On Wednesday the 1st, Zac turns 4, but we decided to hold his birthday party today, rather than doing it after his birthday. Unfortunately, one of the negatives to Zac being in daycare down in Lincoln is that it doesn't make sense to invite his school friends, but that's OK, because he loves playing with his cousins anyway!
So Chad, Mickie and the kids joined us for a few hours to celebrate and let them play together. We had a good time and a good cake. Zac is quite pleased with his presents and even has one left we held back for him to open Wednesday morning before we leave in the morning, which he doesn't know about.
The kids seemed to enjoy the cake and frozen yogurt. Yes, frozen yogurt since at least two of us, and maybe three, have issues with lactose, so I played it safe.
I'm sharing a video of us singing Happy Birthday to Zac so everyone has a chance to enjoy it. You'll note he leaned over on one of the candles trying to blow out the fourth one and it was a little hot.
He's none the worse for wear, though, and has recovered just fine! :) Guess I shouldn't have spread the candles out so much. I've also added pics from the party to the slideshow on the right. Enjoy all!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZAC!!!! Yes, a big Happy Birthday to our big boy, who two years ago today was born 9 weeks early by C-Section after Katy developed preecclampsia. It was a tough week heading into it, but we had GREAT doctors and nurses at UNMC here in Omaha and they knew exactly what they were doing. If you want a bit of history, you can always go back into the archives to see the pics and read what I wrote about those first days. :) We held Zac's birthday party this past Saturday at Gary & Nell's house, which has more parking than we do and isn't currently for sale like our house is. :) Have to keep it clean for any showings! He was able to celebrate with them, his cousins Ryan, Mandy and Jamie, Uncle Chad, Aunt Mickie, our friend Lee Ann and her daughter Elizabeth, plus of course his big sister Claire, Katy and me.
I believe everyone had a fun time, Zac is enjoying his new gifts immensely, and Katy made a wonderful cake which, unfortunately, was just enough for all the guests. Maybe next time I'll have to convince her to make two cakes, one for the party and one for me at home! I sure do love cake, but I digress. You know, I have two children and both were unexpected and both spent time in the NICU, Claire for 10 days and Zac for 5 weeks. I'm very lucky to have these wonderful gifts from God and am convinced He intends to do great things with both of them. Claire's commitment to Him makes me a proud daddy and Zac will one day match his sister's passion for Christ with his own, of that I am sure. Despite rough starts to life, each is poised for greatness because God has them in His hands each and every day. Zac continues to progress in learning new words and finding new ways to solve "mysteries" and it is so much fun to watch each day. After he figured out the door handles at Gary & Nell's, he then figured out our traditional handles a few days later, prompting us to place handle guards on necessary doors so he doesn't spend all his time opening and closing them, which is a favorite past-time at present. It is just always such a joy to see our children learn and grow and play and to be able to take pleasure in the very simple things they do. We get the biggest kick out of watching Zac run down the hall, or feed himself, or at the looks he gives when he's considering something or trying to figure it out.
Katy and I are luckier for having Zac in our lives and happier for the joy he provides. God created this bundle of energy and smiles and laughter, and we are thankful every day that we are fortunate enough to have him as our son. Again, Happy Birthday Zac!!
I'm writing this, effectively putting words in Katy's mouth, but I think she would agree this has been a very nice birthday weekend. Not only did we get to see each other for the first time since last Sunday morning, but we've gotten to do so many different things we couldn't have otherwise. Friday night, my boss and his wife graciously took us to a steakhouse in Pleasanton, CA, called Hap's, in part if not in whole as a way of celebrating Katy's brithday. I should preface things by stating that you know we know beef in Nebraska, right? Hap's understands that, and serves "...Angus, Midwestern corn-fed beef, aged 21 to 28 days", which means that it likely came from Nebraska, or maybe even Iowa. Now, we've had some great steaks. There are two spots within Omaha, Cascio's and Gorat's, that are both extremely good, old-style Italian steakhouses. In my humble opinion, they couldn't hold a candle to Hap's. The Filet Mignon was far and away the best steak I've ever tasted. And that was only after having lamp chops and tempura-battered shrimp as an appetizer and then a red pepper dungeness crab bisque that can only be described as heaven in a bowl. I've never had soup like that.
It was an amazing evening filled with great conversation, great food and a meal finished off with a ridiculously good chocolate creme brulee. Are you kidding me??? Wow! I must say that today as we discussed last night several times, I couldn't help but smile in my enjoyment of the memory. Katy and I have had two dates since Zac was born and the last was for a few hours in advance of our anniversary last November. To get to spend an evening with a great couple, with great food and atmosphere and the conversation and all of that was just wonderful.
Today, Katy's birthday, we decided to drive south of San Jose down to the coast, headed for Carmel, which is a bit south of Monterey. While the weather on the coast was cool, cloudy and foggy in many places, the view was still something to behold and we very much enjoyed getting out a few times to hear the waves crashing. We started the day by doing McDonald's for a quick breakfast, then headed south. We stopped first in Capitola, a bit south of Santa Cruz. That was a bit disappointing in many ways, but we did spend some time walking above the beach and watching some surfers catch some small waves.
We then headed toward Carmel, driving through farmland along the way, which was a big surprise to both of us. We knew California had large farming areas, but it hadn't occurred to either of us that any of those areas would be so close to the ocean. It's too bad we didn't have a way to buy some of the fruit, which was all priced better than you'll see in any store. So just after Monterey, we caught what's called 17-Mile-Drive, which is this twisting, winding, very hilly drive through the Pebble Beach area. There are, I think, four golf courses and a bunch of homes, and once you have driven over to the coast, the views are very enjoyable. We stepped out of the car along here to get a few pictures and watch the waves crash against the rocks. Many people were doing this and all of them were apparently willing to pay for the drive. We obviously did as well, but it was a shock when we shelled out the $9.25 to do it.
Fortunately, we got that money back. Along the road you go through the famed Pebble Beach golf course, which hosts major PGA events every year. They even have a shop on the grounds named "2010 U.S. Open", where everything has that theme. Spyglass Hill is also along this stretch of road. Now, I love golf, but at my skill level, I'm not willing to pay whatever their greens fees are to shank one into some $3 million dollar home along the coast. :)
So Katy and I stopped and ran through a few shops on the Pebble Beach course campus there, then ate at the Gallery Cafe, which sits with a view of the first tee box and from which you can also see the ocean just above a building to the west. By spending at least $25 in one of their restaurants (not hard to do), you get the initial $9.25 back in cash, which was nice. We drove the rest of our piece on this road, exiting at the Carmel gate. We'd been told that'd be a nice place to visit.
The beach did not disappoint, though with the sand being so fine and so soft and so deep, and the hill getting down to the beach being fairly steep, it was a bit taxing for us going down and then back up. We did walk along the beach for a bit and get very unexpectedly wet when a wave crashed in further than we thought it would. We had water up to our knees and it was not even a little bit warm! But, we really enjoyed it and then headed up into the town to see the shops. While the town is very quaint and has pretty architecture, I cannot possibly imagine living there. However, if you like a constant traffic jam and tons of people all trapped inside one square mile of space, this will feel like home! Way too busy, way too touristy, just not a very relaxing space. No wonder we found so many people jammed into the beach parking area and at the beach. That said, we found great souvenirs there and it was the one spot where we stopped and got our feet wet, which was a goal for today.
We then headed back to San Jose and dinner at Genji downtown, which is a Japanese steakhouse, the kind where they cook dinner for you at the table. The food was OK, nothing special, but we still enjoyed ourselves and really just had a very pleasant, relaxing day despite the travel. I think Katy felt this was a unique way to spend her birthday and even though it didn't feel quite "normal", it was fun nonetheless. :)
So Zac turned one year old today. We're very excited that our little "miracle baby" has made it through his first year! He had a very fun birthday party yesterday afternoon, as Katy's parents, a couple from our Bible study group, one of Katy's co-workers and two of Zac's babysitters were able to make it. With several small children in the mix, Zac had a blast watching and playing with them, and enjoyed his cupcake and ice cream very much!
I've uploaded all the pics to the slideshow on the right, and uploaded two videos to YouTube, but if you'd rather gain direct access, click here and you'll have access to my Public folder on SkyDrive. There you will see the two zipped folders that have the pics and videos. Enjoy!
Yesterday we submitted a picture to channel 6 in Omaha, WOWT, for airing on their "First Birthdays" segment. We've got people set to record it whichever day the segment airs, or we can pay some company $40 for the video. Ummm, with me not working at the moment, we'll hope for the family recordings. :) The station asks you to describe your child's favorite things. We told them to say that Zac "loves to laugh, chase the cats and see just how many cowlicks he can get to show at once", or something along those lines. It's funny to me how which cowlick or cowlicks choose to show on any one day change and there is no rhyme or reason.
On a completely different note, for some time now Katy and I have wondered, often aloud, as to the relative lack of "cat-like" qualities are cats seem afflicted with. I've had cats ever since I was young, and I don't know if there is a difference between male and female cats or not, but all my previous cats were males. These two, The Ocho and Millie, are both females. So, possibly, there is some scientific evidence that might back up the following observations.
For one, let's start with The Ocho, or "Ocho" as we call her for short. Seemingly brilliant at the start, able to catch a mini football in her paws at good speeds and at good distance, we thought we'd found a genius cat. Aside from her initial issues at jumping face first into the arm of the couch when trying to cover the distance between that and the chair, she's shown no penchant for stupidity overall. But she has her peculiarities. For one, I know all cats prefer running water, but the whining and complaining I hear when I don't leave some water running for her is really something. She has a completely full water bowl right next to the sink of the mini bar where their food is kept, and she'll still complain if I don't turn on the faucet. She has also never quite overcome her clumsy ways. About 6 weeks ago, Katy and I were awakened in the middle of the night by the cats chasing each other. I looked up long enough to see Ocho trying to traverse the railing of our loft, drop off and then hear her crash into something in the living room. I mean, it's only about 16 feet down, but still, cats are supposed to be nimble, aren't they?
What about Millie? Well, poor Millie. Seemingly lacking even the miniscule amount of intelligence Ocho has, Millie moves through the days seemingly content to meow at absolutely nothing, chase Ocho around, run into things occasionally and, when called, ignore us completely. While Ocho definitely knows her name, Millie either has absolutely no concept of the idea or is just really good at not listening. Equally as clumsy as Ocho, maybe more so, Millie has also fallen off the loft railing at least once that we know of, crashing into the sewing machine below the spot she fell. This is the same cat who jumped off a shelf about 8 feet up in our basement in Omaha only to end up with what can only be described as a club foot, which cost us a pretty penny at the vet's office to get her fixed up.
Millie also has a real issue with what I call "spatial awareness". Now, every cat I've ever had liked to walk along with you or sometimes sit right behind you and be seemingly under foot. However, not a one of them would walk directly in front of you completely oblivious to the fact you were there. Millie has an uncanny ability to find a way to be 100% in the way at all times. I've stepped on both the cats, but Millie much more often. The other day, she decided that as I was headed upstairs, she had to race me up there. She was two steps past me when she slammed, head first, into one of the steps, shook her head, wobbled a bit, then raced on up. Sheesh.
Today, September 10th, is Claire's 12th birthday. Twelve. Am I really that old? Is SHE really that old? I am blessed to have two beautiful children. You know how they always joke that a child looks like their mother? I'm wondering if, since the link between Claire & Zac is me, maybe it's ME that is responsible for these two great-looking children. Although, if I espouse that idea too much, I might never hear the end of it. :)
I thought that in honor of Claire's birthday I would put up several pics, starting from a long time ago until something more recent. Unfortunately I don't have anything super recent on the computer, so this will have to do. The black and white one is Claire at a little over a year old, as if you couldn't guess. It's one of my favorite pictures of her to this day, among the many that are ridiculously cute.
The second is in 1999 when I lived in Jackson, MS. This is her with her Uncle Dan's cat, Zoom. She was a little over 2 1/2 in this picture, close to 3. 1999 was a very lucky year for me, as God had told me to move to Jackson even though I didn't want to go. Little did I know He would bring Claire to Mississippi! The third pic, with frosting on lips, is from Claire's 4th birthday in 2000, held at a church in Omaha. She always has been extremely photogenic. I must say that her little brother also seems to carry this ability.
In Fall 2006, I had a little fun with Claire's hair color in anticipation of a spirit day at school, if I'm not mistaken. Either that or I found a great deal on colored hair sprays and REALLY wanted to try them out.
And then this last picture is from several months ago, as Claire was able to spend some time with her little brother Zac over a weekend in Omaha. I know she misses him as much as I miss her.
So Chad, Mickie and the kids joined us for a few hours to celebrate and let them play together. We had a good time and a good cake. Zac is quite pleased with his presents and even has one left we held back for him to open Wednesday morning before we leave in the morning, which he doesn't know about.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZAC!!!! Yes, a big Happy Birthday to our big boy, who two years ago today was born 9 weeks early by C-Section after Katy developed preecclampsia. It was a tough week heading into it, but we had GREAT doctors and nurses at UNMC here in Omaha and they knew exactly what they were doing. If you want a bit of history, you can always go back into the archives to see the pics and read what I wrote about those first days. :)
We held Zac's birthday party this past Saturday at Gary & Nell's house, which has more parking than we do and isn't currently for sale like our house is. :) Have to keep it clean for any showings! He was able to celebrate with them, his cousins Ryan, Mandy and Jamie, Uncle Chad, Aunt Mickie, our friend Lee Ann and her daughter Elizabeth, plus of course his big sister Claire, Katy and me.
I believe everyone had a fun time, Zac is enjoying his new gifts immensely, and Katy made a wonderful cake which, unfortunately, was just enough for all the guests. Maybe next time I'll have to convince her to make two cakes, one for the party and one for me at home! I sure do love cake, but I digress.
You know, I have two children and both were unexpected and both spent time in the NICU, Claire for 10 days and Zac for 5 weeks. I'm very lucky to have these wonderful gifts from God and am convinced He intends to do great things with both of them. Claire's commitment to Him makes me a proud daddy and Zac will one day match his sister's passion for Christ with his own, of that I am sure. Despite rough starts to life, each is poised for greatness because God has them in His hands each and every day.
Zac continues to progress in learning new words and finding new ways to solve "mysteries" and it is so much fun to watch each day. After he figured out the door handles at Gary & Nell's, he then figured out our traditional handles a few days later, prompting us to place handle guards on necessary doors so he doesn't spend all his time opening and closing them, which is a favorite past-time at present. It is just always such a joy to see our children learn and grow and play and to be able to take pleasure in the very simple things they do. We get the biggest kick out of watching Zac run down the hall, or feed himself, or at the looks he gives when he's considering something or trying to figure it out.
Katy and I are luckier for having Zac in our lives and happier for the joy he provides. God created this bundle of energy and smiles and laughter, and we are thankful every day that we are fortunate enough to have him as our son. Again, Happy Birthday Zac!!
I'm writing this, effectively putting words in Katy's mouth, but I think she would agree this has been a very nice birthday weekend. Not only did we get to see each other for the first time since last Sunday morning, but we've gotten to do so many different things we couldn't have otherwise.
Today, Katy's birthday, we decided to drive south of San Jose down to the coast, headed for Carmel, which is a bit south of Monterey. While the weather on the coast was cool, cloudy and foggy in many places, the view was still something to behold and we very much enjoyed getting out a few times to hear the waves crashing. We started the day by doing McDonald's for a quick breakfast, then headed south. We stopped first in Capitola, a bit south of Santa Cruz. That was a bit disappointing in many ways, but we did spend some time walking above the beach and watching some surfers catch some small waves.
We then headed toward Carmel, driving through farmland along the way, which was a big surprise to both of us. We knew California had large farming areas, but it hadn't occurred to either of us that any of those areas would be so close to the ocean. It's too bad we didn't have a way to buy some of the fruit, which was all priced better than you'll see in any store. So just after Monterey, we caught what's called 17-Mile-Drive, which is this twisting, winding, very hilly drive through the Pebble Beach area. There are, I think, four golf courses and a bunch of homes, and once you have driven over to the coast, the views are very enjoyable. We stepped out of the car along here to get a few pictures and watch the waves crash against the rocks. Many people were doing this and all of them were apparently willing to pay for the drive. We obviously did as well, but it was a shock when we shelled out the $9.25 to do it.
Fortunately, we got that money back. Along the road you go through the famed Pebble Beach golf course, which hosts major PGA events every year. They even have a shop on the grounds named "2010 U.S. Open", where everything has that theme. Spyglass Hill is also along this stretch of road. Now, I love golf, but at my skill level, I'm not willing to pay whatever their greens fees are to shank one into some $3 million dollar home along the coast. :)
The beach did not disappoint, though with the sand being so fine and so soft and so deep, and the hill getting down to the beach being fairly steep, it was a bit taxing for us going down and then back up. We did walk along the beach for a bit and get very unexpectedly wet when a wave crashed in further than we thought it would. We had water up to our knees and it was not even a little bit warm! But, we really enjoyed it and then headed up into the town to see the shops. While the town is very quaint and has pretty architecture, I cannot possibly imagine living there. However, if you like a constant traffic jam and tons of people all trapped inside one square mile of space, this will feel like home! Way too busy, way too touristy, just not a very relaxing space. No wonder we found so many people jammed into the beach parking area and at the beach. That said, we found great souvenirs there and it was the one spot where we stopped and got our feet wet, which was a goal for today.
So Zac turned one year old today. We're very excited that our little "miracle baby" has made it through his first year! He had a very fun birthday party yesterday afternoon, as Katy's parents, a couple from our Bible study group, one of Katy's co-workers and two of Zac's babysitters were able to make it. With several small children in the mix, Zac had a blast watching and playing with them, and enjoyed his cupcake and ice cream very much!
Yesterday we submitted a picture to channel 6 in Omaha, WOWT, for airing on their "First Birthdays" segment. We've got people set to record it whichever day the segment airs, or we can pay some company $40 for the video. Ummm, with me not working at the moment, we'll hope for the family recordings. :) The station asks you to describe your child's favorite things. We told them to say that Zac "loves to laugh, chase the cats and see just how many cowlicks he can get to show at once", or something along those lines. It's funny to me how which cowlick or cowlicks choose to show on any one day change and there is no rhyme or reason.
For one, let's start with The Ocho, or "Ocho" as we call her for short. Seemingly brilliant at the start, able to catch a mini football in her paws at good speeds and at good distance, we thought we'd found a genius cat. Aside from her initial issues at jumping face first into the arm of the couch when trying to cover the distance between that and the chair, she's shown no penchant for stupidity overall. But she has her peculiarities. For one, I know all cats prefer running water, but the whining and complaining I hear when I don't leave some water running for her is really something. She has a completely full water bowl right next to the sink of the mini bar where their food is kept, and she'll still complain if I don't turn on the faucet. She has also never quite overcome her clumsy ways. About 6 weeks ago, Katy and I were awakened in the middle of the night by the cats chasing each other. I looked up long enough to see Ocho trying to traverse the railing of our loft, drop off and then hear her crash into something in the living room. I mean, it's only about 16 feet down, but still, cats are supposed to be nimble, aren't they?
What about Millie? Well, poor Millie. Seemingly lacking even the miniscule amount of intelligence Ocho has, Millie moves through the days seemingly content to meow at absolutely nothing, chase Ocho around, run into things occasionally and, when called, ignore us completely. While Ocho definitely knows her name, Millie either has absolutely no concept of the idea or is just really good at not listening. Equally as clumsy as Ocho, maybe more so, Millie has also fallen off the loft railing at least once that we know of, crashing into the sewing machine below the spot she fell. This is the same cat who jumped off a shelf about 8 feet up in our basement in Omaha only to end up with what can only be described as a club foot, which cost us a pretty penny at the vet's office to get her fixed up.
Today, September 10th, is Claire's 12th birthday. Twelve. Am I really that old? Is SHE really that old? I am blessed to have two beautiful children. You know how they always joke that a child looks like their mother? I'm wondering if, since the link between Claire & Zac is me, maybe it's ME that is responsible for these two great-looking children. Although, if I espouse that idea too much, I might never hear the end of it. :)
The second is in 1999 when I lived in Jackson, MS. This is her with her Uncle Dan's cat, Zoom. She was a little over 2 1/2 in this picture, close to 3. 1999 was a very lucky year for me, as God had told me to move to Jackson even though I didn't want to go. Little did I know He would bring Claire to Mississippi!
The third pic, with frosting on lips, is from Claire's 4th birthday in 2000, held at a church in Omaha. She always has been extremely photogenic. I must say that her little brother also seems to carry this ability.
In Fall 2006, I had a little fun with Claire's hair color in anticipation of a spirit day at school, if I'm not mistaken. Either that or I found a great deal on colored hair sprays and REALLY wanted to try them out.
And then this last picture is from several months ago, as Claire was able to spend some time with her little brother Zac over a weekend in Omaha. I know she misses him as much as I miss her.
