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To The Top Of The World

July 11, 2008 by 1 Comment

Or at least the front range, or at least Mt. Evans. Ahna, Ezra, Gil and I left yesterday morning and made our way to Idaho Springs for some lunch and escapism (from the house). We had a delicious Colorado-style pizza a Beau Jo’s….wondering what Colorado-style pizza is? You’ll just have to come out here to find out. 

After the yummy pizza, we went up and up and up and up – all of the way to 14,200 feet and the top of Mt. Evans. On the drive up, we stopped and hiked around an alpine lake and saw some mountain goats. We also ran into (almost literally) a marmot. Somehow the nursings timed themselves so that Ezra needed one while at 14K feet…which went very well. He did great on the climb and at the altitude, and showed no signs of difficulty until the drive down after he fell asleep. Because of his sleepiness, his ears didn’t equalize immediately, so he awoke, took a pacifier, swallowed a couple of times, equalized, and was back to sleep. 

We made our way back to Castle Rock and then down to my parent’s house for dinner. The food was a special request by Gil for my Mom’s lasagna, and it was probably the first time in a while that I was able to have it. Good as always. The end of dinner also marked the end of our time with Gil, since he had to leave so early this morning (has to be on the East Coast by Sunday at 5pm, oh and he is driving). It was wonderful to have him out here, and we enjoyed every second that we got to spend together. Can’t wait to see him again (the rest of the family, too :-)) 

Filed Under: Ezra!, Photos Included

Ezra’s First Fire

July 10, 2008 by 1 Comment

Following a good dinner at Mt. Fuji, we all headed to the fire station for a visit. It was primarily to show Gil where I work, but it also was Ezra’s first trip to the firehouse. My shift (B) was working, so it was good to see the guys. Right after we finished touring the station and were hanging out talking, a call came in for a reported residential structure fire with possible occupants still inside. The guys took off in the truck, and we went inside to listen to the radio to see if it turned out to be anything (and to look up the address). The first engine marked on scene with smoke and fire showing…so we packed the car and headed down there. Now, I am not one that normally chases fires when I am not at work, so this was something of a new experience for me as well….but I’m not normally at the firehouse when a call like this comes in.

We drove to the scene – about 6 miles – and by the time that we got there, the engine had forced the front door and put out the fire, the truck had laddered the roof and broken windows, and another engine had completed a search of the house (turns out nobody was home). The guys did a great job and nobody was hurt. It was fun to see everyone in action, and it was fun to have Ezra there to see it all. The countdown to returning to work continues: 8 days. 

Compared to that fun, the rest of the day (grocery store, rec center to work out, his eye getting better) was pretty mundane. 

Filed Under: Ezra!, Photos Included

Hooray For Airplanes!

July 9, 2008 by 1 Comment

After a long, long trip, my cousin Gil arrived yesterday afternoon! His trip from Israel started 5 hours late due to the incoming plane being delayed from weather in London. The delay resulted in him missing his connection in NYC by 15 minutes and having to wait for the later flight. Still amazed that his arrival was impacted by events in London, Tel Aviv, NYC, and Denver. Gotta love airplane travel. He is here in the states for some training, but was able to come a few days early to accomplish two things: visit us, buy a Jeep. See, in Israel, cars cost about twice what they cost here…so it would be cheaper to buy a car here then ship it to Israel. By the way, he lives in the desert, thus the need for a Jeep. 

When he got into town, we met up with him (and my parents) at Outback – a vegetarian paradise. Actually, Ahna did find that the grilled veggies and side of rice was quite good; and I had a tilapia over asparagus – which was also very good. We enjoyed a great conversation over dinner, then he stopped into our house for a quick tour before heading down to my parent’s place for the night. They are out shopping for the Jeep today and we will meet up a little later on. For those wondering, he is going to drive the Jeep to NYC over the weekend, before the training. True, there are plenty of places on the East Coast where he could have found the car, but couldn’t have found us. We are so happy that he came to visit.

I have interspersed some pictures from our last trip to Israel, about 2.5 years ago, with some pictures from last night. 

Filed Under: Ezra!, Photos Included

The Dredge Of Society

July 9, 2008 by 1 Comment

Perhaps not the most welcoming of titles, but we experienced someone yesterday that deserves to be labeled. We made a quick trip up to Park Meadows (which we should have expected to find this type of person there) for two stops. When we arrived at the mall, we noticed a SUV just in front of us parking in the Disabled spot in the row that we ended up parking in. We unloaded from the car (a mere 50 feet from the SUV) and started walking to the mall. As the lady exited her vehicle, we both gave her a long stare of discontent….so effective that she had a moment of guilt, got back in the SUV and started to move to a regular parking spot. She backed out of the row and we continued to walk….until we were just far enough away….she pulled back into the Disabled spot and parked for her trip to the mall. Wow.

Perhaps I have a particular sensitivity to those spots after driving around with Jeff for over a year, but I still can’t imagine being so spoiled, stuck-up, lazy, and lame as to decide to park there, then realize that you were wrong, then override that moral and pull back in. I know it isn’t nice, but I hope she got several flat tires on the drive home. Then hit her garage door when she tried to pull in, only to realize that she was trying to pull into the wrong million dollar house. Turns out that her house was the one down the street that was hit by lightning. Okay, maybe that’s excessive (or not), but you get the point. For those newer drivers out there, or those beginning to drive in the next couple of years….be respectful…or expect the wrath of a normally passive minded parent of a Little Hippie.

Filed Under: Life in General

Go To The End Of The Road, Turn Left

July 8, 2008 by 1 Comment

The title of this post are the cliche directions that people sarcastically give when you need to go to Boulder, CO…funny thing is that you actually have to turn right to get into the downtown. More on Boulder in a little while. So there was no post done yesterday, are you doing okay? Any withdrawals? I suppose that we are allowed a day off of the blog every once in a while – it simply turned out to be a pretty busy day – but this longer post should make up for it.  

On Sunday morning we all awoke to find some yellow stuff in the corner of Ezra’s right eye. We spent most of the day bouncing back-and-forth between wiping it away, researching on the internet as to the problem, and worrying about how he was feeling. We came to the conclusion that it was probably a blocked tear duct and not a dire emergency; but decided to call the ‘after hours’ line at our pediatricians office anyway. The nurse consulted with us and told us basically the same thing that we were thinking, along with the strong recommendation that we head into the doctor’s office the next morning – just to be sure of the problem and due to his age. The puss and swelling gradually got worse throughout the day, then turned for the better over the night….however, every time that we let it go for more than a hour (mostly due to the fact that we were asleep), his eye glued itself together. Generally speaking, he did a great job with his first ‘illness’ and wasn’t too difficult to deal with. True enough, there were moments of near inconsolability, but that’s to be expected.

Yesterday morning we diligently headed to the doctor’s office at 0830 because that is the time that their phone answering machine said they opened…alas, the people that work there think it’s closer to 0900 – so they changed the signage on the door. After getting some coffee, we went back to the office only to discover that they don’t take walk-in’s. AARRGGHH. We never saw any mention of “appointments only” on anything: not on the phone message, not on their brochure, not on their web site. Oh yea, they don’t have a web site (!). For those of you who own businesses out there – and I don’t care how big or small – that don’t have a web site yet…please join the 21st century (e-mail me, and I will help you create one for a small fee). Anyway, when we were there, the receptionist told us that this was an extremely common problem and that we probably wouldn’t need to come back for an appointment and waste a co-pay; a nurse would call us. She did (about 30 minutes later, back to great service!) and gave us some more home remedy instructions…which to this point seem to have worked just fine. As the day progressed, his eye seems to have gotten better, and the progress continued this morning. Hopefully the tear duct will clear itself over the next day or four and we won’t have to resort to antibiotics. 

Back to Boulder. We needed out of the house and a destination to aim for. Originally, we intended on going up into the mountains, but those plans were changed with the eye situation. So after the phone call with the nurse, we drove up to Boulder and spent the afternoon there. We had lunch at a favorite spot – Mountain Sun Pub and Brewery – and wandered the Pearl Street shops for a couple of hours. The rain held off just long enough for us to enjoy the afternoon and we headed home before the Denver traffic heated up. It was good to get out and about and we are looking forward to doing more of that in the next couple of days. 

Speaking of the next couple of days: my cousin, Gil, arrives this afternoon from Israel! He is coming to the US for some military training in Pennsylvania, but decided to come out here and visit us for a couple of days before the training starts. More on his trip in the next couple of posts. 

One more thing, the countdown to my return to work has begun. I ended up taking an extra tour off of work on FMLA, so I will return a week from Friday. It is still 10 days away, but already difficult to imagine not being here for every great moment. 

Filed Under: Ezra!, Life in General, Photos Included

Survey Says…

July 6, 2008 by 2 Comments

Last evening Abby, Teva, and Micah came down and brought us a delicious soup and pie for dinner. We also watched a movie – The Savages – which was really good, but too depressing to write a review about today. This morning Tori came down and planted some vegetables with Ahna in our front yard – something new to keep you posted on. We got some cucumbers, tomatoes, and a few herbs. 

I learned a new term the other day and was reminded of it today: volunteer plants. I guess that it means any plant that grows new without being planted intentionally. Does that make the forrest completely volunteer? Anyway being a union guy, I am not sure how I feel about having volunteers play such prevalent roles in our front yard. I am a little concerned about how the paid-for plant and the volunteers will get along, so let’s just hope for some unity. The last thing that I need is to end up on the front page of the newspaper explaining why all of the volunteers didn’t make it. Back to the term, why do they call it ‘volunteer’? Shouldn’t it just be called ‘normal growth’?

Now to the survey. We need your help in determining if Ezra’s belly button is an innie or an outie. I gave it a couple of weeks to see if it would settle itself one way or the other, but alas it has not. I can’t decide, so write in the comments and let’s take a vote. Winner takes all (of what, I don’t know). Here’s some pictures to help in the decision process. 

Filed Under: Ezra!, Life in General, Movie Review, Photos Included

It’s The Fifth Of July, And I’m Feeling Independent

July 5, 2008 by 1 Comment

For those that don’t know of Eddie From Ohio (the band however, is from Virginia), the title of this post is a lyric from one of their songs. Today marks the one month birthday for Ezra! It’s going to sound really cliche, but where has the time gone? The days pass so quickly, the nights pass slightly slower. And yes, sleep is getting better – some of the time. 

To think back to the hospital room 30 days ago and all of the wonder and excitement that has been subsequently replaced with more wonder and excitement; one month seemed like a light year away. We have enjoyed the experience of learning a new life for ourselves and how to support and nurture a new life for Ezra. Family and friends have been life savers between the time that they spent here, to the phone calls, to the dinners, to the continued daily support. Ezra has seen his first baseball game, wrote his first letter, seen his first fireworks show, and his first jazz concert. He has peed and pooped on us too many times to count, and we have laughed about each one of them. Not surprising to any of you, he has learned what the business end of a camera looks like, and he is actually recognizing it. His voice is displaying itself more frequently, and he is interacting with us on a much higher level – including some smiles. ‘Routine’ is a word that is starting to reenter the vocabulary at our house, but Ezra’s greatest joy seems to come from reminding us that he has a different definition of that word. It’s a great ride. 

In the spirit of the anniversary postings, here is a statistical sampling of the first month:

Birth weight: 9 pounds 1 ounce

Current weight: 10 pounds 1 ounce

% taller he is now than 30 days ago: 5 

Longest stretch between feedings: 6 hours

Favorite item to rest on: Boppy Newborn Lounger

Number of disposable diapers used in first 10 days: 100

Number of disposable diapers used since: 3 (yea cloth diapers!)

Airplane trips planned for the rest of the year: 3

Total number of miles traveled by family: 9696

Number of times that Ahna has been projectile pooped on: 2

Number of times that Oren has been projectile pooped on: 0

Minutes it took to try to come up with a good statistic to end this list with: 15

Number of good statistics came up with to end this list: 0

Filed Under: Ezra!

Fireworks Show

July 5, 2008 by 1 Comment

The Town of Castle Rock sponsored it’s first ever fireworks show last night (there have been fireworks here for years, but they have either been sponsored by a neighborhood or the county) at a park in town. Jay, Karen, David, Cyrilla, Tanner, The Kirgans, Big David, and a few other friends returned to our now annual tradition of gathering for the 4th and staked out a place at Rhyolite Park. Food and drinks (non-alcoholic since they didn’t allow it) were plenty and so was the fun.

I have to admit that I was extremely skeptical about going to this and didn’t know what to expect, but the town pulled it off in high fashion. They had food vendors (although not enough), a few local artists selling their craft, a fire department display, a police department display, water rides, air-filled rides (bouncy stuff), a DJ, live music, and of course: the park itself…all free. Tanner and I jousted in one of the bouncy structures; and he knocked me off the pedestal once.

I don’t know that the official estimate on the number of people is going to be, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was around 10,000. We got out there just after 5pm, and left when the fireworks show ended at 1015pm. The evening was rather perfect, except for the exit strategy (seems to be a problem with government these days)…and lead to a 1 hour drive home – for 5 miles. The ending of the fireworks show was dissapointing, which we later found out (from the news, not from anyone there) was cut short due to grass fires starting from the falling embers. Here’s the pictures:

Filed Under: Ezra!, Life in General, Photos Included

Happy Independence Day!

July 4, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Non-eventful day yesterday is leading to an eventful day today. Already, the three of us have walked for some breakfast and we are getting ready for lunch at my parent’s house then going to a park here in town with a bunch of friends for a picnic and fireworks. Ezra is sporting a 4th of July inspired sleeper that Jay and Karen gave to us. It’s a little too big for him (3mos size), but just had to be worn – it was too big for David last year since he wasn’t born yet. So, have fun tonight wherever you go!

Filed Under: Ezra!, Photos Included

4 Week Checkup

July 3, 2008 by Leave a Comment

4 weeks?! Wow. Yesterday afternoon we visited the doctor’s office for Ezra’s four week appointment. Dr. Sheehan was very pleased with his progress and development and had nothing for us to improve on. Here is the vital information from the visit: 10 pounds 1 ounce (60th%), 22.75 inches (85th%), and 15 inches around his head (50th%).

Since somehow four weeks makes up a month in common vernacular – but doesn’t on the calendar – we are going to do a celebratory 1 month post on Saturday.

Filed Under: Ezra!, Photos Included
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