Little Boy Blue

Yesterday, we welcomed Liam Paul Corradino to our family at 5:43 a.m.  He weighed 8lb 7oz and was 21 inches long.  We love our little guy!!!  He is absolutely perfect in every way.

He had a complication that the nurses noticed when they took him to the nursery right out of Labor and Delivery and gave him a pacifier; Liam started to turn "dusky," a.k.a., Blue!  He was taken down to the NICU right away for an x-ray.  Turns out, Liam had a lung condition called pneumothorax, where the lung becomes detached from the pleural lining which keeps it inflated.  Needless to say, it was a very emotional day for this new momma and papa!  It took a LOT of hard work to get him here and we had big plans to do some major snuggling with our little guy.  The best solution for pneumothorax is for baby to be calm and restful so his body can heal.  We could go stare at how perfect he was, but our physical touch was limited so we wouldn't disturb or upset him.

This morning we received great news!  His collapsed lung is almost completely healed and only a sliver of the pneumothorax remained.  We're incredibly thankful to the NICU for all of the amazing care they have given Liam, and to our friends and family who have been praying for his swift recovery.  He's getting better with every moment, so we're looking forward to getting to take him home with us soon.   Today we could snuggle with him and love on him and feed him ourselves.  It is truly amazing how much love we feel for our little guy.  

Update:  So, we just got back from Liam's nightly routine in the NICU, and they took him off of the air pump!  WOOHOO!!!!!  All of his stats are where they need to be without the extra lung support, so they'll observe him for the next day and make sure he's keeping those stats nice and high so he can come home with us!  (or shortly thereafter)  He's doing soooooo well!

We love you, Liam!!!

Royal Wedding Bliss!

OMGeeeeeeee!!!!  Did you watch the royal wedding???  I watched it last night, and it was so beautiful!  My friend, C., dvr'ed it and we watched all of the lead- up, the ceremony, parade, and balcony kisses with some buddies.


I know in some folks' book, the royal wedding was a silly tradition, but the look of happiness in Kate Middleton's face was priceless.  Everything about her was gorgeous, and she carried herself with such poise and beauty that it was worth every moment to watch and see those moments.


The Rutter Anthem, This is the Day, is beautiful beyond words; a perfect piece for such a gorgeous event.  Way to go, Papa Charles on all of the music choices!


My favorite part of the day was definitely the page boys and the royal attendants.  :)  They were so cute!  It's just adorable to see them now because I know we'll see so much more of them in the future.


Alright, I'm back to the TLC coverage of the Behind the Scenes! It's so fun!  :-D

Your Life's Soundtrack:

So here's how it works...

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)

2. Put it on shuffle

3. Press play

4. For the first question, type the song that's playing

5. When you go to a new question, press the next button TWICE

6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool...just type it in!

7. Feel a little embarrassed? Join the club.

Opening Credits:

            FireFlies-Owl City

Waking Up:

            Celebration-Kool &The Gang

First Day at School:

            Circus-Britney Spears (Ha!)

Falling in Love:

            Surfin' USA-Beach Boys 

Losing Virginity:

            Rockin' Robin  (???)

Fight Song:

            Say Hey! (I love You)-Michael Franti

Breaking Up:

            Love Story-Taylor Swift

Prom:

            SomeBody to Love-Justin Beiber

Life:

            Hoedown Throwdown-Miley Cyrus

Mental Breakdown:

            Only Girl (in the world) Rhianna

Driving:

            Hound Dog-Elvis

Flashback: 

            Music Makes You Lose Control

Getting Back Together:

            Pump up the Jam-Technotronic

Wedding:

            No Matter What-T.I.  

Birth of Child:

            Brown Eyed Girl-Van Morrison (Awwww!)

Final Battle:

            That's the way (I like it) K.C. and the Sunshine Band

Death Scene:

            Please Remember-Leanne Rhimes

Funeral Song:

            Since U Been Gone-Kelly Clarkson

End Credits:

              Jump-Kris Kross

Fun stuff!  ooooh wait.  I totally didn't follow the directions.  I only pressed the forward button once.  Oops!  

Long days

The past few days have seemed extraordinarily long.  My students finished up standardized testing today, and maybe that out-of-the ordinary routine is what made the past few days so strange-feeling.  
I need a hobby...or maybe a new book...or a new friend to hang out with and get to know.
Comet has gotten a little bit chunkier since we moved and got fat and happy.  It's funny to me that I see how my own lethargy is transferred to my pup.  I described my current physical state to a former coworker as "stagnant."  Bleh.  I need a burst to get up and off my bum and out in some running clothes.  I think I need my batteries changed!


Alrighty, now that I have some whining out of my system, let me do something that I always enjoy reading when my friend HG writes.


5 Thankful Things
1.  My boss.  She is always thinking of people other than herself, and to me that is a marvelous example.
2.  Easter.
3.  My phone.  Especially the calendar app!
4.  My students that help me see growth in every aspect of life at every moment of every day.
5.  Music.  I forget the joy that I feel when I surround myself with music and the thrill of performances.  From the silly songs that get my kids up and moving to to more sombre music that cools me down.  It's amazing to think of the brainpower that went into the composition, and the effect that a sound has on a person.

Sorry February!

February went by quickly.  I promised I would write in my blog, but now that I'm getting around to it the month has changed and it's March. 


I feel that February was quite productive, though.  I started my gardening last weekend! I worked myself silly in the yard raking the junipers, digging out little pine trees, pulling weeds, and planting all seeds for the season.  It's been quite a while since I've started plants from seeds successfully, but it's time to try again.  Hopefully my thumb will remember its greeness from previous years, and these plants will fill our sad, barren hill with lovely blooms!  When I was a kid, my dad would go nuts when I planted things.  He is so meticulous about plants.  He would buy the whole starter kit, a green house system, the correct soils, and start his plants in planters before he planted them in the ground.  I would take packets of seeds into the backyard, dig holes, spread them all around, water them once, and leave them alone.  Dad's plants wouldn't make it and my plants would thrive.  Hopefully this method of neglect will work on these seedlings.  haha. 


I'm sooooooo ready for it to be Spring!  We've had a lovely couple of weekends recently, and I hope the weather doesn't get cold again.  I still have a couple of packets of herbs to plant, but I haven't visualized where the herbs will go in the yard.  I would love to get a fence put up and picture things from there, but for now, I'm just confused.  The hill in our yard is full sun, but without a fence I think our neighbors might think it strange if we plant beans and tomatoes and onions on it.  :::sigh:::


This past week, I met up with my sisters and parents in Savannah.  It was super fun! It was a jam packed two days of driving, shopping, EATING, and hanging out. 


Alrighty, I hope to post more in March!

No thank you, Zip-line!

I just this moment developed a fear of zip lining.  I saw a picture of one of my friends from high school about to jump onto the zip-line, and it stuck fear to my very core at the prospect of jumping, snapping the cord, and dying.


The 10:00 shindig at the school is going well.  It makes my day seem like it's over before it's even begun, and I get to enjoy a nice big cup of coffee before going in.  Also, I'm working through my egg/tomato/cheese combination breakfasts like there is no tomorrow.  Because they seem so repetitive I'm not going to bother with posting pictures of them, but I will explain my variations on a theme because they go so perfectly together.


Egg/tomato/cheese breakfasts:
1.  See previous post of eggs topped with bacon, onions, and goat cheese and a side of roasted tomato.  Oh, my!  Delicious.
2.  Scrambled eggs with cottage cheese, fresh bread toast, and sliced tomato.  A classic.  Super fast and easy.
3.  Egg burrito with scrambled eggs with Colby Jack cheese, sauteed peppers and onions, Queso fresco, sour cream and cilantro and (the tomato) salsa!  Ai! Ai! Ai!
4.  um...That's about all I can think of right now.  Let me know if you have a great egg/tomato/cheese breakfast suggestion and I'll be on it like white on rice!


I want to attempt a souffle since Timothy picked up an 18 pack of eggs and I think I have enough to make one.   Problem.  Tim hates eggs.  :-/  so, I need to make a small one.  My favorite quick breakfast out is currently Panera Bread's bacon spinach and cheese souffle.  (No tomato, but I think I'll be okay.)  I think I'll try that in a mini portion since I'm not a fan of reheated eggs.  Bleh!


Yoga update!
I did check in with the Yoga place, and they're going to do a beginners class starting in February.  I am basically in charge of recruiting people to come to the class because they only had one person interested.  So far I've recruited my bud CA, and I'm working on my 2 coworkers.  I'm joining the gym because it's cheaper than paying to attend 2 classes a week, and I get unlimited gym access and unlimited classes.   Hollah!  And!, it's not required to take the beginners course to go to the other classes, it's just suggested.
Hopefully next time I'll have an *actual* yoga class to report about!  :-D

Another way to spend a Snow Day.

This is in the oven right now.  It's going to be huge.  Literally.  The batter came up to the top of the mixing whisk in the mixer.  I've never made a cake from scratch before, but this morning was the day to do it.  I woke up, made my coffee, and sat down only to be overcome with such an overwhelming urge to make something deliciously rich and chocolaty that it had to be taken care of immediately.   Much to my surprise, I already had everything I needed to make this recipe, with the exception of buttermilk.  for the 1 & 1/2 cup of buttermilk in the recipe I substituted 1 cup of sour cream and a 1/2 cup of Half and Half.  It seems to be a pretty close substitute and there was no way I was about to go up the winding uphill road that is completely iced over to go to the grocery store.


I made the chicken and potatoes I mentioned in my previous post last night.  MMMM!  Good!  (I didn't tell Tim that there was mayo in the mix because he would immediately develop an aversion to it...and without that knowledge, he loved it.)  I'll put some pictures and the recipe up soon because it is definitely worth trying...especially if you're trying to learn how to cook meat. ;)


Yay for another snow day!