Grandpaparazzi's Neighborhood

11/05/2009

Twohy Tour - Day 3 - Birthday!

Today Twohy made his grand entrance. But not before a couple of hours of waiting for an operating room to open up. Jessica called, so Julie got to chat with her for a while. Jenny checked in too, and also gave us her own update.

Eventually (12:44 pm, to be exact) the time came. Daddy did his usual expert job of washing the baby and brushing his hair. Yes - hair!

He was little sleepy after all the commotion.

Twohy made footprints for the nurse.

The baby doctor gave him a careful and gentle checkup. Everything was A-ok.

Naptime, at last.

Daddy made some great photos. See them at http://screaminjohn.blogspot.com/

11/04/2009

The Twohy Tour - Day 2

Mimi and Pa got to pick John up from school today in the van.

John and Mommy shared a together time playing a game on the computer.

Then John, James, Andy, Tony and Pa went to the park for a guys outing.

James and Andy rocked and rolled.

Andy rang the bell.

We had a snack. Andy had lots of snack.

We climbed.

And swung.

Tony spotted artistic playground patterns.

While we guys were having all that fun Mimi, Julie and Kerri all went to have their toe nails painted.

Nice toes, ladies!

The Twohy Tour - Day 1

It is time for "Twohy" Penna (Penna offspring #2 - get it?) to make his entrance into this world. It is decreed that he has enjoyed the pleasures of his private world long enough. We rejoice.

We loaded the van (on top of all the pieces of fort) and headed out on Monday.

As the sun was setting, we enjoyed a beautiful moonrise ahead of us. We thought that was a nice touch for Twohy.

We arrived Tuesday afternoon in time to help pick up John Michael.

10/27/2009

Ode to Enzymology

FWIW - here is a poem I wrote sometime in the past. I don't know when, but it was apparently when I was supposed to be working. I have now idea what prompted me to wax eloquent on the subject.
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Sleeping or waking, walking or still,
Never requiring a thought or a skill
Inside your body and at all times
Cat'lysts are working - the friendly enzymes.

Some chemical actions are awfully slow
Taking forever, oh don't you know.
You just need something to make it go fast.
Enzymes will really give it a blast.

How do they do this wonderful feat-
Speeding up processes? It's sort of neat!
Though it changes molecules in form if not name,
The enzyme itself stays exactly the same.

Enzymes are useful for many a thing.
They assist doctors in diagnosing
Diseases and damage to tissue from ills
And checking effectiveness of helpful pills.

If an old drunk wanders in off the street
And enters a clinic, his sickness to treat,
Enzymes can measure the harm to his liver
Through which the alcohol flowed like a river.

When doctors suspect that deep down inside us
There might be a chance of acute menengitis,
They can use enzymes for quick diagnosis
Which leads to a sure cure by medicine doses.

Another condition that's fatal, it's true,
Affects little children all under age two.
We have no cure, but they're diagnosed with ease:
One missing enzyme identifies these.

Dikanut fiber is good for the diet;
Some diabetics are told they should try it.
Is it effective? This question it raises.
Measure with enzymes - they're called ATPases.

Aldolase, creatine phospokinase,
Serum aspartate amino transtrase.
Though enzymes have names that are way out in space,
It's easy to tell them - they all end with "ase".

What is the tool you often will find
Which furthers the welfare of all of mankind?
Clinical chemists all over agree:
It's Diagnostic Enzymology.