Dylan update - 4.4.09

Dylan is continuing to do well. His Uncle Gregg visited him yesterday (4.3.09) and is currently his favorite Uncle (that's a challenge to his Uncle Jason to come visit). He is eating more each day and is progressing very well according to his pediatrician.

Mom and Dad are hopeful he can be out of the hospital and ready for the CU Spring Football Scrimmage on 4.25.09. Luke and Christie gave Dylan a little Buff Baby onesie to wear! It is so great and he's going to look like quite a stud in his CU gear! His signs are all pointing in right direction now!

Dylan on 4.2.09

Uncle Gregg's hand

Uncle Gregg with Dylan's "Peanut"

Dylan thinks life's a beach at the hospital

Baby tired, Daddy tired

More pictures can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=RyanonBoulder&target=ALBUM&id=5319536567109657233&locked=true&authkey=Gv1sRgCKLXoMzh7rz6Zw&feat=email

Ranger is living the Dream this week

Seeing we are in the hospital with Dylan this week, my mom is staying at our house with Ranger. Yesterday they went on a 3+ hour walk that found Ranger walking to CU, taking a tour of campus and then walking home past the hospital. I'm sure he enjoyed the long walk and every smell along the way.

Here are a few photos from the excursion. These are pretty great...

I'd like to thank the kind person that took this photo in front of CU's football stadium!!

Funny thing, this is the gate I use for my access my season CU football seats

Didn't Luke and Firth have drinking parties in this dorm all the time? Ranger likes it.

Bacon Cupcakes? YUM!

As we've been in the hospital this whole week we have definitely had some great support. Yesterday we received a dozen cupcakes from a local place called Tee & Cakes. There was an assortment of cupcakes inside however the dozen was specifically delivered with 4 bacon cupcakes. Our friends are having their annual "Bacon fest" this weekend in WI. From Melissa's description, it's a day where nothing but bacon is eaten along with a few fine Miller beer products. We are envious of those able to attend such a great event and hope they have a little extra for us!

So the bacon cupcakes are very unique and very tasty. They have maple syrup in the chocolate frosting and bits of bacon in the cupcakes themselves. As the picture shows, there's a whole lotta bacon to enjoy!

Things are going well here at the hospital. Melissa will get discharged/released from her hospital care tonight after dinner and we'll begin our full-time "boarder" status here with Dylan.

Dylan is also doing well and after five days is back to his birth weight (for a baby born at 36 weeks the nurses say they expect it to take up to two weeks to reach this milestone. This is definitely a good thing.) He is starting to gain a good grasp of how to eat and is quite a little character. We'll look to post more pictures soon.

Jets Attempt To Trade Mannequin Dressed As Favre For Jay Cutler

I saw this in the Onion yesterday and just had to pass this along. Jay Cutler is an immature punk who whined and cried all too often in Denver the past few years. His press conferences and sideline antics have been just embarrassing. On the flip side it's tough to see great football talent (potentially) leave town, but I think this will be for the best for the future of the Broncos.

This is the article (HILARIOUS!):

DENVER—The Broncos' front office continues to rebuff trade overtures from the New York Jets, who persist in their attempts to trade a clothing-store mannequin draped with a Brett Favre No. 4 Jets jersey, Jets sweatpants, and a well-worn Southern Miss Golden Eagles ball cap for Jay Cutler. "Look, we can tell that's not really Favre, okay?" Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels told Jets executives during a video conferencing call Wednesday. "It's made of plastic, it keeps slipping down in the chair, and that's obviously you talking out of the corner of your mouth. Jay's not on the table, all right? I gotta go." The Jets refuse to drop their offer and have sweetened it with the addition of a dog in a Jerricho Cotchery jersey.

Now introducing Dylan Christopher Lee

On Sunday, 3/29/09, at 6:06pm we welcomed our son, Dylan Christopher Lee, into our lives. He arrived very quickly as we rushed into the ER and were at the hospital for barely an hour before he was born. He was a bit early at not a day over 36 weeks, but has proven to be quite an amazingly sweet baby and the nurses really like how feisty he is. He really knows his mom and his dad's voices and seems to smile when he hears either once. That is a really great feeling!

The little guy and mom are both doing well. Mom hopes/plans to be discharged from the hospital Thursday and Dylan will likely have to stay for an extended period of time. The good news is that he will get lots of care so he can leave the hospital strong and ready to test both his father and mother! I've also put photos of our room that our family is staying in. Dylan is in a room attached to ours so that we can visit and see him anytime we want. Once mom gets discharged, we'll be able to stay as "boarders" in this same room until Dylan goes home. While we don't know the overall timing of this yet and everything is "day-to-day", it is definitely reassuring to know that we'll be able to stay and make this hospital room our "home" until Dylan is big and strong enough to come home with us. I'm looking to go back to work once Melissa gets discharged so I can take time off once Dylan returns home.

Thanks to everyone who has called, e-mailed and texted us. We are really fortunate to have so many people in our lives that reach out to us and want to check in and care. It is a bit overwhelming with all the calls, etc so please have patience and come check out this blog for updates in the meantime. We'll try to communicate when we can and when we have the strength and time.

** You can also call our home line and talk to Ryan's mom (Chris) as she is watching Ranger and house sitting while we are in the hospital.

A few photos of our new guy:

Dylan Christopher Lee

Mom and Dylan
Dad and Dylan

Mom and Dylan bonding

This is our room at the hospital. Dylan's room is the door on the left, bathroom in the middle and you can see the blizzard/white out through the window on the right.

This is the view from our bed. Dylan is through the big window (which again, is just great!!)

Why I love Boulder.

I have a friend who wrote a "Why I love Boulder" blog recently. He did it as part of a bigger effort to promote Boulder.me as a business and technology start-up site. It's a great site but got me thinking about how I love living in Colorado and Boulder specifically.

Reason #1:

Right outside our front door we have skiing and outdoor activities within a few mile drive. It is definitely a perk to life and given the 36 week pregnant nature of my wife, I wanted to get a last spring ski day in.

So this past Sunday I went skiing at Eldora, about 21 miles west of Boulder. The drive goes up Canyon drive and through Nederland. It's an absolutely gorgeous drive and shows some of the best Colorado has to offer - winding river, beautiful mountains, a great waterfall and a lake up near Nederland. Plus Ned has one of my favorite micro-brew and BBQ places ever - Wild Mountain Smokehouse and Brewery. This place is great and is in Ned's little downtown (which also happens to be one of the last areas you can find where the town has decided not to have cell service). By all accounts it's a little hippy town. Ned also has Frozen Dead Guy days. Check out this link to see more about this unique, annual event. Frozen Dead Guy Days involves the city putting together a Coffin Race, people doing a Polar Plunge, and they even have a Parade full of floats.

The whole drive up I just keep thinking about how lucky we are and how great of a place we live. Part of my goal was to get a good day of spring skiing in and leave by 1:30 to get home in time for either a quick bike ride or a trip to the driving range. This was the end of my Spring Break from grad school and the thought of getting in "one last day" of outdoor activities prior to work, school and the forthcoming pregnancy seemed like a great day!

The spring skiing was actually really good in the morning and I got to rip off some diamond and double diamond runs, complete with moguls and trees. It was a blast and after the 16 inches of fresh pow-pow dumped three days prior, conditions were really great. So I headed home to enjoy the high-50's temps in Boulder and looked forward to hitting a few golf balls.

Lucky for me I ended up taking a break to eat a snack at home and waited for Melissa to get up from a nap. After she got up we talked for a bit and before we knew it we were running off to the ER and an ensuing c-section delivery....

Funny Stuff from In Living Color

This is too funny, even all these years later! The bit where he is harassing the lady to use a bio-degradable bag is great. We definitely use specially degradable poop bags with Ranger. oh man... what can you do!!!

Handi-Man

Last week we worked on the nursery and at one point I probably used every swear word in the book while hanging a book shelf. I think Melissa was concerned about my sanity midway through the little project. When I finished, Melissa told me I was her "handyman" around the house. I guess, but all I could think of was an old In Living Color skit. Here is one skit from the show, for your entertainment:

Watch more In Living Color videos on AOL Video