Jude's Christmas Wish . . .

The Kapallen’s Top 8 in 2008

8. Pacey, our loving Vizsla, turned 2 in March.

7. Amanda had 6 months off of work (February to August).

6. Crosswinds Church moved to a new 100-year old building in the heart of Bloomington’s west side. Dave had a big role to play as the Director of Finance at our church.

5. Dave’s first political endeavor was running for a seat on the McLean County Board. Not due to his lack of effort, he lost to a Democrat riding Obama’s coattails.

4. Vacations! The Kapilla family went to Lake of the Ozarks in August. Boy, was it HOT, but the babies loved the water! We also enjoyed a weekend trip to Lake Michigan with our neighbors.

3. Time with neighbors, friends and family over the year. We are so thankful for each of you!

2. The births of our niece, Gabrielle Bustamante, and nephew, Nate Laughlin. This makes 4 grandbabies for the Van Allens and 6 for the Kapillas.

1. The birth our son Jude Mark, born February 23rd at 6:33pm weighing 7lbs and 19” long. He now weighs 20lbs and is 29’’ tall, is saying momma and dada, crawling, furniture surfing and getting into everything.
Jude is our dream come true!

November Photos

October Photos

September Photos

August Photos

July Photos

Here they are . . .the much-awaited July photos, about 25 in all:

catching up . . .

Time has been sparce lately, so I haven't been able to update the blog like I'd want to. I'll try to get some photos from June up some time this weekend.

VoteVanAllen.com is live!

I mentioned in a previous post that I was running for County Board. Late last week after much work we finally launched the full VoteVanAllen.com site.

We've been getting lots of praise for the site design. Even better, it's allowed voters to connect with me in ways I had only hoped for. Offers to volunteer and requests for yard signs are coming, which is exciting and humbling at the same time. Thanks for your support!

Plagiocephaly

We're back from Jude's second appointment with Doctor "Tony" Plattner. He did a great job working with Jude and explaining the corrective process to us. Here are some cool photos from the digital scanner they put Jude through:



We'll get his corrective "helmet" in a week or so, and it sounds like he'll wear it for 3-4 months. It should be off by Christmas. How's that for an awesome Halloween costume!

If you're wondering about the diagnosis, remolding process or why it's necessary, check out this FAQ for parents provided by the makers of the scanner.

Earn $1300 by applying for credit cards

When is the last time you looked over the list of rewards cards? Here's a post for those people who are responsible with their credit and are looking for a way to maximize the rewards they can earn by using credit cards. Note: you actually have to be approved and must use the card before you can get the reward . . .

There are a few new ones out there that you might want to consider. Here's a link to a story on how to maximize your rewards.

Jude's 4-month wellness check-up

Jude had his 4-month check-up this week. Everything went fine, except for the fact that our pediatrician referred us to a neurosurgeon for Jude's positional plagiocephaly ("flat head syndrome").

It's nothing to worry about I'm sure, but from a parent's perspective it is noticeable when you look at his head from behind. If all else fails, I'm sure Jude's future siblings will get a kick out of seeing photos of him wearing a helmet!

Here are Jude's 4-month charts:

Jude's percentile rankings:
Length-to-age: 90.25% (66.68 cm / 26.25 in)
Weight-to-age: 56.24% (6.88 kg / 15.17 lbs)
Head Circumference-to-age: 76.45% (43.3 cm / 17.05 in)

June photos

News and Stocks

I couldn't help but blog on this! I ran across a really cool news and stock website the other day when I was looking for treemaps. Check 'em out!

Carpenter Bees (part deux)

Well, the carpenter bees are back again behind our garage. My first post about this topic was two years back when they first appeared. Here's what I found out this time around . . .

The State of Illinois Health Department, Division of Environmental Health had some great insight. They shared that the male carpenter bees, the ones that are flying around the back of my garage, can't actually sting. They put up a mean show though!

Here's another site that has some great info, including the names of a few chemicals I could get from the hardware store that have a 30-day residual effect.

The local exterminator, BeeLine, guaranteed that their chemical application would have a 90-day residual effect. I'm guessing that they're using a combination of these products.

This company said we would get 16k square foot of coverage for the liquid and 1 lb of coverage on the powder. It should last us 2-4 years! Hard to pass up . . .

Dave for County Board!

OK, I have a few minutes . . .what better time than at 2:30 in the morning? What's been keeping me so busy is that I've decided to run for County Board. Pretty cool, eh? I think so!

Could there be a better way to serve my community? Read all about it at VoteVanAllen.com

Jude's May experiences

Hey, sorry for not being around the past few weeks. It's been a little busy . . .I'll tell you all about it if I get some time.

In the mean time, here's what you've all been waiting for:

Jude's firsts (vol. II)

Here's a tally of Jude's most recent firsts:

Date		Event
5/16/2008		He's been making fun noises!
5/12/2008		It's worth noting that he's had some pretty big #2 diapers lately!
5/7/2008		Jude found his thumb . . .look out pacifier, you have some competition!
5/1/2008		Jude found his voice and has started cooing
4/28/2008		Jude has begun opening his fisted hands to hold his own hands
4/21/2008		Putting his fist in his mouth . . ."now if I could only find that thumb!"
4/4/2008		Jude started pulling mom's hair . . .time for a chop? Never!
4/4/2008		Jude's first smile -- this time it was for real!
4/2/2008		Jude's first cold (poor Jude!)

Blogging ain't easy! (kapallens enhancements)

For the readers of my blog, I owe you an apology. Reading the kapallens can be a daunting task. Based upon user feedback, I've recently taken a few steps to help improve the site.

This includes:

• Reducing the number of Snap Shots previews. In my opinion, it's a great feature and even better now that the fine techogeeks at Snap Shots have figured out how to not make every link have a preview.
• Adding an email option. For those that would rather receive an email instead of checking back here frequently, you can opt in to receive an email instead of coming back to check manually for updates.
  
• Fixing my Picasa Slideshow photo albums. By default, Google/Picasa makes all of your web photo albums searchable. I didn't like this option and made them all "unlisted" albums, which broke the links. They're fixed now.
  

Jude's 2-month wellness check-up

"Betrayed! If I only knew my parents were capable of such deceit!" That's what Jude would have said had he been able to speak at his 2-month doctor's appointment.

He got his shots on Tuesday, which was a traumatic experience for all who were involved. Jude didn't sleep but 3 hours Tuesday night, which made Amanda one strung out mommy. As always is the case, she handled it with grace.

Without further ado, here are Jude's charts:

source: The Magic Foundation

You can see from my analysis below that he is coming along quite well.

Jude's percentile rankings:
Length-to-age: 73.47% (60.5 cm / 23.82 in)
Weight-to-age: 39.93% (5.20 kg / 11.46 lbs)
Head Circumference-to-age: 47.77% (40.10 cm / 15.79 in)

Our doctor noted that Jude has a slight case of positional plagiocephaly ("flat head syndrome") due to him being in what I would call an average amount of time in the supine (reclined) position. (To the few friends I have that actually read this blog, I'll share that I was never pre-med, but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn express once.)

God love the Internet. After reading up on it a bit, I learned that Dr. Sears and others recommend alternating sleeping position as well as babywearing via a Baby Bjorn, Peanut Shell baby sling or similar device.

Spring is here!

That's right, spring is here! One sign of the coming season is that Ellie has been trying to sneak outside more and more. As you can see in the picture below, she just loves it out there. I caught her napping in the planter on our front step. Better there than in the street! Or worse . . .


The other day, my neighbor stopped to tell me that she ran into his home and was hiding in his basement. I wish I had a picture of the look on my face when he told me that! Yikes! (To be fair, he had left his door wide open so he could listen to the music that was playing from his home stereo.)

The BEST French Toast ever!

What does it take to make killer French Toast? Let me tell you . . .but first, the back story.

When I was in high school, I worked as a cook at Perkins Family Restaurant. They had some great French Toast. If I remember correctly, they used Italian bread dipped in a batter that consisted of egg substitute, cinnamon and vanilla extract. Though their French Toast was good, it definitely left room for improvement.

I was playing around last year trying to make some really good French Toast and stumbled across what I thought was an original idea - using Kings Hawaiian bread. Don't Google it though - you'll burst my bubble.

Amanda loves sugar, so the goal was to make the sweetest French Toast known to man. She puts so much sugar on her fresh strawberries you'd think she thought they were supposed to be white! The secret about Hawaiian bread is that it's sweet. I've since learned that Challah (Jewish) bread, which is also made with eggs, makes a mean FT.

Without further ado, here's the batter recipe:

• Hawaiian or Challah Bread sliced 1" thick
• 1 egg per slice of French Toast, well beaten
  
• Vanilla
• Cinnamon
• Sugar (if needed)
• Milk (if you prefer . . .I don't use it)
  
• Orange Juice (for the adventurous, equal in part to the cinnamon)
  

That's it. I was surfing around and learned that it helps the texture of the finished product if you can leave the bread out overnight. It gives it a stale texture that stays more firm after being soaked in the egg batter.

When you're ready to cook, turn the burner on medium to medium-high, oil your pan like you would for pancakes or eggs and hang on! If you have enough oil in your pan, the edges of the toast should crisp up a bit as you cook.

Serve with butter & syrup or powdered sugar. Enjoy!

How BIG is big enough?

When you're printing digital images, have you ever wondered if your image is too low of quality for printing the size you'd like?

For example, a photo printed at 4x6 only needs to be 1-2 mega pixels to have a resolution as detailed as a film photo. What if you wanted to print a 5x7 or 8x10? How high would the image resolution have to be to equal the detail in a film photo? And what if you wanted to scan a printed photo? What should the resolution be if you were going to re-print it at a certain size?

Are you ready for answers yet? Reference the handy table at Microsoft.com that shares this very information. If it's missing or you want to try another source, use this Google search.

Now what about memory cards? NewEgg and Microsoft both have interesting articles on their site that talk about this very topic.

To save you the research, I'll share that our camera is set on the 5 mega pixel setting and we have a 2 GB memory card. I would have bought the 1 GB card, but the price difference was negligible. Happy shooting!

Hillary vs. Obama

Have you put any thought to the politics involved in the 2008 presidential race on the democratic side? On a personal note, looking back 10 years from now, I think 2008 go down as the year that I finally cared enough about the race that I paid attention to it before the parties actually chose their candidate.

What's interesting to me is how hard the democrats are fighting over getting their preferred candidate nominated. Granted, everyone wants their candidate to be chosen as their parties' candidate and eventually as our nation's president. But what's more important? The party or the candidate?

In a day and age where party platforms dominate individual politician's views, I'd say partisan politics have a lot to do with an individual's vote. I wish it weren't so, but until we see a legitimate 3rd party, it will continue to be so. Case in point: as of late, the biggest difference Hillary could spar with Obama on was on the issue of universal health care for pets. That's right, pet insurance. For the social conservatives out there that support Obama, you have to ask yourself this question: is Obama pro-choice, or is he just supporting the democratic party view? I digress . . .

If Hillary gets nominated, at this point, it appears that it will be due to her influence with the Superdelegates. Is that what the democratic party wants? The so-called party of the people will have in effect chosen their people's candidate based upon what the entrenched, established politicians chose for them?! Businessweek.com had a good article on this very topic. What are her chances to win the presidency if she gets the nomination? Due to her polarizing personality, I think McCain will clearly have the best shot at the White House.

What if Obama wins his party over and becomes the democratic nominee? After this bitter fight, does he have the charisma to overcome the bitter taste Hillary supporters might feel to earn their vote? Will the 50% who have supported Hillary actually put their confidence in and vote for Obama? Now that's a loaded question! There are so many levels you could answer that question on . . .

Then look at McCain. You'd have to believe that he is only growing stronger in the minds of voters as they watch Obama and Hillary fight for their party's nomination. Especially in the minds of moderates and independents. I believe, in the end, that Obama, Hillary and the democratic party will have divided themselves and their constituents (at least for the 2008 presidential vote) and that McCain will be the ultimate beneficiary of the democratic party's disorganization. Look back over the past 8 years at Bush's public approval ratings. Who would have guessed that any Republican, much less McCain, would have a chance at the White House? Maybe he's the ideal Republican to front the party during such tough times?

The the other question everyone is looking for an answer to right now is who "old man" McCain's running mate will be? He's won his party's nomination and has several months to go before the Republican National Convention. How is he going to keep his name in the news when there is no real news to report? (By teasing the press!)

Getting past all of this, what's the social conservative to do in an election like this? Hope and pray that McCain chooses the right running mate . . .

Can't edit Windows Contacts in Vista

My parents visited us this past week, and as it usually happens, my mom gives me the opportunity to tune up her computer. This time was nothing more than usual and ended up the usual way - various adware that somehow installed itself had to be uninstalled and several program configurations needed tweaking.

One that I got stuck on was with Windows Vista Contacts. I'm used to working with Microsoft Outlook and Windows XP and not as much with Vista. Vista has contacts built into the user profile. Even if you have Outlook installed, you can choose to use Windows Contacts instead.

On a side note, as of late, I've become very frustrated with Vista. It all stems from "Windows Vista compatible" Acer laptop we bought on Black Friday, 2006. Capable is the operative term here . . .we've had so many problems with it. From outdated and incompatible drivers to OS crashes due to insufficient memory, this laptop is SO Vista incapable! I found out just recently that there is a class action law suit that's been approved against Microsoft, Acer and other OEMs on this very issue.

OK, back on topic. It was time for my mom to finally, fully convert her email over to a web-based solution. The spam filters that Gmail has are so much better than what her local ISP offers, meta tagging beats folders hands down, and the thought of a hard disk crash is one less worry with web-based email.

So the real point of this post is to share that, for those who have suffered with me in trying to edit, import or export Windows Contacts, there is an answer! The root of the problem has to do with wab32.dll and wab32res.dll, Outlook files that aren't compatible with Vista. In short, removing these files fixes the problem. I won't bother to explain the solution in detail because it is well documented at vistax64.com. Renaming these files allowed me to export her contacts to a csv file and then upload them to Gmail.

Importing her email was the other issue. I couldn't figure out how to export from Outlook 2000 to Google. It might have had something to do with Outlook's incompatibility with Vista. I didn't go there. Using Mozilla Thunderbird and Google's instructions made for a time consuming but easy transfer.

Thanks for blessing us!

Over the past few years, Amanda and I have been humbled by friends and family who have supported us to bring Jude to be with us. Words of encouragement, prayers, gifts, meals, etc.

Thank you for being such a blessing to us! We truly appreciate all you have done to bless our family. Words can't express our gratitude . . .when the time comes, please let us know how we can return the favor!

Jude's first month visitors

Jude's firsts

Here's a tally of Jude's firsts:

3/30/2008		Jude's first blow-out (sorry, no pictures!)
3/23/2008		first Sunday at church
3/18/2008		first smile, and I promise it wasn't gas (OK, maybe it was!)
3/14/2008		first drive to grandpa and grandma K's!
3/13/2008		first database existence -- he received form mail from the hospital . . .how exciting to see his name in laser print!
3/12/2008		first ride in his stroller, mom and dad took him for a 3 mile walk!
3/9/2008		first time out to dinner to see my parents off (at the best Mexican place in town!)
3/8/2008		first bath
3/7/2008		first restaurant visit (Panera)
3/7/2008		lost umbilical cord stump (at the doctor's office)
3/7/2008		first cough
3/4/2008		first professional photos

An article at BabyCenter.com says that Jude should begin to lift his head while lying on his stomach, respond to sound and stare at faces. I'll update this post as more firsts happen. How exciting!

Photos from Jude's first month

Pecking order

It's Easter Sunday, and we're home now after a pretty good morning. We woke up and made it to church - I won't say on time - but in pretty good time. It was packed today as was expected, and we ended up taking a seat in the back corner. Jude did pretty well throughout service, but on occasion had to be taken outside to regain his composure.

I think I know how Amanda's brother-in-law Chad feels now when he's at church. I must have walked in and out of the worship room 3-5 times just to get Jude to quiet down. Needless to say, I didn't hear much of the pastor's message.

So we made it home and were ready for our typical Sunday afternoon routine. I went for a run with Pacey and Molly (the neighbor's dog) and Amanda headed for the couch with Jude for a nap. I'll give her this - she deserves every nap she can get nowadays. Sleeping two hours at a clip can't be easy, especially for someone who loves her sleep as much as my dearest.

After our run, Pacey and I took a shower and eventually made it down to the living room couch. They say there's nothing like spending time with one's familial unit. Bonding, I'm there! Pacey was begging to get up on the couch with us. With Amanda, Jude and myself already comfortable, where is she going to fit? We told her, "Sorry Pacey, baby Jude took your spot. There's no room for you Pacey!"

A few minutes went by and my wife thinks it's more important for her to take a nap on the couch than for me to sit next to her while I blog and watch the NCAA tournament. If she goes upstairs to nap, she says, she's going to wake up Jude in the process. It's too cold upstairs (under the blankets?!)

I'm thinking, "Whatever," but I say, "OK, I'm good with that." She wants to lay down on the full length couch to stretch out, so I moved the laptop and my beverage and set up over by the chair in the corner. After a while, I started to feel hungry, so I pulled some leftovers out to heat up for a quick afternoon snack.

While I'm in the kitchen, I hear Pacey get up on the couch. I'm thinking that only in the land of opposites would a man's dog have priority over his owner, but alas, I'm wrong. I've got to be at about 1000 words by now, and they say that's about what a picture is worth. See for yourself:

I love pizza!

In a previous post, I expounded upon my love for chili. I probably should have posted my love of pizza first. It really is my favorite food. What's not to like? All 5 food groups in one bite!

When making a pizza, adding the toppings seems to be the easy part. Although cheese can greatly influence your end product, I believe it's the crust that makes or breaks a pizza!

I read a recent article on CNN/Money that sparked my interest to improve upon the basic pizza crust recipe I'm currently using:

• 2 cups warm tap water (110-120° F)
  
• 2-1/4 tsp yeast (1 package)
  
• 1 tsp salt (times 2 if you like the taste of Pizza Hut crust)
  
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tb oil
• 3 cups flour (to start with)
• add pepper, garlic, onion powder, oregano, fennel seed, etc, to taste

If you're making a grocery list, add any or all of these to the list above:

• Pizza or spaghetti sauce
  
• Approx. one bag of shredded cheese per pizza (mozzarella or Italian 4-cheese)
  
• Breakfast or Italian sausage
• Pepperoni
• Olives
• Mushrooms
• Bacon
• Onion

Alternate toppings:

• Pineapple and ham
• BBQ sauce, chicken, green pepper and red onion
• Alfredo sauce, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, red onion
  

Back to the dough. There are quite a few dough recipes out there, including this and others. Whatever ingredients you end up with, here's how to combine them:

Combine the water and yeast together for 5 minutes or so until you see the yeast start to work. It will work itself up and get really foamy if you let it sit in warm water.

Note: Do not heat water above the boiling point. This can easily be done in the microwave as water heated in the microwave doesn't appear to be boiling EVEN THOUGH IT IS! There's a scientific term for this . . .it's called superheating, and it can be dangerous!

If you add yeast to boiling water, you'll kill it. When you cook your pizza, the toppings will brown but the dough will remain unleavened. It won't rise, and will stay raw even if you cook your pizza long enough to burn your pizza toppings. I found this out the hard way. Thanks to Chad and Allison for playing along!

Besides that one oversight, it's really not that difficult to make your own dough. Go ahead, give it a shot! After your yeast has had a chance to foam, add your foamy water to the rest of the ingredients listed above. I start mixing my dough in a bowl with a wooden spoon or stiff rubber spatula and, once the consistency gets thick enough so it's not sticking to everything, knead the dough the counter top (or a cutting board).

Be sure to sprinkle a layer of flour down before you do this or it'll turn into a sticky mess. Check out the previous kneading post from Wikipedia if you're not familiar with the process. Once the dough gets smooth and stretchy, it's time to let it sit. Or if you're not going to use all of it right away, now would be the time to put it in a freezer bag and throw in the freezer. This batch makes 2-13" pan-style pizzas, enough for 6 adults on average.

Like with pancakes and pancake batter, if you can let the dough sit for up to 30 minutes, your crust will turn out lighter and fluffier. Once the dough has risen, pull out a rolling pin and some cornmeal and roll it into a shape that will fit your pan.

Add toppings as desired and cook at 475 degrees for 10-12 minutes. I make my pizza on a pizza stone, which must be pre-heated with the oven to prevent it from cracking. If you're new to pizza stones, they're very easy to care for. Clean them by simply brushing off any residue. Do not use soap or your next pizza will taste like it!

Jude's Newborn Photo Shoot

We had Jude's newborn photos taken by a professional photographer last week. You can check out his photos at Your Reflection, My Style. If you're asked for a passcode, enter 'a' for Amanda and our last name, all as one word. Example: alastname.

Requests for autographs will not be granted. :)

Pacey's new dog collar

Pacey and I went on our usual 5 mile run on Saturday. This time of year, since the water has begun to thaw, there are tons of Canadian Geese and Mallard Ducks out. Pacey just loves it -- can't get enough of it.

So we're running along the creek and she spots a Mallard. For the next 10 minutes, I watched her run back and forth along a 40 yard stretch. That was probably where I made my mistake. We got home and were about to jump in the shower when I noticed that her tags were missing.

Her HomeAgain ID tag, county vaccination tag and standard $3 tag had all fallen off. I was surfing online and found a pretty cool slide-on tag at PetSmart.com (online only) for $15, but that seemed a bit pricey for a dog tag -- and after reading about it, it wouldn't have fit anyway.
Boomerang Tags sells this slide-on tag for $7.99 shipped, and it works with adjustable collars with plastic snaps, collars like hers. Now that's a deal! We haven't gotten it in the mail yet, but I'm looking forward to running without hearing the telltale jingle noise that her old tags previously made.

While I'm on the subject of deals, I'll mention that as I write, Amanda and I are sitting in front of the TV passively watching Deal or No Deal. Why does anyone stick it out past their 6 figure offer?! The last lady just walked away with $150 -- idiot!

Jude's 2-week wellness check-up

We took Jude to his 2-week wellness check-up today and learned that he is a healthy baby boy. Above is a photo of our doctor with baby Jude. (Look carefully and you'll see his big foot sticking out.) Turns out his Apgar score was 9 and 9 on the one and five-minute tests. Over 7 means he's normal. I'm going to hold our doctor to that! What does normal mean, anyway?!

He had impeccable timing with the losing of his umbilical cord stump . . .he lost it in her office during our appointment! Our doctor cauterized his belly button on the spot and said we could give him his first bath after 24 hours. She also asked if we wanted to keep it for his scrapbook, but we passed on the opportunity. Jude, I hope you're not upset with us!

Amanda and I also had the chance to ask all of those questions first-time parents ask. We were comforted to learn:

• Newborn babies shed, but it's not unhealthy dry skin. They've just been underwater for 9 months and, since air is dryer than embryonic fluid, begin to lose their outermost layer of skin. Sorry Jude, it's down to 3 layers like the rest of us! Our doctor advised that the best solution to his dry skin problem is to give him a bath or wipe him down with a warm, wet washcloth. Moisturizing lotion is OK, but not necessary.
• Feeding more than 10-15 minutes per side is enough, and we should have Jude should use a pacifier to pacify himself.
• Throwing up for a baby, even out of their nose and mouth, is somewhat normal. If it happens excessively, call the nurse hotline.
• She prefers we take a rectal temperature up to 3 months of age over temporal or ear thermometers. If his temperature gets over 100.4° F, call the nurse hotline. Guess who's on that duty?!
  
• other trivial things, like proper poop color, time between feedings, etc.
  

What I thought was the coolest things was that she gave us stats on how Jude ranks compared to his peers according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control). They have growth charts on their site which can be used to assess the growth of infants. Unfortunately, they do not separate out stats for babies based on race/ethnicity or whether they were breast fed or not. So our little caucasian baby competes with the african american, asian and hispanic babies on head circumference, length and weight. As of today, here's where he stands:

source: The Magic Foundation

Jude's percentile rankings:
Length-to-age: 63% (53.25 cm / 20.96 in)
Weight-to-age: 10.64% (3.14 kg / 6.92 lbs)
Head Circumference-to-age: 37.45% (36.4 cm / 14.33 in)

Sounds like we have a tall, skinny baby on our hands. Does that sound like his father?

(My plan is to update these charts over the next 36 months with his progress to show where he's at. I'll do that with a new post.)

Note: I tried using the Google Charts API and a few different online chart generators (here and here), but couldn't figure out how to create the type of charts you see above. The Excel file from The Magic Foundation was serviceable after a few aestethic edits. If anyone can help me figure out how to display this chart using Google Charts, please let me know! Dan?

Plantar Fasciitis

I'd have to say that plantar fasciitis is the devil's #2 weapon against man, right up there with pride! I had it for about 6 months back in 2004 and beat it for a while, only for it to flare up later.

After reading up on the injury, I learned that, essentially, the thick muscles and ligaments on the bottom of my feet had torn. This caused my feet to tingle with pain during the course of the day. The tissue would begin to repair itself while I slept, but every morning when I woke up, my first step out of bed would destroy any healing that had taken place. Wearing hard-soled dress shoes to work compounded the problem, but I didn't have any other option.

What cured my ailment, you ask? Well, thanks for allowing me to share! I tried rolling my foot over golf and tennis balls, but that only provided temporary relief. Anti-inflammatories weren't a 100% solution either.

I ended up wearing a Dynasplint night splint to bed for 3 months to get rid of it. (Talk about patience, Amanda was a saint for living through that!) The folks at Dynasplint say that the boot applies a "low-load, prolonged-duration stretch." This just means that, in addition to fixing the angle of my foot/calf in a stretched position, it would apply slight and continuous tension through the use of springs. Most of the boots I had seen in running magazines could fix my foot/calf at a fixed angle, but this pales in comparison to what the Dynasplint did.

While I wore the boot, I also gave up running cold turkey for another 6 months -- very hard for me to do. These days I'm back to running about 15 miles a week, mostly in 5 mile increments, and have been able to keep the injury at bay with the help of some good insoles.

I stumbled across Shock Doctor insoles. I forget what tuned me into their product, but I do remember calling the company and speaking to a vice-president about using the insoles to treat plantar fasciitis. Given my situation, he recommended the Ultra2 insoles. They have a very strong stabilizing structure going all the way up your big toe.

Many runners spend big bucks on custom orthotics. Luckily, I found something off the shelf that worked. And since there was no retailer in my area, they offered to send a free pair to try as long as I agreed to give my podiatrist a few extra pair. That's a deal!

On the point of tipping

No, this post isn't on the topic of our new baby, or a missive lamenting how we've reached our breaking point in the week hours of the morning. Today's topic is gratuities.

Why do we tip? If you're interested in the subject, a recent article from the Wall Street Journal offered a nice, historical perspective on tipping. Like many finance-related topics I find thought-provoking , this one gets at the economics and theory behind efficient markets. It was written on the subject of why we give gratuities and used Starbucks as an example company.

Of course, Wikipedia has an entry for gratuities as well. Some valid arguments against tipping as Americans know it (from the aforementioned sources):

• tipping encourages tax evasion
• tippers often factor superficial or non-performance factors into the tip (e.g., the quality of the food, the physical attractiveness of the server/tippee, the size of the bill, etc.)
• tipping encourages servility or submissiveness. Is that so bad? Submissiveness is practically absent from our culture today. I'd argue it is bad, only to the extent that it encourages intellectual laziness.

For me, I think it really comes down to the struggle between a few ideas. If we want to inspire high performance, especially in service-related businesses, what better way is there than for the recipient of the service to reward the server?

I'll ask the question, would it be better to base our gratuity on the amount of time the server spends on serving us? On the size of the bill (considering that more expensive menus often necessitate more skilled servers)? What is the best proxy for rewarding the quality of service we receive?

How do you determine how much to tip?

Back to Starbucks. Should we tip baristas that work for an employer that is known to offer well-paying jobs with respectable benefits? As the wsj article asked, who are we subsidizing when we tip? The employer or the employee?

The Hutter chin

Because my sister asked, I'll share that so far, we think Jude has been saved from inheriting the Hutter nose. However, there's a 99% chance he has the Hutter chin. See for yourself!

Our BabyPlus story

On their company website, the founder of the BabyPlus company boldly declares:

BabyPlus children have an intellectual, developmental, creative, and emotional advantage from the time they are born.

The site goes on to name several benefits of using BabyPlus:

• More readily nurse
• Display an increased ability to self soothe
• Are more interactive & responsive
• Are better relaxed and alert at birth

We used BabyPlus after our fertility doctor recommended it. Since he shares the same last name as the BabyPlus founder and president, there's a chance his endorsement may have been coerced.

That fact aside, we have noticed that Jude has been thus far the picture of a perfect baby. He's had no problems nursing, has been alert and awake during the day and sleeps well at night. Really, his biggest challenges to date have been with training his parents how to recognize a dirty diaper, how to swaddle tightly and in general how to recognize what he's trying to communicate to his rookie parents!

We've joked that we're not going to use BabyPlus on our second child so we can test to see if it really works! Kidding aside, it wasn't very difficult to add to Amanda's routine and I would think we'll probably use it again for child #2.

He's losing on us!

Well, we visited the doctor -- nurse, actually -- today for Jude's two day appointment. We left the hospital with him weighing 6 lbs, 9 oz. At today's appointment, he weighed only 6 lbs, 5 oz. The nurse that saw us was someone we had never met before.

Without an established rapport, she came across as overly concerned and put us into a semi-panicked state. She was very concerned with Jude's weight loss and advised us to supplement formula to Jude's normal diet of breast milk. Amanda and I both took that -- like a bunch of granola-heads -- as a personal challenge. We want so badly to prove that we can make him gain weight without formula! Amanda fed Jude today every 1-2 hours.

He was feeding so often that I thought it might work better for her to not wear a shirt?! (Yeah, I probably should keep that one to myself!) Jude sure was a busy bee though today. It's almost 10 pm, and poor Jude is just worn out. I had to laugh . . .Amanda had just finished feeding him for what seemed like the 100th time today and he started hiccuping. I wasn't sure which end his noises were coming from, and so I asked her.


Amanda propped Jude up to burp him and he just looked like this drunk sailor! After being fed all through the day, there he sat . . .his hat about falling off, hiccuping, not able to sit up straight and just wanting to sleep. Poor Jude!

To our friends of faith, please pray that Jude would gain weight between now and our next appointment this coming Saturday morning. Thank you!

3/1 UPDATE: Jude made his Saturday weigh in with some to spare. He weighed in at 6 lbs., 8.8 ounces, just .2 ounces short of what his weight was when we left the hospital. Praise God!

Hey Jude!

As you can imagine, we've gotten tons of feedback on Jude's name in the three days he's been with us.

For some, his name might conger up images of Paul McCartney singing the Beatles song, "Hey Jude." That's not such a bad thing. How can a band sell 8 million copies of a song and it be bad?! I'd call it (i.e., the song) safe.

The NFL thought he was a safe bet, bringing him in for the Superbowl the year after Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction! As part of getting Amanda's vote, it also didn't hurt that Jude Law is one handsome Brit!

Back to the Beatles . . .a buddy of mine sent me this YouTube video . . .priceless, thanks Truen! If you want to sing along to the song, LyricsFreak has the lyrics.

When you're done singing along, you might be interested to know that in Hebrew, the name Jude means praised, or "he shall be praised." The Greek version of the name is Judas -- we didn't name our child Judas. But Jude is referred to as Judas in this Bible verse (or this), which gives us insight that Jude was probably a half-brother to Jesus.

There's also a very good study aid at BlueLetterBible.org on the book of Jude. I actually haven't read the book for a long time, so writing this post has given me some motivation to dig in and learn what Jude has to say about false teachers of the day and what that means for us today.

I write all of this to try and deepen the meaning of his name, but in the end, we chose it because we thought it was a cool name, it didn't bring up images of horrible former students, and it has a historical biblical connotation. This child was the answer to prayers of ours and many of our friends and family for over 3 years.

Because of having to wait to meet him, we've grown in maturity and have a deepened understanding of what it means to be his parents. For this, we praise Him! More on that in a future post . . .

Living on love

Well, we made it through our first night. Diana asked Amanda, "Are you living on love?" Interesting how that phrase has so much more meaning, even after just one day.

One problem we encountered was how to keep the pacifier in his mouth. At 3:30 in the morning, images of psycho moms or nightmare daycares come to mind. We learned from some friends that a trick is to swaddle him super tight, and to let some of his swaddling ride high so it goes over his face a little bit. Very nice!

While we're on the topic of swaddling, I'll share that the Gerber swaddling blankets we got from Wal-mart are a bit small for him, even at 7 lbs.

The leg bone's connected to the . . .

It's day one, and we can't keep our eyes off of little Jude. It's so amazing to see his little body parts and to know that he was holed up, being knit inside mommy's belly for the past 9 months.

We dug up my baby photo (left), which we can compare with Jude's (right):

So here's our attempt at describing what he inherited:

Amanda	Dave	Body Part
X	X	Toes -- long toes and fingers!
	X	Calves-- skinny legs!
?	?	Butt-- verdict's out yet, let's hope he doesn't have Dave's big butt!A: I hope he has your butt!
?	?	Torso
X	X	Fingers -- long fingers!
	X	Hands -- Jude seems to have Dave's and his grandpa's hands
	X	Complexion -- fair-skinned with no hair!
	X	Chin -- he has Dave's underbite
X		Jawline -- he has the Kapilla Jawline
X		Nose -- thank you Jesus!
	X	Eyes - blue? that would be a surprise!
X		Eye shape -- Amanda's almond-shaped eyes
?	?	Ears-- maybe Dave's

2/27 UPDATE: Our friend Dan thought he looked more like me -- or at least had my hair!

That's what we're paying the nurses for!

Amanda and I wanted to bond with little Jude his first night in this world. As she told me later, she had just fed Jude and laid down to sleep with him on her chest. After some time, she started to smell his diaper. Ever heard of meconium (see right)?!

So it's like 3 in the morning or something like that, and I'm over in the pull-out chair/couch thing getting some decent Zzz's and I woke me to Amanda sitting up in bed with Jude trying to change his diaper. I don't even remember if she was asking for help or if it was Jude crying or something else.

If anyone knows me, I can fall asleep in less time than it takes someone to tie their shoe, and I sleep so deep I miss most evening thunderstorms. I was like, what are you waking me up for? And why are you changing his diaper?! That's what we're paying the hospital for!!! If' we're going to do it this way, let's go home!

Our friends had warned us that being in the hospital would be a refuge for soon-to-be sleep-deprived parents. In the moment, my guess is that she was a big frustrated with me . After laboring all night Friday night, she was already sleep-deprived.

Did I mention that I'm one astute fella? We did have a pretty good laugh about it this morning though . . .

Welcome Jude Mark!

Please join us in welcoming Jude Mark to the kapallen clan!

Born: February 23
Time: 6:33 p.m.
Weight: 7 lbs. 0 oz.
Length: 19 inches

When we get home, we'll post some of the details about the labor and delivery process. Amanda was such a champ, laboring 8 hours at home and 18 in the hospital! After just 45 minutes of pushing, out came the first and only of the next generation of the Van Allen family namesake!

"Easy" does it

Amanda started pushing at 5:45, just when her dad arrived at the hospital. We had been in communication with family all day long. Mark finished his shift at 3 and immediately got on the road. After a long 2 hour drive, he was with us on the Labor and Delivery floor. Another nurse came in and said, "Amanda, your dad is here." We just looked at each other and thought, "What do we do?"

Our nurse had instructed us how to push. She wanted us to do 3 sets of counts to 10 seconds during each contraction with rest in between. We were in our second 10-count when I asked if we could stop and talk to her dad. That was a special moment!

After a quick connection with her dad, we were back on task. Pushing was hard at first because of the epidural. Her face would get real read because she wasn't pushing quite right. The epidural had partially worn off by now, but not so much that it was painful -- just enough to get a feel for when she was pushing.

With a little help from what looked kind of like a wardrobe mirror, Jude was born just 45 minutes later. I think the most exciting part of the whole experience for me was to see him exit the birth canal. Here's this little baby with his shoulders pushed together and neck and legs tucked tight. He came out of the birth canal like a transformers toy, shoulders, back and legs all straightening out as he explored the newfound space of the expansiveness around him.

Because of how he sat in the birth canal, his head had a big purple knot on it for the first few hours. By Sunday morning, it had reduced to the appearance of a light hickey-bruise.

Around 7 pm, Amanda's mom called to say that her train was almost in town. Amanda hadn't eaten now for almost 24 hours and was starving by now, so Mark and I left to pick some dinner up on the way to picking Linda up. Amanda's first post-birth meal: a PotBelly's Turkey & Swiss on white with a chocolate milkshake.

As we sat and talked about her labor, Amanda told us, "If I had to do this again next week, I could do it." While there's nothing easy about labor, after her painful first trimester, she had been gifted a wonderful delivery experience.

To that I say, "Bring on #2!"

The ninth inning!

We're down to the wire now. Amanda hit 8 cm around 3:30 pm and by 5:30 was 10 cm and fetal station +2. At this point, we thought about having Amanda's epidural topped off, but it was too late. We're ready to start pushing!

If I get a chance to, I'll add a video to this post later. Amanda gave me very specific instructions on how to count. "You have to count steady, don't slow down. 1, 2, 3. Hold my head up. You should have watched 'A Baby Story' with me this week, you would have gotten it all." How funny!

Amanda had DVR'ed like 10 episodes at the neighbor's house (Tom & Sue's) while they were on vacation in Florida and watched most of them during her two off days this week.

The eighth inning

When I got back from the cafeteria, I arrived and was surprised to see Amanda wearing an oxygen mask and a heart monitor probe attached to the baby's head! The nurse said that the heart monitor inside the elastic band around Amanda's waist wasn't picking up a signal and that the probe was a necessary step. Giving her oxygen was just a precautionary measure.

Amanda, you'll love that I've chronicled this for history! After arriving back and catching up on her progress -- she was now dilated to 6 cm -- I decided to kick back and relax with Amanda. By now, the epidural was in full effect and she wasn't feeling a thing. I had the reclining chair pulled out so I could face Amanda and was in a full horizontal stretch when she asked me, "What smells like Cheetos?" I couldn't smell it, but she sure could. Turns out the reason I couldn't smell it was because the smell was exactly 6 feet from my nose (it was my feet!).

The seventh inning stretch

The doctor came in to check on Amanda around 1 pm. Since she was at 5 cm the doctor decided to break her water. They told us that things should start to move a little more quickly now. As if they could go any slower!

Knowing this might be my last chance, I decided to head down to snack on some chili before the going gets rough!

The sixth inning

Now dilated to 4 cm, Amanda was given her pitocin around 11:40 am. About 20 minutes later, the anesthesiologist came in and administered the epidural. How much do you think that changed her outlook? (See below for the answer.)

The administration of the epidural was a little stressful though. As the anesthesiologist was looking for the space between the vertebrae in her back, he told her that he would need to slightly adjust the position of the needle if she started to tingle. It wasn't painful at all for her, but was stressful for me to watch!

The fifth inning

It's morning now, and we've made it through the night. Amanda's now dilated to 3 cm and is 100% effaced. She's lost her mucus plug, but her water hasn't broken yet.

Once they gave Amanda the nubain narcotic medicine, they told us she wasn't allowed to have anything but ice chips. What fun is that?! Like a good husband, I sneaked her some ice water and Gatorade on occasion.

Things so far really have been going our way. Who am I to say -- I'm sure Amanda would have hoped to be more advanced than she was when we got to the hospital, and to experience a little less back labor -- but, all in all, it's been pretty good so far. Our next move was to try out the birthing tub.

We had the nurses filling up the tub earlier this morning. As they were filling it up, I caught them reading the instruction manual. Apparently it doesn't get much use! They filled it up half way and the temperature was reading over the maximum recommended 100°F, so they made us wait for it to cool down. (The whole time I'm thinking, why can't we just add some cold water to it?!)

Well, after an hour of waiting -- and listening to the screaming woman across the hall deliver a baby without an epidural -- Amanda finally got her bath. It really did seem cozy -- soft music, soft lights, a good book and a nice big tub filled with warm water.

At this point, I was starting to get hungry and had two alternatives to choose from: make a 10 minute walk for some cafeteria food or walk down 2 flights of stairs and drive the 7 blocks home. Bacon and eggs were sounding pretty good, so I made my way home.

Not a bad choice at all -- I made it home and back to the hospital in just 40 minutes. When I got there, Amanda was practically asleep in the tub! I excused myself to the delivery room where she joined me 20 minutes later . . .

Needling butterflies

The nurse told us that she was going to administer nubain to help with the back labor. She thought the baby might have been twisted or in an awkward position. In order to do this, she had to hook up an IV. Dave and I both told her that my veins were very hard to find, and the best thing to do is use a butterfly from the start.

The first nurse tried a few times and poked around. They never believe Dave or me when we say that I have difficult veins. Each new nurse thinks they are super nurse and take my veins as a personal challenge to overcome at the cost of my bruised arms.

The second nurse was finally able to tap a vein in my forearm. Once the nubain was working, I started to believe that medication was the way to go!

The third inning

Pre-registered, checked-in and now situated in our room, we decided to walk the halls for what seemed to be hours. Well, I guess it did last a few hours! Amanda and I began walking the halls off an on around 1:30 am. By 2 am, she was still just 2 cm dilated, but was 90% effaced.

Earlier this week on Tuesday, Amanda went to the doctor's who told her that she was 70-80% effaced. All that time had passed -- including laboring at home -- and we only gained that?!

We walked the halls until 3:30 am or so. She was experiencing some good back labor and, by then, it was getting to the point where walking around wasn't helping any more. Time for some medication!

Final preparations

With all of our preparations made, I thought it would be a good idea to try and get some sleep. That was easy enough for Dave!

I, on the other hand, was busy nesting in high gear . . . I took a bath (couldn't have hairy legs for the big event!). Cleaned the bathroom. Organized more baby stuff. Prepared the guest room for my parents. Tried to fall asleep (hoping I would be one of those lucky ones that could sleep during labor), but that did not work. So I tried reading to pass some time. But when I found myself unable to finish a paragraph due to the sharp pain in my abdomen, I figured it was time to wake Dave and get on the road to the hospital.

I woke Dave up shortly after midnight. He packed the car and we drove off with Pacey chasing us down the street. JC and Zsuzsanna offered to watch Pacey when the time came, and sure enough, the time was here. Dave walked Pacey up to their door and, surprisingly, JC was still awake. Keslie sure was happy see Pacey.

With all of our preparations complete, we made the 7-block drive to the hospital. We arrived at the emergency room entrance around 12:30 am and, after filling out some quick paperwork, wheeled up to the labor and delivery area (note: pre-registering ahead of time saved us time when quickness counted.) They put us in room 4, the same room we had for our practice run.

Wrapping things up @ home

With the movie over, we went home and made final preparations.

Task #1: I packed my overnight bag and moved our bags to the front door. Of course, Amanda has had her bag packed for a month or so already.

Task#2: Molly, our neighbor's dog, was still under our care. We knew that wasn't going to work out for the next few days, so I walked across the street to Dave and Cathy's hoping that they would be able to help out. Cathy was out of town, but Dave was home chilling out. Amanda was having contractions that were about 5 minutes apart at this point, and when I told him that, his eyes got pretty big! I said that if I called him between 6 am and 8 am, we would probably be at the hospital, and if I called after 8 am, we were probably sleeping in!

Thankfully, David was more than gracious and offered to watch Molly until Tom and Sue came home.