Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Help has arrived!

Big yawn.

We are so glad my sister has come! My grandpa got sick so my mom wasn't able to come, so it has been nice. Though GJ really just sleeps all of the time so we have mostly just rested and cleaned the house. Yesterday we watched the entire first season of The Office (does anyone have season 2?)
To my great surprise, she actually sleeps A LOT less than before.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Happy 2nd Birthday!!

SM turned 2 today! He is growing so big and is becoming a great big brother! We can't believe how quickly he has changed!

4 Days old















4 months















9 months















1 year














18 months
















2 years old with his brand new bike!

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Hermana

I still have not convinced my sister to start a blog, so I told her I would start putting up her pictures. Her son was born the day after SM, and her second was born 5 weeks before GJ. We love cousins! So cute! So I am thinking about chopping all of my hair off short like that (though I am not ready to go blond quite yet) Good idea, or not? I may need to wait till I have lost more baby weight.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Newborns


I just love newborns, they are so content and quiet and smell so nice. They just have that NEW feeling about them. So this is SM. Here is the link to GJ's hospital picture The code is 20133319. I think they are pretty similar looking but you be the judge. We have been able to get in some good naps so we are doing pretty good, though I can't say I love getting up in the middle of the night.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Brother's don't shake hands...

SM finally said YES when I asked if he wanted to hold the baby. He had just covered himself in spaghetti and was stripped down to the diaper, but I had to take advantage while I could, but yes, he is normally wearing clothes. He likes to pull GJ's socks off and look at the baby toes! Its cute, I think he is warming up a little. He did enjoy mom only time on the front porch swing this morning watching the tractor move dirt around the new house across the street. When I was finally bored, he stood on a chair and watched it out the window for an hour! I never knew you could like tractors so much. Too bad he will probably be out there all day and the chance of a peaceful nap are not looking good. GJ seems to be off by just 5 hours, he sleeps all morning and was up till 1am. Fun times ahead I am sure.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Fun at the Zoo

Today was very busy and lots of fun. I was hoping it would send me into labor, but no luck yet. My friend Claire and I made a sling for the new baby (okay, she did it all and I just watched and it turned out wonderful, THANKS!) We then had a fabulous time at the zoo with me, Jan and 4 kids! Double double strollers, I think we did remarkably well. It was SM's first time at the zoo, I am not sure what he had to think about it all. The baby panda was pretty cute though. I then finally picked up the bassinet (so now its real) and then it was calzone night, yummy! SM and a baby piggy (it gets over 200 lbs!) Pounding on a sheep, I am sure it loved that. Ethan wanted to get out of there at first, then didn't want to stop feeding the goat. Look, Ma!

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Waiting

So literally I am just hanging out waiting to have a baby. From working 40 hours a week to doing nothing but wait, its been quite a shock (I know, its hasn't even been two days). Tad and I went out to eat yesterday though and went and saw Pirates 3, which was long, but I liked it okay, but I think we both wished we had seen Spiderman. I am trying to convince him to take me on Thursday. SM and I put together the double stroller today, he had quite a fun time crawling in and out of it. Still not aware that someone will be sitting next to him all to soon. Why do only the ugliest clothes fit after 36 weeks? I think there is some kind of conspiracy. I need to go pick the bassinet up this week, but I am fighting it. For some reason, that one piece of furniture makes it all to real to me. There will be a baby sleeping in my room again. For who knows how long. There is so much to look forward too (like getting these feet so stop kicking my guts out) but also so much I know will be hard. I am such a fan of my bed and sleeping. I finally got a cute little Americana outfit for him to wear home from the hospital. I still need to finish his booties, so I better get back to organizing and preparing the house. If anyone knows of some good meals that FREEZE well, let me know, I am in desperate need.

Friday, June 8, 2007

The Effect of Fluid Shear Stress on Chondrocytes in Endochondral Ossification

Tad is doing his PhD proposal today and that is the title. I can't really answer any other questions about it. He practiced for me last night and I now have no doubt in my mind that he is smarter than me. In this field anyway. But the last month has been very hard as he has been so busy getting it ready and he has had very little sleep, so hopefully today it will all pay off. Whether it goes well or not though, I am just going to be glad its over! We have been waiting for this day for quite some time. We are hoping just two years more and he will be finished. If you are really interested, you can ask him more, but here is a random slide and some paragraphs I stole from his paper.

Figure 6. Inorganic Phosphate and 24, 25(OH)2D3 cause an apparent increase in the levels of collagen II production when compared to the untreated control on day 11 post confluence. This, therefore, confirms that the ATDC5 cells exhibited a chondrogenic phenotype. The negative control was not treated with the primary antibody as a control for possible nonspecific binding of the secondary antibody.






The overall goal of this project is to contribute to the understanding of how fluid shear stress effects the differentiation of chondrocytes in an endochondral ossification pathway. A better understanding in this area will contribute to the basic understanding of the growth plate and developmental biology, as well as potentially progress tissue engineering strategies that involve the growth plate, bone fracture callus healing[6], osteochondral plugs[7], or even developmental biology of joints[2]. This project will focus on the general hypothesis that fluid shear stress modulates the differentiation resting zone chondrocytes.

Significance of the proposed work

This work is significant because understanding how mechanical stresses influence processes of natural development such as endochondral ossification offers better enabling tools to further develop clinical therapies. An individual will regulate endochondral ossification throughout much of his or her lifespan. It begins in the embryo with skeletal formation but occurs naturally throughout adolescence in the long bone growth plates, and perhaps throughout life in secondary growth plates like the temporal-mandibular joint. It also is a process that is utilized for healing large bone fractures via development of a cartilaginous callus. Incidents joint and cartilage injury are rising among young athletes in increasingly competitive sports programs, but little is understood how this over-exertion may affect their active growth plates. On the other spectrum, some youth suffer from an overly sedentary lifestyle and perhaps the lack of exercising their musculoskeletal system could influence their growth plate activity. The proper loading of a fracture callus could help improve bone healing. Osteochondral tissue engineering implants may be enhanced by understanding how to promote mechanically stimulated differentiation of the chondrocytes near the subchondral interface, like those found naturally in the growth plate. This study will directly address some of the basic fundamental challenges of these areas where basic understanding is lacking. The proposed studies are worthwhile to offer future benefits to these varied applications.

So while he has been grueling over that, I have finally finished SM's scrapbook. I know, it only took me two years! At least its done before the new baby comes. If you want to see it, you can view the PDF at baby book and put in my project ID # of 248592.


Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Vans, sheds, and bellies

So we found a good deal and got a minivan. I had been searching craigslist for months and found this sweet baby. Its a 2001 Toyota Sienna and I love it. Mainly because there is so much room for my belly. It has a CD player and remote locks, which I have never had in a car before, so I feel very special. It also has a remote starter, which we had never used before till yesterday. I gave the keys to SM as we were walking into the house and he promptly started the car which I don't know how to turn off, so I set the alarm off, which I don't know how to turn off either. It was a very exciting 45 seconds. I found if you just push all the buttons though it turns off. Hopefully I won't need to do that again.

We had a very productive weekend, Grandpa came and got us a swingset for SM and the
new baby for their birthdays. We of course were unable to put it together as it came with no instructions. Grandpa tried to figure it out and we got a swing up, but I will have to switch a few poles around to finish. They finally emailed me the instructions, but that will probably wait till Aunt Lisa gets here to finish putting it up. You can see the shed in the back ground kind of. We just bought that from our friends who are moving and are very excited about the extra storage space and a place to put the lawn mower instead of crammed under the house.

And last but not least, we really haven't taken a lot of pictures of me, not that I really regret that, but here is one I took of my view down, I can see my toes still, so I can't be that big. Todavia, that is one big belly.