Kate at home

A few pictures from this week...

Chilling in the bouncy chair.



Getting ready for a bath...



and after the bath. No "during" picture -- I usually give her a bath during the day while Curt and Loren are gone so I don't have a photographer handy while I'm concentrating on the bath.



I almost fear to post this because I'll probably jinx it, but here she is napping in the crib...something Loren never did. The last few days she's taken a nice afternoon nap in here.

Stardate 63141.48 - Loren and Kate

Cheryl took this photo on President's Day while I was in the shower.

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Stardate 63141.46 - Haircut and Lunch

Last weekend we got bundled up and took a family outing for Loren to get a haircut.


She did very well and really enjoyed it. We discovered that early on a Sunday was the time to go as the place was not crowded (and it is usually very, very crowded). Afterward we went to 879-TACO for lunch.



Kate slept for the entire trip, although Cheryl had to leave lunch a little early to get back home for Kate's feeding. Loren and I caught up soon after.

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Photos from this week

Kate had her first smile this week! But she has only done it twice and not for the camera. So here are some other pictures from the week.

On Sunday, to give Curt some time to work on taxes, I took the girls for a little outing to Sutton Place Park, a nice small park on the river not far from us. It has a sandbox and some room to run around so it was an easy place to supervise Loren...I am not ready to take on a regular playground with both kids by myself yet. Loren loves to climb on the wild boar statue.




Someday we'll have interesting outdoor pictures of Kate. But so far this is mainly what she does outside.

My parents came over for a visit later that afternoon.


And a couple pictures of Kate at home this week. I realized we never put up any of her stats. At 1 week she was 21 inches and 8 lbs 2 oz. This puts her in the 95th percentile for height. I knew she seemed big compared to Loren at the same age. But I didn't realize just how big until I took her to the breastfeeding support group at NYU last week and she was as long as some babies who were several weeks older.


Chubby cheeks!


We're looking forward to the holiday weekend, and to Nana and Kracker's visit next week!

Stardate 63103.71 - Collin's Birthday Party

Loren's classmate Collin had his birthday party today at Chuck E. Cheese in Long Island City. It was a bit crowded and chaotic as you can imagine, as there were lots of simultaneous parties going on.


Loren seemed to have a great time. She liked the royal coach in particular, and wanted to ride it a lot. She also liked a bee game where you have to catch balls (painted like bees) in a net and dump them into a honey jar. We also played that one many times.



After about 90 minutes or so, we were both ready to head home. This is the second birthday party I've taken Loren to by myself, and I'm hoping that maybe by the next one Cheryl can go to - even if she can only watch the coats and diaper bag that would be a big help.

Once we got home Cheryl took Kate and Loren to the library while I continued to work on the taxes. It was their second sister outing together, the first being Costco last weekend.

Tomorrow is supposed to be very warm (51!) so we're going to try and get outside for part of the day, and Grandma and Grandpop are also stopping by for a visit in the afternoon.

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More pictures

Yes, we are still here! After Curt's last post, things went downhill: I turned out to have full-blown strep throat and had to go to the doctor in the snow, with Kate in tow, to get a prescription for antibiotics. Loren got over the stomach virus in 24 hours, but then Curt got it. And by that Thursday, Kate was running a slight fever that kept spiking to about 100.3 -- we went to the doctor for her 2-week checkup on Friday and there was nothing specific wrong, but if it went up to 100.5, we would have had to take her to the hospital for tests. Luckily her temperature went back down Friday night and things have been looking up since then.

This week, Curt has been back to work full time and also doing the day care drop-off and pickup, so he is beat. I've been interviewing babysitters to cover the pickup and help me out a bit in the evenings, and we're hoping to have someone start next week.

Kate is doing great. She is a hearty eater and gaining weight quickly. She is pretty mellow, as long as she is fed as soon as she's hungry and burped when she needs it. Here are a few pictures taken since our last post.

Bobby (Great-Grandma) visited before the illnesses set in:



Loren's class had a big sister party for her. Unfortunately, Curt and I were too sick to attend! I sent a disposable camera and will put up some pictures once we finish up the roll.


Su Ming and Kathy stopped by last weekend.



Kate at home this week.


On Sunday, the weather warmed up into the 40s so we got Loren out to the playground for a bit. Kate and I came out for a few minutes.

Stardate 63072.39 - Daddy, my tummy hurts!

Not only did Kate have some trouble falling asleep last night which kept Cheryl and me awake off-and-on for a few hours, but at 2 AM Loren called out a few times and when I took my turn to check in on her she said, "Daddy, my tummy hurts!" and then proceeded to vomit all over her pillow, her sheets, her comforter, and herself. She then threw up 2 more times, spaced about 30-60 minutes apart. Needless to say, we're all pretty tired this morning. Luckily, Cheryl, Kate, and I do not seem to have caught whatever virus Loren has; although Cheryl is running a fever and not feeling great, so our fingers are crossed it is something different.



So we're all home today, doing laundry and trying to make sure everyone is well. And best of all, tonight we're supposed to get snow and ice!



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Stardate 63058.68 - More Kate

The picture above shows the excitement Kate felt during the Inauguration, which we were able to watch since we are home this week. Below is a rare moment where Kate is not eating.


And here is Kate just hanging out after a diaper change.


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Stardate 63057.09 - Loren and Kate

Loren practices holding her little sister.


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Stardate 63048.98 - The Story of Kate's Birth

Cheryl's due date was estimated as this coming Tuesday, January 20th, and even though Loren was born 2 days early we were not expecting a Friday night birth. Cheryl had seen her doctor in the afternoon, and nothing imminent appeared to be happening. We were just sitting around the living room around 7:15 PM getting ready to start Loren's bathwater when suddenly Cheryl announced, "My water just broke!"

A little history is in order. While Cheryl's water broke quite suddenly with Loren, her contractions never really started on their own and the doctor induced labor about 3 hours after the actual water break. So we figured we had some time and spent the next 15 minutes making phone calls to Lisa (who had agreed to take Loren to her place if anything sudden happened), Cheryl's parents (letting them know we'd probably need them on Saturday), and Cheryl's doctor (obviously) as well as packing up a bag for Loren and tidying up around the apartment. But around 7:30, while Cheryl was sitting on the floor helping Loren to get her coat on (or something similar) a contraction hit. Since that was different than last time, Cheryl urged us to get to a taxi.

We caught a taxi right in front of our building as soon as we stepped outside (which doesn't often happen). Meanwhile Cheryl had another contraction in the elevator and another one as soon as we got into the taxi (they were about 2 minutes apart). Originally the plan was to get her into the hospital and checked in, and then I'd run Loren up to Lisa's place and return in plenty of time for the birth. Once in the taxi (at 7:40 PM) Cheryl called Lisa to have her meet us at the hospital and I posted to Twitter (at 7:42 PM) and the blog (at 7:45 PM) that we were en route to the hospital. Cheryl's contractions continued to get stronger and closer together and they were 90 seconds apart as we walked through the front door of the hospital.

It is not a short walk to get to the elevators and in retrospect maybe we should have asked for a wheelchair but at the time neither of us thought we were so close to delivery. Cheryl made it as far as the elevator and as I pressed the button she grabbed the wall and yelled through another contraction. At this point she began to say, "The baby is coming now! The baby is coming now!" as she crossed the hall and slid down onto the floor she began yelling through yet another contraction. Loren began yelling at this point, and a group of nurses waking down the hall dropped their dinners and came running over. They thought Cheryl had fallen. I yelled at them, "The baby is coming now!" and they scrambled for a stretcher. We were there for maybe 5 minutes, and during this time Lisa appeared and we completed a 10-second hand over of Loren and her luggage and got her out of the drama.

Once they got Cheryl on a stretcher they wheeled her around the public elevators to the staff elevators and it was a quick trip up to maternity. They told me not to follow her into the room, but to go quickly to the front counter on the floor to give them Cheryl's name and insurance information. I only had time to hand the piece of paper with the photocopy of her card to the nurse when they started yelling for me from down the hall, telling me the baby was coming now!

I quickly entered the room and the baby's head was already half-way out and at 8:05 PM, fifty minutes after Cheryl's water broke, Katherine Orrock Sawyer was born!


Early Saturday Lisa brought Loren over to meet her little sister, and then I took Loren home while Cheryl's parents drove into the city.


Once they met Kate, they came to the apartment to watch Loren while I went back to the hospital. That night I came home in time to put Loren to bed, and then went back to the hospital Sunday morning. Luckily everyone was healthy and everything went smoothly so we were discharged first thing Sunday morning and were home by 10 AM.



I'm now surrounded by women at home! As I have been for almost all my life...



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Stardate 63044.70 - First Picture of Kate

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Stardate 63043.87 - Katherine Orrock Sawyer

Katherine Orrock Sawyer (we plan to call her "Kate"), arrived at 8:05 PM Friday night. Mother and baby are fine, and Loren is spending the night with a friend. I'll put up a longer post later with pictures.

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Baby is Here!

Details to follow, but oh, my! what a fast birth!!

Stardate Unknown - RED ALERT

Cheryl's water broke 20 minutes ago and we are on the way to the hospital. She is currently having contractions.

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Stardate 63029.28 - Office Holiday Party

Cheryl and I decided to host a small holiday party for my co-workers last Thursday night. For some reason, Loren was particularly excited about this party. Cheryl, with just 2 weeks until her due date, did a fantastic job organizing and preparing the food for the event. We had a pretty good turn-out, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

Here Loren sits at the food table to have her dinner.


Terry and Lisa mug for the camera as Cheryl walks by.


Naz, Aparna, and Emily chat.


Michael and Scott pay attention to another conversation while Rick caught me taking the photo.


Ed tells a story while John listens.


The team surprised Cheryl and Xandree (also pregnant) with cards and gifts. Xandree threatened me if I put any photos of her up here, so here is one just of Cheryl and me while Ed, Michael, and Aparna listen to my reading of the card.


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Stardate 63013.42 - USS Excalibur

It is that time of year again, when I post the crew roster for the USS Excalibur (and other ships) and explain how this blog got its name, why I have stardates in all the titles, and in general what it all means.

In 1989, my college roommate Cheryl Wimer and I were sitting around watching reruns of Star Trek: The Original Series (ST:TOS), and we started talking about what "our" ship would be like, if we existed in that alternate reality (yes, I really said reality). Before long, we were drawing up our crew roster, with friends as our crew. During our tenure at Virginia Tech, we updated the roster each year. My friend James Fitzgerald and I even wrote some "fan fiction" about our ship, which we placed in the time frame of ST:TOS. With my interest in fantasy, we decided to use the name Excalibur, which was actually a starship destroyed in a ST:TOS episode. We decided that we would be the new crew for the rebuilt ship.

Later, we decided to update the time frame to that of The Next Generation (ST:TNG), but we kept the name. Imagine our surprise when the Excalibur appeared in a TNG episode! So we have had to fudge the "official" history a little to make it line up with the "history" as we were currently writing it, but we kept the name and the ship the same.

After graduation I continued to update the crew roster, adding and deleting people as friends and friends' significant others came and went. The core crew has remained on the roster, however. I even attempted to roughly follow the US Navy's time frame on promotions (thanks to Major Denise Donnell, currently of the New York Air National Guard and formerly of the US Navy, for technical assistance). As command staff (line officers) have reached the rank of Captain, they have been given their own command. So where there was originally only one (the Excalibur), now there are several ships on the roster.

So here we are, 19 years after the first crew roster was created, and I am still updating them (some would say I am still wasting my time, but I have to put that creative writing minor to some use). So for those who are interested, here is where you can find the page with this information, the history of the ship, and the latest roster. I think a couple of people got promotions for 2009, I mean 2386.

Enjoy! Happy New Year! Peace and long life!

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