First of all I would like to say Happy Father’s Day to all the Father’s out there.

Today we spent the day with my brother at his in-laws house (because they have a pool). It was a very nice day, filled with fun in the pool and grilling and just good times in general. For what I think may be the first time, I actually went swimming with my daughter and though it was short lived (the water was a little chilly for her) it was very nice. We even got some pictures of her and I in the water and they will be posted when the rest of the pictures get posted.

On a more personal note… today was both a happy and a sad day for me.

It was a happy day because today is my very first Father’s Day as a father. As those of you who have read my site ever before you will know that I am the very proud father of a very happy and out going little girl named Kylie. She entered this world on June 20, 2005 and my life has been brighter ever since. Well last year Father’s Day fell on the 19th, so I was not a father on Father’s Day last year, but I have had the joy of being a father for almost a full year now. So today is a happy day for me.

However, today is also a sad day as it is the first Father’s Day since my Father passed away. I spent a good portion of the morning silently remembering some of the things that my Father and I used to do, and one memory stood out more than any other, and I guess that has a lot to do with the day.

When I was younger and still in grade school I remember the school giving us a coupon for a free breakfast at McDonalds on Father’s Day. It was never much and Dad always had to pay for at least one breakfast, but it is something that I remember doing with him every year for a number of years. This memory is one I never really thought of before, but today it seems very special, very much missed and very vivid.

I would give almost anything to have one more Father’s Day breakfast at McDonalds with you Dad; I love you and miss you very much. Thank you for everything you tried to teach me and to instill in me. I know I am the man I am today at least in part because of you. I love you. Happy Father’s Day!

Today was Kylie’s 1st Birthday Party (many MANY pictures to be placed up as soon as I can) and I think it went pretty well, with the exception of the tremendous heat, but even that was not too bad. I would like to thank Mary Jo and Steve for letting us have the party at there place, that was very kind of them. We had the party in their pole barn, which allowed for everyone to be out of the sun, it must have been at least 15 degrees cooler in there. Today seemed like a very long day for me, but I think that is because I was busy all day. Kylie got some very nice gifts and we would like to thank everyone that came out to the party, and everyone that gave Kylie a gift or card, or just wished her a Happy Birthday in general. Kylie really enjoyed her cake (we made a little one just for her) and her ice cream. I have a bunch of pictures of her eating and making a terrific little mess. All the pictures will eventually make it up into the gallery but it will take me some time so please be patient (we took over 350 pictures just of the party), I will post a message saying when they are up.

I put up (some of) Kylie’s eleven month pictures today. They can be found in the gallery in their rightful place. I say some because the rest will appear in the New York trip set once I get them up. I am hoping to have them up by the end of the week, as I am working on them when ever I have time and am awake to do so. When they are up I will announce it.

Today marks Kylie’s 11th month, which means that in just one short month she will be a year old! Where has the time gone? It seems like just the other day she came into this world and made our lives a much happier place. My how the time does fly!

Let’s see what has happened this month in Kylie’s life?

1. She had her first pancake on April 23
2. Followed by real blueberries on April 24
3. And a new car seat on April 25
4. We all lost a very Great man on April 28 and had a few real hard days thereafter.
5. She then got sick for the first time, and had to visit the ER, also for the first time.
6. Kylie also started using a new word at a perfect time!
7. She then endured the second of two very long trips in a short amount of time with her usual grace and charm.
8. And on May 13 we discovered that another tooth had come through.

Though it may not have seemed like a lot, this has been a pretty busy month for Kylie and all of us. In addition to all of the above she continues to walk better and display more of her own personality on a daily basis. She also continues to show that she understands more of what we say, and that she is also learning “right” from “wrong” as far as things go around the apartment. (In other words she knows that she is not supposed to play with certain things and when she starts to and we say her name, she knows why and stops doing what she shouldn’t be, like playing with/reaching for the sprockets on Daddy’s bike.)

I do not have this month’s pictures ready to go up yet, and with the wedding being tomorrow I am sure they will not be up then either. I will try and get that taken care of as soon as possible, and will announce when they are up. (This also includes all of the pictures that were taken when we were in New York.)

Today Tiffany informed me that Kylie has another new tooth coming through, this time it is on the top and in the front. It is the front top right tooth (left if your looking at Kylie) and it has just started to break through the gum. This will be Kylie’s third tooth as her bottom two have been through for a few weeks now.

[Edit: 5/14/2006]

When I awoke this afternoon (I worked last night) to watch Kylie while Tiffany went to work, I had the opportunity to bravely stick my finger into Kylie’s mouth, and I was able to feel the tooth! Right where Tiffany said it was, it is just barely out of the gum so we will have to watch for it to fully come out. I don’t think I ever would have thought that teeth could be this exciting! 🙂

A lot of things have been going on during this last week, and as such this almost got over looked. This week while out here in NY, Kylie has picked up a new word, “Nana“. This has become the word that she uses to refer to my Mother, her Grand Mother. Before this week she did not use this word, and since we got out here she has been using it to refer to her Grand Mother. She will say “Nana” and look right at my Mom, and when she holds Kylie, Kylie will repeatedly say “Nana” in a very excited tone and bounce in her Grand Mother’s arms. We are very happy that Kylie has chosen now to start using this word.

Kylie has been sick the past few days; she has vomited twice (something she has never done before) and has had a lot of diarrhea, which is also not common for her; and with the upcoming return trip to MI, Tiffany was worried about her being dehydrated. So I finally agreed that we should go ahead and go to the ER. So we went up to Albany Medical Center’s ER last night, and let me say that I was not very impressed. They got us into triage rather quickly and then over to the pediatric unit in short order, which was nice, but that is pretty much where the good stuff ended and my patience ran out.

We were in the pediatric waiting room for about five minutes when Kylie needed to have her diaper changed again. It was at this point that Tiffany realized that for some reason we did not have any wipes in the diaper bag. So I went to the pediatric nurse’s station to ask for a few, explaining that Kylie had soiled her diaper and we did not have any. At this point the nurse stated that they did not have any as they used washcloths and that she would gladly bring me some into the waiting area. So I returned to the waiting area and informed Tiffany and so we waited, for five minutes. Thankfully this whole time Kylie was an angel and did not fuss as she lay on a table waiting to be changed. I then decided that enough was enough and went and found a bathroom and returned with some damp paper towels so we could clean Kylie up and change her. To make a long story shorter thirty five minutes, two soiled diapers and two trips to a bathroom to get damp paper towels later we were called into the pediatric unit…the nurse never brought us any washcloths.

They did some basic checks on Kylie and told me what I already knew; Kylie had a stomach bug and was moderately dehydrated. After she drank a bottle of a pedialyte and nursed, I went and told the nurse we wanted to be discharged. She tried to give me some story about needing to stay because Kylie was on the edge of needing an IV for dehydration and what not, and that’s when I told her that we weren’t going to let them give Kylie an IV and that they had not informed me of anything I didn’t already know before I got there and we were ready to leave, considering they had told us that they would have been happy if Kylie was able to drink three ounces of the pedialyte, and she had already drank six ounces and nursed. So the nurse consented to get the resident on duty to check her and let us go.

Now enters the head resident, who is different from the original attending who check out Kylie to begin with. He tells us that Kylie was no where near needing an IV and doesn’t know why the attending and this nurse had told us that. Stated that Kylie was only slightly dehydrated and no where near the level of dehydration that would require an IV, and that furthermore all of her responses seemed normal for a child that was clearly tired. Told us just to make sure she is drinking some fluids and that the bug would work its way out of her system.

So basically it was a waste of a few hours to go to the ER, but with the upcoming 600 mile trip, we decided it was better to be safe than sorry. So far today though, she is doing much better and we are hoping that it will last through tomorrow’s trip home.