At any rate, this is where the bulk of our photos came from for this post.

Wednesday
We took Jake in to get his MRI in the morning. He did VERY well with the oral sedation, and stayed asleep through the scan. He then woke up promptly without any real stimulation after the test so we were able to head right home. They had warned that some people have to stick around for several hours while the child comes out of the sedation!

We hope to find out the results around the 23rd of next week.

While Michele took the rest of the day off to be with Jake, I headed down to work. I then stuck around after work and met Dad for dinner at his favorite downtown restaurant, Loco Bar, and then we went to the North American International Auto Show. There weren't a ton of new cars, but there were a couple that stood out.

My Personal Picks
If we needed/slash could afford an upscale minivan: Nissan Quest
If we needed an affordable minivan: Kia Sedona
Favorite hotrod: Holden Efijy
Favorite full-size, pickup: Ford F350
Favorite SUV: GMC Acadia
Favorite convertible: Saturn Sky Redline
Favorite convertible that I could fit in: Pontiac G6 (I still love the hard top).

Thursday
Thursday was a somewhat normal day. Michele got stuck at school late in a meeting while I tended to Jake. He had a great day back at daycare, and Michele said he got VERY excited when he saw his teachers in the morning!

Friday
Michele took Jake duty again Friday night so that I could resume going to the gym. It's been very hit-or-miss since Jake was born, and I decided that I really need to start getting into shape. I want to be ready for swimsuit season, and they already have their suits out at Target.

Saturday
After grabbing a few lattes from Beaners, we headed up to Pete and Teri's. DLCnM also joined us shortly after lunch as did Grandma Remenicky. We all basically just hung out and played around with Maiya.

Saturday night, after putting Jake to bed, Michele and I went to Fenton Cinemas and finally saw The Pursuit of Happyness. We both thought the movie was good, but probably won't look to buy it on DVD.

Sunday
Sunday morning found us headed to Flint to pick up Grandma for church at Saint Michael's with MPnA. Jake did very well during Church, but ended up getting a bit fussy at breakfast. Michele had a bunch of school stuff so we headed home right from the restaurant.

We did one other thing on Sunday, but that will have to wait for another post.