Sleepyhead

James has been one sleepy little baby. In fact maybe too sleepy. Two nights ago (his third night home) the little guy practically slept through the night only waking up a couple times to be fed and then went straight back to sleep. Well we were ecstatic, however this continued the next day. He just wanted to sleep all day, in fact we had to wake him a lot of the time to eat and then he would just fall asleep in the middle of eating. So that evening we called his doctor and they told us to bring him in. When there James decided to wake up. They looked at him and his weight was good his breathing was good and his color was good. So they sent us to the lab to get some blood work for him (the poor little guy gets poked again). His blood work came back good, and when we returned home he had fallen back to sleep and slept until a little after 11:00 pm at which time he woke up and was wide awake for the next three hours. Normally you might be upset with having to stay up with your little baby, but not this time. Anna choose to stay up with him and then I got up to feed him the second half of the night. Today the little guy has been awake and active and taking just little naps. We are so happy that little J.D. is doing good now.

James Douglas Poole

Well he is here, James Douglas Poole was born at 7:49 yesterday (25th of July) and weighed in at 7 lbs. 7 oz. and was 18.5 inches. He had some complications with his lungs (he aspirated some fluid on his way out) so they sent him to the newborn i.c.u. when there they decided they would keep him there to let his lungs get a little stronger. They did get stronger, and he is now down in the well baby nursery next to Anna's room. Anna is doing wonderfully well. I am so glad for the way this delivery went compared to when Connor was born.

I Don't Want To Be That Doctor

Ok, so I'm positive that the three readers of this blog also read my wife, Anna's blog. So she wrote about the episode of Hopkins that we watched last night and how it made her and I emotional to watch a two year old boy nearly die and how it affected his family. Anyway, at one point a doctor was brought in to consult with about the boy's case and his reply was that they should just let the boy die. Both Anna and I were taken back and we had to rewind and watch it again because we couldn't believe he just said that. Fortunately for the little boy and his family, their doctor wouldn't give up and at the end he talked about how these are the times that his job is the most rewarding and it makes the hard times worth it. I feel that a pediatric surgeon is probably the most polarizing type of job for a doctor. You have the lowest of lows when a case doesn't go well and you can't save a child, but when you do save a child I can't think of anything more rewarding in this field than that.

My "Son" Connor

So last night Anna went with her mom and sister to the American Idol concert for a girls night out. So Connor and I had boys night (this is something Anna wants to institute which is funny because we don't have any girls so it really will be dad take the boys while mom has some alone time, which I'm OK with since she will be spending all weekdays with them while I'm at work). So Connor and I went to Chuck E Cheese and Connor had a blast, and then we went and played at our little park by our house and then when we got home he played a little bit with Abby in her sand box. In all reality it was a pretty simple night but when Anna got him up this morning he just had to tell her all about it and how much fun he had, so I guess it was a successful boys night. Connor is alot of fun to go out with I'm going to take him to go see Wall-E soon, I think he will like that.

In another story about Connor, let me tell you what a little trip he is. Anna calls my "Hub" alot of the time (short for husband). the other night I brought dinner to Anna and Connor and Anna said, "thanks hub." Then Connor says right after her, "yeah, thanks hub." We both laughed about that. Then the next day, Connor wanted a treat and asked me to get one for him. Then he proceeded to go into the kitchen and turned around and I guess I was not moving fast enough for him because he said to me, "Come on son!" (Which is something I say to him often.) So this was even more hilarious than the hub quote. So what can I say, other than my son is a crack up.

Patriotism - part 2

OK so I brought up the issue of a lack of patriotism in my last post and how I felt the Dream Team was a part of such a height of America's Patriotism in my lifetime. With the Olympics coming up America tends to show a little more patriotism and have some national pride in our athletes. I have been following the Olympic trials these last couple of weeks especially swimming. One story I find interesting, besides the whole Dara Torres going to her fifth Olympics in her 40s, is about Michael Phelps. It appears that he got some special treatment (let me just preface that it does not bother me because I think the rule is petty, unless someone else did the same thing and did not get the same benefit). For those of you who don't know the story, last week after winning the 200 meter freestyle he pulled off a solid black swim cap only to have another one on underneath (apparently this is common in swimming to wear two caps, because it helps to hold their goggles in place). The one underneath had a large Visa logo on it and the athletes had been instructed not to have any advertising corporate logos and warned that they would be immediately disqualified. Michael Phelps was not disqualified (this is America's biggest athlete going to Beijing; he is going to attempt to win eight gold medals). He said it was an accident that he didn't know he had put that cap on and I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt however I'm skeptical about it (too many coincidences). Phelps has an endorsement with Visa and it just so happens that Visa's Senior VP was in attendance that night (the only night he was there). This sure gave Visa a little more time in the press. Anyway Phelps's special treatment is not the point of this post. My point goes back to my last post how I brought up the fact that I cheered against the USA in basketball four years ago when team USA lost to Argentina. It was mostly because I hated the way team USA represented us. They were a bunch of individuals who seemed to be out to get their own and not what would help the team win. They seemed to represent Nike, Reebok, Adidas or whatever endorsement they had. That seems to be the case for a lot of mainstream athletes it's more important to represent your endorsements and representing the USA can increase the amount you get paid. Then it hit me, I remember in 1992 there was a big deal about some of the Dream Team members who had endorsements with Nike wearing the Team USA uniform that was made by Reebok at the medal ceremony. They solved the problem by draping an American flag over the Reebok logo. So, was this the start of our representing athletes looking out for their endorsement contracts over representing their country? (I really feel the first Dream Team felt very strongly about representing the USA and they realized they had contractual obligations when they saw what they were to wear.) Now it seems a lot of athletes just want to go to the Olympics because if they perform well they can get some lucrative endorsements rather than the honor to represent the USA. Especially this year with the Olympics going to be in China, the corporations want to get their logos in China.

Wow, just as I have been writing this (for those of you who know, I write my posts at work) I have been listening to the Dan Patrick Show and he is talking right now about the Team USA basketball picture. All of the athletes on the team have endorsements with Nike except for Dwight Howard (D. Wade is with Converse which has been bought by Nike and C. Paul and C. Anthony are with Air Jordan an entity of Nike, Howard is with Adidas). All the players are standing going from shortest to tallest with Howard on the end even though it appears that Chris Bosh is taller (because of his hair). All the players have their hands behind their back and Howard is the only one holding a ball (so that his hand is covering up the Nike logo) and Coach K is sitting down (which looks weird) and positioned in a way that his foot covers Howard's Adidas logo on his shoe. For real, are we that petty that we have to cover a small logo on a team uniform to maintain an endorsement? I guess the almighty dollar is more important.

In all reality, I wish the IOC would not allow professional athletes to compete in the Olympics. It is supposed to be for amateurs only. Although that may take away the world's best athletes that are professional it would be more about representing your country and the honor that that entails. Although I did hear one reporter say that a solution would be to go back to the original Olympics where all the athletes compete in the nude.

Patriotism

Over the Holiday weekend Anna and I were talking about how it seems that America is less patriotic then when we were younger. There just is not the same type of patriotism. Perhaps it is because the world is more global than it used to be, or maybe because the US is going through hard times financially and does not seem to be as great as it once was. Speaking as a person who lived two years outside of the country, I can tell you that there is a difference that you notice when you return to your home land. Now granted there was a surge of patriotism after 9-11 however it died off pretty fast. Both Anna and I reflected on when we felt America was at its highest in patriotism during our lives. We both agreed that when we think of patriotism we think of post WWII and during the fifties (ala Sandlot or Wonder Years). However in my lifetime I think America was at its most patriotic in 1991-92. American had not been at war for quite some time and when Operation Desert Shield turned into Operation Desert Storm, America united. Yellow ribbons were everywhere; people were glued to news coverage of the war. One of the greatest moments came at Superbowl XXV when Whitney Houston sang the national anthem and everyone in the stadium was waving American flags, it was a powerful moment. I remember vividly (almost as vivid as my memory of 9-11) the day the war ended on the 28^th of February 1991. We had gone out to dinner to Tia's Tex-Mex restaurant and there was someone there who had their personal television (that is how much attention was given to the coverage) and they stood up and announced the war was over. The whole restaurant cheered. That next year the Olympics were in Barcelona and many may remember that was the Olympiad of the Dream Team. We sent our best basketball players to take back the gold medal in basketball. There just seemed to be much more pride in being an American then. I loved watching the original Dream Team beating teams by 40 and 50 points on their way to showing the USA's dominance. The difference now is in 2004 I was cheering for our basketball team to lose when they played Argentina. Perhaps we became so prideful in how great America was that we just expected to be the best and didn't put forth the effort to keep ourselves at the top (pride comes before the fall). I hope America can regain that patriotism again.

It’s Official

It's 12:01 am on July 1^st, 2008 and it's official, 1 minute ago Utah Valley State College became Utah Valley University. There were a bunch of activities today on campus, we were going to go but then decided to let Connor go play with his second cousin Ty. Then after he was too tired to go, so we went home. Now I can finally receive my diploma (they were waiting to send them out until after the change because the diplomas say Utah Valley University on them).