Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of formula

Short post today...

A while ago we were talking about how we were gonna decorate Derian's room after we found out he was going to be a boy. So Melissa says, "How about getting a mural painted." I think my response was kinda like "whatever" but after she said the art teacher at her school would do it for us I was all for it.

So as you can see we kept with the pirate theme and it turned out awesome. We hope Derian will like it once he gets old enough to realize what the heck it is. I held him up towards the wall and said, "Derian, look at your pirate ship!" He then proceeded to take a crap on my hand.

Later

-Chas

1995......a good year

1995 Dom Perignon. Tastes so good it should be illegal.

Let me rewind a few years here. Back in the summer of 2003, Melissa and I just bought a lovely house in the borough of Tarentum, Pennsylvania. It was $63,000 of heaven on earth in an up and coming area that was named in Money magazine's "Best Places to Live (population under 50,000)". So while Melissa, her dad and myself were moving ourselves in during I remember was a quite hot and humid day, my father stops over to see the new house. Well it wasn't a new house, it was built way back in the 30's. So my dad stops by on his way out to dinner at some fancy shmancy restaurant and says "Congrats, by the way, here is a house warming gift." And he hands me the coveted bottle of champagne. And then he leaves as we all continue to sweat our asses off moving everything in the house. (By the way, no A/C in that house)

So now flash forward a few years and 1,300 miles to the west. We have hung on to this bottle and every year we talk about opening it up for one occasion or the other. So we definitely said we were gonna crack it open to celebrate the baby and our new lives out here in Colorado. Plus Melissa was dying for some alcohol after not being able to drink for nine months. So we bring the bottle up to the lovely town of Evergreen to toast with the Banks'.

So, I'm getting ready to open the bottle and we all decide to go out on their deck with is really nice and has some kick ass views. Figured it would be a memorable bottle. I ask for a towel to hold over the cork so I can open it slowly and not spill any of the pricey liquid. So Pat says, "Don't worry, the cork won't go that far, it won't be a problem. So I take of the cap and let 'er fly. Cork shoots off the patio roof and here comes the champagne (down my arm). Luckily it wasn't too much and we all got to toast to friends and family. It tasted awesome. I just need to work some more overtime so I can feed my new expensive champagne habit.

P.S. Later that night, I wanted to see how much the bottle actually costs. Newer bottles are between $100-$150. The vintage 1995 now can cost anywhere from $300 and up. Made me feel all hoity-toity for a few moments.

-Chas

Mommy on birth and baby Derian

Well in the last blog Chas wrote about the baby being born, so I figured I would write about the whole labor experience and what followed for me and my new family. The baby's due date was August 18th and after talking to my doctor I finally decided to have an induction on August 11th. Well, Derian didn't want to wait until then because at 12:30 A.M. on August 11th my water broke. Chas and I had nothing ready because it was so early. After scrambling around the house we finally got to the hospital at about 1:30. Contractions started kicking in and I was definitely uncomfortable and in pain. The nurse explained that I needed to have half a bag of IV before my epidural could get started. My veins aren't the best so it took them two times to find my veins. By this point the contractions were awful. I started shaking, they said that was normal, but also part of my panic attack problems. After what seemed an eternity, my epidural was finally given to me and afterwards I felt great. My dilation went extremely quick, but I pushed for about 2 1/2 before Derian made his appearance at 11:07 A.M. I was so overwhelmed with emotion. What an amazing thing! As Chas wrote in his blog, the staff at the hospital was fantastic. We got to come home on Saturday, August 11th.

So far the baby is doing well. We started him off on Similac with Iron Formula and then decided to switch to Enfamil Gentlease, he seemed fussy with the Similac and had a hard time going to the bathroom. Now he is a pooping machine. Derian went to the doctors on Tuesday and is in the 20th percentile for height and weight. Also on Tuesday he had his first trip to Noodles and Company. My dad flew in today, so Derian got to go to the Airport. We also went to Red Robin for dinner. It was so noisy there and many Happy Birthday songs were sung with loud clapping...Derian slept through it all. He had a little bit of a rough night this evening, pooping twice, peeing, eating, not eating, eating again, fussing, eating, crying...you get the picture. Well I am exhausted so until next time.

Melissa

....and here we GO

Here he is ladies and gentlemen, about two and a half weeks early. Derian Joshua weighed in at 6lbs 9oz and was a little over 19 inches long. The little bit of hair he has is a sandy blonde color just like Melissa's. He is about as mellow as can be but hates, I MEAN HATES to be naked or have his diaper off him for even 5 seconds. Other than eating, sleeping and messing up his diaper, Derian likes to wave his hands in the air and suck his thumb (although it looks like he's shoving his fist down his throat). And when he waves his hands in the air, he does it so violently it looks like he's some crazy-mad symphony conductor. Oh and did I also mention that since he is early we had to go out and buy some more clothes to fit him. But I'm sure I also speak for Melissa when I say that he is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

As for Melissa, she is doing awesome. She made it through the birth great and I couldn't be more proud of her. Wednesday night/Thursday morning (right after midnight) we were just laying down after hanging out with the Fairbanks'. I was almost asleep when I hear this yell next to me and then "My water just broke!!!" So after a few minutes of running around like crazy and getting orders shouted at me, we were in the car to the hospital. We got settled into the delivery room after 2, Melissa was fully dilated at around 7 after she slept for a while (EPIDURAL), and Derian was born after a few hours of pushing at 11:07 AM (Mountain Time).

We spent 2 days in the hospital and had some friends come to visit us. The hospital was really nice and so was each nurse we had over the period of time we were there. We got home today in the afternoon and have been getting adjusted. Hemi and Gracie have been good with him, although I think they just see him as an object right now. I'm sure it will be different once he starts motoring around the house and harassing them.

Well, Melissa and I are ready to pass out and Derian just ate so I think its best that I try to get some sleep.

I know I'll be up a few times overnight . Take care.

-Chas

My First Post

Well today was a busy and exciting day. We began with breakfast at LaMar's Donuts...a great local donut place we found here. After that we went to my doctor's appt. (36 weeks). The doc said things look good, I am a centimeter dilated, and the baby's head is in position. Now, I believe we are going to try induction first and see what happens. Before we were thinking c-section. Next, we went to the Flatirons Mall to Kiddie Kandids. I had a coupon for a free 8x10 maternity picture. So we figured why not take them up on the offer, plus Chas and I have not gotten any pictures taken professionally since our wedding. So they took one of me by myself and the rest were with Chas and myself. The pictures turned out awesome. We continued this afternoon running errands and then crashed for a nap before dinner.

Things are getting close to the baby's due date, only a few more weeks. We are looking forward to it. I also have only 1 more week at my summer job (Sylvan Learning Center). My dad flies out 2 weeks from tomorrow. I am looking forward to having some time off with the baby and Chas and not going back to school at the beginning of the year. It will be a nice break.

-Melissa

Finally a day where its not 9000 degrees

That's right folks, its been over 90 for it seems like forever (although I'm sure it couldn't have been for more than 4 or 5 days. Right now, according to the trusty weather channel web page it is 77 degrees at 8 o'clock in the evening and low humidity (sorry Pittsburghers). And its also supposed to rain 'sometime' today. That would be great considering my yard is on the verge of doing a 'cough, cough, wheez' and just giving up. They are saying, and by 'they' meaning the news media, that it could be the driest year Denver has ever had. I used to think that would be awesome to not worry about rain, but there are downsides to that as well. So make sure to remind me of that when I used to bitch about it raining in Pittsburgh all the time.

I'm back to work tomorrow after having my usual three days off. Sorry, I don't mean to brag but its awesome. It will be nice to get back to a full four day work week. (Sorry, I'll stop that right now.) Last week I had the now infamous shotgun class that took up 2 days right in the middle of my work week, which is Thursday-Monday. So a nice normal week without any severe bruising to parts of my body will be nice.

So during my weekend I went to the dentist. Sounds like not much fun but I like the dentist. I think its because before we moved out here and had good dental insurance I hadn't been to a dentist in YEARS. It sounds nasty but I feel like I've always taken pretty good care of my teeth. Blame it on having braces twice. Plus its amazing what has changed in the field of dentistry these days. Gone are the days of endless scraping. Now they have these things that use sonic vibrations or something like that. So sue me, I like the dentist. I get nice clean teeth and don't endure any pain.

On Wednesday Melissa and I went to her school room to get it arranged. She wanted to get it done so that she doesn't have to worry about letting her substitute do it while she is off with the baby. So we went out and did that in the morning and hung out with some friends in the evening.

After those two days, my THIRD day off (sorry) we just hung out around the house. Melissa took it easy and I caught up on my netflix movies. First was Hot Fuzz. After seeing Simon Pegg in Shaun of the Dead and thoroughly enjoying it I figured I would watch this. I must say, mindless humor is good every once in a while. I also watched Vantage Point which I really enjoyed. It was one that had you on the edge of your seat in a completely different way than most movies.

Other than that I seemed to have taken an interest in John Mayer's music. I never really paid any attention to him before. But I listened to some songs off of his new live CD and I must say I am now a fan. He does a really awesome acoustic version of Tom Petty's 'Free Fallin'. It goes on the playlist for sitting on you back porch chillin' out. Chillin' out, drinking a beer and typing your blog.

-Chas

after a short delay

Sorry its been so long, things have been busy out west for the last few months. The baby should be here in under a month and we are putting the finishing touches on getting everything ready. Here is the baby's room as it is right now. Melissa is having the art teacher at her school put a mural on the wall behind the changing table. So hopefully the ultrasound lady was right when she said it was a boy. Otherwise we'll have a lot of rearranging to do.

Melissa has been good, other than being tired quite a bit. She still seems to be trying to do too much and I keep telling her she needs to rest. Of course she is looking over my shoulder right now laughing at me. Melissa is now saying she is going to start posting things on here so maybe we might have some things worth reading.

We both seem to be missing Pittsburgh a bit more lately since the baby is coming and we won't be able to introduce him to a lot of our friends right away. This might warrant another trip home for a longer period than last time. We were thinking around Christmas time since I already have some time off scheduled. Melissa's Dad and my mother and brother will both be coming out right after the baby is born but there are still a lot of people to see.

As for me, everything is still good at work. Its getting a little rough working EVERY SINGLE FRIGGIN' WEEKEND. Of course, once the baby is here we won't have to worry about much daycare since I am home 3 days a week. I got the pleasure of going through shotgun training for the last 2 days. I'll leave you with a nice picture of the joy that it brought me.

FUN HUH??

-CHAS