Ry and Coop Dot Com

Jenn and I just got back from our friends house where we had a great time chomping on pizza and wings and watching Ryan play with his friend Claire (or “kaa” as he pronounces it).

Watching the two of them got me thinking, when is it too early to start planning your child’s life for them. If now isn’t too early then I’d like Ryan to marry Claire right after he graduates from the Warton School of Business but before he enters Harvard Medical School, on a full scholarship of course.

That sounds like a nice plan.

I was surprised to learn that Ryan’s neurologist, Dr. Nichter, who I highly regard as a genius, also is cultured enough to read this blog.  An off-handed comment was recently made that Dr. Nichter’s face has appeared on this blog without a bow-tie.  This is true, but this is not my fault!  Albany Medical College made the mistake of posting the good doctor’s image without the prerequisite bow-tie.  I might suggest they alter their image slightly to reflect the true power of the bow-tie. 

If you need to be reminded of the power of the bow-tie, click here!

So how great is it to live in America?  Seriously.  The news is covered with stories of men and women who’re sacrificing their lives in the Middle East for just the chance at living in a truly Democratic society.  At least that’s the hope.  Thanks in large part to our dedicated military and over two centuries of hard work, we don’t have those problems.  Look, I’m not naive enough to think this country is without it’s problems.  In fact, I’m not even blind to the fact that my family has problems. 

The fact is though, “problems” is so loosely defined.   For example, we had a serious problem this month.  We weren’t sure how we were going to carry Ryan through Disney World on our vacation in a few weeks.  Turns out, we found the solution!  Then, we had to decide between black or green!  These are serious issues that required serious thought!  So again, I ask, how lucky are we to live in America.

There are many things that we take for granted.  I, for example, take for granted that if I work hard I’ll remain employed.  The one thing I didn’t realize I took for granted until tonight?  Hand-eye coordination.

Helpless without mom, Ryan and I decided we’d try a new diner that replaced an Albany landmark, the Metro 20 diner.  The new place, Capital Cities Diner, was way over priced but everyone was friendly and, as you can see, Ryan really liked the macaroni and cheese!  He also decided it would be super cool if he fed himself.

All in all, this was another successful night and a great way to spend an otherwise dull Thursday night.

So hopefully you’ve all missed these entries the last week or so.  SuperWeek for ESPN was a series of unfortunate events that led to many of our staff fighting sub zero temperatures in ice and lightning storms to pull off arguably the best coverage of the year!  I can safely say that since it’s only February.  I digress…again. 

If you haven’t heard by now, North Texas was hit with the coldest temperatures in a decade which did a number on the local economy and our plans for a huge outdoor radio broadcast with hundreds of screaming fans encouraging us on.  Instead, there were a few hardcore “fans” or more likely autograph hounds that braved the cold elements to see our production.  Regardless, it was a good experience.  It got me thinking though, what would my little guy be doing while I was waking up at 3:30 am each morning to get to the TV set and going to bed at 11pm because of work (and admittedly a drink or two with some colleagues.)  Well, for starters, he could be posing for a picture inside one of my newly ordered running shoe boxes.  Meanwhile, I’m taking dark pictures of the impromptu Mike and Mike set we moved indoors to escape the cold.  It turns out though that I didn’t miss a lot on the home front.  Ryan caught an ear infection which has woken him up at 3am like clockwork for the last ten days.  It’s under control now, hopefully our sleep schedule will be soon as well.  It was the early 20th century comedian, W.C. Fields who so aptly explained this time of my life when he said,

“Sleep – the most beautiful experience in life – except perhaps for the drink.” 

Real quick, because I need to go to bed. I’m catching a flight to Dallas tomorrow to join the ESPN crews covering Super Week, the media frenzy before the big game. It’s a good opportunity to connect with my colleagues and we generate a lot of revenue from this event. I caution you though, before you start saying how lucky I am, that I have to be on set each day at 4 am and more importantly, I will be away from our little dish washer for seven full days….yikes!

Ryan had another successful appointment with his neurologist this week. If you’ll recall, our little monster with diagnosed with an unknown type of epilepsy. The doctor called it General Seizure Disorder but the word general, in this case, basically means “hey it’s too early to tell you what’s going on but we know how to make him better.”

I’m not worried. His doctor, Dr. Nichter, said he’ll need to remain on his meds for another year and then we’ll slowly work his dosage down and run more tests. More tests! Yeah, but again, I’m not worried. Why, any reasonable person might ask, am I not nervous? I’ll tell you. Dr. Nichter has two fellowships and a post-doctorate under his belt so there’s no doubt he’s dedicated to his craft. In addition, he has always been able to answer all of our questions, and not in a degrading or belittled way. The real reason I’m not worried though is because I watched this silver haired medicine man literally throwing legos around his office with Ryan and I saw a man both confident in his abilities and passionate about his very important patient.

Ryan visited his developmental pediatrician on Monday and it seems our little Einstein has caught up to the expectations of a typical eighteen month old. In the area of socialization, he has exceeded expectations!

This was obviously great news and something we’ve worked (and played) hard to accomplish. We’re not done though, no not by a long shot. Today marks our first day without TV! Yes, that’s right we decided to cancel our cable subscription since Jenn and I would rather play with giant legos or read “There’s a Monster at the End of this Book” for the bazillionth time rather than watch another episode of American Idol.

Most of you are probably thinking we’re crazy and I wouldn’t blame you….or disagree. We’ll see how it goes but everyone is entitled to a little idealism once in awhile, right?

Parenthood has been amazing. One of the things I most enjoy is being surprised by our little tyke.

Jenn and I have recently made a push to eat more organic food. After watching Food Inc, we realized there’s a lot we don’t know about our food and we would like to buy locally. There are a few farmers markets and co-ops around us and, though our bill went up about 50 dollars, I think we’ll find it’s worth it.
Anyway, tonight Ryan got a kick out of sliding around in the box we got from the store. That’s not what’s surprising. What was surprising was that this picture was the first time he responded to “smile.” I literally asked him to smile and he did! Now for those of you who are not impressed, you either don’t have an 18 month old or are too old to remember your 18 month old. I however remain impressed.

I’m cheating tonight because it’s late and I’m tired….but here’s our little guy showing off his super polite skills while enjoying his first tastes of hot chocolate! Ah the joys of firsts….