Family Time

Just got back from riding my bike around on a beautiful, if a little chilly afternoon. Its a great way to clear your head and think of something clever for whatever blog you happen to be authoring at the time. I ride through a neighborhood that has lots of hills (at least for Dallas) and it was just bubbling over family moments. A dad pulling his child in a bike carrier, about 10 dads and their kids playing soccer ( I saw one dad using his size a bit unfairly to head the ball in towards the goal. He might have been losing the spirit of the moment), a mom, dad and 2 girls planting flowers, and on and on it went. Probably no different than the dozens of other times I rode through there, but you notice these things. In a good way.

We got a chance to get out last night and went to a celebration of some friends of ours who got married. John and Misti have a beautiful baby girl and John put together a wedding video that would make lesser men cry (I simply had a piece of dirt in my eye and my allergies were acting up). It documented their journey and not only how much they clearly love each other and are meant to be together, but how their daughter has absolutely turned John into a sucker for her. You can hear it in his voice and see it in the pictures and videos. No boy stands a chance walking up to the door to take Katlyn out on a date. So anyway, it was really neat to see and be happy for them. I think someone asked Rebecca if it was tough seeing that sort of thing, since we don't get to hold Thomas or have him at home. The answer is no. We don't envy them or any of our other friends. It simply makes us look forward to the things to come. Plus, as Rebecca has said a few times, this is our first baby and we don't know any different, so we're cool with it. We will look back on it as an amazing experience I think.

I've buried the lead a bit, very much a journalistic no-no, but since I'm not being graded, you'll have just had to read through my ramblings to get to the meat of the story, which is how fantastically good Thomas is doing today. First, milk, he started Thursday on 1 cc every 6 hours, then it moved to 1 cc every 4 hours, then 2 ccs every 4 hours. Today only 3 days later, he is now on 3 ccs every 3 hours. And he gets mad if he doesn't get it. Starts fussing and crying. So really awesome! Second, they have taken him off the big respirator and put him on a small one. Which is even awesomer! These 2 things lead to the biggest thing. There is a chance that if everything stays stable tomorrow, Rebecca will get to hold Thomas. Which would be the awesomist! (its a word, look it up.) Things may change, but just the thought really sent us both for a loop. We really didn't expect this, we didn't even want to speculate on when this could happen. Video will follow if this does occur.