This past month has been super busy, so here’s the Reader’s Digest version.

We took Dalton to our high school friend’s (Amanda Erwin-Guthrie) pumpkin patch.  He instantly gravitated to the only “punkin” he could grab. By the time he was done tossing it all over the yard, it was mushy and ready for pie. BTW, Amanda sells coffee that has some herbal supplements in it that seems to really work.  Sarah, whose not a coffee drinker, loves the stuff and has helped her with her chronic respiratory issues.  Call us if you’re interested, and we’ll get you hooked up.

We have a couple friends who go all-out for Halloween parties.  Costumes are a necessity, and the bolder the better. At the last minute, Sarah had a genius idea: we’ll go as Smurfs.  Those little blue gnomes have been out of the pop culture spotlight for at least a decade, so we figured we’d be totally unique.  Well, we under-estimated the creativity of some of our friends, and sure enough, there was another Smurfette at the party.  Our blueness and my rockin’ white beard even had my coworkers confused for a few seconds - they had no idea who we were!  Shortly after we got to our Friday night party, we got a tip from Kassy that they were having a costume contest at The Penalty Box way out at McArthur and Ridge Rd. So, Papa Smurf and Smurfette were off to steal a win!

This place is a dive, and I’ve been to some gems!  We were told there were 4 other people there in costume, so I thought it would be a clean sweep.  By the time we got there, the house was packed with cliches wall-to-wall.  I take that back, one family dressed as the Adam’s Family, and that was pretty cool. Granted, Kassy, Willie and my parents are quasi-regulars, but I figured we’d have no chance of going up against the bar owls that make a daily appearance. Unbeknownst to us, my mom was running a vote-for-the-Smurfs campaign behind the scenes and Willie was offering to buy the bar a round of pitchers if the Smurfs win. With the help of a redhead you shouldn’t cross and the promise of free beer, Sarah and I won the $100 costume prize.

The American Babysitter

We’re quite happy that Dalton hasn’t taken to TV much.  We, of course, have the TV on 24-7, but we really don’t watch it, and therefore, Dalton doesn’t pay attention to it either. He’s much more concerned with running, jumping, reading, and playing with his toys.  There is one exception: Wheel Of Fortune. At 6:30pm, we turn the channel and he’ll just sit there mesmerized at the blinking lights and spinning wheel.  “Wheel,” as he calls it, is definitely his favorite show.  He’s also a huge fan of the NCIS intro music and any commercial with a catchy jingle.  Well, not Spangles commercials…

The biggest news is that we’re buying a new house. Sarah and I have been “neighborhood shopping” for several years now looking for a place with a unique atmosphere.  We’ve been looking at older homes with mature trees and trying to avoid newer developments with cookie-cutter model designs.  We’ve been wanting to stay out west so we can continue to attend St. Peter’s parish, so that definitely limited our options.  Over the years, we’ve come to the conclusion that a big brick home + mature trees + lots of land + on a pond or creek running through the backyard = out of our price range.  So, we’ve been refining our search to homes with lots of space while giving up some of our exterior amenities.  Just one week ago, we found a house near 119th and 13th with nearly 3,000 sqft.  It’s a little further north than I wanted, but the house is pretty sweet.  It’s basically move in ready, has a pool, 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, wood floors, mature trees, and priced where we can quickly build equity.  We got pre-qualified and had the new house on contract 3 days after that and our house on the market 2 days after that.  So, we’ve been moving at warp speed lately.  We plan on closing Dec 18th, so we’ll need movers Dec 19th…

Dalton’s first haircut went as expected. He was very inquisitive of the hair salon and the experience of being in the chair with a giant bib wrapped around him.   As he was getting his hair sprayed down, his curiosity turned to confusion.  When the comb and scissors came out, he knew things were not right.

About halfway through his first haircut, we decided to give him his first lollypop.  That worked.  He had a death grip on his new little sucker and devoted all of his attention to his intake of un-needed extra sugar.  Although we only took about an inch off of his hair so we could keep his curls a little while longer, it was enough to bring some order to the rats nest.

Fall came early this year, and it made for some very enjoyable weather since August.  We took him to Buffalo Park several times this year so he could get in some slide action.  Dalton loves slides.  He’s always had access to a little Playskool slide, but putting him on a big-kid slide for the first time was interesting.  Earlier in the summer, I put him on a slide for the first time, and he didn’t think twice; he pushed himself down at full speed and had a giant smile on his face. This kid knows no fear.

This past September was the annual Kramer Kroquet Klassic, a fiercely competitive croquet tournament where winners are hailed and losers are made to feel worthless.  Part of the fun of this event is that each team is sponsored by a “company,” and you are encouraged to bring “company” door prizes and dress in “company” attire. This year, our team was sponsored by Nyquil (this is all imaginary, keep in mind).  Since we’ve been sick ALL YEAR and have downed pints of the green sludge, we figured we’d represent a company we’ve single handedly kept afloat during the recession.  With Dalton in tow, we faltered on the course.  Dalton would chase the croquet balls and take off running with them.  I’m sure Sarah was penalized a couple strokes for his behavior. We both found our way at the top of the losers bracket and finished miserably.  Starting next spring, I will begin my croquet practice so I can dominate next year’s field.

My aunt Jeanie came up from Texas to visit the fam and to see Dalton for the first time since he was 1 month old.  Dalton put on a good show and was on his best behavior.  As expected, aunt Jeanie tried to impart some knowledge to the wee man last week.  Apparently, she’s been trying to teach him how to wink.  As if a butt-slapping ladies man needed anymore flirting tools…

Usually when I take a month break from updating the blog, it’s because nothing much has happened.  Quite the contrary this time.

Our financial advisor, Mark Richards with Waddell &Reed, sponsored a day out at Tanganyika Wildlife Park. We’re advid SCZ visitors, so we’ve been wanting to get out to Tanganyika as a family for quite a while.  The park is opening up more exhibits every year, and being able to get up close to many of them was quite an experience.  Dalton got to touch a ringtailed lemur.

A couple weeks ago, we made another trip up to KC for an eye checkup.  Before we left that Wednesday morning, I caught a view of that day’s weather.  We were heading into a storm half the height of the state.  I knew we were in for it, but I couldn’t have imagined.

We were about halfway to Emporia when the rain started.  From then on out, it was a torrential down pour all the way to Children’s Mercy.  That’s about 160 miles (two hours) of non-stop rain.  I’m not kidding here.  For most of the trip, visibility was about 1/4 mile, and both the sky and highway was a flat gray.  That made keeping my bearings nearly impossible.  After two hours of not truly knowing where I was going (whether I was going to drive off the road or not and going as fast as possible so we weren’t late for our appointment), I was mildly stressed when we arrived.  I needed a de-briefer, but instead, we got to wait for a full hour after our original appointment was scheduled in a small waiting room crammed full of kids.

We had just lost another lens the night before, so luckily the hospital had a backup lens on hand.  Dalton checked out just fine and we were sent on our way.  Instead of stopping by the usual downtown Applebee’s, I took the fam to the Olathe Garozzo’s Italian restaurant.  I am redesigning their website, so I figured I’d do a little research and taste testing to help inspire my design work.  We walked in wearing shorts and t-shirts, and felt a little under dressed.  I wasn’t too bothered since there were only 2 other families in there, and they were finishing up their meals.  Just when we both sat down thinking that we were going to enjoy a nice quiet lunch, Dalton came to life.  I’ve seen this behavior before, but he cranked it up to 11.  Dalton filled the peaceful quiet void with loud talking, animal sounds and a delightful game of “let’s throw all our food on the floor.”  The rest of the meal entailed me eating with one hand while wrangling Dalton with the other.   Luckily, the ride home was much more tame.

Before I jump into why Sarah should be put in a bubble, I wanted to update you on Dalton’s surgery recovery.  He’s going great.  He’s still a little red and there is a swollen lump on his lip that we’re unsure about, but his incisions are very smooth and healing nicely.  It wouldn’t surprise me if he outgrows his scars very quickly.  The white crap on his face in this picture is Scar Zone cream, and will aid in his recovery.

Every night, we still have to put rubber tubes in his nose so that his nose continues to develop in a natural shape.  Here’s the process: I lube up the nose tubes (a full inch long) with KY and attach a strip of tape to them.  I have to sit on him so that his arms and legs are immobilized while Sarah holds his head with both hands.  After the tubes are wiggled in, I apply the tape over his nose and up to his forehead.  Then, I put another strip of tape across the bridge of his nose so that the tape attached to tubes stay on Dalton’s face.  He looks like a boxer once the setup is finished.

Now to Sarah.

Back in February, Sarah was hit hard by a variety of colds, sinus infections, and bronchitis which knocked her down for nearly a month. De ja frickin’ vous!  Back on July 20th, all 3 of us came down with solid colds complete with coughing fits and Nyquil dependence.  3 weeks later, I still cough occasionally and Dalton’s cough is gone. Sarah, however, is a different story.  First, her cough was much worse than ours.  Her coughing fits easily went on for 20 coughs. That developed into viral bronchitis then to bacterial bronchitis. That inflamed her lungs and she got Pleurisy again.  Her extreme coughing fractured a rib on her left side and may have stretched some cartilage on some others. We celebrated her birthday at Osaka’s and threw a pool party for her - both events were pretty grueling for her.

We’re not done yet my friends.  Her bronchitis morphed into pneumonia.  Her doctor prescribed an antibiotic and Lortab for the pain. Negative. After a week of that, the doctor said her pneumonia has gotten worse, so he prescribed a stronger antibiotic and Percocet for the pain that Lortab couldn’t handle. We’re watching and waiting…

Needless to say, we’re totally done with being sick.  I’ve been on supplements and Elderberry juice since March, and I think that helped me from getting too bad.  I think Sarah’s finally on board with my supplement philosophy, so hopefully we’ll be in tip-top shape for the (next?) cold and flu season.

This past Monday, my parents and Sarah headed up to KC to get settled in with Becky, one of my mom’s high school friends.  I headed up after work and arrived just in time to see Dalton off to bed.  We took some final pictures of the Dalton we’ve known for the past 19 months and laid down for a very short night.

We lefty Beck’s at 5:15am on Tuesday so we could get Dalton to Children’s Mercy by 6am.  We finally passed him off to the anesthesiologist around 7:30am, and that was pretty tough.  It helped that he didn’t cry or throw a fit.  Then, the waiting began.

Amazingly, the wait didn’t last that long.  The procedure was scheduled to last 4.5 hours, so we were surprised to get the call that Dalton was finished just 2.5 hours in.   The surgeon, Dr. Singhal, met us and told us that everything went perfectly.  The main problem was getting the cyst out of his nose.  He ended up cutting along the base of Dalton’s nose, so he will have minimal scarring there.  To me, it sounds like the operation went as well as humanly possible.

Seeing Dalton for the first time was a bit of a shock.  He has these massive plastic shunts in his nose and a very visible incision running down his lip.  He looked pretty beat up.  We spent the rest of the day taking turns holding him and dancing around the various IV tubes attached to him.  His private room was small with barely enough room for his bed and two recliners - our beds for the evening.  I was able to hold him for about a 5 hour stretch during the late afternoon, but after that, Dalton only wanted his momma.

Apparently, our boy reacts differently to narcotic pain medication.  It knocks most people out into a blissful sleep.  To Dalton, it’s like a Columbian Speedball - he was pretty hyper and acting almost well.  The problem was that his boost of energy started up around 8pm, and Sarah and I were ready to crash for the night.  The hospital had a variety of movies and xbox games to borrow, so we watched National Treasure 2 as we tried to rock Dalton to sleep.

That was a particularly long night for Sarah.  I tried to hold Dalton, but he would grow tired of me after 45 minutes and would want Sarah to hold him.  Between Dalton in and out of sleep and the nurse team coming in every half hour (no joke), I managed a few hours of sleep while Sarah logged less than two.

Wednesday morning, I was ready to check out.  I don’t like hospitals.  Not because they remind me of my mortality or I’m afraid of catching some disease there, but mainly because I would prefer to take care of Dalton on my own turf.  …that, and hospitals cost money. We were discharged shortly before noon.  Once we got back to Becky’s, my parents told us to go grab some lunch by ourselves - some much needed “away time.”  We went to Jose Pepper’s, and man was it good.  It’s like On The Border only done right.  The plan was to go back to Becky’s and catch a short nap before we headed home.  Once we got there, Dalton was ready for his nap, so we decided to head home then.

The trip home started off great.  There was little traffic, Dalton was asleep, and we got out of town before a storm rolled in.  This storm I speak of sounded rather benign on the news, but once we hit Ottowa, just outside of KC, we learned better.  Traffic came to a screeching hault just as the pounding rain was subsiding.  After 10-15 minutes of not moving an inch, we finally started creeping forward. I got off the highway because I needed caffine in a bad way.  As I looked further down the traffic jam, we saw 2 overturned semis blocking the road, and my on ramp back up to I-35 was blocked off.  I grabbed a McD’s ice tea and was instructed by my parents (who stayed on I-35) to take highway 59 all the way south to US 54 (kellogg).  As we were on our new path, there was storm damage everywhere.  Roofs blown off, phone poles snapped in two - we were sure a tornado caused this.  It turns out a microburst hit the ottowa area about 30 minutes before we got there.  We lucked out, because it took about 20 minutes to get gas and get on the highway out of KC - we could have been a whole lot closer to the action. On our way south on 59, we were detoured around an entire town through muddy country roads because of the damage. Other than that, the trip was pretty uneventful.  Actually, it was a nice change of scenery.

Dalton was still coming off of his anesthesia all last night, so Sarah was up with him all night with Dalton’s nausea.  Around 7am, we decided to run him into the ER to get an IV started because he was in pitiful shape.  As a last minute option, we headed over to the pediatrician’s office to get their consult.  They said he was close to needing an IV, and recommended we feed him gatorade G2 and any soft food that he’ll eat.  I picked him up one each of every flavor gatorade makes, and headed home.  He refused the fluids, but scarfed down food like he hadn’t eaten before.  To our suprise, he kept it all down, and he’s doing much better now.  His energy is almost back to normal, and his crooked swollen smile is making a regular appearance.

Sarah, Kassy and Grandma Thome headed up to KC for Dalton’s pre-op consultation this morning at 5:30am.  From what I’m told, Dalton did fairly well on the trip up and back.  When I say “fairly well,” that means he napped a little and had less than 3 meltdowns.

The consult went well.  Of course, it’s a hard to listen to the realities of possible scarring, how he may recover and all the risks involved in sedating a young child.  I have confidence in the doctors and their experience, but that does precious little to console Sarah.  She’s putting on a strong face, but I know she’s being eaten up inside.

We’ll check in early next Tuesday and will most likely be released early Wednesday.  We’ll stay in town until late Wednesday just to be safe.  We’ll head home once we feel like Dalton’s doing okay.  It’ll take 3-4 days for him to get back to normal and a bit longer for the pain to go away.  But when he’s all done, he’ll have all of his sinus pits closed, the cysts removed from his lip and nose, and the slight cleft in his lip fixed.  For a full list of all of Dalton’s issues, visit his personal page on this website.

Oh, I also updated the gallery section with months September-December 2008.  Becareful, all the sweetness will give you a tooth ache.

Sorry for the lack of posts this past month.  Much has gone on including a couple trips to the zoo, a jaunt over to Buffalo Park for some slide action and a spate of stomach flu for both families. For a quick summation, Sarah and some work friends went to Denver a couple weekends ago for a training seminar for counselors.  There, Sarah participated in the first part of a two-part seminar on EMDR Therapy.  I’ll try to get Sarah to blog about it later. Me and Dalton had boys’ night in all weekend long.

This past month, Jackson, Dalton’s cousin, caught yet another stomach virus which has made its way through both my family and Sarah’s.  Since then, I’ve been popping a variety of immune system booster supplements including Elderberry juice.  Sarah doesn’t subscribe to the same “stay healthy at all costs” mantra that I do, but I believe it’s working (just bloodied my knuckles knocking on wood).  Dalton was sick while we were in Cancun, and he has since passed it on to my dad.  Sarah and I are still healthy, and I hope we stay that way.  With Dalton’s pre-op consult and his surgery coming up, we absolutely cannot get sick.

After a year of talking and planning, a group of us were finally able to vacation in Cancun.  Us, the McClures, Denise and Diane Stutey, and a pair of Stutey cousins flew into Cancun on June 18th for some much needed R&R.  We stayed at the Dreams Cancun all-inclusive resort and indulged in their all-you-can-eat-and-drink amenities.  When we got there, I asked if there was any complimentary room upgrades available, and they moved us from the entry-level garden suite to what had to be the top-of-the-line room.  We got a corner room on the 14th (actually 13th) floor in their tower; we had 2 views of the ocean.  The view was absolutely amazing.

Sarah got burnt the second day.  She was using SPF 35 and was diligent about her reapplications, but that wasn’t enough to fend off the Mexican sunlight.  The remainder of the trip was spent applying SPF 50, aloe with lidocaine, and plenty of shade.  In fact, the swim up bar became the girls’ second home.  The staff was incredible.  They were absolutely hospitable and quite flirtsy with the girls.  If tips weren’t already included in the packaged price, we would have been throwing lots of pesos their way.

We all got separate massages on the beach.  Sarah and I were surprised not only by the deep tissue nature of our massages but also what Mexico considers a lower back massage.  Apparently, our lower backs start halfway down our asses.  I’m not sure why I wore pants to the session, because they were just in the masseuse’s way.  We both walked away a lot more relaxed an a little violated.

Sarah and the girls got to swim with the dolphins on Saturday.  It looked like quite an experience, and one that Sarah has always wanted to do before she dies.  Between the deep tissue butt massage and playing with the dolphins, she should be able to die happily now. Sometime this year, I’ll have a full gallery of our Cancun trip up.

The trip was great, and really needed especially since Sarah and I are heading into a super stressful situation.  This week, Dalton goes up to KC for his pre-op consultation.  Next week on July 7th, he’ll undergo corrective plastic surgery to fix the cysts in his nose and upper lip.  He’ll also have the slight cleft in his upper lip fixed and his sinus pits closed.  They are forecasting a 4-5 hour operation and will keep him overnight at least once.  Best case scenario is that we’re released sometime next Wednesday, but we could stay longer.  He’s a strong kid, so I’m hoping he handles the operation and recovery like a champ.

I’ve been planning on a Dalton-tractor-wheat field-photoshoot for 2 months now, but it’s rained non-stop.  Not quite non-stop, but the local precipitation and my schedule never came together.  Well, last Wednesday, I forced the issue.  We had more rain coming in, the ground was just dry enough to walk on, and I had a poker game in 1 hour.  So the fam loaded up and searched for a picturesque wheat field about 1.5 miles from home.  In 5 minutes, I had the exposure set, Dalton and the John Deere in place, took 50 quick frames, and Sarah served as my photo director and model wrangler. Two months planning for 5 minutes worth of work; I suppose that’s parenting.  BTW, those overalls Dalton is wearing are my old pair, vintage 1979.

This past weekend, I headed out to Tribune, KS for some prairie dog hunting.  Let’s define this, because I sure have caught some heat at work.  Prairie dog hunting really isn’t “hunting” since we’re not killing for food.  Prairie dog hunting is more like extermination.  I got a chance to talk to the land owner we were helping out, and he just can’t afford to poison (a slower death) the dogs.  He can’t plant crops or run cattle in the field because of the prairie dogs.  He owns and pays taxes on land he can’t use.  So, people like us (and prairie dog hunting is a pretty big deal, I hear) come out and give the local farmers a hand.  Sure, you throw in some BBQ, beer and seedy motel rooms and you turn the service into a vacation.

Between the wind and the rain, we only got in about 5 hours of quality shooting time on Saturday.  Sarah doesn’t want to hear details, so I’ll be vague about my bragging.  Let’s just say I was the sharp shooter.  I was averaging 20% (1-in-5 shots was a kill) at a range of 250-325 yards.  That’s 3 football fields away, and prairie dogs are about the size of our chihuahua. I had several 3-in-a-rows and one 4-in-a-row (anyone who plays Halo 3 knows that’s one shy of a sniper spree medal).  I stopped about 2/3 through the day because I was running low on ammo and I had hit a large, round number.  Had I had unlimited ammo and an ego that demanded more notches on my barrel, I could have nearly doubled my count.  Some of the group had similar luck while others had guns that were not quite sighted in for 300 yards.

But this wasn’t all about an evil massacre of poor, innocent fuzzy faced little angels.  It was also about the food (not prairie dogs…).  We all brought enough to feed the whole group and kept 3 grills going full steam.  We camped out in the parking lot of our 1/2-star motel and feasted on a variety of steaks, chicken, hamburgers, brats, steamed veggies, grilled portobello mushrooms, grilled asparagus, german potatoes and a whole bunch of other crap.  Good stuff.

Sarah, meanwhile, had a couple girls-night-in’s over the weekend.  Dalton was pretty good, but even pretty good is tiring.  He wasn’t teething this weekend, so that was a huge bonus.  With tornadoes, hail and power outages on Friday, she had her fill of stress to last the weekend.  I hear margaritas and movies fixed that, though.

Sorry for the long time between posts, but it’s been pretty quiet lately.  The patching is going well and the contact is staying in.  Well, it just ripped last week so he’s wearing an old back up until the new one comes in. I’ve been working on our family photos too, so hopefully I can update the galleries soon.

Earlier this month, we had a play date with the Bentz’s - old high school friends of both me and Sarah’s.  Their little daughter, Sidney, is about a month younger than Dalton.  We went to the zoo on a day that was about 90% cloudier and 15 degrees cooler than it was supposed to be (thanks Dave Freeman, good job).  It was Cinco de Mayo day at the zoo, and it was packed wall-to-wall with belt buckles, cowboy hats and mustaches.  The zoo had a loud marachi band playing on the stage, and the steady beats of the bass guitar could be heard even inside the Gorilla exhibit.  The two kids dug the music and were dancing most of the time.

Yesterday for Mother’s Day, we headed out to Botanica for their Mother’s Day/Riverfest event.  We made it shortly after the rain stopped (again, thanks Dave Freeman), and were able to get through the whole place without a single meltdown.  Dalton was even able to help Sarah pot a plant.

I mention meltdowns, because they’ve become common place with the D-man.  It’s completely baffled us lately, but we may have found the culprit this evening: he has a molar coming in on the top left side of his mouth.  That’s a surprise, because we weren’t sure he was going to get any teeth in that area due to his slight cleft.  We still need to consult an orthodontist on that one, but he’s still popping out teeth.

Our trip to KC this past Wednesday was a success this time.  Last month was derailed by a variety of colds, flus and other near-death sickness-related events.  It wasn’t without its share of moments, though.

Grandma Thome says that Dalton is full of life.  We call it ADHD.  Whatever you call it, our little Dalton boy likes to move, and being strapped into a car seat for 3 hours each way is not his cup of tea.  Sarah kept him pretty occupied on the way up, so that helped a great deal.

This was the first trip to KC where Dalton could walk around and interact with the other kids.  He’s a hitter, grabber, screamer and still kind of a biter, so I kept a close eye on him.  He was very interested in whatever all the other kids were playing with and would push his way right into their lives.  Granted, with his contact, he can only see 16″ in front of his face, so he’s use to getting up-close-and-personal with people to see them properly.  We chucked a bit as the other kids reacted to Dalton getting face-to-face with them at a healthy distance of 3 inches.

His contact perscription is changing for the positive.  He started with a +29 script a year ago and was moved to a +26 lens six months ago.  Dr. Olitsky said he would drop the script down a bit, so I’m guessing it’ll go down to +23.  This means that dalton will be able to see pretty clearly out to about 24″ rather than the 16″ he’s been seeing at lately.  His vision will degrade from there and won’t see much past 3.5′.

The ride home was rougher.  Our little precious wouldn’t nap, so he was cranky and figity.  Finally, we stopped at a McDonalds south of Emporia for a diaper change and a walk.  When I say walk, I mean we walked Dalton.  Like a dog.  We walked our child like people walk their dogs only without a leash.  The walk actually helped, but he had his full meltdown as we entered Wichita, so it wasn’t that bad.

On another note, we have a date for his plastic surgery (to fix his cysts and cleft lip).  That will be July 7th.  More to come later.