My First Post

So, every time I start something new, the very first "product" of my new adventure is always titled "My First >insert thing here<." Back in 2002, when I first got my new CD burner, my first 3 burned CDs were titled "My First Mix," "My Second Mix," and "My Third Mix." Not very original, but at least I knew their order. So, now that I have explained the title of my "first post"... without further ado, here goes: I'm starting this blog for a few reasons. (1) Emma lately has been very entertaining. I need a place where I can get these stories down on paper before I forget them. Lack of sleep has been toying with my memory, so I figure that I'd better find some way to write down her little antics. (2). Last week, Fort passed away and what better way to preserve her memory than to start my own blog. I can't help it - I'm competitive like that! :) Anyway, I know that she'd be proud of me (baby's all growed up). So, I'm ready for a new 2009. The last four months of 2008, with the exception of Luke & Anna's birth, pretty much sucked! At 5 weeks, Luke was admitted to Children's Hospital for possible meningitis. Casey and I had endure "holding" his tiny little hand watching all of the painful shots and spinal tap. I already know what you're going to say: "He won't remember a thing!" But guess what? I DO! Luckily, all of the tests came back negative and we were released after 3 days. It was a looong 3 days. The doctors and staff were wonderful and I came out with an new-found appreciation of hospital stays. At the end of the day, at least I knew that I'd be going home with Luke. Probably can't say the same for other moms and dads in there. Certainly makes you think... On a side note, poor little Emma missed her big 3rd birthday bash. We celebrated later with cake and presents, which was all she was interested in anyway! Here's a picture of her blowing out her candles:

Things were going smoothly after Luke's brief hospital stint. I was still on materity leave and getting a lot done around the house. Life was good. During the first of second weekend in October, he had a rugby game in Buffalo. The next week, he started noticing that his neck was bothering him (possible re-aggrevation from an injury in 2004). So he visits the team doctor, Dr. Cha, after checking out his X-ray, tells him that he's done playing rugby. There is a medical reason behind him telling that, but I can't remember what it is... Anyway, over the course of the next few days, Casey start noticing that he is unable to move, manipulate, control, etc. his first finger. He mentioned it to me a few times and showed me but of course, I didn't think a thing about it. So that Sunday night, Casey emails Dr. Cha and lets him know about his finger. Dr. Cha calls him immediately at work and tells him that he has to get surgery... NOW. Here's the kicker - all of the spinal guys around here were in Toronto for a nation-wide spinal conference. Dr. Cha says that his brother in Atlanta can operate on him tonight if we can get down there stat. So Casey calls me at 8am to give me the news. Luke and I were asleep in my bed and at first, I couldn't wrap my head around what was going on. So Casey tells me that he'll be home in an hour and that we'd be heading to the ATL for emergency spinal surgery. Luckily, Karla and my mom were around to help. We dropped the kids off and high-tailed it to northern Atlanta. We rolled into the hospital parking lot at 5pm and by 7pm, Casey was in surgery. The next morning, Dr. (Atlanta) Cha discharged us and we headed back north for a loong (for me) and painful (for Casey) drive back to Cincy. He remained in his neck brace for about 6 weeks. Luke and I had the pleasure of driving Emma and Casey to school each morning, as well as picking them up in the evenings. As anyone knows, I'm not a morning person, so I did my best to remain cheerful during the morning car rides. On one particular morning, after a sleepless night with Luke, we were driving to school and Casey and Emma were cheerfully singing songs... the entire way. I remained quiet in the front seat and did my best to keep my blood pressure down. From the backseat, Emma chirps, "Daddy, why isn't mommy talking to us?" Casey slyly looked over from the passenger seat and then answered, "because mommy's not a morning person, Emma." Luckily, Emma let it go and continued singing the "Pirate Song" for the 20th time in a row. Casey was able to take his neckbrace and drive by himself on the Monday that I went back to work. That made things much easier on us.

By now, we've fallen into a good groove with the kids. Casey takes Emma with him in the morning, so he's in charge of her morning routine. Once those two are out of the house, then Lukey and I start our morning routine and are usually out of the house by 8am. We were lucky enough to track down Emma's old babysitter, Jennifer, who happily agreed to take care of Luke during the workday - thank goodness! It made going back to work much easier. (On a side note, I had had another sitter lined up, but when I took Luke to visit her two weeks before I went back to work, I saw that she had 2 indoor cats. Ew!)

The holiday season passed by us quickly, as well. We spent Thanksgiving at mom & dad's house, with three full-families crammed into the house. It didn't seem that small when we were little! A "Henry-family uniform picture" was on the docket for Thanksgiving and we were lucky enough to get a good pic after only 2 takes:

Christmas was equally as busy. We spent Christmas Eve night at Aunt Kathy's house. On Christmas morning, Karla & Roger, Mom & Dad, Mike & Erin, and Papaw-Great came over for Christmas brunch and to watch Emma open her presents. Christmas evening, we went to Aunt Jerri's house for dinner. We had a great time visiting all of our relatives.

On a sad note, Fort passed away on January 3rd after an almost six-year battle with cancer. It was one of the hardest things that I have ever experienced. I spent a lot of time with her at the hospital, at her parent's house and at Hospice. I feel confident that she knew how much I loved her. She will always be my best friend!