Summer Evening

Alright, alright. From the southern tier, to the eastern seaboard, and the great Northwest folks have "kindly" let me know how much they like seeing the updates on the little lady, so here you are. I'll likely dial the updates down to once a month now, but will commit to that. Evening is a wild woman, but is fantastic. Closing in on 9 months old - we took our first longer road trip with her - and she did great. We headed down to see Evening's godmother - her Aunt Stephanie who is a 2nd Year Grad student at Yale in New Haven then headed out to Long Island for the wedding of our long time college friend Erica Hananel. This shot above is from that wedding in Oyster Bay. Please note those are sunglasses around my neck and not a bolo tie.


Here is a gem of a photo of Evening hanging in New Haven with Stephanie and Rob's Bull Mastiff - Rocky. Very sweet fella who was very kind to Evening. After we arrived home she continued to look for him.

The beautiful ladies on the wedding day...

Evening and the old man swinging in New Haven.

Evie continues to do really well - though isn't keen on the heat. She is still very excited to be outside. I've dubbed her the "human corkscrew" for her non-stop moving and grooving and rolling - and pulling herself up. She's got a couple of top teeth getting ready to bust through and had two big chompers down low. Extra sweet and fun - looking forward to what the summer brings.

We'll hit you with an update in early July.

Unbelievable Evie!

Monday found us at the Cardiologists for Evening's follow up. We arrived feeling nervy - though left with a bit of a kick in our step.

Evening excelled - pretty much everywhere. Her oxygen saturation levels were 100%, her EKG looked good, and according to the cardiologist - she looked and sounded fantastic - he has her with no restrictions. He did indicate that when she's older we want to steer her away from smoking and intense isometric activities like power lifting. I've already practiced my speech to her "I know you want to compete in Olympic powerlifting - hell I know you could win world's strongest woman - but I just can't support it. How about tennis?" I think I'm alright with that. And smoking - never quite had that on the "gotta check that out list" for my growing daughter.

Dr. Connuck also estimated that her likely need for a valve replacement (now looking at decades if things progress well) may by the time she needs it be done via catherization as opposed to open heart surgery. We were very fired up to hear that. We had anticipated this appointment to be our last with our man Dr. Connuck, as he's leaving Rochester, though we found out that he'll be on a rotation through Pennsylvania that will bring him close to Ithaca. We are quite pleased to keep our connections with him.

Things are really great and Evening continues to inspire.

Big Week

The start to last week brought a foot of snow to Ithaca and has now transitioned to 70 degree temps. Evening much preferred the tail end of the week - she loves being outside with as little clothing as possible. Can't wait to see what the summer brings on the trail, in the garden and in the pool for the little wild woman.

We are now in Rochester visiting with family and preparing for a follow up appointment tomorrow morning with Eve's cardiologist at Strong. She appears to be doing really well - though I always am very anxious heading back into the hospital for these type of checkups. This will sadly be her last visit with her cardiologist Dr. Connuck as he's moving out of the area. Send your good thoughts our way for the sweet girl's appointment.

The approaching week also marks my last week at Cornell. I leave campus and the many great students, faculty and staff I've had the good fortune to work with to work more directly in community/environmental planning. I've been provided the opportunity to serve as a Senior Planner with the Tompkins County Planning Department - a role I am quite excited about - though I struggle with the realities of leaving campus. I'll begin that new role early next month and will be based in Downtown Ithaca just a few blocks off The Commons.

Enjoy the spring - we'll do our best to keep you updated with Evening's progress and discoveries.

Easter Montage...What a Woman!

GO DUCKS!

Spring in Ithaca

Spring has sprung - at least for now - in Ithaca. We've had the good fortune of getting outside and on the trails. Little lady is all about the water. She's got the moves grooving up down and all around the crib and any other place she lies. Her health has continued very well. She had what should be her last shot to combat RSV and flu this season. We head back up to Rochester for a follow up cardiology appoint at the end of April. By all accounts so far her heart is strong and she continues to grow fantatically and smile - with tiny teeth - richer that ever before. Sweet, sweet Evening makes me run home from work just to see that smile. Love it!

My First Guinness

Huge St. Patrick's Day storm rolled in leaving us with about a foot of snow - made for a good excuse to lay low, watch basketball and introduce Evening to Guinness.

She has been so sweet the last few weeks. Really loving getting outside and hiking - and is now quite the bathing beauty. Still wrestling with the teeth - she's got two monster buds on the bottom right now. She also is experimenting with some ridiculous feats of strength. I'm amazed at what she can do - especially with her legs - certainly putting her father in place.

Evie Exceeding

Yet another great week from the little lady. She had her 6 month pediatrician visit last week and all looks well. She's weighing over 16 and a half pounds and 26.5" long. That puts her in the 90%-tile for height and 75%-tile for weight. I also called our pediatrician's attention to the fact that she has a tooth coming in - his reply "Oh yes - I see the teeth (as in multiple)." The appointment culminated with about 35 shots - some vaccinations for ailments I thought were last around at the time of Merriweather Lewis.

She's just generally really sweet and sassy - and still can't get enough of being outside. She's been loving the snow and getting acquainted with the stroller. She (and I) are really excited for the spring hiking season in Central NY.

Coming up on the 1/2 year birthday on Thursday - I was thinking about renting out the skate rink, booking a REO Speedwagon Cover Band, invite 2,000 of our closest friends and have a hybrid limo pick her up - but instead think I'll wait perhaps until she's 1 - when she can really appreciate it.

Howlin' @ the Moon

These last few weeks have been my favorite yet. Evening continues with tremendous health and beautiful spirit. I love it. After the big Valentine's Day storm that netted us over 2 feet of snow we've had the good fortune to get out and hike a bit and she absolutely loves it. In an outing after work last week she was shouting her sweet little song at the moon - just gets sad when its time to come in. Here's a few gems for the last little bit...


Sweet Evening in her patented relaxed pose


Ruthie and Evening at Downtown Ithaca's Chili Cookoff on The Commons - Evening did not directly partake in the taste testing


Oscar night brought the Little Miss Sweet Potato Eating Contest - Pictured above is the Hands Down Winner

Sporting the New Haven Farmer's Market Getup - from our Yale connection - Sister/Aunt/Godmother Stephanie Margo

Cogenital Heart Defect Awareness Week

Evening is rolling over, eating rice ceral and been at her absolute best these last few weeks. Some of my favorite Evening moment have happened just last week - such a sweet character. I'm convinced that much of the reason why she is doing so well, is because of the fact that her heart problem was caught early and we had the incredible good fortune to have an early surgical opening. Because a heart murmur was detected, and our primary care physician encouraged us to go to a pediatric cardiologist at 2 weeks - Evening's Tetrology of Fallot was diagnosed, then surgically treated at a little over a month. She has developed from that point impressively well.

Please encourage new mothers and fathers to have their medical team pay particularly close attention to their baby's heart and should any murmur be detected - absolutely visit a pediatric cardiologist. This is a problem that affects 40,000 babies nationwide a year. Additionally, if you know of any families wrestling with these issues - please provide them the blog site and should they like - have them contact us directly - sddoyle@gmail.com.

February 7-14 is Cogenital Heart Defect Awareness Week - with the day of awareness very justly being - Valentines Day. For more information visit here.

Golisano Childrens Hospital - Dr. Alfieris

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle recently reported on the great success that Evening's heart surgeon and the team at Strong have been doing with little ones like Evie - love seeing more about my man crush Dr. Alfiers - I owe that guy and his team a lot. Read the article here.

Evening Grows

Sweet Evening has been growing in every which direction. Here's a few pictures attesting to that...

Evening @ Her Very Best

The little lady is now at 19 weeks of age (and Mama Ruth also celebrating a birthday). Without a doubt this is the sweetest she's been yet. She's very talkative and curious of all around her. With the temperatures hovering around the teens and below - the outside time has been very limited, but she's rolling with it. Her latest favorite activity is bathing. She requires the company of Ruth or I in the bathtub - but is getting to be quite the swimmer. Without a doubt we'll have her up at the Ithaca College pool this summer swimming laps.

Her health continues to look great. We are still very vigilant about her exposure and are really impressed by her continued growth and good spirits. We're working each day to enjoy every moment and continue to strengthen.

Ithaca continues to be gorges. Hoping for some good snow soon.

Grandparent Faculty

We are very fortunate to have tenured granparent faculty just a few hours away to teach the young Evening Rian a host of beautiful things. Where would we be without them - quite frankly - nowhere. Here's a brief profile.

Name: Dan Doyle - aka "Banjo Dan"

Courses Taught: Foundations of Napping, History of Rock n Roll I/II, Prankster Basics, The Rise and Fall of Buffalo Bills Football, Storytelling 252

Specialites: Evening's favorite author and banjo picker

Name: Diane Doyle aka "The Silver Bullet"

Courses Taught: Math for Decision Making: Numbers and Fun, Reading Like You Mean It, Cognitive Science, The Sociology of Play

Specialites: Evening's personal Mentor Teacher

Name: Rose Merle aka "Sweet Roll Rose"

Courses Taught: Meditations on a Sweet Roll, Gaming 101: How to Complete a Crossword in 20 Minutes, Kitchen of Love: Cooking and Caring for Families on the Move, The Elements of Classical Music, Piano Classics

Specialites: Evening Sous Chef and Bathing Instructor


We are so very fortunate for the great things these folks have taught to Evening in just these first 4.5 months! Thanks so much.

Ithaca Baptism

When Evening was first diagnosed with Tetrology we were rushed to the Arnot Ogden NICU where among other things - Ruth and I baptised her due to emergency. We did it with touchingly distinct style by using one of our Nalgene bottles and baptizing her amongst her tubes, monitors and NICU pals. While we considered this her catholic baptism we still wanted to go through the sacrament at our local church in Ithaca - Immaculate Conception. Today was that day.

Typically when we take her to mass, she struggles. Letting out some yelps, sleeping, needing to pace in the back of the church for 20 minutes, etc. Due to this - and the fact that she has an aversion to crowds and water - we were a little nervy about the morning. Much to our surprise - she was wonderful. At full attention, loving the time in the baptismal font, everything. Very sweet day - for a tremendous lady.

This is a shot just after the ceremony with Father Leo. Evening has on a beautiful baptismal gown that her Grandma Rose made for her - who was smiling on from the front row. My sister Stephanie and brother-in-law Joe D'Agostino serve as godparents. My folks - Dan and Diane - came in from Rochester. My sweet sister Rebecca from Syracuse and her husband Ryan came down as well. Ruthie's sister Becky and her husband Kevin along with the kind 3-year old twins - Hannah and Abby - and their brother Trevor all made it up from Rochester for the 8:30AM mass. Great event and a solid breakfast back at the house after. So fortunate to have them all in attendance and such a touching day from Eve.

The little lady is now weighing in at 13lbs. 10oz. and is 25 inches long. Without a doubt she is experiencing her sweetest, healthiest days yet!

Happy New Year

All is looking quite well on the Merle-Doyle front. Really great holidays both in Rochester and Ithaca. Best part was a very postive report from Evening's cardiologist. Her EKG and saturations looked very well and he was pleased with how she is growing - so much so that we did not have to have an echocardiogram done. Needless to say we were feeling pretty good about that.

The little lady is at a very precious phase - now at 4 months old. I've really enjoyed her behaviors up to this point, but this is my favorite. She's close to turning over, she's talking a great deal and her smiles are the sweetest I've ever seen on a baby.

We introduced Evening to a series of our family traditions over the last few weeks (this picture is from Ithaca's Steamboat Landing on the Cayuga Inlet the site of the Ithaca Farmers Market - we were there for the annual Rutabega curl on Dec. 23)- the latest of which was the New Year's Day College football marathon. I made sure she understood the importance of ringing in the new year with a serving and a half of college football. Rest assured she slept or was otherwise entertained and not watching 10 hours of TV football. Go Boise State!

Happy New Year from all of us.

Midwinter Reflection

Throughout the month of December - as is the case most years - I naturally reflect back a bit on the year. What were the major milestones, where did we travel, what did we accomplish... This December has been entirely different. At periodic moments I hauntingly flash back to various moments of intensity throughout the fall with Evening's diagnosis and surgery. It seemed that as we were going through it - we just took each step as it came - because there was no other way around it - for Evening's sake we would do what was needed. Looking back now - its down right chilling how difficult and harrowing things were - and how unbelievably strong she was and continues to be. I estimate she is about double the size she was for the surgery - and to think about that little lady going through all of the procedures she required - absolutely floors me and breaks my heart. We are so very thankful and blessed for the results and her continued strong development. I will never forget those days and nights of the Fall of 2006 - as much as they still hurt - they are cause for great inspiration. Without a doubt - 2006 was the best year of my life thanks to Ruthie and Evening.

The sweet little lady is so very sweet and continues with quite the kick. Ruth now categorizes her as sassy, no longer feisty. She's moving like never before with this back arch limbo contestant move that is pretty powerful. She uses this move with powerful legs to inch across her crib in record setting pace. All her moving and grooving has also given her a pretty sharp bald spot on the back of her head. Its sweet but funky.

We look forward to some time together over the holidays - plan on heading to the Ithaca Farmer's market for the annual Rutabega Curl, heading to Rochester to see the Merles and Doyles, and also heading to Strong for a follow up and echocardiogram. They discussed the potential of having to put her on medications to get a good echo, but also have a room full of videos and TVs to sedate her if shes interested. As much as I am against having her zone out to the TV this may be a good occassion - perhaps we'll through in the Oregon Duck Football highlight video or a Bills Superbowl tape - no wait - that would only make her much more upset than they're looking for.

Evening Tree

One, two, three - cheese! After a day of decorating the tree Evening is a bit beat. Here we are seen in our holiday ware courtesy of Laurie Ahlers at Cornell. Blog enthusiasts may remember some of the earliest pictures of Evening in this hat...well Laurie was kind enough to customize some for the whole family. I like to get a lot of mileage out of my hat.

Wore mine out to the Southview Treefarm in Danby this weekend. The owner cut me a deal on the tree because the hat helped scare away the deer. I in particular love how it is juxtaposed with the Carhartt jacket. Oh and by the way - Evening is tucked under Ruthie's jacket - in the bearcub snow suit - here's an inside look...

We are all quite well and enjoying the holidays as they unfold.

Winter in Ithaca

Its just about that time of the year when we reach out to young Evening and teach her what its like to be an Upstate New Yorker - layer up to face the stiff winds, pull out the snow shovels, and complain about the coaching of the Buffalo Bills. I can just about see myself saying to her - "Not just anyone can handle Upstate New York winters, that's why so many people flee south and west - they can't hang with it - now button up, put on the hat and be proud." Winter is flexing its muscle and I'm trying to thicken my skin. We kept hearing about the wicked storm rolling in this weekend - and took that as an excuse to hunker down and take in a nice chunk of college football's last weekend. I'll have you know that both Evening and I called the UCLA upset of USC. Feel free to call Evening's tip line for the bowl season - she's got the over/under for every game out there.

Ruthie is fulling embracing motherhood along with the holiday season. I've been coming home to a full on Christmas funhouse each afternoon - decorations and tunes. I believe I successfully diagnosed Evening's "stomach ache" the other night. Turned out to be a little too much of Angela Landsbury's "Holly, Jolly Christmas". The ailment was successfully treated with a heavy dose of Bob Dylan.

She's Got It

So, with expert analyses it has been decided that Evening has the early love of the outdoors - just like her Ma and old man. Through a series of in depth, highly scientific studies its almost a definite. Taking her out in the backyard or on the trail - her eyes light up a bit more brilliantly a she typically carries a refreshing calmness. When she gets all riled up - she loves going outside and letting the wind ride through her long, beauty reddish hair. It certainly helps that this Thanksgiving brought in record 60 degree days for her enjoyment.

Evening continues to grow tremendously and is daily stronger. She feels a hair over 12 lbs now - but we'll get that verified on Friday at the pediatrians when we go for her next set of RSV shots. Her rest has become more regular as well with much more consistant crib time and is taking after her father, grandfather and greatgrandfather with the deep paternal history of daytime napping (she has however yet to fall asleep while reading the paper).

Thanksgiving was enjoyable up in Rochester with the little one. We did have to do a little dodge and move to avoid a couple family ailments - but it seemed to work alright. Sadly, I noticed my complete overindulgence in Thanksgiving feast compromised due to the fact that I held Evening during the meal - though I think everyone was thankful for that change.

This Friday - Evening will be three months old. Hoping that we can take a collective breath to realize what a trying but truly wonderful three months it has been. Can't wait to see what the next bit revels as she continues to strengthen, smile and grow.

Ode to a Mother

Heading into Thanksgiving week - and have a whole heap of things to be thankful for. These two are at the top of that list. Evening feels signficantly over 11 lbs., is stringing several hours of sleep together at night (7 straight the other night), is smiling more than ever, slept through church this morning (kind of like her old man), and gave some rousing support to the Buckeyes in their win at a Michigan party last night. She still is quite feisty - but I'm glad she is.

And Ruthie...man alive has she been so fantastic. I didn't think I could love / admire her more than I did in her pregnancy, but I do. She is so mindful, attentive and sweet with Evening. I am so impressed by the relationship they have at just 10 weeks. I am excited to watch Eve grow, but also see Ruthie growing as well. What a mother! I am one thankful fool that is for sure.

Heading up to Rochester for some Thanksgiving revelry: annual T-Day bocce game, a little frisbee and good company of friends and family. My best to you and yours with your holiday traditions.