Kate and The Tridas Center Yesterday Kris and I took Kate to The Tridas Center.

It was exciting because we might finally get some answers as to her delays. It was scary for the same reason. Something about blissfully living in ignorance.

We got there 30 minutes early (ours was the first appointment of the day), which was about 7:30 AM. Neither Kris nor I had slept the night before, but it didn't seem to matter.

Dr. Tridas and Nurse Julie met us...Julie taking Kate away to play and observe and Dr. Tridas meeting with us to hear all about Kate. Thankfully, we had about 2 hours to tell him her life story. Kris supplied him with the technical/medical details and I told him what we were looking for, help.

This was really just a first step, a basic evaluation of Kate (and probably us) so not much came of it. He did say she was not autistic and that she didn't have Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD). Both very good things.

That gives us hope that Kate will be able to live a pretty normal life...even if we can't. :)

So we await the next steps...

Labels: family, kate

  ¶ 2/10/2010 10:31:00 AM   2 Comments Links to this post

  The Long Drive Home So I am starting to understand why people who travel don't have a lot of time.

For the past 3 weeks I have driven back and forth to Greenville, SC, a round trip of 1200 miles. That's 600 miles on Sunday and 600 miles on Thursday. My record so far is 7 hours and 45 minutes, approximately 75 MPH.

Tomorrow I will be flying and will be there in 1.5 hours. Much better.

My reasoning for driving is multi-fold:
1. I'm not in the habit of flying thus maintain a tad bit of fear at the prospect. I know it's not rational...
2. 4 trips in a month comes out to about $3,000, I can't float that kind of money now. Driving saves me about $400 a week in air travel and about $250 a week in car rental. Driving costs about $120 round trip in gas.
3. Driving pays. Current federal rate is 0.55/mile. 1200 miles = $660. Subtract that from $120 and I am ahead $540. Multiply that by 4 weeks and I'm at about $2,000.

One thing I did not take into account is the exhaustion factor. When I get home, I don't want to do a thing and just dread Sunday creeping up. Despite having a driving buddy coming home this past Thursday, I slept pretty much all day Friday. Today I was a slug too. I'm not much use to my kids in that state.

So I'm going to fly. I nice early morning flight won't bother me much as I will still be too tired to think too much about being scared. Perfect. Sucks that I have to leave so early in the morning, but what can you do?

I still can't float the money to do this every week, so I'm going to try and rotate the schedule, fly, drive and beg for a week of remote work to ease the burden.

Any tips or tricks for traveling out there? I'm using TripIt, which is nice to keep everything in one place. What else?

Labels: family, work

  ¶ 1/23/2010 11:35:00 PM   6 Comments Links to this post

  Kate is 5! Wow.

It's really hard to believe.

It feels like she has been here for about 3 million years...in a good way of course.

Kate continues to impress and delight us each and every day naturally. This has been a good year for her...I believe just one pneumonia induced hospital stay, and that was all the way back in February.

In January she began her Human Growth Hormone (HGH) treatments, this December, she managed to make the growth charts for the very first time.

This picture was taken yesterday...as today I'm in the great state of Alabama (where apparently you cannot buy beer on Sunday...after a day of travel I was really looking forward to that beer, no worries though). Sucks I can't be there but that's life.

Her mother has kept her healthy and happy. She uses the Bush Doctrine to keep her minor illnesses from turning into hospital stays. What Kris has done for Kate is nothing short of amazing.

This summer Kate attended the Blossom School for the Deaf, where we believe she had a great time. Does she sign? No...well, she knows "all done" and "more." I think she knows "Daddy" but she puts my thumb on my head.

She started back at her school from last year this fall and things have changed for the better there. Teachers have assistants now so it's no longer 18-1.

(Yes, this is all over the place...)

She's begun to point at things. She makes a "funny face" which she learned from Yo Gabba Gabba.

What else?

I don't know, my brain is not working too well tonight. I'll leave it at that.

Labels: family, kate

  ¶ 12/13/2009 11:32:00 PM   2 Comments Links to this post

  ORACLENERD, Inc. Today I made it official...I filed my paperwork with the State of Florida to incorporate. It seemed fairly obvious what the name should be.

If you read the previous post, you probably gathered that little fact.

All of this is related to the fact that I have a new job. I'm not quite ready to talk about the details yet but I believe there is quite a bit of opportunity here. For one, I'll be working with OBIEE again. It's been about 9 months since I last worked with and I was just getting started. There may also be some work with APEX, which would be great. Finally, there's a very outside shot that I may get to work with Exadata v2 in the somewhat near future.

Maybe you're wondering why I incorporated? I don't know, just seemed like fun. Actually, I'll be working as a consultant. This is my first real trek down that road. I have to learn about billable hours, successful travel planning...and probably most importantly, budgeting.

I'm very excited about this opportunity. I will have to travel a bit, but I'll also get to work from home quite a bit so I believe in the long run, family time will probably be greater than when I was going to that "9 to 5" type job where I was actually away from home more than 60 hours a week. We'll see.

Labels: family, obiee, work

  ¶ 11/22/2009 11:38:00 PM   11 Comments Links to this post

  Losing A Job: The Aftermath So I've got a little experience in "losing" my job. Laid off, furloughed, rehired, resigned (and walked out), new job, laid off.

Of course I didn't lose one of those jobs...I know right where they are. I just can't or won't go back to them.

Fortunately for me, I've made a lot of good friends online. Very supportive friends. It makes "losing" a job that much easier.

Of course there's more to it...the effect it has on the family.

Kate...she doesn't understand yet. She just smiles and laughs and makes everything go away.

LC, however, is starting to grasp it. He doesn't say anything to me, but he does say stuff to his mother.

"Are we going to have to move back to Gainesville?"

"Is poppa going to pay our bills for us?"

You know...fun stuff like that.

Strangely, not to long ago he was always asking me to fire myself so I could be home all the time (it's the only way I get a vacation these days).

And then there's the wife, the lovely woman who agreed to marry me (yikes!) and has supported me through all of this. Without her, I could not have made it as far as I have.

When we met, we were polar opposites. I was a bit on the timid side and she...well, she doesn't have much of a filter. A perfect match!

Over time I have found my voice and she has muted hers (only a little). We're meeting somewhere in the middle (at least that's what I tell myself).

Kris does not work. She held LC in her hands and told me she didn't want to go back to work. I couldn't argue. Although she did work briefly but was let go because LC had an ear infection and needed medical attention. We didn't fight it. She's a stay-at-home mom, and we like it that way. She's been able to help Kate out with doctor visits, physical therapy, speech therapy, HGH injections...the list goes on and on.

Since she doesn't work, she feels, at times, out of control. When I "lose" my job, that feeling is heightened.

Not really sure what the point of this was...it's not to feel sorry for me, that's for sure. Just a warning to those out there in a similar situation. It doesn't effect just you...it effects your entire family (I haven't even mentioned my parents, or Kris' parents).

The only advice I can give to help alleviate this is:
1. Have enough money in the bank to weather the storm
2. ...OK, just 1.

Labels: family, humility, kate, kris, LC, work

  ¶ 11/05/2009 11:38:00 PM   3 Comments Links to this post

  Father, Husband, Employee, Coach, Tutor I had been pondering a post on how impossibly busy I have been lately. You know, the 45-60 hours in the office, the 2 hours on the road back and forth, coaching a bunch of 6-7-8 year olds and tutoring someone in database concepts. And blogging of course.

It doesn't seem to have quite the punch now.

Here's what it would have looked like anyway...

Father
With all that has happened in the last couple of years, I still get to come home to people that like me no matter what. LC and his battle stories with the girls at school and Kate...well, she just is. Her smile lights up the room. The infectious laugh...the hugging (finally!)...she just makes my day.

Husband
Intentionally left blank.

Employee
Move along...nothing to see here.

Tutor
It's been about 4 weeks since I began tutoring. I thought I would post more on it, but I've been so busy with everything else that I just never go to it. That should change now though, at least for awhile.

There is nothing like having to communicate complex systems to those who don't know the first thing about databases. Where do you start?

Last week was especially difficult. We had to diagram some tables based on one paragraph of requirements. This was more inline with logical modeling as well, which I don't have a lot of experience with. Which means, you have to represent (as I understood it anyway) your relationships without use of an intersection table. WTF?

Coach
One of the best things in the world. If you ever have the opportunity to coach young children, take it! Yes, it's painful at times. Yes, it is like herding cats. Yes, they do not listen. <-- does that even make sense?

But...you can yell at them for an hour straight. I don't mean the jerk kind of yelling, I mean the fun, obnoxious kind of yelling. Whatever that is.

For whatever reason, I'm naturally loud. Amazingly, I get louder on the baseball field.

There is no better way to turn your day around than by yelling at a bunch of kids. The best stress-reliever of all time possibly.

Labels: family, life, work

  ¶ 10/20/2009 11:12:00 PM   3 Comments Links to this post

  Stories of LC LC being Little Chet. And no that is not some perverted reference...

He said something pretty funny the other day, which reminded me of a bunch of little stories about him. Since I post so many stories about Kate, I figured it's about time I do one on him.

Policy
I get a cup of ice cream the other night and he immediately wants some too. Mom asks if he has had any that day, and he replies, "Yes."

"But there is no policy on ice cream."

Me: "No What?"

LC: "No policy."

Kris and I look at each other and just start laughing. He's 6 years old and he's talking about policy? He's been hanging out with his mother way too much.

To make sure we knew that he knew what he was talking about we asked him what he meant.

LC: "Well, I can have 2 popsicles a day. But there's no limit on ice cream."

Wow.

The Letter R
In Pre-K 4 a couple of years ago, his teacher asked the class to say words that began with the letter R.

The teacher started them off, "Rapunzel."

"Rabbit!"

"Rainbow."

"Chet, do you have one?"

"Craphead"

Sea World
After a day at Sea World with my parents and 2 small kids, we naturally gravitated to the Hospitality Suite. For those who don't know, Anheuser Busch used to own Busch Gardens and Sea World. Both parks, or both companies as there are more than one park for each, serve free beer. There is a two beer limit.

Anyway, Kris takes this opportunity to spend some time with Chet and she walks him over to the Clydesdales (while I drink her beer).

Mom and son, holding hands...a perfect picture.

"Mom, that's the biggest penis I've ever seen."

All the people around them began laughing...OMG.

Jackass
I believe this happened in 2006, while in Gainesville. I would drive Chet to school, St. Patrick's Catholic school. This was always a concern of mine because I have never been too careful with my choice of words around him.

My old boss had once shared a story with me about her daughter, at this same school, saying JFC (Jesus F$#%*&% Christ). I always thought the same would happen to me.

It never did. He had amazing control (besides the craphead comment above) at school.

At school.

Not at Publix though.

We're shopping one day with him sitting in the basket when this woman comes out of the aisle and gets in front of us.

"Move that F$#%*&% Cart!"

It was about all I could do to maintain composure. He was 3, maybe 4 at the time. Thankfully, the woman did not hear him. If she had, I probably would have fallen down from laughing so hard.

However, I managed to compose myself and give him a stern lecture about how inappropriate that was.

I couldn't wait to get home to tell Kris.

The First Word
I've probably talked about this before. Yes, I have. Here. The similarity between my name and shit. I've heard it all before...I actually used to introduce myself referencing Weird Science.

Me: "Hi, I'm Chet"

Them: "Ted?"

Me: "Chet"

Them: "Jeff"

Repeat this a few more times.

Finally I'd say, "You know, "Chet" like the guy from Weird Science?"

Them: "Ohhhhh...yeah, the big pile of shit!"

Me:...

That reference is only useful with people of a certain age. Twenty-somethings don't really get it.

Anyway, I always thought I could get away with teaching Chet that for his first word. Chet. Shit. Pretty close right? I can't remember if he actually said it for his first word...it's a funny story none-the-less.

I know I'm not the only one with funny child stories. Anyone care to share?

Labels: family, funny, LC

  ¶ 7/08/2009 11:18:00 PM   4 Comments Links to this post

  Kate Update: Day 648

  1  SELECT 
  TRUNC( SYSDATE - TO_DATE( '04/21/2007', 'MM/DD/YYYY' ) ) kate_counter
  2* FROM DUAL
SQL>/

KATE_COUNTER
------------
         648

Kris posted this on Facebook here, but just in case you can't access it I'm reproducing the note in full here:

well, as part of the new year, we (kate + me) began with follow-ups w/ her genetics DR. and neurologist.

we had a report sent from the radiologist that read "normal", for kate's MRI back in october. today her neurologist saw her and i brought the scans...we reviewed them together and while it does state "normal", it appears that the "GYRI" or the "wavy" parts of the brain structure are normal, but, they are not as "full" or "filled out" as a perfectly normal brain...it is still considered within normal parameters, but still smaller...her head is of normal size though...anyway, he feels this could be playing a part in her speech and motor delay issues...it is most probably caused by a lack of oxygenation at some point...

he explained that childrens' brains do recover and grow, but there is still this, for lack of a better word, immaturity in the fullness of the brain...her ventricles were also mildly enlarged, but within normal range...he showed me a scan of a "normally full" brain scan, and kate's is ever so slightly less full.

i wish i had a picture to show you, but pretend you dissect a cranium by lifting the top off and looking down, well, the brain doesn't entirely fill the skull....mind you, ever so slightly.

anyway, my heart kinda sank, but he was very impressed in her abilities to understand and comprehend complex tasks...she "acts" like a "normal" child by following directions...he wants to repeat a scan in october of this year to follow up on the growth...so yes, there is a very slight hint of brain damage, but one can not say for sure when this occurred...my best guess is 2.5 years of literally struggling to breathe...she can catch up, as kids brains are able to repair themselves, but it is a small hint as to what is going on...

secondly, her geneticist, is running a test for a disorder that does not allow a body to process cholesterol...( a key ingredient in brain growth), anyway, one of the hallmarks is small stature, and delays, but most prominently, syndactyly, most specifically, a mild syndactyly of the 2nd and 3rd toes...we will have results in about 3 weeks, as it has been sent to the Mayo Clinic...it is called Smith-Lemli-Optiz syndrome...it is rare and there are VERY severe forms, as well as very mild, barely perceptible forms....so, if you "google" it, don't fall out of your chair!

i guess i can't give up until i get the answers...deep inside of me i know there is something going on...i have always had a sense, even before she was born. anyway, there is the update...i know we will get this all figured out. BTW, i have taken up riding my bike to relax during the day when they are at school, unfortunately today, i can't get out to blow off some steam!

update
When I got home I was able to talk to Kris. The short of it, Kate has brain damage. Now, it's minimal as pointed out by the fact that the Radiologist didn't pick up it, but the Neurologist saw it right away. After seeing the MRI myself, you can see a small amount of space between her brain and her skull. Apparently that's indicative of brain damage.

What does that mean? Nothing really. We sort of knew all along. For both of us (her hearing, me reading) it hit pretty hard. I can't remember that last time I felt that way...and I can't explain why. Nothing has changed. We'll still love Kate, we'll still work with her (well, Kris will, I get to play!), she's just going to be slower than everyone else.

Which conveniently brings me to the theory I have about Kate.

Kate is a glimpse of the evolution of the human race. Her lifespan is double, perhaps triple that of you or I. The only downside is that development is slower (like a fine wine right?), which means she won't leave home until she's about 40. As a colleague pointed out though, that's not so unusual these days. ;)

Labels: family, humility, kate

  ¶ 1/28/2009 05:09:00 PM   5 Comments Links to this post

  The Tampa Timeline I moved to Tampa a little over two years ago. To say it's been hectic would be a gross understatement. Here's the events myself and my family have been through in that short time:

November 27, 2006 - Begin work at WellCare as a contractor.
December 2, 2006 - Closed on Gainesville house
December 17, 2006 - Purchased Tampa house
December 26, 2006 - Rolled into a fulltime position at WellCare in the Datawarehouse group
January 4, 2007 - New CIO announced at WellCare
April 21, 2007 - Kate gives the Reaper the finger
Summer 2007 - Awarded on-the-spot bonus, only to be *PIPped 2 days later
August 6, 2007 - Sent a "manifesto" to my CIO
August 14, 2007 - Started this blog
October 24, 2007 - FBI Raids WellCare with 200 agents
January 26, 2008 - CEO and CFO resign from WellCare
April 24, 2008 - Gave my first professional presentation on Application Express
May 22, 2008 - I write a short statement on my blog that WellCare is doing layoffs
May 27, 2008 - I am fired from WellCare, with cause, for posting company "confidential" information
May 28, 2008 - My wife officially takes over as my blogging editor
May 31, 2008 - I get my official offer from Revolution Money as a contractor
June 15, 2008 - My paternal Grandfather passes away at 89
July 27, 2008 - I'm let go from Revolution Money
August 29, 2008 - My wife's maternal Grandmother passes away at 94
September 2, 2008 - I start as a fulltime employee at Revolution Money
September 24, 2008 - My wife's maternal Grandfather passes away at ~95 (no one knows his exact age)
December 26, 2008 - I'm furloughed from Revolution Money
December 29, 2008 - I'm asked to come back to Revolution Money.
April 8, 2009 - I resign and am then escorted from the premises.
April 10, 2009 - I start my new job.
October 16, 2009 - I get fired let go again.
November 3, 2009 - Became an Oracle ACE

What have I learned in this time?
1. Don't go into the office. If you boss says he needs a word, say you have to go to the bathroom and run for your car.
2. Leave early. If layoffs are coming and you aren't there, they can't let you go!
3. Don't check email while on vacation.
4. Life is rough sometimes, but you have to roll with it.
5. Have fun. We spend more time with those at work than we do with our families. Enjoy yourself while you are there. I got to play ping pong everyday (after 5 naturally) at Revolution Money with my Arch Nemesis. I won two times...out of a thousand games. But it was fun.

*Performance Improvement Plan

Labels: family, humility, work

  ¶ 12/27/2008 11:38:00 PM   1 Comments Links to this post

  Baby Kate: Day 576 See the previous posts about Kate here:
http://www.oraclenerd.com/labels/kate.html

So it's been 576 days since Kate kicked the reaper in the nuts and told him to eff off. We hadn't had a single visit to the hospital...until this week. Pneumonia got to her, and the latest version of the flu (I asked my wife if it was the bird flu). At first, it was old hat. We did this all the time. I think we averaged at least 1 hospital stay every 3 months for the first 2.5 years of Kate's life.

After about a day I was unhappy. Texted Kris and said, "I don't like this anymore." She responded with, "neither do i."

Honestly I can't do a darn thing without Kris. Little Chet is lucky he made it to school...on time. He's lucky he was clean. People kept asking me questions and I'd just have this blank look on my face...ummm...ask Kris? Are you going to sign up for Little League? I don't know. Are you going to coach? I don't know. What are your plans for Thanksgiving? I don't know.

Point is, it ain't regular for Kate to go into the hospital now. Yes, I was comforted by the fact that our Pulmonologist had 35 other kids admitted into the hospital. That made the situation a little easier to swallow. But (thankfully) it is the exception now and no longer the rule that Kate goes into the hospital.

Speaking of Kate...she's stalking me right now in her red Minnie Mouse PJs (there must be a break in Spongebob). She is growing. Up to 32.5 lbs and 35.43 inches tall. Big-time midget, but she's my midget. No talking from her other than this primal grunting (not sure where she gets that from). There's no better personality in the world either...I get no kisses. Mom, she gets kisses. Dad, hell no. "Hey Dad, kiss my ear!"

"No, besa me en la boca!"

Yeah right.

The smile from that little monster gets no better. She can light up a room.

We've learned from recent visits with the neurologist, that there is a higher incidence of Syndactyly and "Slow Development" of children born to mothers with gestational diabetes. Strangely, we had never heard that before. Doesn't really matter though. Hands can be fixed...doesn't really matter anymore. If she's happy, I'm happy...we're happy.

Labels: family, kate

  ¶ 11/16/2008 07:53:00 PM   5 Comments Links to this post

  Random Things The best how-to on the SQL MODEL clause, by Duke Ganote.

I've been trying most of the day to PIVOT a query based on monthly buckets (up to 7). It's driving me crazy. I haven't been able to get it going with Analytics and that's what led me back to Duke's post.

I'm co-presenting Application Express at the SOUG meeting with Dan McGhan. Dan graciously helped out when I stumbled last time. You can get directions and sign up here.

I'll be doing more of the backend (why does that always make me giggle?) stuff and Dan will be showing off some of the cool front end stuff (customization, javascript plugins, etc).

By the way, I found out at the DBA 2.0 one day conference that we were presenting. That was funny.

I like twitter now. Jake suggested using it to search for jobs during my recent stint of un-employment...I like the "micro-blogging" thing.

I did get my old job back last week. They (thankfully) were able to move the start time up a month. I get to do some testing as part of the deal.

I do miss home though. It was nice hanging out with my wife without having to always rush through conversations. Being around the kids (before school started) was fun too. I have never been able to enjoy my time because I'm always thinking about some problem...since I had no job I was released from that burden.

The Wii is gathering dust, kind of. I did score a 184 on tanks (Wii Play) last night. I also miss my afternoon naps...

But I'm thankful to have a job again. Lots to do...

Labels: development, family, humility, work

  ¶ 9/08/2008 10:53:00 PM   3 Comments Links to this post

  Baby Kate - Day 361 It's amazingly almost been a year to the day. Saturday, the 19th will be the "anniversary." Kate turned 40 months on Sunday. What a long strange trip it's been...

A quick recap: my wife (Kris) and I took our almost 2.5 year old daughter to get her tonsils and addenoids removed. She stood on the gurney and waved to us like a little princess.

Next day (morning actually), she was put on a respirator and later in the afternoon, she crashed, twice. Her heart rate was 5 or something. The second time the doctor came out and said he couldn't do anymore and the hospital chaplain showed up.

She spent the next 2 weeks on an oscillator (short quick bursts of air, about 300 per minute because her lungs couldn't handle a normal breathing rate), one week on a ventilator and finally came off of that. She was addicted to pain meds and had to be weaned off via methadone, my 2 year old addict!

Fortunately she made a full recovery. The only lasting scar was on her head; basically, her sat in her own spit for 2 weeks (oscillator, they couldn't move her head as they normally do). She now has a bald spot behind her left ear...she partly on her way to looking like her father! I know she would be OK when I saw this picture:



That gleam in her eye was back.

In August, she walked for the first time, in October, she walked into our bedroom for the first time.

She still doesn't talk, but I can't say I really care. It would be nice to hear her thoughts, but I don't need to, I'm sure I'll get enough of her in the near future.

In January she started school. They have a class for developmentally delayed children, I think it's called Early Learning Progam. She cried the first couple of weeks when Kris dropped her off, but it is less and less frequent now. She now takes the bus to and from school which leaves Kris a few hours to herself finally.

From all indications she is doing very well. She loves other kids (though she may pinch a little too much). We haven't received a negative report.

She's also great at impersonating an 18 month old. We still don't have to pay for her Disney tickets because she doesn't look 3 yet. That's a huge bonus. Which reminds me, she grown 4 inches in the past year (maybe 5?).

She continues to be the source of much joy. She has one of the best demeanors I've ever seen, especially considering all that she's been through. Her smile lights up the room.

Kris has finally agreed to consider [voluntary] surgery. Kate's hands still need a bit of work. After last year, we were perfectly happy with letting her make the decision when she turned 18. We wanted nothing to do with some sort of "voluntary" procedures.

This post feels very disjointed. I apologize for that.

I just wanted to say thank you again to everyone who has supported us.

Labels: family, kate

  ¶ 4/14/2008 03:43:00 PM   2 Comments Links to this post

  Night of the Walking Kate Since the birth of Kate in December of 2004, things have been rather difficult. First she had to be rescucitated and when they went to bathe her, we discovered she had syndactyly. While still in the hospital, she had a "seizure" and was sent to a Level 1 NICU (Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit). She was placed in a phenobarbital coma for essentially six weeks. Lo and behold she was just twitchy, Benign Sleep Myoclonus of Infancy. We almost AMA'd (against medical advice) her because they said she couldn't eat on her own. It's rather difficult when she's only ever been fed through a tube.

With all that, the syndactyly was trivial. She's already had two surgeries to fix one of her hands and she's got at least two more to go.

Earlier this year (April) we went to remove her tonsils and addenoids and put tubes in to prevent the ever present ear infections. She stood on top of the bed waving like a little princess as they wheeled her into the OR.

All went well with the surgery but afterwards it was obvious that she was having trouble breathing. No big deal, we planned on staying overnight. She'd also been diagnosed with asthma, had a bout of RSV and had numerous emergency room visits for her breathing difficulties.

Kris stayed with her and I went home. Around 4:30 in the morning I get a text from Kris, "She's crashing." Then another, "they're bringing in the crash cart!"

I got in the car and raced down to the hospital, not really knowing what to think.

By the time I got there, they had gotten her stabilized. Whew.

Later that afternoon, she coded, twice. The second time the doctor came out and said he had done all he could, that was just before the chaplain showed up...

Somehow she pulled through. We like to say she gave the reaper the finger, Kris suggested it and I thought it was the most appropriate visual. She's a tough little girl.

The next month was spent at the hospital recovering, and recover she did.

This past August, she finally walked:



She's done remarkably well since the surgery, minus the almost dying part. She no longer snores. She gets a cold and doesn't have to go to the hospital. She talks (well, her mother says she does but it's all gibberish to me, I can make out "Daddy" though). In short, wow!

(And finally to the point)
Last night, her brother "snuck" into our bed around 1:30 or so. I told him to go get his pillows because I wasn't sharing. He came back in (throwing the pillows on his mother) and said that Katie was standing at her door.

Me: What?

Me: You're dreaming right?

LC (Little Chet): Nope.

I went to get up and I see this tiny silhouette by the door. It's Kate.

I just started laughing. This was the first time she had ever done such a thing. So the four of us shared the bed last night. LC got kicked a lot by Kate (ah, sweet revenge) and I hardly slept, but it was well worth it. Probably one of my favorite moments of being a Dad.

I'll always remember The Night of the Walking Kate...

Labels: family, kate

  ¶ 10/04/2007 11:31:00 PM   5 Comments Links to this post