Bryce's RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus)

We had some bad news today that Bryce has RSV and now he's in the hospital. Apparently it's a lot like the common cold but hits little babies a little harder. Sydney has been sick since last Thursday with a running nose, cough, and occasional fever but hasn't really acted sick. She gave it to Melissa who had headaches, sore throat and fevers for a few days. Bryce started getting sick on Sunday or Monday with coughing and sneezing. He's also been burping up his breast milk a lot lately. Tuesday night he really scared us because he was about to puke up his milk and then stopped breathing. Melissa laid him down and gave him a quick breath and he puked up his milk and started breathing again. So we took him into the doctor Wednesday and his blood oxygen level was only 85% when you're supposed to be in the upper 90s. Melissa asked about the breathing thing and the doctor said he probably would have puked it up on his own and in the future to tip him over and slap his back. He sent us home and said to come back tomorrow if he was any worse. Wednesday was bad again with lots of coughing and spitting up so Thursday (today) he was admitted to Avista Hospital. They suctioned his nose which helped and now have put him on oxygen to help him breath better. The doctor said we'll probably be there through the weekend. It's not how we were hoping to spend our weekend, especially since it's supposed to be mid 60s here and sunny. Please keep Bryce in your prayers for a quick recovery.

Bryce's Birth Announcement

Bryce's Birth Announcement, originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas.

This is the picture we used for Bryce's birth announcement. So if you didn't get an actual announcement letter from us this is what you missed!

Oma & Opa & their Grandchildren

Oma & Opa & their Grandchildren, originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas.

This picture was taken when Oma and Opa came out to see Bryce for the first time. If you look close enough you can see that Sydney is wearing her Iowa State dress. Go Cyclones! They were out here the first weekend in March and I'm just now getting pictures out. It was fun to see them as always. Sydney enjoyed the undivided attention from them and Melissa when Bryce was being held by the other. Whenever the grandparents are here it's always "Grandma take me to the bathroom!" or "Oma change my clothes!" Of course that's fine with Melissa and I. We even managed to sneak out and have dinner together while Oma and Opa were here although Bryce did get to come. We'll see them again in early June before they leave for Kenya to visit Brian and Katie.

Grandpa Hummel

Denise, Grandpa Hummel, Sydney & Bryce, originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas.

Melissa's dad Sandy came to visit us and see baby Bryce. He drove out from Pittsburgh and arrived March 1st. We immediately went out to Old Chicago for a great meal. Friday Denise flew out and saw our house for the first time. I went skiing Saturday with Nathan and Shelby Fuerst as they were out here on vacation.

I came back just in time to get ready for dinner at the Boulder Flagstaff House in the foothills above Boulder. Melissa's dad took us and another couple out and it is probably the nicest restaurant I have ever eaten at. First of all they have complimentary valet parking and our Expedition was parked amongst the Mercedes and BMWs. We had to take Bryce along since he feeds so often but Sydney definitely stayed home with a baby sitter. Luckily Bryce behaved because it was not the place to take a crabby baby. I could pronounce most things on the menu and really didn't have a clue what my meal was going to look like. The menu was all al-la-cart of course and ran from the $250 caviar appetiser to the $108 Kobe beef meal. It wasn't all that bad because I had a seafood dish for $30 and Melissa had prime rib for $44. Every time they brought out a course it was 3 people setting the plates down all at once, and then they would come back and pick them up all at once. They would also bring out various things complements of the chef which were also good. Melissa and I joked that next time we're just going to split a salad and bank on the chef's compliments. I don't even want to know what the bill was considering we all had wine and most had salad and dessert. It's definitely a great place to eat and the views are awesome overlooking all of Boulder.

Bryce and Sydney

Bryce and Sydney, originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas.

Sydney is getting along well with her little brother. She always wants to pick him up and hold him but she doesn't really know how yet. We prop her up with pillows under her arms so he can basically sit in her lap. She's slapped him on the chest once and then stared at us to see what we'd do. Melissa had her in a timeout so fast her head spun! So far it seems to have worked because she hasn't done anything like that again.

I just posted a dozen pictures to Flickr so click on this picture to check them all out.

Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions Essay

I found a really cool essay about the Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions. They relate the movies to elements of the biblical Genesis story. The main theme I found really interesting is this: God created everything including the serpent. He also gave mankind curiosity and modeled them after his own image. Plus since he is all knowing he basically set up mankind for the fall. This is modeled in the Matrix as Neo chosing the Red Pill, leaving the Matrix (the Garden of Eden), and entering the real world. Later Neo chooses Trinity over the salvation of Zion. He does this will the full knowledge of that choice. The author manages to relate this to humanity truely choosing our salvation in Jesus Christ. This is a better choice than simply loving God in Eden because we would have done so without the full knowledge of good and evil. You really have to read the article to get everything out of it. Obviously I should re-read it because I'm not describing it very well!

Bryce's First Doctor Appointment

Bryce visited the doctor Monday and received a good bill of health. He was 7lbs which is good because it's more than his weight leaving the hospital. He's sleeping a lot and we struggle to get him to stay awake after feeding. We're using elements of the BabyWise technique like we did with Sydney. Wow I just put BabyWise in Google and man are there a lot of negative articles. We don't really follow the strict scheduling (which seems to be the source of all the outcry) but try to follow the "Eat, Wake, Sleep" method. What's funny is that our pediatrician is Robert Bucknam who co-authored the book. He doesn't push the book or the technique and I'm sure he's aware of the criticism. His advice during the checkup was to try to keep Bryce awake during the feedings which is really difficult right now. All he wants to do is sleep! I remember this same behavior with Sydney and by the third week she had woken up and was colicly all night. Hopefully we'll avoid that with Bryce. So far he seems much more mellow than Sydney.

Today was the day we were scheduled to be induced. Bryce obviously wasn't waiting for that!

Grandma Jayne's Visit

IMG_3998.JPG, originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas.

Grandma Jayne arrived with Jerry on Wednesday night. They left this morning but we sure enjoyed having them. This picture was taken of Grandma with all her grandchildren on our couch. I've also uploaded more pictures from the hospital and from home.

Everyone is doing fine and Bryce is eating, sleeping, pooping, and peeing well. Having a boy is definitely a different experience for us already. Let's just say we've all gotten a little wet during the diaper changes! I'm going to stay home Monday to help out and take Bryce to his first pediatrician appointment. It's supposed to be 60 in Denver Monday so it will be a nice day to take off.

Sydney is still adjusting to being a big sister. She's had a few accidents lately so it appears she's regressing on the potty training. Hopefully she'll get that turned around but from what we've heard, it's going to be a long couple of a weeks ahead!

It's a boy!

IMG_3940.JPG, originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas.

Melissa woke me up Monday morning at 4:30 saying that she might be in labor. Her contractions were less than 5 minutes so we called the hospital for advice. They said to shower off and then come on in. So we both showered and got ready but by then the contractions had let up a bit. I went back asleep and woke up at 8 with Sydney. Melissa had been up the whole time and decided to go downstairs to dust and clean up a little bit. Yes, Melissa was dusting the house while in labor! We then ate breakfast and headed to the hospital with Sydney in tow. They checked us into triage to see if this was the real thing. At noon Melissa was at 4cm dilated and was still getting pretty regular contractions so they admitted us into a real room. The doctor came by about 1:30 and decided to speed things up a bit so he broke her water. About the same time Katie came to pick up Sydney and took her to Aiden's house where she took a nice long nap. Meanwhile back at the hospital things were progressing quite rapidly. Sometime after 3 the nurse said Melissa was at 9cm so she went to get the doctor. He showed up and Melissa really started pushing at 3:30. By 3:52 after three pushes we had a baby boy! His name is Bryce Patrick Thomas and he is 7lb 3oz and 20.5in long. He has sandy brown hair and looks a lot like Melissa's baby pictures. Katie, Glen, Aiden, and Sydney showed up around 7 so Sydney could meet her new brother. Sydney and I even got to watch Bryce get his first bath. Sydney and I finally came home at 10 and she finally fell asleep at 10:45. We headed back over to the hospital today and now I'm back at home for Sydney's nap time. Melissa and Bryce will stay another night and we'll all come home Wednesday morning. Jayne and Jerry are coming out Wednesday so we'll have a little help through the weekend. Click on the picture to see the rest of the photos posted on flickr.

Bathroom waincoat

This is the before picture of our downstairs bathroom. I've already started the demolition work of removing the baseboards.










This is my baseboard removal technique. I took the widest chisel I had and used it to pry away the baseboards. This worked pretty well because I was able to pound the chisel down behind the board without damaging it before prying the board away from the wall. The idea is to reuse the baseboards as much as possible.







The chair rail for the wainscoating was not a cap rail which looks like an upside down L. I decided against the cap chair rail because of how thin and uninteresting it was. At least the one style that our local Home Depot had was thin and uninteresting. So instead I got the only other chair rail they had. The problem was the bottom detail work of the chair rail was not wide enough to sit over the wainscoat. So I used my table saw to rip off this bottom detail. The picture shows the modified chair rail on the left and the original on the right. One disadvantage to using this chair rail rather than a cap rail is it doesn't hold down the top of the panels so you really need to nail the panels to the studs. It also doesn't allow you to hide the top nail holes under the cap.

The next step was to install this chair rail all around the bathroom. This is the method described to me by the Home Depot guy. "Whacha wanna do is snap a chalk line around and then hang your panels. Then slap the baseboard on the bottom." Well I didn't snap a chalk line because my room was so small. I just used a level and it worked out pretty well. Note if you do decide to snap a chalk line be very careful with the chalk. Only after I used this method in our baby's room upstairs (over the carpet) did I notice that chalk is made out of industrial strength dye that doesn't come out! Another tip is if you use a chair rail with bumps and reliefs like mine, nail it under one of the reliefs so the nail holes are in the shadow when the overhead light is on.

I bought adhesive (Liquid Nails) and applied it to the waincoat panels. Home Depot sells these big panels that you just cut to fit around all your obstacles. It was pretty easy in the bathroom because I didn't have any outlets to worry about. It was a little harder in the baby's room upstairs with the outlets and window sill to cut around. I don't really know how much the adhesive does for you because I think you still really need to nail it up with finishing nails. Try to find all the available studs because it makes it stick a whole lot better!




I cut a few strips of wainscoating out of my scrap to put under the panels. I did this just to support my baseboards when I nailed them to the waincoat panels. One probably obvious tip is to nail the bottom of the panel as far down as you can so hopefully the baseboard will cover the nail hole. That's just one less nail hole you have to fill. I had to trim my baseboards a little to account for the depth of the panels but otherwise they were totally reused. I just snipped off the existing nails rather than pounding them though the front creating all kinds of holes.

The worst part of the whole thing is fill the gaps and nail holes. I used regular paintable caulk and went to work on the whole thing. The Home Depot guy said that pros usually fill the nail holes with drywall spackle but if you aren't doing any drywall then you probably don't have spackle lying around. I found that caulk works ok although you can see the holes if you look.






Here is the painted finished product with the toilet and toilet paper reinstalled. It really lightens up the room which as you can tell was painted in a really dark blue. I hope everyone who uses this room has time to sit and enjoy it! :-)