Day 237

Again, I apologize for skipping another Thursday, but I've been pretty busy as you well know. This past week was the first time I did any travelling for work since late January. It was also the last week my mother in law was here. I never thought I'd say this, but I wish she was still here. Before Andrew was born, I thought a month of her would be plenty. As it turns out, I wish she was still here. But it was time for Leah and me to face reality. I was in Chicago all day Friday at my clients, but I flew in and out, so Stacey cooked for us one last time before she left. Saturday morning was the beginning of real parenting for Leah and I. Its funny because without Stacey to pass Andrew off on, Leah and I have to be "on" all the time. It's definitely a challenge, but with Andrew being so cute, it makes it that much easier. But words cannot express how grateful we are for Stacey dropping her life to come here and essentially be a nanny for us. She is the best and deserves a vacation as far as we are concerned. Saturday night we put him down around 11, and he woke up at 4:30, I gave him a bottle, put him back to sleep, and he slept until 8:30 where Leah got up with him. Last night wasn't as good. He was up quite a bit, but its to be expected. He is so good compared to some of the horror stories we have heard. It was such a beautiful day yesterday that Leah and I took Andrew and Casey for a walk around the neighborhood. As we walked we talked about what a difference in life for us. Here we were, walking in our suburban neighborhood with our baby and our dog, stopping and talking to neighbors. Kids were out playing in the front yards. Its real quiet. Its just amazing how different things are from living in the city. I miss the city. I really do. But its more of my friends and the food than anything else. I can't wait for a few more weeks where we can start bringing him places and for Leah to be back to 100%. We feel like prisoners of our home sometimes. We haven't been able to go out to even eat. That will come soon, but feels like its been forever since we have done that.

Speaking of Saturday night, my basketball season officially came to an end as my beloved Kansas Jayhawks lost in the West Regional Finals to UCLA 68-55 in a game that was closer than the score. UCLA Guard Arron Afflalo decided to break out of his month long shooting slump and was unconscious, hitting on 10-15 shots for 24 points including a couple of ridiculous dagger jump shots to beat the shot clock. KU on the other hand, controlled the tempo for the first 15 minutes, but then lost our composure, wilting under the UCLA tight defense. I haven't seen a team miss more layups than KU did Saturday night. Out of character, we turned the ball over, over passed the ball on several occasions, and didn't shoot enough three's. With 5 minutes left, we cut an 11 point deficit to five and played great defense. UCLA point guard Darrin Collison put up a prayer three over two guys with the shot clock at zero and buried it. That is when I knew the game was done. I've received several "condolence" calls and emails from friends on the KU loss, just one game short of the Final Four. The bottom line is that while I was upset, I am used to my teams losing and not winning it all. I am a Clevelander after all. I only know losing at the end of the season. When my father died, I learned something I could never realize before - sports are not a life and death situation. Yes, I sometimes treat it that way, but my team not winning a title in the grand scheme of life isn't as big of a deal as I make it out to be. My pick for the Final Four now is what I went with when the tournament started - the Florida Gators. I smell a repeat. Now it is time to turn my attention the my #1 love - the red, white, and blue - the Cleveland Indians. Opening day is a week from Friday and you know I'll be there.

So the breaking news today is that Anna Nicole's autopsy results are in. Turns out it wasn't a suicide, but rather an accidental overdose. Maybe finally now we can put Howard K. Stern out of our minds for a while. Next up is the paternity results, but I think we all know that Larry Birkhead is the father of Dannilynn. I've got to stop talking about this story already.

The saddest story has to be the return of the incurable breast cancer for Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of Presidential candidate John Edwards of North Carolina. This is one strong woman. Edwards, in an interview with 60 minutes last night, said he will continue to run for president at his wife's request. I'm sure within the next few months, he'll drop out to be with his wife and do the honorable thing - these are good people. As my mom said last night, this is just more fodder for my "there is no God" file. Haven't the Edwards' suffered enough? Remember, they lost a son, Wade, in 1996 to a car accident.

I won't even bother getting into the whole Alberto Gonzales firing eight U.S. Attorneys. Its just another case of Karl Rove, W, and the rest of the cronies screwing things up and surrounding themselves with a bunch of incompetents.

My man Sanjaya is still around for yet another week on American Idol. You gotta love that. Stick with the vote for Sanjaya movement! www.votefortheworst.com

Song of the Day: "Obscured" by Smashing Pumpkins

Day 236

Sorry I've been off for a week, but last week was as hectic of a week as I've probably ever had. Everyone who told me that my life would never be the same certainly was not kidding. Between Andrew, being back at work full time, and the time consumer that is the NCAA Tournament, I was just exhausted. Then you throw in the sore throat followed by the cold which I currently have and I'm about 65% currently. Then there is Leah, who is still not 100%. Early last week she had a few bad days after the surgery, but is steadily improving. The bladder issue is still a concern and we are back to the doctor tomorrow to hopefully have that problem licked.

Now to the fun stuff. Some highlights of the past week:

1. Now that his cord fell out, we can start giving him real baths. One night last week my mom and I gave it a shot. We have this little plastic seat bath. We put him in there much to his chagrin. He was screeching like a cat. We finally got him all clean and the next thing you know, he just drops one right in the bath water. After we re-cleaned him and got him dressed, I told my mom this was one of those life moments for the two of us that we will talk about the rest of our lives.

2. Every day he is looking a little different. He is starting to look more and more like Leah I think. His once dark hair is lightning and is more brown. I've put up a couple of newer photos taken yesterday. We had him in his KU gear for the game.

3. His sleeping is still better than normal. Thursday night I volunteered for the late night duty because I figured with the tournament, I'd be up anyways. I couldn't get him to calm down really until about 12:30 and brought the monitor in with me. Of course, I was up every hour looking at the video monitor thinking something was wrong because he wasn't making any noise. Turns out, Andrew slept until 7 AM uninterrupted. It was so solid.

4. One of the few downsides of having a new baby other than the lack of sleep is thank you note writing. Now let me preface this by saying that I am beyond thankful for all of the gifts we have received for Andrew and all of the money it saves us. But as they gifts come in, the thank you notes have to go out. Leah is a thank you note machine and can knock these out quickly. I on the other hand am slow and seem to always find something better to do than to write them. Saturday I buckled down and knocked a bunch out while watching hoops.

5. I know I have said this before, but I don't know how we could have done this without Stacey being here. Between Stacey and my own mom's visits, we have been saved. We actually extended her 5 days as Leah wasn't recovering as well as we would have liked and I am travelling this week for work. Yes, I'm back to the business travel. We'll see how this goes. I'm trying to do day trips as much as possible. But, as one of my co-workers with a young kid told me, "Business travel equals sleep."

Now on to more pressing issues in the world:

Today marks the four year anniversary of the joke that has become the Iraq War. Four years later, what have we really accomplished? I'll give W credit on one thing - he got rid of Saddam Hussein. Turns out we'd probably be better off if he was still in power. The world definitely needed to be rid of this tyrant, no doubt about it. But as well all know, we are four years into a complete cluster-fuck, botch job of this war. We entered this war as an answer to 9/11 and now more people have died in this war than that awful day itself. My personal favorite moment during the Iraq War was when the arrogant Mr. Bush arrived on an aircraft carrier aboard the USS Lincoln in May of 2003 in the co-pilot seat and exclaimed "Mission Accomplished." Great job moron!

Readers of the blog know I'm a fan and watcher of American Idol. This season has been as bad as it has ever been and the talent level is a C-. Its a three horse race right now between Melinda, Lakeesha, and Stephanie. Nobody else has a chance. Most of the guys are terrible. But the thing to me that is keeping the show going this season is how bad the very effeminate and strange looking Sanjaya is. The kid is so bad that it gotten to the point where you now feel sorry for him for sticking around. Simon and Randy kill him every week. There is even a groundswell on the internet to ruin the show and have people vote for this kid. I for one, hope he continues on and makes a mockery of the process. Its not like Taylor Hicks, last year's American Idol, has any career whatsoever or any talent for that matter. Check out the site www.votefortheworst.com. Its great stuff.

The NCAA Tournament had a great opening weekend. Thursday's game were somewhat snoozers, but Saturday was maybe the best day in tournament history. Every single game was close and several games went to OT. Friday night was Kansas' first round game against Niagara. and it was not being shown here. I was contacted by this woman at the KU Alumni association who was getting a group together in Cleveland for the first time to watch tournament games. I had nobody to watch it with (KU fans that is) and with Leah stuck at home, Patti D stepped it up and said she'd go with me. We went to Champps in Valley View. We had our own section of tables and our game on with sounds. It was quite an eclectic group. You had some Lawrence locals, two older couples, and some mid-thirties drunks. I've gotta give my mom serious props. It was a funny experience being with this group of strangers. The good news was that we won by 40 and we got to enjoy a blowout. Our game was shown here yesterday, so I didn't have to go anywhere. Thank goodness, this cold is brutal and the last thing I would have wanted to do is go to a bar to watch. We took care of business and beat Kentucky by 12 to advance to the Sweet 16. What I love about this team is they don't seem complacent. They seem to be on a mission. We have a tough draw left, facing #4 Southern Illinois Thursday night at 7:10 EST, and then if we win, we get the winner of #3 Pittsburgh and #2 UCLA.

Lastly, I have to give special mentions to several people today:

Yesterday was the birthday party for Baby Jordan, who turned one. He is the son of my cousin Debbie and her husband Russ.

Today is the 35th wedding anniversary of my in-laws Max and Stacey. I have been lucky enough to get in laws that I love. Not everyone has that luxury. They are truly great people and like my parents, have a great marriage that has stood the test of time. I truly love them both.

Our friends the Bilsky's welcomed their daughter Laila Clair last week. Melissa was two weeks early and have a little one come out. They did not know what they were having but were thrilled for it to be a girl. Although I was disappointed as I had grand plans of Jeremy and I taking our sons to Tribe game together.

On Friday, one of my oldest and best friends Jaime Schneider and her husband Steve welcomed their daughter Ella Grace to the world. Ella came out, according to Jaimo, looking exactly like Steve. She was 6 lbs, 12 oz. We couldn't be happier for them. Its crazy to think how far we've come since she was my first girlfriend when I came to Orange in 6th grade.

Andrew's gonna have lots of girlfriends to choose from...

Song of the Day: "Girls, Girls, Girls" by Jay Z

Day 235

This entry is being written from the hospital. No need to worry – Leah needed to have been re-stitched from her episiotomy after she gave birth. She has been very uncomfortable and after our last doctor’s appointment Thursday, we found out why. Once again, she is being an amazing trooper. We have been most of the day and not for one second has she complained. Stacey is home with Andrew. She said he has been great all day.

This weekend was Andrew’s baby naming. So everyone was in town – Matt and the kids, Scott and Lauren, Jessica and Justin, and my in-laws. As exhausting as it all was, it truly was a special time for us. Not that I didn’t know it already, but we have lucked out in the family department. Everyone has been so helpful – especially this weekend. The house transformed so well for Sunday’s festivities – we had 60 adults and 10 kids running around our house. The most amazing aspect of it all is Andrew himself. I didn’t know that a 10 day old child could be so well behaved and “on.” The baby naming started at 11:30 – he slept pretty much until 45 minutes before it started. Leah fed him, we changed him, got him dressed in his little Camouflage outfit and brought him down to the party. We had a little 10 minute ceremony and the whole time, he didn’t make a peep. Leah and I were so proud of him. Our part of the ceremony was to say why we named him: Here was what I recited: We are so thankful to have so many friends and family with us today to be a part of the baby naming for Andrew. I would be remiss if I didn’t thank my family who is in from out of town – Matt, Jace, and Reese. Jessica and Justin, Scott and Lauren. My amazing in laws Max and Stacey – Stacey has been my savior since arriving here. I do not know how I could be doing this without her, but I unfortunately will have to find out soon. I also have to thank my mother for throwing this beautiful ceremony and for being an unbelievable support system to me. Over the past two and a half years, a close relationship has gotten closer. This is one strong, strong woman – I love her with all of my heart. Lastly, I have to thank Leah for giving birth to our son Andrew. Nobody is tougher than my wife – the amount of love and respect I have for her is endless. I truly am the luckiest guy I know to have all of these people in my life.

Andrew was named after my two role models as men, fathers, grandfathers, and friends. Andrew is for Arthur Dery, my grandfather and the man who created this amazing family that I have been blessed to be born into. His middle name Robert is for my father, the great Robert Dery, known to so many as Bobby D. I can only hope that Andrew has the amazing sense of humor and the ability to be loved by everyone, the way my father did. I had a father/son relationship with my dad that most sons only dream of. I will do my best to emulate that every single day. If Andrew grows up to be half the man my father and grandfather were, we will have done a pretty good job raising him.

Andrew was literally an angel the entire time people were over. I don’t want to jinx it because it is so early, but he really is a great baby. He only cries when he is hungry or needs to be changed. He has a great demeanor. I was worried that he was going to be fussy during the party, but he couldn’t have been better. We took a ton of great pictures – some which you can see above. I love the one of myself, Jeremy, MD, and our kids. That is one of the things I find the most amazing – you grow up with close friends, like Jeremy is to MD and me, we get married, and have children all around the same age. It seems like yesterday we all were at camp together, or going to Tribe games, etc. Now we all have the greatest challenge and job – parenthood. Where does the time go?

I crashed last night like I haven’t in years – What along day. We were up around 7 getting the house ready, which was stressful in itself. Then we had 60 people at the house for two hours where Leah and I were working the room trying to talk to as many people as we can. Poor Leah just hasn’t been herself, yet had a huge smile for everyone. She sat down as much as she could, but by the time it was over, she was ready for a well deserved nap. I too was drained, but I had important matters to attend to, like the Big 12 Championship game as my Kansas Jayhawks took on Texas. What a game this was. Texas and their sickly talented Freshman Kevin Durant jumped out on us 32-10. I thought we were done, but we furiously rallied to cut it to a five point halftime deficit. The second half was great basketball. We actually carried a five point lead with four minutes left, only to see UT take it back. With six seconds left, KU shooting guard Mario Chalmers calmly buried a three to send the game into OT where we pulled out an 88-84 win. The game was draining just being a fan; I couldn’t imagine playing in it. Sean texted me during the game and said “The tournament next week is going to give me a stroke.” I agree. The people I felt most sorry for yesterday were all of my in laws who had to endure two and a half hours of me being a lunatic during a game they most likely didn’t care about anyways. Stacey Robuck has watched more basketball over the last four days than she probably has in the last 10 years combined. Not once has she said a word. I told her the good news is she gets three days off starting today.

So this means the NCAA Tournament is finally here. There is no better sporting event on the planet. It’s my favorite time of the year and thanks to Andrew, I will be home watching all of it. Not that I wouldn’t be if Andrew wasn’t here. So of course I’ve live in Chicago for the last eight NCAA Tournaments and this year, Kansas plays its first two games there. Coming into the tournament on an eleven game winning streak, KU was given the #1 seed out West. We have a tough draw, but at a minimum we should have a meeting with UCLA in the Regional Finals. On Thursday I will give you all my Final Four Picks. As always, I am running my annual NCAA pool. If I haven’t contacted you and you want to be in it, email me and I’ll send you the invite. $20, winner take all through CBS sportsline.

Lastly, I’ve got to send mad props out to three of my girls on big pieces of news: One of my oldest and dearest friends Allison Kaufman got engaged late last week to her longtime boyfriend Diego. I couldn’t be happier for them. AK is one of the coolest of all time and she deserves this kind of happiness. Another Allison, Allison Singer, got engaged over the weekend. I got a text from her Saturday and haven’t gotten the chance to get the full scoop, but this is great for her. Lastly, word leaked back to these parts that my girl Betsy G is pregnant. Good news for such good people. Much love to all of them.

Song of the Day: “You Know You’ve Got Soul” by Eric B & Rakim

Day 234

Anyone who says parenting is easy needs their head examined. There is no doubt; this is hard work and only going to get harder. With my mother in law here, we’ve got someone who knows what they are doing helping out at any time of the day or night. Throw in the night nurse we have three nights a week and we have ample help. But I feel like I constantly have to be on my toes. My napping has ceased – much to my chagrin – for now, unless Andrew is sleeping. But when he is asleep, I’m usually either on the computer or doing something around the house. I’ve actually done too much computer work in the past few days – I am the college basketball columnist for the Cleveland fan, a website I write for. I’ve done conference tournament preview articles for each of the Big six conferences. It’s been very time consuming and I know I shouldn’t be worried about this now, but it’s my supplemental income gig and they are counting on me. Anyways – the joys of parenting never cease to amaze me. Andrew gets cuter by the second. His feeding is going better than we thought – the doctor told us today he is just above his birth weight (7 lbs, 7 oz) after weighing in at 6 lbs 13 oz Monday. They say never to wake a sleeping baby, but with breast feeding you are supposed to be waking the baby up every two hours or so to feed. We have not subscribed to that theory. We let him sleep. So far this week, he gets in 6-7 hours at a pop at night. Our worst night, or should I say Leah’s and Stacey’s, was Tuesday night when he fussed from 1-3 am, but then finally fell asleep, got up again at 5 to feed, but then slept until 9. Last night was more typical. He got up around 1:15 on his own, had a bottle, and then went back to sleep until 7. We have been very lucky and I don’t want to jinx it, but he has been very good so far. Minimal crying and I only have been peed on twice!

My main concern right now is getting Leah back to complete health. While she has been feeling much better today and last night, she was still not well until then. Her bladder infection hadn’t improved and she needed a catheter to clear her out at the doctor yesterday. It turned out that she had close to a full IV bag of urine in her that she couldn’t pass. That literally was like a magic pill for her. She is now on a different type of antibiotic as well as pills for the pain if necessary. We will be going back to the doctor tomorrow to make sure she has improved. She needs her rest and Stacey and I are doing our best to let her nap to regain her strength. This weekend will be grand central station over here as the baby naming is Sunday and the whole family on both sides will be here.

The last three years, I have been in Las Vegas this exact weekend. I fly in on the early morning Friday flight, sit in the sportsbook from the minute I check in until the last games of the conference tournaments are over, go out and stay up all night, take a quick 2-3 hour nap before going right back to the sportsbook for Saturday’s action. It’s an underrated weekend to go to Vegas. The next weekend is the NCAA Tournament and the whole world flocks there while this weekend is the NASCAR race, so you get a different crowd. The sportsbooks aren’t nearly as crowded and there are plenty of games to bet. So last year at this time I was up to my ears in games to bet, drinks, and lack of sleep. This year I’ll be up to my ears in dirty diapers and family. Just a tad different.

Quick hits time: I promise that I will go back to mostly non-Andrew talk starting next week after the baby naming. You know I want to get back to discussing things like:
The American Idol Antonella Barba explicit photos controversy – so she took some racy photos (which by the way aren’t half bad). So what? The tabloid newspapers and shows are making this out to be some sort of crime. Memo to America – hot chicks sometimes to photos and they end up on the internet. The bottom line here is the girl can’t sing and needs to go home for that reason, which I think will happen tonight.

Scooter Libby gets convicted of lying to a grand jury and the FBI– It’s too bad that ‘ole Scooter doesn’t have the balls to rat out his boy Dick Cheney and watch him crumble. It’s ok, the day President Bush leaves office in 2008, Libby will get the Presidential pardon and never do significant jail time.

The Browns Sign RB Jamal Lewis – I know it’s only a one year deal and very low risk, but Lewis is washed up. I’m not a fan at all. He only scored two TD’s last year and has a lot of tread on his tires.

Katie Holmes is disturbing – I used to think she was smoking hot, a girl next door type when she was Joey Potter on Dawson’s Creek. Now she is a robot scientologist who doesn’t speak unless Tom Cruise tells her to.

Song of the Day: “I Just Want to Celebrate” by Rare Earth

Day 233

First off I want to thank everyone for their amazing amounts of good wishes. Leah, Andrew, and I have been on cloud nine since coming home. I’ll back track a little – The last I wrote, I was home catching up on some sleep. That night, Leah’s blood pressure had gotten substantially better. When I came back to the hospital the next morning around 6:30, Andrew was already looking different to me. It’s amazing, he keeps changing each day and I know I am biased, but he seems to be getting cuter each day. I spent Thursday night at the hospital with Leah sleeping in a chair and getting up with her when she was trying to feed Andrew. It was a solid bonding experience. The good news for me is that Leah is breastfeeding so I’ll be able to get more sleep than anticipated. I figure if I can get 6-7 hours, I’ll be all good. We woke up Friday morning and Leah was doing much better. She felt like she had been through a 12 round boxing match, but overall her strength was improving. So they told us that we could go home that day.

Friday also happened to be my 31st birthday. Many people wrote this to me in emails or told me over the phone and it’s the truth – bringing home Andrew is the best possible birthday present I could ask for. We had some much stuff at the hospital to bring back with us. Everyone had told us that “if it’s not nailed to the ground, take it” referring to diapers, formula, etc. The nurses loaded us up. I have to say that the nurses at Hillcrest hospital were amazing. We had four different ones. The one who was with us during Leah’s three hours of pain ordeal the night before Andrew was born came to visit us Friday morning. I told her she was being nominated for sainthood by me. Sorry, off subject. So we put everything on two different carts, dressed Andrew in his little going home outfit, packed him in the car seat and took him home. It was one of those life moments that I will never forget and always cherish. His first night we had a little birthday/welcome home party complete with birthday cake and pizza. Andrew helped me blow out the candles. We have a night burse that comes three times a week for the first few weeks so that Leah can get her rest and her first night was Friday. We all went to bed with full stomachs thinking we would be awoken by baby cries all night. As it turns out, Andrew slept from 11:30-6:30 on his first night home! Amazing. I know this probably won’t happen again for a long time, but you have gotten give the little boy his due.

Saturday was solid – we are obviously home bound for a while as Leah recovers. Luckily for me, we had a big day of college hoops in HD on CBS. The giant Texas/Kansas game was on and I couldn’t wait for Andrew’s first KU game. He must have been the good luck charm. KU stormed back for the big in to capture the Big 12 title. I wanted to swaddle him in my Julian Wright jersey, but Leah put the ki-bosh on it. He didn’t make a peep throughout the game and that included when I screamed at the TV. I’m telling you – the kid is legit! Before the game, the wall unit I have been waiting for so long had finally been finished, as well as my surround sound system. Now this is THE place to watch sports. Everything has come together at the same time. That morning, my Grandmother came over to meet her 8th great-grandchild. She held him for a while – so much so that when my mom asked to hold him, she said “no.” It was classic. Grandmom then gave me something that was very special – my grandfather had a key-chain for years with his initials “A.R.D.” The same initials as Andrew. It meant so much to me – Andrew was named after my grandfather and my father. It’s amazing to see my 93 year old grandmother look at Andrew with such love. The rest of the day was spent watching more college hoops and seeing Leah feed Andrew. It’s a funny cycle. He eats, sleeps, goes to the bathroom, cries, and falls back asleep. Saturday night we brought in Chinese food – My mom, Max, Stacey, Leah, Jessica, and I. We were all so exhausted from staring at Andrew all day that we passed out as early as we could. Jessica and Max both left Sunday but will be returning Friday. I have to thank them both as they were huge helps all weekend.

Thank goodness for my mother in law. Now I am not slighting my mom one bit – she has been great; Here every day, always offering to hold Andrew, run to the store for anything we may need, etc. But Stacey does all the thankless jobs. Not only is she on diaper patrol a good 65-70% of the time, but she is cooking us meals, doing all of our laundry, running errands – just plain doing it all. I said this when Matt had his kids – I never understand how people do it with nobody in town to help. We have so much help here and we are gladly taking people up on their offers. Andrew already has so many people who love him. But my mother in law deserves mad props. I told her I may cry when she leaves. But that is why we got webcams for everyone in our family – so Andrew can see his Arizona, Chicago, and Detroit families.

This Sunday is Andrew’s baby naming. We decided to have him circumcised at the hospital – I find the bris ceremony to be barbaric and nobody was going to strap my son to some board and have 60 people watch him get clipped and then enjoy tuna fish and lox. It doesn’t seem right to me. Anyways, we are having family and a few friends over for the baby naming ceremony. MD is bringing Jace and Reese in for the first Dery family meeting of the cousins. I cannot wait to see that. They called and were so excited. Reese keeps saying “baby Andrew” over and over. So cute. Scott and Lauren will be in for their first look at their nephew, as will Uncle Justin. It's going to be a zoo here, but should be great.

Fatherhood so far has been all its cracked up to be and more. I wake up in the morning and cannot wait to see his face. The pure joy that fills me just being with him is indescribable. I have typed this whole blog one handed because he is in my other arm! People keep telling us that he is adorable and that newborns usually aren’t. I’m obviously biased, but I agree. Andrew is truly THE WHUP.

Song of the day: "Baby Boy" by Beyonce