Found in Translation!

I found this foreign language translator online today and instantly had a great idea. Ok, well maybe it's just a marginal idea at best, but I'm going with it anyway! With all the media coverage about China of late, and in honor of the upcoming Olympic Games there, I thought I would translate one of my past posts into Chinese.

Yes, once the Chinese complete their plan to take over of the world (which rumor has it began, innocently enough, in a small factory where they produced billions of little 'Made in China' stickers) they will be able to look back on this post as evidence, along with my collection of Chinese action film DVD's and my affection for their local fare, that yours truly and Mrs. LIAYF are 'China friendly.' Hey, they might even give me a job writing fortunes!

To keep it short, and your vision from blurring, I am translating my last Haiku Friday, originally published June 13th. Read the original here.

And now for the translated version:

那天很快到达
盘旋太阳的地球

它能真正地是？

Wow! I'm glad I don't have to read or write Chinese as that looks like it would give me a serious hand cramp. I do know, however, that Lukas is the perfect age to learn a foreign language. Chinese, perhaps? Probably not, but Mrs. LIAYF and I do have Luke on the waiting list of, among other fine establishments, a bilingual daycare. They teach English and Spanish together and have teachers of all different cultural backgrounds. If the stars align right and our plans have not changed by then, we would love to have him in a facility which promotes such diversity.

In the mean time, Chinese may have to wait until he is a bit older!

Santa, I Hardly Missed Ya

Sitting here this quiet Saturday morning at the kitchen table with the sun filtering in from the living room window to illuminate our breakfast feast, I had a moment where a smile appeared out of nowhere. I thought to myself, "Now where did that come from?", but didn't have to think to long. Here I was with all that is important, surrounding me. Lukas was in his high chair, devouring the fruit filled oatmeal that mom had made for him, Mrs. LIAYF was quietly perusing the morning paper, and I was sipping my freshly brewed morning coffee, taking in what has become a staple moment in our household. Sitting down together, as a family, without outside interruption, to enjoy our meals and each other as well.

In my previous post 'The Year Without a Santa Clause' I talked about our decision to give up television just before Lukas was born. Yes, we did give up cable and local TV channels and it was difficult at first, but moments and meals like that which I described from this morning, happen much more frequently now, without the background hum and chatter of the previously ever present tube. I will admit (and if you read this blog regularly, both of you will realize) that Mrs. LIAYF and I have not completely given up watching media altogether. After we put Lukas to bed in the evening, have cleaned up the dishes and toys from the evening dinner and play time, and have taken care of any pressing family business, such as paying bills, calling family, or ordering groceries, we will sit down and watch one episode of whichever series we are currently getting delivered from NetFlix. We just ended the 4th season of 'The Wire' (a great series), and are dabbling with a few other shows, while we wait for season 5 to be released sometime in August. We enjoy this time to ourselves in the evening to unwind and are happy that we can have control over how much time we spend in front of our television set.

I recently read an article in our local paper that indicated nearly 40% of 3 month olds and 90% of 2 year olds watch television on a regular basis. Mrs. LIAYF and I personally don't think television is necessary for a boy Luke's age, but respect that other parents may have differing opinions. That being said, what I can say about Lukas is that the lack of television in his life (he has not watched any, other than an occasional glimpse at another person's home) has definitely not negatively affected him. Lukas is an extremely social, happy, curious boy who smiles and interacts with people we have just met out in public. He is thoughtful and fun loving, sleeps well, and doesn't throw tantrums. I know that things will not always be this peachy as Lukas grows, and I also don't believe that the lack of television has been the sole factor determining his demeanor to this point. However, I do believe that it has had one other large impact. Mom and dad are not distracted by the TV, and are thus able to be more attentive to Lukas than we otherwise would have been.

At first thought, I felt like I had to give up quite a bit by cancelling our cable. I have always been a huge sports fan and watching my teams, win or lose, has been an extremely important part of my life. After the switch I started out by following my teams closely on the radio, or in the daily paper. However, without being able to see them on TV, often several days would go by before I checked in, and as many of you know a lot can, and usually does, happen in sports in that amount of time. The result has been that I have gradually drifted away from my dependence on sports as entertainment. I'm still not sure if that is a good or bad thing, but I do know that what has replaced sports as entertainment, watching Luke develop in all sorts of wonderful ways over the past year, has been extraordinary. I can honestly say this has been a terrific decision. This time in a child's life goes by so fast that if you divert your attention to other things for too long, you are going to miss something grand and amazing.

Yes, there will be a time when we turn the television back on, for Lukas' sake and for ours. I am not sure when that will be, but I'm sure we will know it when that time comes. In the meantime though, I will continue to enjoy quiet Saturday mornings, sitting at the breakfast table sipping my coffee watching the the latest on the toddler food network. It's fascinating!

Wordless Wednesday!

Making the Cut!

Well, I am back home from my knee surgery this morning. As the before and after picture here shows, my doctor seems to have inserted the monster from Alien, or perhaps a hungry piranha into my knee to clean out the loose flap of cartilage that has been such a pain in the, err..well, knee over the past few years for me.

The procedure seems to have gone swimmingly, pun intended, with my doctor indicating that after removing the loose flap the rest of the knee was in terrific shape. I suppose that is only until the next piece of it, or perhaps maybe the other knee, elbow, or other (yikes) extremity decides it's time to do some degenerating of its own!

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That's correct, if you didn't hear about the reason for my surgery in a previous post, I'm sorry to inform you that I can't regale you with tales of crazy adventure, the culmination of which resulted in my knee getting twisted while doing something risky and daring, like traversing a less than stable ice bridge while climbing K2. No, not that, and not even simply having it give way while making too quick a crossover dribble during a pickup game at the local Y. No, friends, this surgery was precipitated by father time alone. It was (past tense now) nothing more than what the doctor termed a 'degenerative' tear in my meniscus cartilage. In other words, I am getting old dammit!

To make matters worse, this embarrassing injury not being enough, it seems that I am now officially prone to fainting spells. Yes, that's correct, while getting the needles for my IV inserted, I had an appointment with Mr. Floor! Ok, I was sitting at the time so it was not as bad as the time I hit the floor from a standing position while Lukas was getting his circumcision (my wife had been through an 80 hour labor and I went several days without any sleep). I do have a bit of an excuse, as I did not sleep a wink last night. I'm not sure why, as I was not worried about this procedure. I stayed up late getting several things done and when I finally did go to bed, it was a no-go on the Z's. There were a few times where I almost dozed off, but then Luke fussed and cried and put the kibosh on my only chance at a bit of shut-eye (he contracted roseola over the weekend and all three of us had had little sleep for days - more to come on this).

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I decided to get up at 3:30 anyway, to catch the only bus to downtown Seattle to meet the ridiculous 5:30 check in time. I say ridiculous because, after checking in at 5:30 AM without a wink of sleep, I sat there with no food or coffee in my stomach for an hour and fifteen minutes before being called back (and I was the first patient of the day!). All these things converged into my having a rather frightening fainting experience. I'm telling you, it was the most disturbing feeling I have had in years. I am not sure how long it lasted, but I was not exactly aware what was going on for what seemed like several minutes and was in a sleep paralysis state (not being able to move, not knowing where I was or what had happened to me). Turst me, they could, and probably have, written horror flicks where some poor sap is stuck in such a state. Only this was me and it was real!

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My 'interesting' morning was not quite done. Given the true horror of what happened a very good friend of ours when given general anesthesia recently, I opted to have a spinal done. This numbed my whole lower half for the duration of the surgery, and then some. I got the spinal done at 7:30 and Mrs. LIAYF was supposed to be able to pick me up at 9:00 leaving her plenty of time to take me home (20 minutes) and get back to a professional course that she was teaching to a large crowd, many of whom were from out of state, by 12:00 noon. Well, when getting a spinal, the last body part to gain back feeling is, you guessed it, the most important thing! I would not be released until I could fill up a cup, draining much of the liquid which I had been sucking down overnight to stay hydrated. Mrs. LIAYF and I started to sweat the timing at around 10:15 when there was still very little sensation where it counted! At about 10:45, I lied and told the nurse that all the feeling had returned and proceeded to rest room where I gave it all I had and was fortuantely able to show them the money and fill the cup! I could be released, and just in the nick of time, as Mrs. LIAYF met me, still smiling and happy to see me, despite her time predicament (she is a real sweetheart!).

In the end we made it back home fine, Mrs. LIAYF was a bit late to her class but persevered, and my leg is sore but not excruciating, though I am doped on on a very fine narcotic. For those of you who have watched 'The Wire', I am like Bubbles during one of his good trips. For those who have not seen this show, you need to go rent it NOW! As for me, I am going to crash soon since I working on 36 hours now without sleep. I will check in again after I wake.

Independence Days!

Lukas is feeling a bit better today, but still running a lower grade fever and definitely still not his usual happy, fun loving self. His fever continued to be very high (104) Thursday night but has since dropped a couple of degrees and held fairly steady for the last 36 hours. We are hoping to see further decline today, indicating that the worst of it has past, but at this point that is still wishful thinking. It doesn't act like an ear infection, or a cold virus, so we are a bit concerned about what it might be and are hoping it will have run its course soon.

In honor of the 4th of July holiday, Luke has been feeling rather independent of late. As the picture shows, he is determined to take his meals with the proper utensils, while doing so himself. He gets so excited when he actually gets the spoon into his bowl of chosen cuisine, and successfully navigates said utensil to his own mouth. This normally results in a huge toothy smile that says, "I do it" even though he can't quite speak those words yet. He is rather proud of himself and woe to the parent who would try to take away his spoon after a few of those attempts have gone awry, resulting in food flying in all directions, ala an 'Animal House' esque food fight!

Eating is not the only activity where our little one has demonstrated a new found Independence. Lukas is very helpful recently when we are getting him dressed or when we are dressing ourselves for that matter. Luke has discovered what shoes of all shapes and sizes are really all about and demonstrates this knowledge by bringing one of 'dada' or 'mama's' shoes over to us and setting it gently on top of our foot for us to put on (never mind he set one of Mrs. LIAYF's red flats on my foot the other day, it's all good). He does likewise with socks too. Currently we are dressing Luke in a pair of sandals with Velcro straps, and just a couple of days ago he also started to grab the strap and Velcro it closed himself. He really wants to do these things himself and shows a great sense of pride when he completes one of these tasks (of course, this is also accompanied by resounding praise from the ever present parental units).

All of this new found Independence, coupled with the passing of Lukas' 1st birthday, serves as further notice to Mrs. LIAYF and I that our infant is an infant no longer. He is a toddler now, and as such is growing into a little boy. A little boy who likes to use his own spoon and put on his own shoes. Tomorrow there will be another development and I will be equally amazed at that.

It has only been a year but I see how 18 of these could go by in the blink of an eye and, as such, am determined not to miss out on a minute of the fun!

Got A Fever of 103 . . .

Lukas is feeling under the weather the last few days. He is teething (all four molars at once) and running a slight fever, with lots of pain. We have been dosing him with Tylenol to ease the pain, to good success. However, yesterday he was warm and lethargic after daycare. He was running a fever of 101F degrees. We had been there before, so we gave him a sponge bath, Tylenol and put him down for the evening. He slept through the night without waking, but still had a slight fever when he woke up this morning, so we kept him home from daycare.

After a up and down day, where Mrs. LIAYF and I split the day at home with Luke, his fever suddenly jumped this evening. His temperature reached 103.9F, he was very lethargic, fussy and glassy-eyed. We called our local consulting nurse who advised us that in addition to teething, he is probably fighting a virus. The nurse also informed us that fevers above 103F cause some babies to have seizures! That was scary news and something we did not have to worry about all through his first year. So, as advised by the nurse, we dosed him up with Tylenol, gave him a luke-warm bath, and Mrs. LIAYF nursed him to sleep early. We have to wake him up at 10 and 2 to give him more 'baby-crack' to avoid a temperature spike while he sleeps.

He is sleeping soundly now. Wish him a speedy recovery!

p.s. Mrs. LIAYF wants you all to know we did NOT pose Lukas for a photo while he was feverish and sick. This is an archived photo!

Wordless Wednesday!

Party Like a Rock Star!

Lukas' birthday party was yesterday and it was a huge success! The day was HOT, especially for June in Seattle, with temperatures reaching 92 degrees in the brilliant sunshine. Mrs. LIAYF and I mitigated the heat as best we could absent any air conditioning (hey, it's Seattle for crying out loud, where AC is needed maybe twice a year) with plenty of cold drinks, umbrellas for shade, and floor fans to circulate the hot air around.

An early disaster was narrowly averted, when we checked out the back yard early on to find the sidewalk next to all the kid toys swarming with biting ants. I felt a bit sorry for the little guys, but didn't hesitate to pull out the hose and wash them away, down the hill into our back alley. A guy has to protect his family and guests, no?

Luke, despite being over tired from a short nap (see heat note above) and teething pain (all four molars are now close to breaking), was on his best behavior. He played nicely with the 10 other kids who showed up (all boys - there is a dearth of little girls in our city, so there should be serious dating issues in about 15 years!), walked all over the house and yard to show off his newly "perfected" skill, and was his usual charming, cute, social self with all the other guests, familiar to him or not. We read many articles about making the 1st birthday party small to keep it from overwhelming the birthday boy, but we had close to 40 people pass through yesterday, and Luke was only fussy a couple of very short times despite the heat and teething and that was when he was hungry and needed changing.

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We asked that guests, in lieu of gifts, bring diapers to his party. Those, as mentioned in my last post, will be donated to Westside Baby, to help out other families in need. We want to teach Lukas early on, not to take what he has, be it fairly modest, for granted. There always will be people out there who are having a rough time, and we should do what we can to help them out. We collected a good sized stack of diapers and wipes to donate. Thanks so much to everyone who brought these thoughtful gifts. Many of those people still brought proper birthday gifts as well, which was unexpected but thoughtful and well received by Lukas, who opened them all and found several new toys that he bonded to right away.

Mom and Dad didn't go overboard on gifts for Luke, but we did pull out this shiny new Radio Flyer roadster as his official 1st birthday gift! We bought this at a local auction about 3 years ago, knowing that someday we would have a little one to give it to. Lukas loved the car, as well as all the gifts.

In the end, despite the heat, it was a very successful 1st birthday party. Good food, cold drinks, great company, plenty of sunshine, and lots of friends to play with. Every 1st birthday party should be as nice!

1 !!!!!!!

Happy 1st Birthday Lukas! Yes, it was one whole year ago that our son first made his appearance in this world. At exactly 12:07 p.m. Pacific time 366 days ago (remember that Leap Year!) Luke ended his long journey to the light of day, with one final exhausted push from Mrs. LIAYF after enduring a marathon 80 hour labor.

We joked at time that we hoped the labor wasn't an indicator of the struggles to come. We have had struggles, indeed, but Lukas has been nothing pure joy for us ever since that rainy northwest June day he came into our lives. His development, chronologically, was near 10 months but his journey to becoming our son spanned five years. We have often said to each other over the past year that our long battle with infertility, while painful for sure, was necessary so that this little boy would be the one who came into our lives. Apparently Lukas was the one for us, and we for him, so the wait was well worth it.

I can not even begin to properly articulate what our son has meant to Mrs. LIAYF and I. Where there was a void there is no more. Where there was pain and sorrow, there is now joy and laughter. Where there was drudgery, there is now anticipation and happiness. Yes, we are truly the luckiest of parents to have been given this gift.

Lukas has evolved over the last year from a tiny infant to a full-fledged little boy - walking, "talking" and laughing. We wanted to do something fun for his birthday, with just him and his parents, so we plan to go to the zoo. Lukas has had only one previous zoo visit, in the middle of December when it was so cold that the animals stayed inside to keep warm! This trip promises to be much better as the weather will be in the upper 70's with lots of sunshine! Plus, Lukas loves his stuffed monkey, so we hope to see lots of different varieties of monkeys today.

Sunday will be the birthday party proper with many friends and family visiting. Many of those attending know how long we tried to have a child, and know just how wonderful this milestone is for us. Since we are lucky enough to be able to provide everything Lukas needs, and because he also won't remember gifts at this age, we have asked attendees to bring packages of diapers for Westside Baby - a non-profit that helps out families in need. There's plenty of loving families with babies and small children who just need a little help, and we are glad we can do this small part.

Thank you, Lukas, for choosing us to be your family. I'm sure you won't remember your first birthday, but your mom and dad are over the moon! A great culmination to a terrific year!

About a Fly.

The concern was real. Lukas was tired. He didn't need something like this to jeopardize his precious sleep. But there it was, big (gigantic really), loud and ugly.

We were getting Luke ready for his bath when it appeared, menacingly present as we lowered our boy into the tub. After a couple of annoying close range fly-bys, I realized what must be done. This behemoth was not going to make it into our son's room as we closed the door for the evening and put him down into his peaceful slumber. No, he could not be allowed to harass my little guy all night!

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Thinking quickly on my feet, I grabbed an old magazine (most likely a catalog for kids products), and rolled it into a tight, rigid tube in my trustee right. Deprived of many manly pursuits since the birth of my son, my adrenaline level jumped as I prepared my body for what was to come. This was war. This was personal. This horsefly had to DIE!

In a brilliant first move, I grabbed the bathroom door and shut it almost without thinking. Yes, it was now to be a cage match between myself and my hideous opponent. I could sense that he also understood what this meant, as he did another fly-by to size me up. He must have realized that if he landed his life would be mine in one swift stroke of death, because he continued to circle the bathroom, hoping against hope that I would wear myself out first. But I played my hand in a different way, friend. Yes, I guarded that door rock solid, not flinching, waiting for my opponent to make his mistake. And make a mistake he most certainly would!

But he continued to bob and weave, light on his wings, after a while running on what must have been pure adrenaline. He was Frazier to my Ali, continuing to circle me, back and forth, looking for a knockout punch, while I hung out on the ropes and patiently waited for that moment when he would finally wear himself down. He would float like a butterfly, but I would sting like a bee.

After what seemed like an eternity he slowed. This was my chance. I would not let this opportunity pass me by. I raised my right, slowly. Trying to anticipate the very spot he would touch down so I'd have the death blow on the way a fraction of a second earlier.

I heard it at that very moment. The unmistakable sound of a window sliding open. Mrs. LIAYF tired of waiting and watching. How could this be? He did not hesitate. Seeing his life handed back to him, Frazier pivoted on a dime and made tracks for the open window, flying off peacefully into the night.

Leaving me there to ponder what might have been.