*School* Pictures

Luke's first 'School' pictures arrived yesterday. I was a bit surprised when I first heard that our daycare actually had a picture day, but Mrs. LIAYF and I were excited to actually have a professional photographer get a shot of Lukas because, in his 16 months, we had yet to have a formal sitting for him. Not even a sit down picture with Santa last year, a parental crime of monumental proportion that we will certainly not commit again this year.
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Although Luke looks a bit startled and wasn't smiling, we were pretty happy with how this picture turned out. After all, he wasn't crying despite strangers messing with him. Being a handsome boy helps quite a bit too. The photographer did a good job of getting him to sit still and get his attention which is something we have extreme difficulty doing ourselves. Kudos to them.

Scary Mommy recently posted a call out to bloggers to show the good, the bad, and the ugly school photos they have stored away. Since this is Lukas' first picture day and it turned out fairly nice, for me it qualifies as the Good.

Now, for the Bad - Mrs. LIAYF generously allowed me to post her high school marching band photo from 1985, freshman year (yes, she was a band geek):

(Bee Girl, Be a girl...)

Personally, I think she's adorable. Mrs. LIAYF, however, cringes whenever she sees this lovely photo. Note the big feathered hair (not as big as other girls' hair - she went to high school in Kentucky), the high-riding band pants, the fabulous plaid sash, shiney wide belt, black ascot, and the "action" pose of her mallets. She informs me there was also an enormous black cowboy hat that went with this outfit (thankfully, not pictured). Freckles weren't cool yet, but this picture shows she had a ton (the marching band practiced outside a lot in the sun). This picture reminds me of Jodi Foster in "Freaky Friday" - she also played the glockenspiel. Mrs. LIAYF rocks this uniform, don't you think?

As for the Ugly, I pulled out this gem from my personal archives:

(If this kid comes along...You must whip it!)

Check out those phat burns! And the Devo style helmut head was a 1979 must have. Other great features highlighted in this school picture are the "snap it already!" fake half smile as well as the faded orangish purple tint. Finally, this shirt is a disco dream, calling out loudly to the ladies that it is worn by one very cool, and very available, dude (especially to one band geek - four years my junior and probably in grade school at this point).

Lukas has many years of school pictures ahead of him, but I'll go out on a limb here and say he won't be able to top this one for extreme nerd factor. Do you have any geeky photos of your own? Brave enough to post them? Go on over to Scary Mommy and post them. I dare you!

A Week of Sundays

(Lukas wants this Monkey off his back!)

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Ah, the grey overcast has arrived, the daylight is in short supply and open bumbershoots provide a colorful canvas of convex trampolines for the never-ending bombardment of raindrops from above. Fall in the Northwest usually means hunkering down, layering yourself before stepping out, inside projects meant to kill the time until the weather brightens, and often daydreaming about, or traveling to, some far off place where the sun still shines and shorts, a T-shirt, and flip-flops are still the attire of choice.

Given Lukas' yet to be fully resolved run in with some rather sinister bacteria, what was to be our first famiy vacation since his birth 16 long months ago didn't materialize. November sunshine and fresh air down south in Texas gave way to doctor visits, grey skies and flood warnings here in Washington. Not exactly what we had envisioned as that pick-me-up to build momentum and carry us through the long dark Winter months before the Spring begins again to rear its head (kinda like Putin) sometime in late March or early April.

In the place of a proper vacation, we have relaxed, completed projects around the house, had friends and family visit, and generally spent the time enjoying the company of our wonderful son. Everyday this week has been like a lazy Sunday for us, and it has been terrific. True, we would have liked to have slept in a bit longer (Fall Back is not a concept that a toddler sleep routine adapts to easily!), but that aside it has been a rare opportunity for both of us to be SAHP at the same time for an extended period.

Mrs. LIAYF and I have been able to interact on a more intimate level with Lukas given that the outside pressures of work and travel were alleviated. It has been amazing to be here to listen as his vocabulary seems to have exponentially taken off, and his understanding of the world around him blossoms. Each time I am witness to Luke saying a new word for the first time or demonstrating his growing understanding of the world around him by picking the right picture out of a series of photos when asked "where is the ...?", I feel as if I am privileged to be viewing something extraordinary happening.

I am not sure if it is because of who I am at this time in my life, because of how old I am as a first time father, or because I am a pretty boring guy in general, but to be here in the moment witnessing a child (my child) develop is nothing short of amazing. I may have missed a vacation, but just being able to spend the extra time with my son, especially when he is not feeling well, leaves me wanting nothing more.

Tomorrow, sadly, my week of Sundays will come to an end.

Wordy Wednesday - "Yes, We Did!"

Congratulations to President Elect Obama! I am extremely proud of the message of hope and change my country delivered yesterday. Obama's acceptance speech was both inspiring and unifying at the same time, while Senator McCain also showed the class act that he is by giving a gracful and unifying concession speech of his own. This was a truly historic moment and I am honored to have been witness to it.

Lukas proudly wore his Babies for Obama button all day today. It was amazing to hear the buzz and the conversations that filled the sidewalks of Seattle on this historic afternoon. Hope was in the air!

On another note, Lukas is feeling much better today as well. He is in great spirits and his fever seems to be gone for good. He is, however, still walking gingerly on his left leg after a run in with a playground slide shortly after a follow-up visit to Children's hospital on Monday. I took him down the slide and his left leg got caught between mine and the slide on the way down. We initially thought his leg was broken given his tearful reaction as well as the fact he couldn't put weight on it for several hours afterwards. Thankfully, X-rays were negative for a fracture but it remains very tender a couple days later. This rookie dad feels pretty bad - next time I take him down a slide I'll make sure to hold his legs in!

Meanwhile in Another Universe...

(Lukas after his knife fight - the other pirate didn't fare so well)

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It has been postulated that ours is only one of an infinite number of universes, and that every decision that a person makes leads you to the universe that we currently occupy. Those other universes, it is theorized, hold our alternate lives, lived out with the decisions that did not happen in this universe. In an odd twist of fate, you have been privy to one of those alternate Austin family universes that did not play out in our universe, but must, if the theory holds true be taking place as you read this post.
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Right now, in that alternate plane, we are indeed enjoying our visit to Dallas. We had a wonderful Halloween Night of trick-or-treating, birthday cake, and enjoyable conversation with friends we have not seen in a long time.

What really happened is much less appealing. Much less enjoyable for sure.

I had written my previous post Thursday morning, in anticipation of not having the time on Friday given my packed agenda. However, Thursday mid-morning I received a disturbing call from Mrs. LIAYF. Lukas had taken a turn for the worse, the swelling in his cheek began to grow much larger in the days since I left home. He was being admitted to Seattle Children's Hospital to have immediate surgery to drain what had become a frighteningly large abscess in his lymph node (confirmed by ultrasound and CT scans). The infection was bacterial and not viral after all.

I hopped the first flight out of Dallas Thursday afternoon, making it to Seattle in plenty of time before the surgery which was delayed until 10:30 PM Pacific time. The surgery was successful, and we were able to see him just after midnight, Halloween and (Birth)day. Worse yet, since the doctors were not sure what had caused the infection and Lukas had developed a strange rash on his arms, we were promptly put into a quarantined 8x10 room where we spent the next 36 hours. Luke was on IV antibiotics and we were set for a few days of worry. No sleep (nurses coming in every few hours to check Luke's IV and vitals), no trick-or-treating, no birthday cake. It was a true Halloween horror tale that we will never want to repeat.

The cultures came back this afternoon - a staph infection. We were finally released after the final determination. Lukas, true to form, was amazingly cooperative and stoic about all the poking, prodding, and inability to walk since the IV was in his right foot, and the foot strapped to a board. He spent most of the time in a little red wagon surrounded by toys (including a cute stuffed panda he was given in the ER - courtesy of Allie's Friends Foundation). All the nurses and doctors were genuinely amazed at his demeanor given his 16 month age. We, however, were not. He is a wonderful little boy, in this and every conceivable universe!

As crazy and painful as this holiday turned out to be, we are just blessed to be at home now with our brave little guy. We are also equally blessed to live so near the fabulous Children's Hospital. Despite the absence of cake and Halloween fun, Mrs. LIAYF insists that she got exactly what she wanted for her birthday - her family together and her little boy getting better. Please send us your thoughts and good karma. Lukas needs all he can get to help fight off this tough infection.

Reunion Tour

Happy Friday! Happy Halloween! And best of all Happy Birthday Mrs. LIAYF!

Yes, it is my wife's birthday today, one of the most festive days of the year. She should be kicking back, with a warm beverage in hand, thumbing through magazines, getting a foot rub, or whatever else catches her fancy. But alas, she is doing none of those things, and neither is she opening any gifts.
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Instead, It is yours truly who is getting the the great gifts today, and better yet they are being airmailed right to my Dallas doorstep. Yes, Lukas and Mrs. LIAYF are traveling out this very afternoon to spend a few days with me here in the Dallas area visiting some friends. And not a moment too soon, I might add. We certainly need a good dose of family togetherness time to lift our spirits out of the pit they have been in recently.

I have been here in Dallas, wrapping up my business conference, but honestly, my mind has not really been in the game for the past several days. Granted, I have learned lots of important things, and have also diverted my attention briefly with other interests (visiting Dealey plaza and standing on the grassy knoll) but as recent readers will understand, no matter how hard I tried I couldn't go more than a few minutes without wondering how Lukas and his amazing mother (the birthday girl) were faring at home.

The Mumps-like virus that plagued Lukas for nearly 2 weeks would not go down without a serious knock-down, drag-out, kicking, screaming, hair-pulling, bloody lip fight. However, that particular holiday ghoul has finally been vanquished, once and for bloody all. (Fingers crossed, breath held, garlic necklace? Perhaps it works on Vampires and Mumps-like viruses too)

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It was funny that, as I wrapped up my business here this morning, I glanced skyward to see, staring ominously down at me like the Death Star on a skewer, the Dallas Reunion Tower. Thankfully there were no giant laser beams which shot out of it to destroy any worlds while I watched, but noticing it's name on the wall outside did seem a fitting reminder that very long week my family has endured is finally at an end. Best of all, I was headed for a sweet reunion of my own. Well, I am off now to DFW and might not be checking in for several days, so I wish you all a great weekend.
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If I see someone dressed like Lord Vader at the airport, I'll be sure to direct him to the Hyatt.

Hope for Luke's Future

I don't often get political on this blog. That's good because I should be leaving politics to the politicians and pundits. And, unlike many voices I hear out and about these days, I understand that there are many people out there with different life experiences than mine. Different life experiences, and different life philosophies, necessarily result in different viewpoints.

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That's alright with me. Our country needs differences of opinion. Being able to freely voice such a diverse range of opinions is one of the fundamental cornerstones of our great nation. Though sometimes difficult, I try to respect those opposing opinions for what they are. I believe we need to move back in the direction of respecting the opinions of others even if we do not agree with them. That is one of the tenets that I hope to instill in my son as he grows up in this increasingly bitterly divided country.

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Most would agree though, that we are faced with a historic choice about the future of our country this November 4th. It seems to be a consensus opinion that we need change. I agree. I have not felt good about what direction our nation has been headed in quite some time and as such feel that we need a dramatic new direction and focus for our country. I won't get into specifics since I don't feel this is the place for it. If you disagree with my opinion, I am sure you do so for your own valid reasons.

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Personally, I'm voting for a more hopeful, united future for our nation. For our kids. I believe one ticket clearly provides this kind of hope more so than the other. No matter who you prefer in the election, be sure to do your civic duty and cast your vote. I did, as an absentee.

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You may have already guessed but, for the record, here's my vote:

Leavin', on a Jet Plane

For the first time in nearly a year, I will spend a few days away from my family as by the time this post is published I will be 35,000 feet up joining the Mile High Guilt Club headed for a business trip to Dallas. As if a trip away from home wasn't enough to deal with, I also have to reconcile the fact that I am leaving while Lukas has yet to recover from the Mumps (or Mump-like) virus that he has been suffering from for the last 10 plus days.

And, since Luke is still running a fever he can't go to daycare. We don't have anyone else to watch him especially since most of our generous neighbors have kids of their own who shouldn't be exposed. Mrs. LIAYF will have to stay home to take care of him and will thus miss out on a very important work project of her own.

She doesn't mind at all because, as it should be, Lukas is the most important thing in the world to her. It bothers me though, since it seems that every business trip I have taken since we found out we were expecting a child has been met with some sort of minor crisis at home, leaving me with a generous helping of miserable guilt for being away.

"Hey, I can sleep in past 6:30am!" just doesn't seem as exciting when you are leaving sick and burdened loved ones behind. I know, I know, that's life. Right? Still it doesn't make it any easier to swallow.

Anyone out there with any words of encouragement for this guilt-ridden dad?

Jeopardy Answer: Improvise

Jeopardy Question: What do you do when you find yourself in dire need of a Dancing Chicken Elmo?

Lukas was in better spirits today, but still running a fever and as you can see in this clip his cheek remains rather large and tender.

If it Looks Like a Mump...

Warning! This is going to be one of those warm and fuzzy dad posts, so if you are squeamish about such things you may want to come back for a future post. You see, Lukas has had a pretty tough week and all I can think about is what an amazing little guy this is. And I just have to let the mush spill out. Sorry.

Lukas may have The Mumps! Yes, Mumps as in swollen cheek mumps. Well actually just one mump, if you want to get technical. Even though he had the MMR shot over a month ago he still is showing many of the signs of this now rare virus. It began about a week ago with Luke having an irritable cough which wouldn't quite go away and all signs of a healthy cold. By the weekend he was running a moderately high fever and after an outing to a park on Saturday, his right cheek was red and looked like it had a sunburn. By Monday his temp was around 99 degrees and although he had a bit of a runny nose he seemed otherwise ok, so we took him to daycare.

An hour after I dropped him off, I received a call from daycare that Lukas' right cheek was beginning to swell. It hadn't gone away by the afternoon so I took him to the doctor who diagnosed a blocked salivary gland (most likely caused by a cold virus) and ordered a precautionary blood test for the Mumps - which he indicated was basically a non-existant chance since he had had the MMR shot over a month earlier. We were supposed to try to entice salivation (with sour foods) and use a warm compress on his tender cheek several times a day. None of this reduced the swelling and redness in his check which only got worse as the week progressed. His temperature rose to 102 F and stayed there.

There were more visits to the doctors who were all quite puzzled by his now enormous puffed cheek. They ordered more blood tests but still believed his condition resulted from a virus, so did not put him on antibiotics at that time. After these secondary blood tests came back yesterday they indicated the strong possibility of a bacterial infection so the doctors prescribed the antibiotics. However, they were still puzzled at this fact: None of these very experienced doctors had ever seen viral infection cause as much swelling as Lukas had in his cheek.

The doctors (five consulting with each other at this point) resisted calling his now obviously infected glands a bacterial infection mainly because of Luke's demeanor. "If this were a bacterial infection, he would be acting more sick and upset, and have more tenderness to the touch". My response was "It is tender and he is upset. He is just normally such a happy child that even when he is feeling his worst, he can still manage a smile or a laugh in between sobbing and tears." The doctors just shook their heads, the most experienced saying that he still felt that this must be a viral infection (certainly not the mumps since he was vaccinated) but he prescribed the antibiotics just in case.

And now today, I recieved a confirmation call that the blood test for mumps came back positive for mumps antibodies. The doctors huddled up again and held firm that Lukas does not have the mumps, just elevated anitbodies from his vaccine a month ago. I am not sure exactly what to believe at this point. We will probably never know for sure.

So that is where we are now. I was back at work today, after watching our boy for the last three days while his mother was off doing her job, which involved giving other guys "What for!" for a change (as her beloved late grandmother put it).

This seems very surreal to me, but I just have to say that spending those 3 days with our son reinforced in me what a truly good child he is. Despite his incredibly tough week, with all the fever, upper respiratory infection, extremely swollen face, multiple blood tests (with clumsy phlebotomists, I might add) and loss of appetite he would always recover very quickly from all the poking and prodding. Most incredibly of all he still had several moments of pure unadulterated baby joy. Yes, many of those were followed minutes later by fussing and crying, but the joy in him definitely wanted to find its way out, to manifest itself into a game of imitate daddy being goofy and have corresponding laugh attack.

And that, to me, is an amazing testament to the goodness of my son. Mumps or no Mumps!

Hidden Mickey?

I have now submitted this post in the DC Urban Dad, Balls contest.

It's October and October means baseball playoffs, which I love despite the fact that my hometown 9 have been rather disappointing in recent years. But no, we won't go down that sad sad road today. However, my daydreaming about the great American pastime reminded me of something I had completely forgotten about.

A few years back, I was browsing a local thrift store when laying loose in a bin of otherwise useless junk, a slightly weathered old baseball caught me eye. I picked it up and noticed that it had a few signatures on it, some of whom I had know to be slightly famous players. Judging by where I found the ball, my immediate thought was that I had found a ball that someone had tried to fake signatures on. I bought the ball for a buck or two and since I was busy at the time, I put it away with some other memorabilia to be pulled out at a later time.

So, after having this baseball memory, I decided to dig through my garage and pull out this box of baseball souvenirs and take another look at what was there. What I found was very intriguing to say the least. Here are some pictures of the that old ball and the signatures I found.

On this side was Bill White, and former Mariners Manager Jim Lefebvre.

This side was signed by Tom Tresh, and Tony Conigliaro.

I couldn't Make out whose signature this was.

And here was the most interesting signature of them all. Mickey Mantle? I think this must have been why I had thought it was not an authentic signed ball. Who would let a ball like this end up at a thrift store? Below is a photo of a more recent signed Mantle Ball that was selling online for about $3500.

Of course I can't authenticate anything about this baseball since I picked it up in a thrift shop, but the more I look at it the more I believe it to have authentic signatures. If authentic this would be a terrific keepsake for Lukas and would add to his collection of signed baseballs that includes future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. and Negro League icon Buck O'Neil. I guess I should do a bit more research and see if I can have it appraised. Anybody out there have an idea of where to start?

I wonder when the Antiques Roadshow is coming to Seattle?