Sunset in New Orleans
At Kourtni and Arlene’s wedding celebration. Emily and Nick were watching Ess.
At Kourtni and Arlene’s wedding celebration. Emily and Nick were watching Ess.
This is a picture of the first time Essie visited a zoo.
This picture was taken at Hen House Eatery a few blocks from where I work in downtown Minneapolis. This is where we ate breakfast after our first night ever sleeping without Essie. Mykala booked a comfy room at the Marriott Renaissance at the Milwaukee Road Depot and the night before, we marveled at how little we had to pack while we slowly walked the Stone Arch Bridge. Since there were no tiny voices in the night and we didn’t need to worry about our little Ess, we both expected to sleep straight through and longer than normal, but both our brains were on overdrive thinking and wondering about our baby daughter, and we slept in fits and starts. But, it was nice to watch cable TV, take a good shower, and then pick up Ess. Plus, a little time alone was really good for our relationship, and marked a turning point where we were finally able to overcome the crazy schedule and lack of sleep and look one another in the eyes again and say nice things. I love my wife, and a mini vacation (I think Mykala called it a staycation.)
I’ve been taught to avoid excuses, first by my parents and then later in the wisdom of those I read. It was the latter that taught me an excuse for many things should never be offered when this a better explanation: “I didn’t care enough to produce the outcome you were looking for.” This is especially true when one is late. For years, if I was late, I would compose the reason in my head, what the extenuating circumstances were, why this was unusual, how I would correct it in the future. Then, with embarrassment, I realized these thoughtfully-composed reasons skirted reality: they were simply another way to say I hadn’t cared enough to be on time. So, while I have many interesting reasons (excuses) why I haven’t written here lately, it is quite simply because I haven’t cared enough to do it. But, I can’t let my birthday weekend come and go without listing the details of it. And also, I should write here more frequently.
So it took me 90 more minutes that usual to wrap up at work yesterday; had some quite-difficult CEREC crowns to do. I’m a perfectionist with the scans, and after powdering the teeth, I just didn’t have the contrast I wanted. So we cleaned them, used the diode laser again, and finally got a nice powder and picture. We battled for good isolation, finally got things to a place where I could bond in the absence of contamination. What a relief to see a good result after so much hard work. Our patient was a champion.
Mykala just invented (or at least, I think she invented) the krump attack. In our kitchen. At 8:20 this evening. Both myself and Essie thought it was amazing. It was also hilarious.
Krump attack.
A few nights ago, I was upstairs taking care of a few chores when I heard Mykala laughing in our room. Then, I heard our Essie giggling right along with her! It’s pretty uncommon for Ess to laugh in the first place, much less for both her and her mom to be sharing a joke. It turns out that while lying on her side and eating her milk dinner, Ess managed to take off her sock, and then proceeded to wave it for the entirety of her meal. Then, when she was done eating, the sock went right into her mouth. This got her mom laughing, and Ess responded in kind. That’s some kind of joy, walking into a room where your wife and child are both laughing uproariously. I am so very lucky.
We were everywhere we could go this Christmas. I was up at 5am on Christmas Eve to go exercise before I worked until noon, at which point I came home to see Essie and Mykala dressed up, Essie’s bottom half looked like a candy cane and Mykala was resplendent* of course. Then it was off to my parent’s for some home-made Dr. Fuhrman lasagna and cookies and presents. Essie opened first, her little hands grabbing each piece of tissue paper. I love to see her touch, feel, grasp things and she has suddenly become so skillful at grabbing everything. The presents were exhausting for her, though, and she needed a nap. This was a theme throughout our presents opening—frequent breaks!
Wasn’t feeling all that Christmas-y yesterday, but Mykala pointed out that it was not going to be that warm for a long time and maybe we should get the tree so Ess can see the trees outside in their natural habit. Wouldn’t want to raise someone who thinks Christmas trees come from asphalt lots in strip malls.
I think Mykala had been up for 38 hours at this point. Nice smile!
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