Long night.

Andrew: Well, it's been a long evening. My brother rang me in a panic earlier tonight around 8:30 telling me that my mother had passed out while they were out to dinner. The paramedics took her to the hospital out in the western suburbs near where she was dining. Since she's a diabetic, I naturally assumed it had something to do with her blood sugar being all out of whack. I made it out to the hospital rather quickly (not a lot of traffic by 9pm) and she was on an IV, totally conscious and seemingly in good spirits. She wasn't delusional or anything. A CAT scan revealed that she has some calcification on some posterior blood vessels leading into the base of her brain, supplying it with blood. It wasn't really a stroke, but was kind of a precursor to one. Thankfully it happened in a relatively safe environment and she wasn't behind the wheel of the car or carrying Carys around. If you don't know, my mother takes care of Carys 4 days a week while Corrie and I work. Anyway, she is being kept for a couple nights at the hospital for observation and additional tests to determine the exact location of the calcification and how best to treat it. I'll spend most of the day tomorrow out at the hospital, I imagine, talking to doctors and trying to get to the bottom of this. It's such a scary thing when our parents start getting older, isn't it?

Photo date: March 18, 2006

It's confirmed. I am a shite blogger.

ANDREW: Yes, after ages of speculation, it was confirmed today by a dear comrade, Mark Carpenter (http://homerclees.blogspot.com/), that I indeed am a crap blogger. The key is not that my posts are poorly written, apparently, but that they are quite infrequent. Gina Stanford warned me a while back that I wasn't living up to generally accepted blogging standards. Mark confirmed it today.

Here is my commitment to turning over a new leaf.

After a rocky start, the week is flying by. I'm in the midst of prepping for a series of heavy meetings next week that will take me to Dallas for a couple days. I haven't traveled for work in ages and my body may actually give out on me.

With some serious effort, I've managed to lose almost 17 pounds in the last 7 weeks. My initial goal was to drop 10% of my body weight... I'm almost there. Beyond that, I need to make good on my promise to Corrie that I would lose as much weight as she gained when she was pregnant. It probably wouldn't be good for my marriage for me to disclose how much that is... Let's just say I'm getting there...

Photo: Random photo of Carys doing her best Elton John impression (photo date: 3/26/06)

Who Is That Little Girl?

Carys looking almost prep school ready...

Learning to Wave

ANDREW: We've been trying to get Carys to start waving lately... when Corrie leaves in the morning or anyone is heading out, we make her wave. She smiles from ear to ear. It makes the experience of saying goodbye for a while fun for her and she doesn't end up missing the person who just left... especially effective when Mama leaves for work each morning. She's finally gotten enough motor control that now she is starting to wave on her own... it's really adorable.

Also, she's added to her solid food repertoire: green beans, pears, carrots and oatmeal have all been added to the list recently.

And her naps are becoming even more regular. She's gotten to the point where she can soothe herself to sleep without any crying now, too. It's amazing how much she's just growing into a little girl right in front of our eyes.

The included picture is from some recent bathtime fun... For those of you wondering, NO, we are not using Dawn detergent to scrub the little sprout. It just so happened to be sitting on the counter. Very soon, she will no longer fit in the sink for her baths. This isn't going to be good for our backs.

Photo Date: February 12, 2006