Wow, 2007... what a year...

No, we have not dropped of the face of the Earth. I am just a bad boy who forgot we had this blog... not that too many people look at it anymore :)

Quick year-in-review:

Jan. 07 - Wife Miscarried (last post)

Feb. 07 - Wonderful Ex-Wife gets sued for child support by the state. Her reward? She now only has to pay $35.00 a month. And she still hasn't paid that in a year. Also found out that Chloe has disability-class ADD. (ie: it's not a case of a teacher handing her ritalin, brainscans found an anomoly in her hardwiring. So for reading and writing and such, she knows the answers, can learn them, but can't retreive the answers.) She was in first grade, but at a pre-k reading level and even worse math level. The school wouldn't hear of holding her back, instead gave her a "education plan" due to the "no child left behind" initiative.

March 07 - Found out that Chloe has disability-class ADD. (ie: it's not a case of a teacher handing her ritalin, brainscans found an anomoly in her hardwiring. So for reading and writing and such, she knows the answers, can learn them, but can't retreive the answers.) She was in first grade, but at a pre-k reading level and even worse math level. The school wouldn't hear of holding her back, instead gave her a "education plan" due to the "no child left behind" initiative. She has to take medicine daily to maintain focus and help the process along, but it is slow going.

April to July 07 - Wife and I grew apart, marriage was beginning to get really strained. Mistakes were made, but by the end of July we discovered we loved eachother more then ever. Dropped our City of Heroes and Warcraft accounts, and starting interacting with society.

August 07 - Decided we hated normal society, have gotten too old for the "bar scene" and such, so went from "night out" to dinner at a nice place and a bottle of wine/bourbon/good whiskey at home.

September 07 - Settling into a routine, enjoying life. Decided to give up on having kids, figured we would spoil bug with all we have. Chloe started second grade, going to special ed for reading and math, staying in the classroom for science, social studies, and general time.

October 07 - Found out Jen was pregnant again!!! Very cautious, didn't tell anyone. Saw the doctor due to the previous miscarriage, everything looked okay. Suprisingly traced her "possibly conception dates" (to figure estimated delivery date) and found that it was September 10th. The night the second season of Heroes premiered on NBC, and we got fairly well drunk waiting for it to start.

November 07 - Everything going fine with Pregnancy, until about the second week. Then Jen started bleeding heavily. Ran to the ER, but an ultrasound showed baby was a-o-k, and so was jen. Decided to tell the mothers... Neither of which could keep it a secret until christmas, which is what we wanted to do.

December 07 - Ultrasound discovers that Jen has low amniotic fluid. Sent to a specialist in Minneapolis, who tells her it's looking okay, no need to worry yet, come back in a month.

January 08 - Fluid level is lowered again, Jen is told she may need to go on bedrest. Fortunately, her job involves sitting on her ass all day except going to the bathroom (a lot like mine...) so she is allowed to keep working. Also, have mid-term parent teacher conference. Chloe has advanced full grade levels in reading AND math! Suprisingly, her science and social studies are on-par. Basically if she hears the information, or has enough time to do the work (not an exorberant amount, just extra time) she can do what's necessary.

February 08 - Just got back from Jen's DR appointment - everything is good with the baby. Seeing specialist in 2 weeks in Minneapolis though, and was told to bring a hospital bag "just in case". if the amniotic fluid drops again, she may have to stay there for a while. Chloe advanced 3 levels in math, she is finally getting it down, working better with numbers now then anything.

Overall:
It's been a hectic year.

We are proud of our daughter, who has stepped up to take charge of her life. She knows that she is a bit slow, but she doesn't let it stop her. And for those of you that think "slow" means "less intellegent", think again. She is very quick witted, ingenious when it comes to planning something, and thinks things through to the minute detail. She just has trouble retreiving data :)

We have found out that Jen is carrying another girl (good little baby decided she was done being poked last ultrasound, so pulled both her legs up to her head giving us a clear crotch-shot), so we are prepping for her by moving in the next couple weeks (still in Eau Claire or surrounding area), and starting to stock up on necessary items/target cards for late night runs.

The baby has an attitude. The doctor was amazed today, when she is awake she likes to play a game with what we think is her foot. She will push it out as far as she can (making a fun little bump appear on jen) - if you push it in, she kicks back out. if you tap it a few times she taps back. She likes music, and certain songs make her go nutzo in there dancing. She also hates ultrasounds or doppler - she won't stay still. And we have two ultrasound pictures with her giving us the finger. And the funniest one... the nurse was doing a scan last time, and said out loud "now i need to look at her face, we want to see her lips" and that little dork in ther turned from face forward to the side, and "swam" behind the placenta.

Say what you will about babies... they are all smarter then we give credit for.

We have also already picked out a name, and it is set in stone.

Aloryn Audrey.

Respond if you still read!