As you may recall, Carrie's cousin has had a pretty scary pregnancy with her twins. Well, some great news (and even more good news). They were born this weekend! Here's the scoop from the dad:

Sorry for the lack of any recent updates. Things had been going well so we took the superstitious (pitcher in the 9th inning of a no hitter) approach, thinking that if we didn’t talk about the boys - things would stay positive. Two huge positives happened yesterday, October 13th, at 7:22 and 7:24 pm as Connor Guillermo C******* and Calvin George C******* came into the world. The boys have the treat of sharing their birthday with my mom and their middle names with their grandfathers.

Christie’s water broke at 2:30am on Friday at home and she began to labor throughout the day at the hospital. The OBs did a wonderful job and helped Christie avoid a C-section and deliver both boys in just around an hour once it was go time. As she did during the whole pregnancy Christie did not complain one bit and did everything she had to do to bring the boys into the world. After they were born they were quickly handed off to the neonatologists in the OR and they were sent down to the NICU after they were stabilized in there.

We are very lucky that the twin to twin transfusion syndrome appears not to have progressed past Stage One. We did have some scares along the way that their condition had worsened (and subsequent trips to the hospital) but now that they are here, it appears that they don’t have some of the more severe side effects of the condition which is tremendous news. They will need to be checked for some of the ill effects of the syndrome that appeared to have started in utero but the Doctors are optimistic that there has not been any substantial irreversible damage to the boys or their organs.

Connor - the donor baby, aka Baby A - was born at 7:22. He is the older but smaller brother at 17in, 3 lbs 14 oz and Calvin - the recipient and the younger big brother, aka Baby B - was born at 7:24 at 19in, 4lbs 9 oz. I likened Connor to a full back leading the way for his brother as Calvin was delivered breach after his brother.

We feel incredibly fortunate that the boys wound up staying with their mommy for just over 32 weeks which gave them a head start far beyond what we could have hoped for when Christie originally started laboring at 24 weeks plus. Numbers wise 32 weeks is a big hurdle from a developmental standpoint.

Now that the boys have cleared their first pre-life hurdle they are off and running and fighting already. Like many preemies they are having difficulty breathing on their own. Calvin had to be intebated and has been given medication to help his lungs along. Connor is trying to breathe too fast and will probably have to go the same route as his brother. The doctors were also worried that Calvin might have an infection so they did a spinal tap. He didn’t squirm at all and appears to have learned a thing or two about pain thresholds from his mom. He was the baby who was batting at the amnio needle with his hands in utero so he must not be afraid of needles. Based on preliminary findings the docs are optimistic that it is not strep, pneumonia or meningitis. We still await the results from the lab.

We’ve been told that they could be in the NICU for at least 4-5 weeks or more so the boys will be moved to the new Prentice Hospital sometime next week. They Dr.s say the first couple days are the “honeymoon period” and you really figure out how things will go down the road after about 48 hours. We remain extremely positive but are mindful that there is a tough road in front of the boys. They are getting great care and are in the best place that they can possibly be.

As new parents we have, in just a few hours, experienced great joy in the boys joining us in the world; tremendous pain in watching them in a less than an ideal situation; incredible admiration for our boys’ who have already been a huge inspiration as they fight; but most of all an overwhelming feeling of love and thankfulness that they are ours and that they’ve given us the gift to help them fulfill their dreams and experience all that life has to offer. We continue the hope and faith that everything will continue to improve and turn out well in the long run.

And even more updates - here's what Katie (the new aunt) emailed us today:

Just to let you know a quick update on the boys.

Calvin is now breathing on his own now and Connor never had to be intubated!

Both of the little guys are doing really well. They are digesting some of the breast milk (feeding tubes still) and sucking on their pacifiers.

Christie gets to hold Calvin today!!!

Thanks for all the prayers.

Thank you to everyone who kept these boys in their thoughts.

Tags: family

CHICAGO'S RINGSIDE CLASSROOM

The rise and fall of boxing reminds us that no sport can take the public for granted. In an age where scandals in sports are occurring as frequently as events themselves, asking fans for forgiveness has become standard operating procedure for sports leagues, teams and stars. The recent trials and tribulations of Tank Johnson, Tim Donaghy and Michael Vick are only the latest examples of a long list of credibility problems that the sports world faces. Performance-enhancing drug scandals, criminal behavior, multimillion-dollar salaries, adulterous relationships and other issues are tainting, for some fans, the very spirit of what really matters -- the games themselves.

The article was written by my mom's cousin Irv, who is a professor at Northwestern. It's an interesting read.

Tags: family, sports

As you may recall, last week I posted about Carrie's cousin who is having some complications with her pregnancy. Here's the latest update from her husband:

For starters…thanks to everyone for all the positive thoughts, prayers and offers of assistance. We knew that we had a great support network before all of this but the love and support shown by our friends and family has been absolutely overwhelming and we are truly grateful and blessed. It’s hard to imagine how other families without the support and access to healthcare (that we don’t even have to think twice about) can cope with things of this nature.

On the update front…Things have been going pretty well so we’ve been reluctant to send any updates; akin to not talking to a pitcher working on a no hitter. While our boys were diagnosed with Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome (which can be very serious), their case at present seems to be pretty well in check and mild.

At a high level the syndrome causes one twin the “recipient” to get more fluid and blood flow from the “donor.” It can cause serious problems to development of the organs / babies and can have dire outcomes in the most serious of cases but again our guys look to only have stage 1 (of 4 stages) TTTS. The organs seem to be developing / maintaining normal function and a pediatric cardiologist said that their hearts seems to look normal as well. We were lucky in so much that it didn’t present until later in the pregnancy (week 24).

The worst outcome that we’ve seen so far is that the donor baby (baby B) takes fluid from baby A and the fluid pocket became much higher than normal on Baby B which seemed to be causing the early labor. To combat that the Dr.s have been doing amino reductions (4 in total so far) where they stick the fluid pocket with a needle and drain off amniotic fluid. They can be very painful as it causes contractions, but true to form Christie has toughed through each one for the benefit of the boys. At one point the Dr.s wanted to stop one due to the pain but she pressed on as it was showing some results. Again she’s been a great example of selflessness and sacrifice for the good of the lil’ guys, never once complaining or hesitating to do whatever she’s been asked of by the Drs. She has kept a positive attitude about her surroundings and I think her only gripe has been about the sizable debt that she’s rung up to me playing gin rummy.

The amino results have been successful as the fluid levels have seemed to become close to equal and contractions have slowed (especially the painful ones). We were actually released from the hospital today. We’ll have to check back in at the hospital a couple times a week for tests to make sure that nothing is regressing. We hit 27 weeks today which is a good thing. Every minute, hour and day inside mommy helps, so we are grateful for any extra “cookin’ time” that we can get.

Our next big milestones are the 28 weeks gestational date (next Tuesday) and then we’ll hope for 32! We have a growth check this week as well to determine if the boy’s sizes are getting disproportionate which would be a warning sign that the TTTS is more serious. While fluid is one of the symptoms of TTTS there are other things that need to be watched closely to ensure that the syndrome has not progressed. If one is growing more rapidly than the other it could show that the syndrome is more serious than the other things are showing.

As before, we remain very cautiously optimistic about the future!

Thanks again to everyone for their love and support. We truly are blessed to have you all in our lives. We’ve felt your strength through this all and we will continue to keep you updated on how things are going. For now, we are at home and Christie remains on bed rest.

Peace to all,

Kevin, Christie, Baby A and Baby B

Thanks to everyone for keeping them in your thoughts, and let's keep up the positive energy!

Tags: family

My cousin-in-law is pregnant with twin boys. This was very exciting news, and the entire family is super jazzed (there are very few boys on that side of the family, but I think everyone would be happy regardless).

About a week ago (25 weeks pregnant), she went into the hospital because she was having what seemed to be contractions. Long story short, she (and her babies) have been diagnosed with Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS). This is very serious stuff, and we're all really scared.

If you are a praying kind of person, please keep my cousin in your prayers. If you're not, please think nice thoughts anyway.

Tags: family

We had quite a few fun adventures this weekend...here's a brief recap.

Friday was initially intended to be a "chill at home and go to bed early" night. We walked down to Feed the Beast to have some dinner and then planned on heading home. Right before we left for dinner, however, I got an urgent voicemail from Ryan M in NYC - long story short, he was heading to Vegas for lordjulius's bachelor party, but he was going to be stuck in an overnight layover in Chicago. I told him he could stay at our house, and that I'd pick him up from the airport.

I picked Ryan up at about 11 PM or so, and we heading back to the Square. We sat on the balcony drinking beers and chatting until about 2 am, when we hit the hay. He was off to ORD at 5:30 AM or so. It was pretty cool to see him, since it's been quite a time, and well worth the late night.

On Saturday, Carrie and I got up early and headed down to Kankakee to do a canoe trip. It's a little over an hour long drive down there, so we planned to just do a day trip. We made a reservation for the 10:30 trip, which was 12 miles long. The website said it took between 4-6 hours, so we thought okay, we'll be done around 4 or 5, and be home by six.

We got to the river around 11 (they have to drive you from the outfitter to the put-in point), so we were in the water and off by then. Since we were a group of one canoe, we were the first ones of the 10:30 trip to be on our way (all the other groups had to get their beer organized, etc). We also booked like hell when we started, so we could put some distance between us and the large groups behind.

We did a pretty good job of working together, given that we'd never canoed together before. We did discover that we were more efficient with me in the rear and Carrie in the front. Anyway, they had told us that when we passed the first bridge, we were halfway. When we went under that bridge, I asked Carrie what time it was.

"12:30," she replied.

So yeah, we were halfway through the 6 hour trip in an hour and a half.

By the time we finished (which included a couple instances of pulling over at sandbars to get in the water and cool off), it was about 2:30 PM or so. All said and done, we did the trip in about 3 1/2 hours. We were back at the outfitters by 3 PM, and got home a little before 5 (we stopped for Dairy Queen on the way home).

It was a pretty fun trip. We're hoping to see if we can do it again this summer and maybe get some other folks to join us.

Saturday night we spent hanging out in the yard with our neighbors and Brian, who came to hang out to have a baby-free night. It was a good, chill night.

On Sunday we went to church in the morning, and then drove out to Yorktown to see Hairspray, which was a really fun movie. After the flick we went to my mom's house for dinner, looked at wedding pictures, saw my sister before she heads back to school, and then headed home.

Good weekend. I liked it.

Tags: canoeing, family, movies

If you want to add our "family blog" to your LJ friends list, just add strattonfamily.

(ps, the only reason this is friends-locked is so that it doesn't show up in my RSS feeds, which would be annoying)

Tags: family, lj

My cousin David (who is currently attending Oberlin) is some kind of magical violin genius. Anyway, I just got this email from my aunt, so if you dig on the stringy strings, you might want to check this out.

Through this coming Friday, you can hear David performing Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen via the Internet. There is a weekly Danish radio program called “Folk & Musik” that airs every Saturday morning, and you can always hear the latest broadcast at: http://www.dr.dk/P2/folkogmusik/20051130134023.htm by selecting ”Senest Folk & Musik” (under the section called “Lyt til P2” at the right).

This broadcast is from a concert of the finalist from a competition here in Denmark. The program today included half of the finalists - David is the second of the four to perform.

Besides David there is a 16 year old bassoonist (one of Daniel’s buddies from Tivoligard, and member of his newly started wind quintet), a 14-15 year old cellist (a friend of ours – his brother is a violinist and one of David’s good buddies – and they have an American father), and a 19-20 year old trumpetist.

I still cannot believe that David chose to play the Sarastate. When he performed for the actual competition a couple of hours before, he played something completely different (Carl Nielsen’s Violin Concerto – introduction only, because they were restricted to a short time) – and he had not performed the Sarasate since last summer. He used something like 2 x 20 minutes to try to get it pulled back to shape.

Anyway, if you’re interested, go to the program and scroll to around ¼ of the way through once it gets going. He comes on just after the bassoon finishes.

For the record, "Daniel" is my other cousin (David's younger brother) who is also super musically talented.

Tags: family, music

My mom just sent me an email that Brayden Jacob Andersen was born this morning. He shares his birthday with Larry Bird, Tom Waits, and, perhaps greatest of all, Matt Stratton.

He is the son of my mom's cousin's daughter. I have no idea what that makes him to me. Can someone tell me the technical term for that relationship?

Tags: birthday, family

x-posted from Vox

Wow, I have not updated this old bloggy blog in a while. For that, I apologize.

I've been off of work this entire week. Carrie as well - last Friday was her last day as a teacher, and she starts her new job at Morgan Stanley on Monday. So we had a week of leisure. It was glorious.

Friday night was a pre-Thanksgiving feast Kevin and scrapplequeen's house - some great food, and good times with the whole crew. We ate pie and watched Trapper teach Julia how to play Gears of War. Then Ray killed a bunch of zombies with a plastic sword while running around with a teddy bear mask on. Seriously.

The weekend was spent up in Holland, Michigan, visiting Angie and Brian and checking out their new house. It was pretty cool, even though it reminded Carrie of her grandparents' house. Probably the coolest thing was that in his office,Brian has a cardboard robot named Cheez-Threepio. Do you have a Cheezit robot? Of course you don't. It's okay to be jealous.

It's a shame that Brian and Angie don't live closer - Brian and I are kindred spirits in nerdary. While Angie and Carrie talked about wedding plans, Brian and I had a long, in-depth conversation about our disk strategy for Time Machine in Leopard. I have some more cool pictures from the weekend, which you can check out here.

On Sunday, Carrie and I went for a hike in some kind of forest preserve in Holland - the Sanctuary Woods or something. It was a beautiful morning for a hike, and I got some good pictures of squirrels.

After the hike, we headed back towards home, although we had a stopover in Michigan City to hit the outlet malls. I got a present for Carrie, and she picked up some items as well. During our drive, we came up with a contest, which I will be reporting on - we have set weight loss goals for each of us between now (well, last Monday) and Christmas Day. If a goal is attained, then the person who attained it gets to be taken out on a date by the other person, but the date must be completely geared towards the attainer. So far we've been doing pretty well.

Monday I hit my new gym, and really liked it. I don't know what was up with all the people posting about how the Crunch on Orleans is "dirty" or whatever - it seems to be in fine shape to me, and the people are super nice. I did over-do it on the weights though, and my right shoulder has been giving me problems ever since Monday night. But it's slowly getting better.

On Tuesday we did a little rehearsal dinner sampling at Costa's in Greektown - and I think we've decided against Greek for the event, just because we're not so sure that most of the guests will enjoy it.

Wednesday night we drove out to the suburbs to have dinner with my family. Traffic was awful - it took us two hours to get to Villa Park from the city. Ick. We had a lovely dinner at Anyways, and talked about honeymoon plans, real estate, and Tom Waits. Good times.

For the Turkey Day of Turkey Days, Carrie and I met up with her family at her Aunt Rosemary's house in Deerfield. Before heading out there, though, we went to church (Carrie was lecturing - I think that's how you spell it - and it was actually a pretty nice service), and then I hit the gym. I wanted to walk around all afternoon with a button that said "I ran two miles today", so that nobody would give me any crap about my portions, but I didn't have time to make one.

Dinner was good. It was nice to spend the holiday with an extended family - although Carrie's cousins crack me up - they all flop all over each other on the couch. It's hard to explain. But still pretty funny. Scout had a blast - he ran around the yard with their collie, Buddy, for almost five hours straight. That is what I call a cardio workout. Seriously, that dog is nuts.

Carrie and I tried to teach her ten year old cousin Caitlin how to swing dance, which was kind of fun. My favorite part was when I was dancing with her, and she kept saying "No, you have to turn me now", etc. I informed her "Caitlin, I'm leading. You have to follow what I'm doing!" I don't think she liked that idea.

We spent the night at Carrie's parents' house in Wheaton in anticipation of Black Friday. We figured that there would be less craziness at stores in a posh suburb than at the Target in the city. And we were right. We got to Target about three minutes before they opened - we took this time to stock up on our own McDonald's breakfast (Carrie rocked the McGriddle, and I kicked it old-school with an Egg McMuffin). There were about 40 people in line at Target, but when we got there the doors were just opening, so we were inside by 6:01. Carrie walked up to the electronics counter, and asked for the camera we were buying for ourselves (her current camera's battery is being held in with tape). After that, we leisurely strolled the store, and were 2nd in line when we checked out.

We hit Kohl's afterwards - it was almost 7 am by then, so we did not witness the madness that Angie described. The place looked fairly picked-over, but we got some good deals on Fisher Price toys, and waited in a line of about three people to check out.

The only long lines we saw were at Carson's - we went to the mall to check out JC Penny, and went into Carson's to use the bathroom. Every register there had at least 40 people in line to check out - I told Carrie to not even bother looking at any merchandise there :) Apparently they had some kind of computer issue with their POS, so checkout was running super slowly.

Last night we went to Wishbone to check it out for the rehearsal dinner. The food was, of course, amazing - but they don't have a private room, which concerned Carrie. I am going to call the north side location on Monday though - they have a private room, although it's not as close to the church as the downtown location is. All this planning is making my head spin.

Tags: black friday, family, holidays, thanksgiving

Carrie's sister just had her baby. Six pounds or so of little girl. I haven't heard the name yet, but I understand it will be either Amanda or Caitlyn.

Update: The name is Katelyn Rebecca.

Tags: family

...wake up in the late afternoon. Call Parnell...

Sorry. Got off on a bit of a tangent there.

Carrie and I had a pretty good Easter. We started off by taking Scout to the park to run off some of his energy. Then, it was off to Old St. Pat's for the 11:15 Mass. Carrie was lecturing in the "hall", which basically meant "the basement". Still, it was a good service, and, as always, interesting.

After Mass, we jumped on the Eisenhower to head out to Homestead Flechter for Easter dinner. Despite my spillage of red wine on the tablecloth (totally Carrie's fault), everything went smoothly. Scout was a royal pain in the ass, but I guess he's just trying to make the most of his last few weeks of puppyhood.

Easter 2006 Photos

Tags: family, holidays

My little sister fashionarcade is currently spending the semester in Verona, Italy. She got there last week, and here's the latest email from her:

Hey everyone!!! First I want to apologize for not being able
to write all of you back, or at least not extensively! But I
do really appreciate all of the replies and emails I have
been receiving. They all make me smile, and remind me of why
I miss all of you so much (awwww)!! Oh, and thanks for all
of the scccccandalous emials I've been receiving from
*cough* a few of you....dot dot dot

I know it's obnoxiously expensive/impossible to call me, and
most of you aren't up at 7:30 or 8AM when I am online...But,
my cell phone number is *************** and i beleive the country
code is 39 so you dial something like 039***********. I won't
be hurt if you can't, I understand.

The Olympic torch passed throw Verona last night...? Pretty
exciting stuff.

Anyways, all in all the whole Verona group is awesome. One
of the girls is going home tomorrow. I am really suprised
because she went to Sicily over the summer (with Joyce :)),
but it really is a HUGE change.

I definitely took a cribs tour in pictures of my apartment,
but this effing computer can't handle anything. I'll let you
all know when I finally figure it out. Thanks for all the
love.

I love all of you!!!

Debbie

Tags: debbie, family
Current Mood: anxious

Got this email just now from my mom. Some of you may remember me talking about my grandpa during the Cubs playoff run in 2003 (that is, I talked about him them...he wasn't alive at the time).

Dear Matt, Becky, Debbie, David, Daniel, Anya and Chaya,

Today would have been your grandfather's 84th birthday, so if you find yourself feeling a warm glow inside maybe it's because you are thinking of him.

One of the few things in life that saddens me is that perhaps Matt is his only grandchild to have seen a little of who he really was. But, if you ever find yourself cheering for the "underdog", that's his influence. If you ever find yourself volunteering to help an organization just because the help is needed and with no expectation or desire for applause or grandeur, that's him, too. If you find yourself turning off lights to save money on the electricity, blame him also.

He had many sayings that, while I can't recall many now, come to me at the appropriate time. But, when you find yourself "trusting him/her as far as I can throw an elephant" or thinking that "there is a place for everything and everything in its place", know that it's just him. However, the one that we heard often (and now I find myself trying to live by) is that "actions speak louder than words."

Perhaps his greatest legacy should be the lesson of determination. He could be accused of being stubborn (and I remember his parents arguing over which one of them came from the more stubborn family so I guess he was doomed) but in his case it was manifested in his determination. His was a determination to overcome whatever obstacle was in his path--the final one being Parkinson's. Not long before he died, he was at our house doing what he could for exercises and I overheard him telling Becky and/or Debbie that "if they ever come up with a cure for this thing, I'm going to ready".

So, Happy Birthday, Grandpa. Some of us can remember that on our birthdays, he would call and greet us with his "Irish tenor" rendition of the birthday song, so maybe sing to him today.

With love,

Mom/Aunt Phyllis

Tags: family

So today was the "December holiday gift exchange stuff" at my mom's house. My friend Darlyn came with me, because she couldn't go home to her family out of town.

It was a nice day. My mom made lasagna, and Darlyn brought a yummy cobbler. I got a Postal Service CD from my hipster sister, an Avril CD from the other sister, and a couple of books (newest Sedaris and one about sound design), a poker desk calendar, and The Big Lebowski from my mom and stepdad.

Afterwards, we met Brian and Tracy to see Lemony Snicket. A bunch of other folks were a-pposed to meet up with us (which is why we changed the time to go in the evening instead of earlier in the day), but they all cancelled I guess. Either way, it was a fun xmasukah.

Tags: family

My sister just sent me this picture from my 30th birthday.

Left to right - my sister Debbie, me, my sister Becky, and my cousin David.

Tags: birthday, family, pictures

My mom just told me about this one...famous ancestor:

Bogorad's syndrome: Named after the Russian neuropathologist who described the syndrome of crocodile tears.

Tags: family

I love Thanksgiving.

My mom did a pretty passable job of the cooking today. My grandmother has moved to Florida, so we are no longer treated to her fantastic Thanksgiving spread.

Other coolness - my cousin David (from Denmark) is actually at Oberlin in the Music Conservatory these days. He came to Chicago for the weekend and spent Thanksgiving with us. This is cool because the last time I saw David I think he was like...um...ten or eleven. He's 18 now and pretty cool.

Overall, a pretty good Thanksgiving, but I was happy to go home. 24 hours with my family is about all I can handle with everyone being able to stay friends.

We also did my "birthday" stuff tonight. My mom made a carrot cake at my request (I don't know why; carrot cake just sounded good). Debbie gave me the Garden State soundtrack. And my mom and stepdad gave me a couple of books.

But now I am home. Hurrah.

Tags: family

So my little sister Debbie graduated from high school today...



( Some more pictures! )

Tags: family
Current Mood: hopeful

My mother just emailed me my sister's satirical English essay (I guess they're doing Swift right now). I thought it was pretty funny.

( We Have Met the Enemy, and He is Food )

Tags: family, funny
Current Mood: amused

Last night was really fun.

First, my family came into the city so we could take my mom out for her birthday. We went to Barnum and Bagels in Skokie - which creeped my sister out because of all the clowns, apparently. Then the fam came back to my house to provide me with care packages and a trash can, and toe check out the new pad. I think they approve.

After that, Tracy called me and invited me out to a movie with her and Chris. We went to see The Quiet American. Which was really pretty good. Afterwards, we went to Parrots to discuss the flick and then we talked for a couple hours about ideas for Inventing: Stephen. It was such a great movie night. And I really really REALLY enjoying discussing The Quiet American with them; it was so much fun and so stimulating to have that discussion. I miss it.

I'm jealous of them; they go see a LOT of movies together (I could tell, because Tracy could identify the Fandango commercial before we entered the theater, and was singing along with it). I need a girlfriend who is into movies.

m.

Tags: family, movies