Monday, March 2, 2015

Headaches

3 March 2015

Just a quick documentation of all of the changes.  Ana has just returned from Utah and her intensive week-long studies of electromyography.  Of course we have eaten differently during this time-- a ton more carbohydrates, including sweets. And I have done minimal exercising during the past few months.

But the lolos will be heading back to Dallas tomorrow morning.  Diet will likely return to normal.  I hope to start exercising more, especially considering the first in the series of mountain bike marathon events is this coming weekend, and the Death March only a week later.

Which gives me hope that the headaches soon stop.  I have had them probably 3 of the past 5 days.  Explicable by the changes in activity and diet, I think.  But I literally almost never have them, so to suffer them in such succession is bothersome, worrisome.  Moreso when accompanied by a brief episode of near syncope today during clinic.  Actually only lasted a true second, not even enough time to lose my balance, but the entire world quickly spun horizontal to vertical and back again, so quickly it gave me a little nausea.

Maybe it's only a virus, or a virus on top of these other changes.  But I thought I would mention it. To an online blog that I basically keep to myself. 

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Disney World!


We have been settling into Little Rock for about three months now.  I started working the first week of March, and Ana and the kids came down about two weeks later, immediately after the house closed there.  The settling in is ongoing, and a good number of stories lie within that process, but the latest blog-worthy tales are the more recent trip to Walt Disney World.  We returned yesterday to Dallas, so currently all of us but Myka-- who is with the lolos-- are nestled in a Plano coffee shop.  The two young scholars work on the stack of homework they were given; Ana is creating a Shutterfly photo album of our trip online; and I--well.

We chose to fly out of and into Dallas so that we could have the extended weekend after vacation that we are currently enjoying.  It seems to have been a great move.  Yesterday after arriving at the lolos, Ana and I collapsed, napping for about three hours.  I don't think either of us felt exhausted from the trip, but we seem to have been keeping our revs up as if there were more festivities ahead.  I feel so much better today, for the aforementioned as well as the receding soreness from the marathon a full five  days ago, and a baseline nausea that seemed to be hovering over me the whole trip.  Today, all is better.  I am curious if it was the change in diet there-- the large meals, the sugar overload (on which admittedly the children thrived)-- or if it was all the transportation without driving or looking out the front, or could it have been all the retained water from the inflammation of the run, as Ana and I have both noticed we have been diuresing the past couple of days.  Regardless, I celebrate its departure.

The kids had a wonderful adventure, with each having truly delightful moments.  For Myka, I would say that the highlights were the after-normal-park-hours dance party at the Disney Junior exhibit in Hollywood Studios.  The girl danced with every blooming character that came to the dance-- except for that soloist Pluto, who dance with no one.  What was up with that guy?  But Minnie, Mickey, and all the others were wonderful, each giving one-on-one attention to our little four-year-old.  It should be noted that Myka demonstrated some serious tenacity in pursuit of Pluto, following that guy for several minutes all over the dance floor and offering her hand more than once.

Trey seemed to face his fears and fed off the fright.  He was no more than an inch or two above the minimum for a couple of the rides, namely the roller coasters.  Since Scott Penrod had given warning about the Expedition Everest roller coaster, I was obliged to pass on the same to Ry and Trey.  Nonetheless they were keen, so off the three of us went.  The harshest part-- the most G-forces-- were in the dark as the train went backward from the peak, due to the yeti having destroyed part of the track. This was followed by the steepest, fastest part out into daylight.  I feared when we emerged that the boy, prone to emesis, would either be covered in tears or chum.  He sat stoic until the car came to a stop then seemed to come to life, saying that the ride “nearly freaked me out.”  Then he exclaimed in agreement with Ryan that he wanted to go again. We then proceeded to do so thee more times, only to return later in the afternoon to ride it three more times.

Again at Scott’s recommendation, the first thing we did on the day we were at Hollywood Studios was enroll Trey in the Padawan training academy.  Smartest move we could do for the guy.  Come to think of it, this is when he was beaming the most, when he was coming off the stage, having memorized the moves, donned a jedi cloak, and fought off Darth Vader.  What six-year-old wouldn’t have and indelible smile?

For Ryan, now eight, her bigger thrills came from the bigger rides.  I think underneath the exterior she enjoyed recognizing the characters from the shows she has seen, as well, but outwardly it was the thrills and activity-- the swimming, the play on the beaches of Lake Buena Vista-- that made her the most vocal.  

Speaking of the pool, I would be remiss to not remark on Trey’s obsession with the water slide at the pool.  We could not get the kid off that ride literally for hours.  Then he went to the bathroom, only to return to the slide!

For Ana and me, the best times after seeing our kids thrilled daily, were the marathon.  And in discussing the race afterward, we had very different experiences.  For Ana, this was a bucket list run and the impetus for the trip as a whole.  Subsequently I decided to make this a qualifying attempt for the Boston Marathon.  Ana took a number of photos and frankly recalls a lot more of the highlights and sights than I do-- running down Main Street USA, the walls inside Cinderella’s castle, some of the characters that were alongside the street.  My memories are more of pacing and the course.  I recall some specific turns, running down multiple-lane streets in the predawn darkness, the leg cramps, then calculating that after about 19 miles I was not going to make my cutoff time.  Both of us went after what we set as goals and retained what you might expect.  I am really happy for Ana and her achievement.  For myself, I am redoubling my efforts, building on my current endurance before going back to focusing on bikes, and running the Cowtown Marathon in a month.  In honestly, I did about as well as I expected since I committed to cyclocross later into the winter calendar than I could have if still expecting to be prepared for the marathon.  

Both of us hobbled around for the next three days. The downhill ramps and worse still the stair descents were excruciating for a couple of days.  The marathoners were easy to spot over the remaining days we were there, the ones who were walking the wheelchair ramps, taking the stairs in step/match/step fashion, and using the pole with a death grip on the monorail as they leaned back to sit down.  Kind of funny actually.

I will also add that what an entrant who had raced there before said on the bus ride from the airport turned out to be true.  The demographics changed daily after the marathon.  There were so many healthy people in the parks on Sunday and Monday, then fewer and fewer.  Granted, a lot of them were also identifiable by their medals and event shirts, which we were all encouraged to wear, but their healthy visages influenced the perception of the entire environment.  

Spot Check

This is just a night when I am particularly proud of my kids.  A Sunday with no racing, crappy weather, with the ice still clinging to existence from the sleet and freezing rain earlier in the week, only to receive reinforcements from the front today.  School is already canceled for tomorrow, though this wasn't announced until after Ryan had come in from playing with Haley across the street in the middle of the afternoon to complete her science fair project.  That was point one of my pride; she did it with no questions asked.

Ryan has grown stronger mentally.  She still has meltdowns when stressed, but she took breather for a couple of minutes, regained her composure, then went back to the task of finishing the project.  I am still no sure that she go her head around the entire scientific process, but she did a good job, finished ahead of the deadline, did virtually all of it, including choosing the experiment, on her own.

She has also been a joy as we read at bedtime together.  We completed a book that Mom (my mom) gave her for Christmas, and started on the autobiography by Malala Yousafzai last night.

J.K. has also shown growth over the weekend, in his deliberation, his speaking, his mathematics.  We have been playing SimCity Buildit, often together, often each of us doing some of it solo.  In talking as we do it, I have listened to him strategize do arithmetic in his head.  He is sharp.

And Myka is such the character as always.  Being considerably younger, she still needs to be provided patience-- not necessarily understanding, as some of her behaviors are not understandable.  The refusal to rinse her mouth after I finally had to brush her teeth, having carried her up from her slumber on the couch was completely ridonculous.  After a couple of minutes of just staring at herself  in the mirror as she wailed, she decided she had to go potty.  When she came back, she decided she wasn't ready to change her clothes for bed yet since she hadn't brushed her teeth.  She was oblivious to having had them brushed and standing there with toothpaste running out of her mouth just a couple of minutes earlier.  Awake but not awake apparently.

Ana is off in Provo, Utah, for the second week of three that she will make out there for her electromyography course.  This week is for the lower extremities.  She prepared like a son-of-a-gun for this week, having been stunned by the upper extremity week back in October.  She kept her studies up consistently afterward and, having completed her first day today, she got back to the hotel in good spirits and apparently not fatigued.  She was in wonderful spirits as she used FaceTime to say goodnight to the niƱos.

So the lols are here for the week, and thank goodness.  Since they are out of school, and the clinic is not yet closed for tomorrow, it is wonderful that they are here to cover.

Friday, January 2, 2015

2015 New Year's Post

2 January 2015

How about that?  I wrote the proper year my first attempt this year!

I just wanted to put in a quick remark regarding the one thing that motivates me to blog more than anything else-- the changes I see in my kids.  I love them more every day.  Perhaps related, I think I am becoming a better dad on a daily basis; certainly the vacation has been a great bonding time.  Ryan is just as in need of the hugs and kisses as ever but she is more eloquent about it, seems to understand it herself, and verbalizes it in a more loving method all the time.  Even tonight she let me know that I had not come in to the lolos' bedroom-- where she and the sibs sleep-- to hug and kiss her goodnight.

Ana mentioned to night that Ry will be off to college in 8 ½ years.... !!! She is more than halfway to college!  It does sink in more when you see how tall she is; she is within an inch of Lola, so it likely won't be more than a couple of months until she surpasses her.

Her mentation and mentality have also certainly matured.  She doesn't fritz out except very rarely nowadays whereas she used to almost every time you put her homework in front of her, referring particularly first grade.  Now part of that may be that she is not as challenged in Arkansas as she was in Kentucky, but I am happier that she is happier even if it is at the loss of some of the knowledge that she might have gained.  The counterargument is that she would not have retained as much as stressed as she was.

J.K. (fka Trey, the name change being his declaration around October) has become the calm deliberate thinker, a very intelligent young man.  He still gets stirred up easily with losing anything.  In fact, it happened four or five times just today, brief episodes of tears starting to flow, drying up in about 10 seconds, as we were playing a silly video game called Soccerheads.  In the past year he has truly changed.  While the above links him to old Trey, he is more calm and collected with reading, deciding.  He has learned a few guitar chords.  He has learned chess and backgammon this year, as well as a couple of card games.  He is a sponge, and I foresee a great mind.

My greatest concern is that he is sometimes withdrawn, perhaps antisocial.  I hope that I have not caused it or that it is not reversible.  Often at bedtime, if I am not with him reading but rather come in to kiss and hug him goodnight, he will pretend to be asleep. In a way I see some of myself in it, that personality that will simply avoid rather than confront an intimate moment.  I really hope that he learns to overcome this, but if anyone has the mental fortitude to change his personality, I would put money on this kid.

Myka continues to be the extravert.  She is miles better-spoken than a year ago, and she was above average then.  I think the time she has spent with Ana since we have moved to Little Rock.  She has been a charmer, but a lot of it was due to her precociousness in the past.  She is such a warm personality.  I also love the love that she has for her family.  During vacation, for example, she has come up to me several times per day just to give me a kiss and tell me she loves me.  She mentioned yesterday how she misses J.K. when he is not around even for a few hours.  Ana and she had a discussion about saying it to J.K. so he knows it, but she shrugged it off, saying that he doesn't like to hear these things.  And she was right on Ry's heels when they headed out the door with Ana to hit the Justice store.  And who dresses her many mornings, including this one?  Ryan.

I love these kids more all the time.  I can see how it gets really hard for a dad when the nest empties.  The love keeps growing, then they pull away.  But you certainly want to guard yourself from the inevitable hurt; just let it keep blossoming.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

The Anus

October 2014

I was reminded of a story about my own beloved boy this week that made me cognizant that unrecorded history fades into oblivion, or dies with the last person that held the memory.  If I don’t keep entering blog entries now and again, I will lose some precious tales!

Trey earlier this year had a little epiphany in regards to his personal anatomy.  He emerged from bathtime, exclaiming in excitement to Ana, “There’s a hole back there!”

It was confirmed to him that there was indeed such a hole for everyone, but he felt obliged to educated her on all that he had learned.  “I stuck my finger in there.  It doesn’t smell very good!”

Drop the mic. Or the jaw.