random photos

hi everybody. hope your thanksgiving were wonderful. i don't have much to report; just thought i'd post a few random jack pics. since my video didn't work a couple posts ago, i'll go with photos of his new walking. everything else is simply...random.



Thanksgiving


A new place to play

snowed in

iowa weather strikes again. 2 days ago it was 70 degrees and we were playing outside with tee-shirts on. today it is below 30 and snowing. SNOWing. i don't know for sure, but i'm guessing we already have 4 inches or so. since jack and i are snowed in, and his holiday gift from mike and i arrived in the mail today, i thought it appropriate to break out the new toy. he'll get so much stuff from his grandparents at the holidays anyway, i figure it's better to introduce new toys slowly :) so jack received his new toddler-sized rocking horse today (soon to be named). best part of this toy according to mommy: no assembly required. phew. best part according to jack: the whinneying and galloping sounds you hear when you press its ears. he thinks he can't rock on it without the sounds going. it was a little like christmas morning for him, coming downstairs after a nap and seeing the snow outside, and a new toy waiting. jack gets presents; mommy gets egg nog. everyone is happy.

The Big 3-0.

(well, it does seem my last attempt at uploading video did not work, yet again. anyone using blogger with experience on this who can help me, please speak up. i've been hitting the "video upload button," browsing on my computer for the file, then uploading. it takes 15 min. or so. but when done, doesn't show. huh?)

SO! we had a very busy week, and i'm just now getting time to blog about it. wednesday was my mom's birthday, so i took her out to lunch at Granite City Brewery. thursday was mike's 30th, and we went out to dinner at a new place downtown, Dos Rios. i've never paid that much for mexican food in my life, but it was an experience worth doing, i suppose. i wanted to be more impressed than i was; the tableside guacamole was good, and the homemade spiced tortilla chips were incredible. but the main plates were waning, and the service disorganized at best. but at least des moines is adding some big city into its small town reputation. mike got a special cake from Carefree Patisserie, a chocolate peanut butter mousse cake. i got the smallest cake, and we still have half of it left. so rich! here's the photo:


friday we saw fireworks and a tree lighting at jordan creek mall--jack LOVED the fireworks. great time. and finally, saturday was the big day. i had been planning a surprise party for mike's 30th for many months, and i wanted it to take the form of a miniature drake reunion, with all of his bestfriends from the college days. while not everyone could make it, we had a party of 14 people, which turned out to be the perfect size. the party started at Court Avenue Brewing Company downtown, where I reserved their executive dining room and bought a selection of appetizers and paid for the open bar tab from 4-6pm. it was a great time, and corresponded with their saturday martini night, so everyone had plenty of good drink to choose from. i of course was stuck with the root beer and virgin margaritas, but it was all good. mike was surprised and had a great time, which is what i was hoping for. after the "formal" part of the party, the group went to some other bars downtown before ending the night at big tomato pizza, our old favorite for getting $2.50 slices of the best pizza in town between 11:00 PM and 4:00 AM. i turned my tired butt in at midnight, but mike was out till 3am. we happily ended the weekend with a farewell brunch for the out of town guests at La Mie Bakery and Restuarant the next morning.
Here are some photos from the fun night. Happy 30th hubby!












With friends coming from Texas, Chicago, Minneapolis, and other areas in Iowa, it was a really special time to spend together. And thanks to Swarup for remembering that no visit is complete without a big tub of his mom's special Indian chex mix. Yummmmm.

trying this video thing again...

jack started walking independently (more than a few steps) last friday; 2 days before he turned 15 months. i caught a few steps on video (once again, bad lighting and i'm NOT adept at editing), so thought i'd share them if i can figure out the video upload tool this time. he's getting more confident and more balanced each day, but still uses crawling as his primary mode of transportation.

http://www.blogger.com/video-play.mp4?contentId=97c63fcf94831aa4&type=video%2Fmp4

a shout out to my little bro

my brother and i have had a complicated relationship over the years, usually characterized by a lack of communication and closeness. i'm not really sure why, though i blamed it on our being 4 yrs apart and different genders. i'm not convinced that's really the cause of our historical lack of friendliness, however. i remember (not so fondly) back when he was a first-yr undergraduate at UI, living on the honor's student floor in his dorm, that he told me how he and "all the other students" on that floor were conservative, and that i shouldn't be so surprised, since "smart people tend to be conservative since they are easily able to earn their keep rather than have someone hand it to them" (as, i guess, liberals advocate). it was at this point that i recognized him as a tiny incarnate of my father, and that we would most likely have little in common in the years to come. fast forward to november 9th, 2007, and adam is currently romping around rural towns outside of moscow, russia, dressed as a clown, providing free medical care to orphans with the real-life patch adams. huh? yes, change is a beautiful thing. while he followed his dream to enter into the MD/PhD program at UI, he is using his education and privilege to do good for kids, both in Iowa and now abroad. he has volunteered a lot of his time at camps for kids with cancer, working at the free clinic between med school committments, and also volunteering at the hospital to hang out with kids with cancer, cheering them up and helping them through tough tests. i see new life in him that was hidden before, and we've become closer in the past year. i shouldn't be so surprised, i guess, since most people make radical changes in those undergraduate years. but i couldn't be more pleased to see my own brother make the changes he has. i commend his humanity and goals, so here's a shout out to you, little bro.
p.s. anyone interested in the work he's doing with patch adams, through his Gesundheit institute, can check out this: http://www.patchadams.org/campaign/hospital-paper
the part that says..."For 18 years I've taken thirty clowns from all over the world to Russia for two weeks of clowning in hospitals, orphanages, prisons and nursing homes, as well as airports, subways, streets and hotels. Ten years ago this led to our getting involved in the care of orphans in Russia in work that is now recognized all over." Um, yeah, that's what he's doing. the whole column on this page is interesting in terms of healthcare visions. shocking at times, but interesting--probably especially to those of you in the healthcare field.

Baby Steps

Jack officially took his first steps yesterday. Well, I'm calling it official. He still has to be coerced into it. We have to hold onto one side of a blanket or toy while he holds the other side in order to get him to walk. He still needs that security "thing" to have in hand in case he loses his balance. But I discovered yesterday that if I let go of my end, he'll take a few more steps before noticing I let go and sitting down. So with 3 steps on his own, I'm calling it "first steps" for baby book purposes. Once he faces the fear of falling and just goes for it, he'll be fine with walking--he can do it, he just needs a little more confidence. I can see so much of myself in him when it comes to change--he's very cautious and slow to adjust. Not like his father, who always jumps right in. His physical therapist and verbal developmental specialist came yesterday for an appointment, and while his physical therapy is almost completed, now the verbal lady is wanting to put some time into him. Ugh. Apparently, "we want to see between 4-10 words right now." Jack has da da and ma ma, and understands millions of others, but doesn't show an interest in imitating the sounds to make words. No interest in baby signs, either, although he recognizes some that I do. She tells us they look for 50 words by 18 months. I'm having a hard time imagining him speaking 50 words 3 months from now. SO, guess we'll wait and see. I suspect this may be another caveat of having the "extra attention" that goes along with premie follow-ups. I am not worried about his development; and I imagine without this outside guidance, he'd be considered in the normal (albeit slower) range for development. But we do appreciate the guidance.