Christmas letter 2010

Sorry in advance.  If you thought the last two years letters were long, well, buckle up, grab a cup of coffee (bourbon/tea/scotch/etc.) and settle in.  This year was a doosie.  To start the year, we had a wonderful Christmas holiday and Marco has healed from this Achilles quite well.  He also loves his new job with the only drawback being that he travels so much more.  But that gave me more time for projects.  Connor is healthy and growing and my company is still making money.  Enough about the boring beginning…. Welcome Josephine Marisela Martinez.  Born 11-10-10, 7 lbs 5 oz, 20 ½ inches long. God blessed us with another beautiful and well-mannered child.

The traveling heart event.  As mentioned earlier, Marco has been traveling more. On one trip in January, he was talking with a colleague who had a heart event.  Well Marco (failing to mention it to anyone else) had been having chest pains for a couple of weeks.  He decided to finally be responsible and check it out…two days prior to a golf tournament and four days prior to another trip. So again without telling anyone he went down to the Dell wellness center and, being a former EMT knowing the chain of events he was about to trigger, told the receptionist that he was having “chest pains.”   He was rushed to the back for an EKG.  Low and behold an irregular tac line showed up.  So they called the paramedics and asked if he’d ever had nitro glycerin before.  Again, being a former EMT Marco started to freak out.  “Am I having a heart attack?” he asked.  The doctor said, “We’re not sure, but your blood pressure is too high and there is that tac line.”  Marco then asked if he could call his wife and drive himself to the hospital and they said, “ha ha, no way.  You cannot even go upstairs for your computer; your only choice now is which hospital you’d like to go to.”  He chose North Austin.  Once he was checked in to cardiac 8 and Nita was notified they started the testing.  To make a REALLY long story shorter, Marco was told his EKG was fine but needed a stress test.  While sitting in the ER he texted a friend at work who happened to office at North Austin Medical. Within minutes Dr. Koushik Shaw was on his way down to check on Marco.  Marco’s care immediately was upgraded from coach to first class.  Thank you Koushik.  He was then assigned a cardiologist.  The results of the stress test were negative.  No heart damage.  While diagnosing the symptoms his new cardiologist stated that it didn’t seem consistent with heart trauma, but resembled chest trauma.  He asked about possible events.  Well Marco responded with, “I do let Connor jump on my chest.”  There was a collective sigh of relief.  However, he did say that Marco’s blood pressure was way too high.  So he put him on Diovan and asked him to do some blood work.  He was told to continue the diovan and lose 30 pounds in six months.  He was also asked to go see a pulmonary specialist for a sleep study to determine whether or not he had sleep apnea.  He lost 12 pounds in the first three weeks.  He’s already lost the 30 at the writing of this, runs, lifts and looks great.  Although he did put a little back on during the later stages of the pregnancy and there are those pesky Thanksgiving and Christmas sweets to contend with. 

Oh the sleep study.  I’m thinking they should rename it, “annoy you all night and attempt to sell you an oxygen mask experience.”  First of all, when they advertise a room that’s “just like home” let’s just say it ain’t my home.  I know I’m blessed and spoiled but good Lord I haven’t stayed in a room that crappy since I was 23 and went 6 to a room at a baseball tournament. When they hook up (and I’m not exaggerating) about 30 cables to your face and head with paste and tape and then ask you to relax and sleep…well let’s just say I don’t hook up the car battery to my ears before I kiss Nita goodnight.  Then there is the position.  The tech asked me to sleep on my back.  I said, “I sleep on my side.”  He said I need you to try to sleep on your back.  I said, “I also don’t sleep sitting up do you want to see how that works out?”  He said, “No, just on your back because that’s the worst position for people.” “Why would you then encourage it? I asked.  He said the doctor said to study your sleep while on your back (which I later learned was not true).  I said, “Then you aren’t studying my sleep because I don’t sleep on my back.”  He said, if you can’t sleep on your back, we’ll hook you up to the mask. Meanwhile, it starts raining.  And it sounded like it was raining acorns.  The roof was so thin I thought this had to be a set up.  AND, you could hear the tech talking to some other torture victim in another room across the hall.  My experience was so bad, I was wondering if I could have just been waterboarded for 30 seconds, told them where Osama was and then get on my way.  So at 2am tech boy comes in my room and says, okay we’re strapping on the mask, you aren’t sleeping well.  (No shit).  So let’s strap a mask over your nose and latch it to your head.  Yep, that should bring sweet dreams.  So about an hour and a half later I finally doze off again and it seems like 30 minutes later he says, “rise and shine it’s 5:30. You slept good with that mask on.  How do you feel?”  I said, “you must be joking because I feel tired, annoyed, and do not feel well rested.”  He then started to argue with me again mentioning the wonders of the mask.  He also added that since I opened my mouth a few times which threw off the wind tunnel he had created in my nose and esophagus I might consider a chin strap to keep my mouth closed.  I told him that unless my doctor said my heart would stop tomorrow without it, there was no @#&*^ chance I’ll ever see him or that mask again.  If this is how “good sleep” works, y’all can keep it.

“I’m watching him.”  I have been teasing Nita for about six months (ever since Connor started getting mobile) about her using the term “I’m watching him.”  I found that my definition and her’s do not match.  To me, watching him means he is actually in your line of sight, so you can prevent injuries or unwanted events.  To Nita, apparently it means, I’m assuming he’s still in the house with me and I’m doing other things that need to be done.  This was no more apparent than one weekend in February when I was playing in a golf tournament and while waiting on the green to clear I sent Nita a text saying I loved her.  She responded with, “Connor got out through the doggie door.”  To which I replied, “Did you see it or discover it?”  She responded with, “I heard him in the game room, I was making breakfast for us and I looked out the kitchen window and there he was….on the patio.”  Luckily he didn’t get hurt and we all had a good laugh about it.  Nita now has to qualify, “I’m watching him” and she has no room to complain.

Sea World.  Connor loves animals, especially sea animals.  It’s been amazing to hear the evolution of his little vocabulary-- by summer he could specifically request Baby Einstein videos mostly asking for the “Daw-min.”  (That’s Dolphin).  So we thought we’d take him to Sea World in July.  He really enjoyed the fish tanks, turtles, aquariums, penguins, and the water park.   But he LOVED the dancing stuffed animal people and wanted to go pet them. I thought they might freak him out but he kept jumping in front of other kids photos with them.  I think all the screaming kids at the Shamu show kind of freaked him out.  That, and the lack of air in the stadium.  By the end of the show, he was bawling and even an ice cream cookie couldn’t settle him down.  And let me tell you he can solve a trig problem if it means getting a cookie.

Circus. In spite of our Sea World experience we thought we’d try the circus.  We ended up front row and he LOVED it.  By August he could say “elephant, tiger, puppy, and horsey.”  He was able to describe all the animals in the show.  He was quite pleased with himself for this.  He also loved digging into mommy’s popcorn and nachos.  Remember Nita was 6 months pregnant by now. There was plenty.

New Baby.  No matter what you read in the next two minutes you may not hate Nita.  As our new baby girl was cooking and Nita was nearing term, we decided to induce on the actual due date.  Her Doctor was on call and it was a good day. So, we loaded up the car and I drove Nita to the hospital.  Then after the check in agent came down, I went back home and got Connor ready for preschool.  I got him fed, clothed, dropped off, and then raced back to the hospital.  They had just started the Pitocin drip.  Then around noon, the anesthesiologist came in and popped in the epidural, shortly followed by our OB to break the water.  One push at 2:48 and we had Josie.  You read that correctly.  As soon as Nita got to 10 cm, Dr. Mills came by and we started to load up the stirrups and get ready.  As we discussed whether or not to get the mirror because we were all dying to see if we’d get another red head or not, the baby started crowning.  Dr. Mills said, “She’s got dark hair, and she’s coming now.  Okay Nita, one easy push.”  BANG, Josie’s here.  Just like that.  She is even easier than Connor.  She’s been putting her weight back on, she doesn’t seem to be allergic to anything Nita eats, she’s becoming a more efficient eater (Connor was kind of a grazer), and she only cries for wets, poops, gas, and hunger.  So far.  A little cluster feeding early, but was able to string it out more at night and just pound food in the day.  By one month, Josie was sleeping four and five hours in a row at night. As of the writing of this, she’s gaining about 2 oz per day and is already 9 lbs 11 oz.

Connor’s reaction.  Connor has been pretty good so far.  He is two, and his favorite word is “no” even when he wants to do something.  He is also learning commands and sentences and is always asking us to either “go away (so he can do it himself)” or “sit and fix it.”  One month in, he still hadn’t touched Josephine, but he is always looking to see where she is.  On Marco’s last business trip, I was feeding Josie outside while Connor played in the back yard.  Connor had been pushing his wagon, car, and digging in the dirt.  That’s when he decided it was time for him to touch Josie.  Here I was with one in and one out, Josie eating away and a 2 year old with hands so dirty I think he even had a worm on one.  “Uh, baby, you can’t touch Josie just now.  Mommy has to wash hands first.”  He then lost interest.  Back to the drawing board.  When she cries, he looks at us and once even offered one of his cars to help.  He and Marco are playing a lot together and spending quite a bit of boy time.  Marco is pretty rough and tumble with him and Connor loves being thrown up, dropped, and swung around.  He is all boy.  Marco said the other day, “You know what, I’ve really gotten the chance to fall in love with Connor again.”  How sweet is that?  Every game day you can find Marco and Connor at the mall or the store or out somewhere wearing matching A&M shirts.  Pretty cute.  Connor of course can now say, “Gig ‘em Aggies.”

Parenting styles.  Most of you already know this, but we discovered that the parenting of prevention includes vastly different ideas and priorities with each parent.  For example, as much as I love buying grotesquely large televisions, I don’t want it to be an annual event.  So I’ve been begging Nita to keep Connor away from our TVs, knowing one day I’ll eventually find “Connor” written in sharpie or worse etched on the screen.  She doesn’t share the same anxiety.  And when Connor “discovered” his penis this year, Nita said, “give him a toy during diaper changes so he won’t touch it.”  I said, “I hate to break it to you babe, but this isn’t a ‘phase.’ This one is going to stick forever.”  She said, “No, jack-hole, he’ll get pink eye.”  I didn’t believe her…he got pink eye.  But she still needs to keep him away from the electronics.

 

Finding out the sex.  If you remember with Connor we did the dessert plate after a nice dinner to find out.  For this one, we thought, “how can we top this?”  So we rented a luxury box at the Dell diamond baseball stadium for a game.  We invited 20 friends to share food and drinks with us, and convinced the Express front office to do a “boy-girl” dot race.  Yes, 20 friends and 1500 strangers watched a blue dot and a pink dot race on the big screen while Nita and I watched to see whether Connor would have a brother or a sister.  It was pretty fantastic.  For the video: http://connormartinez.multiply.com/video/item/87/Sex_and_Baseball_short_version.

Connor starts preschool at Hope.  We started preschool for Connor this year to ease him into socialization with other small children before we had a new permanent guest.  That went really well.  His teachers say he’s great, they all love him and he plays well.  He’s even started the lunch bunch program where we pack him a lunch and he stays to play another hour.  When he discovered Josie was never leaving, he (so far) seems okay with it. For his birthday they had a little chapel service, where he wore a little crown he was quite proud of.  He then got to pick from the birthday bag.  We were so proud he picked a book, and happier still he didn’t choose the play-doh that we’d eventually be cutting out of the carpet.

ManCave.  One fine evening while on the phone with Pete watching GSP in ultimate fighting Nita walked into the family room and said, “Keep it down, the baby is sleeping.”  I said, “Connor has a humidifier and a sound machine, he can’t hear anything.”  She responded, “Well I can hear you and I’m pregnant!” (Trump card.)  I said, “bull-@#$%, I need a man cave.”  So I made a few calls, took some pictures of my pool table and sold it on Craig’s list to some rednecks from Gonzales.  (Funny story but too long for the letter).  I then called an AV company about converting my game room to a man cave.  Now we have a movie screen, a high definition projector, Blue-ray, and a Wii.  Game day will never be the same, and date nights are pretty fun.  We put the kids to bed and can eat, drink, and even pause to pee without missing a beat.  Try that at the drafthouse.  Now I’m on my own side of the house with the bar and a full bathroom.  It’s been great during the early new baby days.  While Connor, Josie and Nita are all napping I can still catch the game with the volume on.  We also had them come back and install a video surveillance system around the house (and I bought a paint ball sniper rifle).  This year we’re going to catch those jerky kids who vandalize our nativity scene every year.  They may or may not leave the same color they arrived this year, and either way, there will be a video.

Happy October Birthday Connor. We had a full petting zoo for Connor’s birthday again this year, only a month early.  Since Josephine was due on Nov 10, and it would be insane to bring 30 snotty nosed kids to the house with a 10 day old, we did it early.  In any case, a year older Connor had a huge time.  He loved the pony ride, holding the bunnies and pigs, feeding the chickens, geese, and ducks, just fun for all.  He even tried to drink from the bottle used for the goats, luckily mom stopped him just short of his first drink.  There are some great pictures on the website and all the kids really did have a fun time.  I can see us doing this every year with both of them until one asks why “blank’s stupid friends have to come.”  This year Connor actually took a nap after he inhaled his cake.  Connor has zoned in on his likes.  He loves trains, cars, trucks, animals and if it has wheels, he’s going to push it.  Even Josie’s mobile incubator crib at the hospital.  It goes much faster down a hall than you would expect.

Thanksgiving.  What a whirl-wind week this was.  For the first time since I got out of College A&M was favored over UT.  Also, the entire house got sick.  And I mean the entire house.  Connor woke us up Sunday November 21 around … for Pete we’ll call it 5:41.  Nita got upstairs just in time for Connor to throw up on her shoulder.  The good news was that Connor was over it by the next day.  Monday night around 1:30AM Nita said, “Marco help me up, I’m going to be sick.”  So I helped her up and got some Alka Seltzer for her.  I said, “This will settle your stomach.”  She reluctantly drank it.  She then said, “Can you look up ‘Alka Seltzer’ and ‘breastfeeding’ on the internet?  I remember seeing something about not doing it.”  At this point Josie woke up and started fussing for some milk.  So I called the triage after hours nurse service while reading about all the ways that Alka Seltzer will traumatize and kill your baby if you are pregnant or breastfeeding.  You know the internet is a funny thing isn’t it?  I just wish there was a “rational common sense” section that you could check first before the CYA trial lawyers site pops up.  In any case, while attempting to settle Nita and waiting for the nurse to never call I had to grab Josie while Nita ran to go talk on the big white phone.  Nita had what Connor had.  And Josie got some of the effervescent in the breast milk.  So while Nita went back to sleep, I burped Josie for about an hour.  She’s fine by the way.  The next day was Tuesday and I started feeling a little sour in the stomach.  By 2pm I had it.  Thank goodness Mom was only a mile away, so we called to see if she could come and feed Connor while I just sat in man-cave and rested.  I even slept in the back bedroom to avoid a daisy chain of continual sickness and hopefully avoid giving it to little miss Josephine.  Wednesday, mom’s got it.  Yep, mom called and said I’m not sure about Thanksgiving at my house mijo, I’m sick.  Luckily we all knew she’d be gold in 24 hours.  But the crazy thing was Rio started looking ill.  Then he started throwing up.  We figured he’d snap out of it and start drinking water.  Last May he had a kidney issue, but there was no blood in his urine this time.  At the 4:AM feeding I got up with Nita to go check on him and he had urinated in the house and thrown up again.  So I took him to the after-hours clinic.  They started running a battery of tests and determined it might be a gall bladder issue.  The second organ failure in six months.  Rio was three months shy of his 15^th birthday, he was going deaf and blind.  On Thursday night, at halftime of the A&M v. Texas game, we got a call from the clinic that it was time to put him down.  Nita and I went to kiss him, say goodbye and tell him how much we loved him. We will miss him and remember all the fun things over the years. When we got there, he gave us that Beaches look like he’d been waiting for us to say goodbye.  The Aggie win didn’t taste quite as sweet this year.  But every year at halftime, I’ll always remember the best dog I ever had.  If you remember too, please drink a toast to Rio with me.

Connor started talking this year and he actually said “Rio Rio Rio” before he said Daddy.  He is still a little puzzled as to why all of a sudden now there is food underneath his high chair.  It was never there before, he’d drop food, but it would magically disappear.  Also the doggie door is permanently closed, Connor can’t sneak out of it any longer.  Luckily he can work the French doors and deadbolts, so he’s all set.  I also remember when Connor got mobile this year.  He would always look around the island to see if we were following him.  If he thought he could make it, he’d crawl as fast as he could towards the laundry room…home of Rio’s food bowl.  He would ALWAYS put a few bits in his mouth until one of us would run and swish them out.  He also loved playing in Rio’s water bowl.  Occam’s razor prevails.  One day while watching this, my mother grabbed a piece of Rio’s dry dog food and ate it.  Nita and I looked at each other in horror.  She then said, “It tastes a little like a graham cracker,” which of course Connor loves.  How simple, he’s not being mischievous he’s getting a cookie. Who would have thought to taste the dog food? 

Christmas has been pretty fun.  Connor has really embraced a few things.  Lights, man that boy loves him some Christmas lights.  Especially the Thomas Train display daddy put in the front yard.  He wants it on at all times. Marco went totally Griswold this year.  He even hired out folks to come and do the trees, the roof, the door, and driveway.  The electric company sent us a thank you card that included a picture and bio of the new employees we apparently funded with our continual use of lights.  He also started singing both Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman in a way only a two year old can sing it.  Really adorable, in fact, if we can get him to do it on video we’ll put it on the website.  But it has certainly made car rides and trips to see the lights a hoot.  He also never tires of the old Jimmy Durante Frosty video.  Never.  Oh, and Marco is on a Christmas crusade against political correctness.  When the photographer for the Christmas card asked “Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” Marco said, “Christmas!  If you send me a Hanukkah or Kwanzaa card, I’m not going to rip it up and throw it in your face and say I’m offended, I’m going to thank you for your thoughts during the season.  So if you get offended at the word ‘Christmas,’ I don’t care.”  I wished he’d have just said “Christmas please” but you know Marco.

Josie sets a long distance poop record.  At about three weeks old, Nita was changing little miss Josephine. I was summoned to the study where our changing table was located.  Nita said, “Honey, this is kind of disgusting…but you have to see this.”  Josie had caught Nita reaching for another wipe when she let loose her little poop cannon.  We stopped short of an actual distance measurement.  But let’s just say if you are in our study and you are looking at the globe, don’t put your finger on Istanbul you’ll get pink eye.  Speaking of poop, Connor went 1 year 322 days without pooping in the tub.  Then he did it twice in a week.  Don’t you just love the smell of Clorox in the bathtub?

Marco’s freakish need for airline status.  Next time you see him ask about his trip to New York before Christmas, his one hour trip.  Yep, Marco needed 3000 more miles to qualify for Platinum status, so he flew to JFK, and an hour later he flew back home.  I can’t be too upset; when we travel it’s all VIP. But really? One hour?

May God bless you and your family.  May He give you the strength and courage to overcome any obstacle in your lives.  We hope you had as much fun as we did last year and even more next year.  May you remember only the good things from those you lose.  We hope only kindness and blessings are bestowed upon your families.  May your coffers swell and your smiles exceed your frowns 100 fold.  Merry Christmas, from Marco, Nita, Connor, and Josephine. (Would you have gotten it if I’d have signed it brown, red, red, brown?) J