One of the best Super Bowl commercials from 2011 was the “Imported from Detroit” commercial with Eminem. The music was cool, the VO was cool and the overall look of the commercial made you want to run out and buy a new car from Detroit. This is the original spot.

Not long after that we took one our our usual trips to Detroit and we decided to make our own modified version of that, but based on the fact that I was “Exported from Dearborn” to Chicago. So, on a whim we shot a bunch of footage with our iPhones while driving, and then a lot more footage with the GoPro camera that we just happened to have on that trip with us. I have all the footage to Brenda and the audio track, and she created our own version. This is what that one looks like (if you have not seen the original, watch that one first).

We had a great family day complete with a field trip to see holiday trains and cake and gifts. I wonder what this day will be like for them when they turn 21 in 2028.

A few more photos are on SmugMug.

The kids first official trip to see Santa. I’m not sure they really knew what to make of it, but Andrew managed to ask for “a car”. I’m not sure if he was talking about a matchbox car or one that he can drive around the block.

Room by Ikea

This time we decided not to wait until the bed was being scaled with a single leap over, and got Sydney her own bed. She’s been really good at sleeping on the floor mat at Grandma’s house so we thought she was ready. We waited for it to be assembled before we brought her into the room. I think she was a bit confused at first, not knowing what happened to her crib.

[See post to watch QuickTime movie] ]]> http://tomchak.com/blog/2011/11/12/sydneys-first-bed/feed/ 0 http://tomchak.com/blog/2011/11/01/halloween-2011/ http://tomchak.com/blog/2011/11/01/halloween-2011/#comments Wed, 02 Nov 2011 02:00:16 +0000 Thomas Tomchak http://tomchak.com/blog/?p=3852

See them all on SmugMug

It hit me in a unexpected moment. While watching Max and Andrew interact at the eye doctors office this past weekend (we were there to get new glasses for Max), it became clear as day the distance Max still needs to go just to catch up to his own age. For a long time the boys were the same in so many ways, or at least close when it came to development, but now Andrew has sprinted far ahead. Or maybe it’s more that Max slowed down to a walk. Either way, it was a moment of clarity, because for the first time the difference seemed so tangible. I found myself just taking a moment to think about it. While Max is making progress and we like to celebrate the little victories, it suddenly became clear to me just how long the road ahead of him still is.

So even more reason to be excited that we are seeing Dr. Goldberg. Max has made noticeable  progress since our visit to CA. The two biggest changes we see are that he is becoming more verbal by not only saying more words, but starting to put together sentences better. We’re getting more eye contact. But not just more eye contact, eye contact that really shows a sparkle in his eyes. This past week I when I picked him up to school he looked at me in a way I’ve never seen before, with a bright sparkle in his eyes and a smile, and said “Hello Daddy. Mommy at work?” He then gave me a big warm hug and walked with me to get the other kids. To most parents this sounds like no big deal. But what is more typical is for him to get mad  when he sees me there for him (instead of mom) because he doesn’t like changes in routine, he throws a tantrum right there on the floor in front of everybody, and then starts in with his OCD tendencies. He loves to run into any room he can and flip the light switches on and off, or go for the bathroom and either use the sink or flush the toilet. That doesn’t happen every time, but you never knew for sure what to expect.

Another big changes has been the way he wakes up in the morning. In the weeks leading up to our trip to CA he would wake up at his usual time (between 5 and 6am) and before he was awake 30 seconds he would be mad about something and yelling. Let me tell you, when you yourself are just jumping out of bed from a dead sleep, it’s no way to be greeted in the morning. But now he wakes up smiling, he says hello and if you’re lucky will even sit with you on the couch and just snuggle.

Not only do we see the positive changes, but others do as well. Both at school and in his therapy class teachers have commented that they have noticed he’s calmer, talking more and participating more in group activities. All of these are things that have been a  challenge for Max.

He still has his moments where he can’t keep it together, and we had one of those this weekend too while out at the park. He wanted to walk instead of riding in the wagon, but at one point we just needed him to sit in the wagon but he kicked and screamed as we put him in, and then screamed almost all the way back to the van (a nice 10 minute walk through what is otherwise a nice quite park). Yea! Fun at the park! 

About a week ago we had our first conference call with the Dr to discuss test results and the weekly reports that we send to the doctor. He was also able to answer questions that we had and start us down the next phase of the treatment.

Max started a new medication this week (in addition to his current one) and once again we’re seeing small improvements. We are also getting more blood tests done (this will be a regular occurrence to keep him closely monitors) because the last round of tests that we did while in CA showed that he may have a thyroid problem. It will take another test to tell for sure. It’s also possible that the stress of the trip and the fact that he was sick for part of the trip to CA had thrown the test a bit. But that too is something that will need to be addressed if it is in fact a problem.

This Wednesday it will be 7 weeks since our trip to California to see Dr. Goldberg. What’s important to me is not just that we’re seeing improvements, but that he’s being treated in a very thoughtful and measured way. Dr. Goldberg is following a protocol that he’s been refining for over 20 years, but at the same time he’s taking into account that Max is a unique child and needs any treatments customized for his needs. Max will not be recovered overnight – it’s a long journey . But I do feel like we’re onto something good with Dr. Goldberg’s treatment.

It’s been just over a week since we returned from CA, and I finally have time to take a breath and add more details about our trip to California. As I mentioned previously, we feel it went very well.

Preamble

Skip this if you just want to know about Dr. Goldberg

It ended up being a long week for many reasons. Not bad, just LONG.

First, we’ve had a small leak in the bathroom for the last 5 years (seriously). A few days before we left I finally had a plumber come out to fix it, only to find out it was not the plumbing, but the tiles on the splash wall of the bathroom were falling off and has been running behind the tiles all this time. Not so good. So not the quick fix I was hoping for, but the bathtub needs to be re-tiled, which involves removing the shower walls and being without a shower for at least a few days.

I was able to quickly find a trusted home repair service to take the job on, and they even came in with a reasonable bid. But then the more we talked it through, I realized that our crappy bathroom floor also needed to be replaced, and it just made sense to do it all at the same time. Fine – now it’s WAY more money than what a simple leak would cost to fix, but at least it’s being done while we’re gone (in both CA and MI), and will minimize the time we have to go without a shower and toilet.

The only problem ended up being that they had to start on the bathroom the day before we left for CA if it was all going to be done by the time we returned.  So, a day before we were supposed to leave for CA we had to get a hotel room near the airport so that we had a working toilet and shower. It ended up being a very nice night/morning and it was fun to stay with Max in a hotel room. He didn’t know what to make of it, but he seemed to enjoy it. Seeing things that area old experiences to you through the eyes of a child that’s doing it for the first time is always so fascinating and enjoyable. It’s one of the most enjoyable parts of having kids.

The next morning (Tuesday August 2nd) we went to the airport for our direct flight to CA. It was very interesting watching Max. You could tell he was just taking it all in. We took a train from the long term economy parking lot, waited in a long security line, and then still had 2 hours to wait for our flight at the gate. During that entire time he was very good. Amazing actually.

When we got on the plane he sat between both me and Brenda and was clearly very nervous. First by the noise of the plane, and then by the movement as we taxied to the runway. We each had a hand on his legs and he stayed calm as we took off, and enjoyed a snack and short nap during the flight. For it being such a long day for all of us, he really did great and was in a good mood up until we got to the hotel and had to wake him up in the back seat of the rental car.

The next day (Wednesday the 3rd of August) was the big day. We took a short side-trip to Santa Monica Beech and then headed to our appointment with plenty of time to spare.

Meeting Dr. Goldberg

We were both nervous and excited about meeting Dr. Goldberg. We had already read his book and felt that we knew a lot about him, but we just didn’t want to expect too much from our first meeting.

Dr. Goldberg runs a regular pediatric practice out of his LA office, but on certain days sees only parents of autistic children, like us. Most come to him because they too have read his book and are curious. Many are from the LA area, but people travel from around the world to meet with him.

Our time with Dr. Goldberg consisted of a very relaxed, informal meeting in the lobby of his practice. This seemed a bit odd at first, but the benefits were clear pretty fast. Max had plenty of room to run around and play, and there was a separate room attached that had plenty of toys to keep him busy. While the 3 of us talked, Max played and occasionally ran up to us to get attention for one thing or another. Brenda and I took turns keeping him out of trouble and dealing with his OCD with light switches.

It was clear right away that Dr. Goldberg had personally reviewed the entire pile of information we had sent him in advance. He had made notes of things he wanted to discuss with us and had mostly wanted to clarify or expand on some of the information we had provided. This spoke volumes to me personally. I have switched doctors several times over the years, and the vast majority of the time my records were never reviewed before my first meeting. It’s always obvious by the questions they ask. One doctor didn’t even know I was Diabetic until I mentioned it to him. RED FLAG! I didn’t have him for very long before I switched again.

Over the course of 90 minutes we talked at length about how Dr. Goldberg has spent years refining his treatment protocol, and how Max may fit into his course of treatment. At almost every turn, Max fit into what Dr. Goldberg calls NIDS (Neuro Immune Distress Syndrome). This condition is based largely around the idea that after a child was born, their immune system was compromised. The causes can be anything or everything from environmental to viral. For a normal healthy child with a well developed immune system, many of these things would not be a big deal. But for a child that has a compromised immune system, it stresses out the body. At some point, the child is actually considered “sick” because the body can no longer carry the stress. When this happens, many of the symptoms that I child presents with are very similar to Autism. In part this is because in recent years something that is otherwise unexplained and has some symptoms similar to Autism, it’s just all lumped together. And as we know first hand, once your child is labeled as autistic, pretty much anything that goes wrong after that is just attributed to your child having autism, and little interest is taken in it. But if Dr. Goldberg is right, a great number of children that are labeled as autistic are not suffering from a congenital neurological problem, but are actually sick. Sick in a way that can be treated. But nobody in the medical community seems to be interested in hearing that.

The other important thing to note is that there is no definitive test to diagnosis your child as autistic. It’s very subjective and based on one or more people’s opinion after spending a hour or so with your child. When Max was diagnosed, there were about 6 people in the room with us that evaluated Max at the time, and they had to have a private meeting for 20 minutes after evaluating Max to decide as a group what to tell us about him. The point is, it’s not black and white in most cases.

So after answering all of the questions, Dr. Goldberg was confident that Max fit his definition for NIDS, so we are now following his treatment protocol, which we started on Monday the 8th.

There are two major components of the protocol. First, the diet is very restricted. He can have meat, most vegetables and a few fruits (no tropical fruits). The major things to avoid are gluten, dairy, sugar and grains. Color dies are a big one as well. In fact, we have to actually remove the blue diet that’s on his medicine before he takes it because many children have negative reactions to food coloring (it’s considered an allergen). All of this may sound like a pain in the butt, but the fact is we’ve been doing 95% of this for a year now (all thanks to Brenda and all the research she’s done on nutrition). So we only had a few small adjustments to make.

The second part is the medicine. Working on the theory that he has a virus in his system, he is now taking valtrex. While this on the surface seems like a radical treatment, it’s easy to find many examples of families talking about how their child was greatly improved by this part of the treatment alone. However, in many cases the child gets worse initially before they get better. I mean this in the sense that they become even more irritable than before, and we have already seen this with Max. He’s much more hot and cold with his moods, and when he’s having a melt down it’s more intense and lasts longer. But on the flip side of that, he has been showing more eye contact this last week and has been more verbal. He’s talking more, and saying new words almost daily right now. Se we are seeing some real positives.

One amazing thing about our visit with the doctor is that we were allowed to both video tape and record audio of our visit, with no restrictions at all. I wasn’t even allowed to have a camera in the delivery room when the kids were born because of hospital policy! If I had to guess as to why he’s so relaxed about this, it’s that Dr. Goldberg wants to get his message out to people. He’s interested in helping as many people as possible, and the only way to do that is to make the larger medical community and parents aware. It’s only through parents putting pressure on the medical community that things will ever change. I have since had our entire meeting transcribed into a text document so that we can review information that was discussed just by doing a word search on the document.

You may be wondering how we can be seeing a doctor and doing such a radical treatment when we’re over 1,000 miles away. There are several ways that it’s possible.

First, Brenda sends weekly reports as requested by the office. They provided a form with specific questions about all aspects of how he’s doing. After they receive the report, the doctor reviews it and the nurse calls Brenda back with any new instructions or changes for the upcoming week.

Second, every 4 weeks we will have a conference call with the doctor, just as if we were there in person and discuss all of the particulars. We also have the option of doing a video call over Skype, which we plan to do.

The next course of treatment after the Valtrex will be decided later after we see how he responds to this part of the process. It can take up to 3 weeks to see significant changes, so we have some time yet.

After our 90 minute meeting with the doctor we were taken into one of the exam rooms where they withdrew about 23 gallons of blood from Max for a variety of tests (ok, maybe only 8 gallons but it seemed like a lot for such a small kid – but he was fine).

After screaming through the entire thing, Max was pretty tired and exhausted. Think about what a pain that would be for a 3 year old. First you have to play by yourself for 90 minuets while your parents more or less ignore you, and then you’re rewarded by being held down and having your body drained of all of it’s blood.

We ended the day by getting max to bed and letting him relax. I think he really enjoyed having a big bed all to himself. He liked when we would tuck him in under the covers every night.

Time to Head Home

We all had a good night of sleep and headed out the next morning with plenty of time to get to the airport. We had about 3 extra hours (by design), so decided to head down to the Hollywood Walk of Fame for a little sight seeing and lunch. We had a great time and we were both reminded how nice it was to just have a single child to focus on and shower with attention, instead of feeling so split with our attention.

After taking in the sights and having lunch at Mel’s Diner (which was awesome) we started our leisurely trip back to the rental car place by the airport. And that’s where the low point of the trip took place.

Sorry About Your Car

I’ll get into the details in a future post (it has gotten very interesting in the last several days) but i had a accident with the rental car. Nobody was hurt and I’m very thankful for that. Especially since I caused the accident. The rental car got the worst of it but was for the most part drivable. We were only a mile and a half way from the drop off location when it happened (another good thing because the freeway would have been out of the question).

So we ended our trip to LA with a big BANG. Like I said, more on that later. This post is already way longer than I expected.

NO SHOWER FOR YOU!

While we were waiting for our flight I called to check in and see what the stays of our shower was. Things were moving along great, however due to a few small problems that had to be fixed along the way, it was not going to be ready when we got home. So, as much as we didn’t want to spend even more money on hotels, we decided to get one close to the house for one more night. We checked in at 2am on Friday, and were up and on the road heading to MI for the weekend by 10am the next morning.

We had a great (albeit very short) visit to MI and collected our other two children from their week long visit with Grandma and Grandpa Tomchak. They both did great in our absence and it was nice to know they had such good bonding time with their cousins as well.

On Sunday afternoon we returned to our semi-remodeled bathroom, and it was A-W-E-S-O-M-E. What we had was so bad for so long that it was hard not to really appreciate the new one. I say semi-remodeled because we didn’t do anything with the crappy walls, crappy bathroom door, or crappy fixtures. We just didn’t have the money, and after all this was a LEAK that had to be fixed. We were already way over budget.

We were so thankful to have Avalon Home Services take this job on. Not only did they make great suggestions and do things to save us money along the way, but they went above and beyond by fixing a few things in the bathroom and not charging us, bringing in the mail every day, and even taking out the trash on trash day. Seriously, they were awesome. So a big thanks to Cathy and Steve for all of their hard work while we were gone. They worked hard to make sure everything was done by the time we got home on Sunday and after the week we had it was not under appreciated! If you’re in the Chicagoland area I can not recommend them highly enough.

What’s Next?

In 2-3 more weeks we will have decided, along with Dr. Goldberg, what our next step with Max is. We are still cautiously optimistic and know that we’re doing the best we can to help Max. The funny thing is, I got the feeling during this trip that Max knew that as well. I really felt like I bonded with him on this trip and got choked up a few times while playing with him on the bed. While he’s very tough when he’s “in a mood”, he’s just so sweet, loving and funny when he’s well. We just love him so much.

More in coming weeks. Sorry this is so long, but I wanted to get it all down before too much time passed.

]]> http://tomchak.com/blog/2011/08/17/the-goldberg-visit/feed/ 0 http://tomchak.com/blog/2011/08/01/max-meet-dr-goldberg/ http://tomchak.com/blog/2011/08/01/max-meet-dr-goldberg/#comments Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:12:01 +0000 Thomas Tomchak http://tomchak.com/blog/?p=3663

Since Max and Andrew entered early intervention just after their first birthday,  Brenda has always looked for any and all solutions that might help the boys. As time moved forward the focus would change, and of course now the focus is on his diagnoses of being on the spectrum of Autism.

Brenda has read more books than I could have imaged, and frankly I don’t know how or where she finds the time. Some are better than others, and some of the better ones she’s asked me to read, which I have done. More recently, she read a book by Dr. Goldberg titled “The Myth of Autism”. It was the reading of this book that changed the course or our lives this week.

The underlying theme of Dr. Goldberg’s book is that while many more children are diagnosed with Autism these days than 20 years ago, a high percentage of them do not fit the original definition of what Autism is. That in fact, many of these children actually suffer from sickness that in many cases can be cured through his treatment protocol.

Through very careful screening, only children that meet certain criteria are accepted to see him in his LA office. You need to submit complete medical records and a recorded history of events, as well as some specialized blood tests. If you child seems like a good candidate, you’re accepted to make an appointment with the Doctor. We were lucky enough to be accepted and took the first appointment we could get (which was 3 or 4 months later). That time is finally here, and Max sees the good doctor on Wednesday of this week.

While we are not expecting any miracles here, we are cautiously optimistic. We have always believed that while Max did seem to fit some of the definition of Autism,  at times he does not. There are some very specific things that he does (like make good eye contact and initiate play with his siblings) that fly in the face of being Autistic. So while we don’t see this as a cure-all, we feel that from the research that Brenda has done, and from reading the book (we have both read it now) we would be foolish to at least not try this and see where it goes. Max is still very young and we want to use all of his time to our advantage to make him better.

So today Andrew and Sydney are being delivered to their Dearborn Michigan family so they can spend some quality time with the people there that don’t get much time with them, and tomorrow we head off to Los Angeles CA with Max for his very first plane ride. Funny, I didn’t take my first ride until I was 22 years old, and he’s not even 4 years old yet.

If you’re interested in knowing more about Dr. Goldberg and his book, follow the link below. For a very touching look at some parents that have seen their children recovered, watch the video below. It’s this video that first got my attention.

NIDS Website and more about Dr. Goldberg

It’s just so gratifying when the plan you had for your life is executed on so perfectly. I finally know what they mean by “living the dream”. It’s all exactly as I dreamed it would be some day.

So, enter the new “Tractor Wagon” (this is what Andrew calls it). It’s made to carry 1,000 lbs, so I’m pretty sure it will be up to the task of carrying the boys all the way through adulthood.

But this one is so big, we realized today that it easily carts the boys around, Sydney and a few bags of daily necessities while we’re out.

The down side? My legs are KILLING me from being the horse to this cart. But the kids loved it.

The rest of the photos are on Flickr

BathTimex3 from the Tomchak Family. on Vimeo.

What’s that, your kids will not eat fruits or veggies? The trick is to turn them into something they like!

We blend strawberries, bananas, mangoes, broccoli, spinach, flax seed and pear into a tasty “shake” that the kids actually ask for. Healthy eating without the battle.

It helps to have a good blender like the Blendtec too.

The trick is to get just the right balance so that the sweet fruit overpowers the more bitter veggies.

Location:Home

Location: Adler Planetarium

What’s great about the school is that the teachers are well trained to work with children like Max, and they all have degrees in different areas of expertise. He goes there 4 days a week for the first half of the day, and they come by the house to pick him up. Around lunch time they bus him back to the other preschool where he and Max have been going for almost a year now.

Because the school gets funding from the State of IL, the cost to us is only $60 per year! That in itself is reason enough to stay in our current home for a few more years.

Max is still adjusting to some degree, but he’s getting used to it. He likes taking the bus and has no problem watching us as he drives away.

It’s amazing how something so simple is so exciting to them.

That’s what I called it. Every time Brenda would bring it up and I didn’t want to discuss it, I would instead refer to it as “the A word”. After all I didn’t want to even hear the word unless it was our reality, which it was not.

The truth is, I had already made peace with it several months ago. We both knew a lot about the subject, and for a long time knew that Max needed some extra attention. It was even more noticeable since he’s a twin and there is a constant comparison, like it or not.

We (mostly Brenda) did a lot of reading and research on his symptoms and behaviors because obviously there was something not quite right, and it always came down to “sensory issues”. But that’s a big umbrella covering many different disorders.

Max is coming up on 3 years old and has been in therapy for well over a year now. While there have been some huge gains, he has hit a plateau of sorts. He’s not regressing, but we’re also not seeing the kinds of improvements we were getting used to. Because of this change, Brenda recently pushed to have a Medical Evaluation done on Max. It’s the one test that we knew would give us some solid information. That test took place on October 20th (just under 2 weeks ago) at Masonic Medial Center in Chicago.

A Medical Evaluation is a 1-2 hour test (really it’s more of playtime with the child and interview questions with mom and dad) that a group of doctors conduct with you and your child present. Each doctor has a different background and specialty. After they are satisfied with what they have learned from the session (as well as reviewing all previous medical and therapy information) they go off into their own private room and discuss your child for 15-30 minutes. When they all return, the deliver their assessment of the situation – the conclusion that they have all come to agree on.

When they came back, they said it was in fact “the A word” – Autism.

While I had made my peace with it long ago, and went through a kind of mourning, it was still a punch in the gut to hear and know that it was true. It was hard to not get teared up right then and there. We asked questions and talked for another 30 minutes or so and each physician chimed in with his or her own bit of information. Autism is not a single diagnosis, but a spectrum. If there’s good news to take away, it’s that he’s on the low end, or mild end of the spectrum. So it could be worse for sure.

The other bit of good news would be that we finally have a definitive diagnose, which means we now have a single focus to push forward with. This will make better use of the time we have to help him and allow us to move forward in the right direction faster, instead of being more scatter shot about all of the possible treatments.

The first 5 years, especially the first 2-3, are very important for this condition, and it’s a blessing that we had him in therapy as soon as we did. The odd thing is that we started the therapy because of Andrew, and later realized that Max needed it too (Andrew has recently exited the program having no more needs to address). We will also have access to more therapies that, up until school age, are covered, at least in part, but the state.

Another positive indication is that the same group of doctors wants to see him again in a year to see if the treatments and changes are helping him, and to be sure he’s progressing at a good rate. They said that while it does not happen often, it is possible that when he comes back he will no longer be considered Autistic. While we’re not counting on that, it is good news.

Because we started with him so young, and because he’s on the mild end of the spectrum, there’s a good chance that by the time he starts school at age 5 he will be no different than any other child. While there is no guarantee of this, the outlook is very good. There are plenty of examples of children seemingly reversing their diagnosis when it was treated at a young age.

What does this all mean for the here and now? What has really changed? Not much.

He’s the same little boy he always was that we loved from before he was born. We’ve always focused on his needs and symptoms and always tried to do what was best for him. The main difference is that we have a diagnosis for it now, and a singular focus on how to help him.

So Max is still Max. He smiles, he makes us laugh, he’s goofy and he laughs for no apparent reason. And we love him for who he is.

He’s also a very strong headed, stubborn boy that wants what he wants when he wants it and is not shy about telling you he’s unhappy with you. He throws tantrums, hits you when he’s mad, doesn’t like taking naps, is a very picky eater and can make the day as long as a week when he’s in a bad mood. And again, we love him for who he is.

So while he may have a label now, it’s just that – a label. When you see him just treat him like any other little boy, and he will love you back and leave you smiling.

This is my first official blog post. Hooray for Brenda!

I have always appreciated Tom’s dedication to posting the updates and play by play happenings of what is going on in our household. It is very nice for me to look at old posts and see how our lives are constantly changing. I know my posts will not be as detailed because of my drive-by tendencies in writing anything however I will try to get involved in the blogging game.

Here is a video that I did on my iPhone. This really seems to be the only way I will be able to do any form of editing these days. I did one for Sydney, so now it’s Max and Andrew’s turn for a video.

It’s fun to see what things your kids become interested in as they grow up. At the age of 2, it’s pretty simple. Cars, Fire Trucks, and Trains. At least for Andrew. He is obsessed with them all, but Trains is probably in the lead right now. A few months back we took him and Max on a train ride to Chicago and he still works it into a conversation unexpectedly as the mood hits him.

More recently it’s been all about Thomas The Train. He would play with his Thomas The Train set by the bay window, while watching Thomas The Train on TV. I think for me that’s like watching a nerd show on how to build a computer while sitting on the couch on my wireless laptop or iPad. So I understand. The male species can be an easy read.

Because he loves it so much and gets so excited, Brenda and I have wanted to add to his excitement by expanding his train set with more engines, cars and maybe an expansion pack with more tracks. Those are all great, but then we noticed that they actually sell a table specifically for setting up the train. I liked this idea a lot. It would be kind of nice for him (and Max when Andrew allows it) to have the train setup it a place that didn’t get knocked on the floor multiple times a day, sending Andrew into a rage yelling “No Train Sydney, My Train… Time Out Sydney!”.

Anyway, after looking at a few tables and seeing how crappy they were made, especially for the price, I decided to make one myself. A quick google search turned up a link on some very basic plans that I thought I could handle since I’ve been home this month. So one day I had the idea, the next day I was at Home Depot with the Little Sydney picking out lumber. What’s really amazing to me is that I’ve had a top notch woodworking garage for the last 7 years, and never made a single project aside from remodeling the basement. But the first summer after I sell all of the machines, I decide to make something where the machines would have actually be useful!

My original plan was to make the table at a much higher quality, and for less money. In the end, It probably cost me twice as much when you count the glue I had to by, the name tags, clamps that I needed but didn’t already own and the fact that the materials list given on the website actually had 2 extra pieces listed that I didn’t need. But, it is personalized and much better made. My hope is (and I do know this is a long shot) that 20 years for now Andrew is able to give the table to one of his boys (or girls) and adds another name tag to it.

I had an idea to shoot a time-lapse video of building it. I have a camera that’s very easy to mount anywhere that can take a suction cup, and has a very wide angle lens, so it was pretty easy. Looking back at the video now, I’m really glad that I did it (both the table and the video). Hopefully it will be a nice memento for the boys in years to come.

[See post to watch QuickTime movie]

Sunday was a great day to play outside with the kids. Having the “Tomchak Park” is turning out to be a great use of our long neglected yard.

[See post to watch QuickTime movie]

We also got to see several places where they were shooting the next Transformers movie (#3). Large parts of Michigan Avenue were shut down and they had a car dangling off of the Michigan Avenue bridge.

All in all, it was a great day. Summers in Chicago are really the best. You can find the rest of the photos on SmugMug.

After being outside close to an hour with the boys and Sydney we started to bring them into the house since it was past their bedtime and they still needed baths. While Brenda was holding Sydney and trying to convince Andrew why going in the house was a good thing, I carried Max into the house through the kitchen door that connects to the garage. I plopped him on the floor in the kitchen, made sure that the basement door was locked and pulled the kitchen door closed behind me.

Brenda and Sydney were about 20 feet away from me as I pulled the door closed and we swapped places as she went to take Sydney into the house and I headed for the yard to continue negotiations with Andrew.

That was mistake number 1. Never leave a 2 year old on the other side of a door that can be locked.

As I passed Brenda I joked “I hope he doesn’t lock us out!”. And only seconds later Brenda was yelling from the garage that indeed, we were locked out. There are two locks, one on the handle and a deadbolt. Max had turned the deadbolt.

Over the next 30 seconds we realized the following in rapid succession. We did not have house keys on us, the hidden set from the garage was missing (and probably had been for a long time), there were no keys in the vehicles, and we had no cell phones on us to call anyone for help.

So I start to talk to Max through the door and ask him to unlock the door. We can hear him on the other side playing with the lock and babbling so I’m feeling somewhat confident that if he locked it he can unlock it. I hear him playing with it and as I’m turning the door knob back and forth I hear a click – and now the bottom handle is locked too. The likelihood of him unlocking both and letting us back in seems rather unlikely now.

Now Brenda is kind of, shall we say – losing her mind. She looks through the kitchen window to see what he’s up to but can’t see much because the counters are taller than he is. Since it’s now clear that we are helpless to fix this situation alone I decide to run to the neighbors house and see if we can use someones phone to call 911, not really knowing what the police can do.

I went to 3 different houses and nobody was home (or I looked to crazy to answer the door). As I was getting ready to go to a fourth there were two women walking down the street with their dogs and I ran up to them and asked if either had a cell phone I could use to call 911. One of them did and she handed it to me.

As I was on the phone with the police, luck finally turned our way a bit and a police car was coming down the street. I waved the officer down and explained the situation quickly through the passenger side window. She explained that she could help but the only thing the police can do is break down the door. Now it was a matter of choosing what door to break down. Great!

This is not our actual house, in case you were wondering.

The officer comes up to the house and we start to discuss what doors to break down. I wanted to do the garage/kitchen door since it’s in the garage and nobody would see the door damaged. But that door is a strong metal door, so we start looking at the front door. The inside front door is open, but the outside screen door is locked. At this point you might be wondering why we did just jerk open the screen door and go into the house. We tried! It’s not the typical screen door, and is made even better than we thought. I pulled on it with all my weight and force only to have the handle start to bend, which would do no good.

Then the officer had a good idea. If we could get the top glass pane down (it’s a sliding glass top) we could just cut through the screen and unlock the door. So that’s what I did, and less than a minute later I had the door open and ran into the kitchen. What I found was Max standing on the kitchen chair and sipping diet coke out of a McDonalds cup. This is of course a nice treat for him since we don’t give the kids pop.

So all is well that ends well, but it was a pretty uncomfortable situation to be in and we are trying to take some lessons away from it.

Lessons Learned

• Never walk outside without keys to the house if the house is left empty, even if the doors are unlocked.
• If you ignore the first rule, have extra keys available in other locations. We now have 3 extra sets of keys hidden in various locations that only we know the location of (and no, it’s not one of those “key rocks” so don’t come over and look).
• Keep your cell phone in your pocket when going out to play in the yard. It was very rare that I didn’t have mine, and it was only because my phone was dead from using it all day in the city.
• Never underestimate what a child can do. It never occurred to me for a second that Max would lock the door on us. I won’t make that mistake again!

Thanks for keeping things interesting Max, but don’t do it again!

The rest of the photos are on SmugMug as usual.

More on SmugMug

A new park just opened up this weekend, and the best part is – it’s on our property. Sure it’s a little sparse at the moment, but there are no membership fees, no hours of operation, and many hazards to be discovered (boys, just keep an eye our for that teetering pile of bricks next to the beehive!).

Life has reached the point of pretty much every minute of every day being scheduled, so I’m a bit behind on doing posts. Next month when work slows down a bit things will change. So here is a quick photo post.

The boys had there first “school day photos” taken this week. While we don’t have those pictures form the school yet, we did take a few photos of them all dressed up.

You can find the rest on SmugMug.

Our first family trip to the city, and it was a great time. We did a lot of walking and enjoyed the weather.

You can find the rest on SmugMug

It’s amazing when I think about what our visits were like just 3-4 years ago vs now. The whole focus of our visits have changed, not to mention simply exhausting.

There are a few photos here, you can find the rest on SmugMug.

I’m still amazes at how fast time is flying by, and how little time I have these days. Between the boys being more and more “mobile” and pushing the boundaries, and Sydney needing more then just a bottle and diaper change, it just seems like the walls are closing in sometimes.

Proof of that? I’ve been working on a video for Sydney since she was born in November but have not made much progress, I more or less stopped doing blog posts, and I keep saying I’m going to take more photos of the kids yet weeks go by without me getting the camera out (there’s either no time or I’m too exhausted when there is the time).

So I finally forced the issue of at least taking photos a few weekends ago and we took the kids into the basement to play and take some updated photos. We still need to take some nice family photos, but now that the weather is getting better maybe that will be possible.

You can find the rest of this series on SmugMug.

Maria was hired before she even left the interview after spending 2 hours talking and caring for the boys while we asked questions. We could tell just from her interaction with them that she would be a great caretaker for the boys. In no time at all she was in love with them as if they were her own. Even now, just saying “Maria is here!” gets the boys running to the front door looking for her. She has not only been great taking care of the boys, but most days she helps clean the house, do the boys wash and makes us dinner. What’s not to like!

So now the boys are almost 2 years old, and we’ve realized that hey need more help then we can give them on our own or even with the help of a Nanny. They need more stimulation, more challenges, more interaction with other kids and need to be more engaged in general. We recently found a school (a pre-preschool) that seems to have a great balance of all of these. We knew after our first meeting at the school that this was what they needed. We did one trial day with the boys at the school to see how they liked it, and it was clear that we were doing the right thing.

So starting next week, the boys will be in school from about 9-5 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. This gives Brenda time to relax and start “nesting” for the new baby, and sometime next year if she chooses to, it gives her a chance to continue her career, something she’s still very passionate about.

Maria is still weighing out her options and may continue to Nanny or pursue some other opportunities that have come her way recently. One thing is clear, if she continues to Nanny she will not have a difficult time finding a new job, even in this economy. She is second to none, and the only bad part about having her help out is that any other caretaker after her will just not compare.

So while she’s no longer our Nanny, she will always be a great friend. We love you Maria.

You can find the rest of the photos on SmugMug.

The boys really loved it and we ended the trip with a ride on one of the Fire Trucks. All and all a great way to start the day! The rest of the photos can be found on SmugMug.

We had an awesome day downtown with the boys. The weather was great, and love him or hate him Mayor Daily sure knows how to create a beautiful public park. There’s always something to do down there, even with our little guys.

Here are a few photos, and the rest are on SmugMug.

Their room was not really totally child proof, since we really never let them play in there. We had plenty of things that they could get into – like old fireworks, open paint cans and a case of “easy strike” matches. So, we had to make some changes. All of those things are now in the bottom drawer of their dresser.

They now have toddler beds (cute little beds from IKEA) that can be adjusted as they get taller. On the surface it wasn’t all that expensive, until you doubled the price for everything since we needed 2 of them.

How have they done? It’s been a challenge, but they’re getting better. The first several nights they screamed, cried and spent an hour jumping on the beds and sometimes hitting the floor. Now they’re much better. The crying time is less then 15 minutes and for the most part they sleep through the night.

So now the room is all setup for the two of them plus #3, and their new sibling due to be here in just 12 more weeks. Then the real fun begins.

As with the library clip, this is unedited footage so it’s a bit longer then the 2 minute clips I normally put up. But you might find if you start watching it you can’t stop! TRT is 10 minutes.

[See post to watch QuickTime movie]

More photos can be found on SmugMug.

[See post to watch QuickTime movie] ]]> http://tomchak.com/blog/2009/07/04/happy-4th-of-july/feed/ 0 http://tomchak.com/blog/2009/06/24/fathers-day-weekend-photos/ http://tomchak.com/blog/2009/06/24/fathers-day-weekend-photos/#comments Thu, 25 Jun 2009 01:31:25 +0000 Thomas Tomchak http://tomchak.com/blog/2009/06/24/fathers-day-weekend-photos/ Fathers Day weekend was a combination of Fathers Day on Sunday, and our 6 Year Anniversary on Saturday. Thanks to Brenda’s Mom Jane and her sister Toni, we had a full 27 hours of freedom!

We left on Saturday at 10am, went to see a movie, checked into a nice hotel downtown, had lunch and then just relaxed in the room and ordered room service. We didn’t return until Sunday at 1pm and then spent the rest of the days with the boys at the park.

Download QT File

This past weekend we took the boys to the Wheaton Library to visit their children’s area. We found out recently that they had a nice play area and decided to check it out.

Normally I cut down the video to just the highlights, but honestly if I waited for that to happen I wouldn’t have put anything up. So I decided to just put up the raw video that we shot as is, no editing.

Last week I stayed home and played Mr. Mom with the boys while Brenda went out and made the money. I thought I would have tons of time to take lots of photos and video (something I’ve been falling behind on lately) but only managed to snap a few photos one morning.

For whatever reason, Max would get into this smiling fit after eating his late morning snack. We would just be there watching one of their videos and I would look over and find him just staring at me smiling for now obvious reason. It happened everyday, and always at the same time. Finally I grabbed the camera and caught him in the act.

It was a fun week at home with the boys and I loved it, but I am exhausted! I don’t know how Brenda does it day in and day out while also working 3 days a week. The boys are very lucky to have her.