Category Archives: Family

A Dramatic Arrival

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As many of you have probably guessed, our lack of posting this week was directly related to the birth of BabyWood.

So here she is!

ppp|Our First Family Pic

Our First Family Pic

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ppp|Catherine's close up

Catherine Elinor Wood

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(More pics [here](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/baby/catherine_day_1/).)

Stats:

* Born: May 26, 2006 at 4:32 a.m. at Beverly Hospital
* Weight: 7 pounds, 2 ounces
* Length: 20 inches

Labor and delivery went totally fine. We got down towards the end and the doctor broke my water and discovered that the baby had passed her meconium (first bowel movement) in utero. After she was delivered she was taken right up to the Special Care Nursery where they found that she had aspirated much of it into her lungs. They evaluated her and decided that she should be transferred to Brigham and Women’s hospital in Boston. She’s there now receiving oxygen and some medications to clean out her lungs.

Peter and I are doing well now that we’ve had a bit of sleep. The grandparents, aunt and uncles will be in and out this weekend and although I wish Catherine could be with me here, I know she’s in the best place for her now.

Feel free to call or email and I promise we’ll be in touch. Thanks for all of your love and prayers!

Happy Mother’s Day!

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Happy Mother’s Day to the two moms and one soon to be mom in my life: Ellie, Dianne, and Becky!

This morning I was paged for work and had to run in to the office at 6 a.m., but on the way back, I picked up some of Becky’s favorite stuff from [Dunkin Donuts](http://www.dunkindonuts.com/) and brought it home as a first Mother’s Day gift for her. 🙂

Becky’s parents and brother came over to our apartment for a Mother’s Day lunch. We hung out, talked about a lot of baby stuff, and had some delicious food, including steak, corn on the cob, garlic fries from [Trader Joe’s](http://www.traderjoes.com/), and brownies. Yum! Ken bravely did the grilling outside in the rain, as seen below:

ppp|Grilling!|ppp

Here’s the mom-to-be and her mom!

ppp|Moms!|ppp

There are also a few more photos from [the day](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/mothers_day/).

Although I couldn’t spend Mother’s Day with my own mom, I did give her a call, and I also passed the phone around so that she could chat with the other moms in the room. 🙂 All in all it was a very good day!

SAHM

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Tomorrow is Becky’s last official day of work at the [Otis House](http://www.historicnewengland.org/visit/homes/otis.htm), which also makes it her last day of work outside of the home, at least for the forseeable future. Our plan is for Becky to stay home and be the mom she wants to be, and for me to continue working at [CBD](http://www.christianbook.com/) and be the best dad I can be. We’re both very excited about this, because it’s something we’ve been planning for a while, and it’s what Becky has wanted to do for the longest time. We both know there will be challenges, but I know that we will overcome them, with the help of God, each other, our family and friends. Thanks to everyone out there who has been in touch with us in the past few months. We are looking forward to sharing our joy with you!

Another Picture

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I found a pic of Papa and I that I must have scanned a while ago. Enjoy.

ppp|Papa and Becky

Papa and Becky

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Ps. In case anyone was wondering… Papa is my Mom’s Dad.

Papa

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Last Friday morning my Papa, Ralph Peter Quitadamo, passed away. He had been suffering for a while with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy; an Alzheimers-like brain disease.

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We had the wake on Sunday night and the Funeral on Monday morning. My uncle Rich gave a wonderful eulogy and the National Guard performed a couple tear jerking ceremonies in honor of Papa, a career Guardsman. You can read his obituary at the funeral home’s website [here](http://www.mercadantefuneral.com/obituaries.php#1374).

There’s no good in dwelling on the sadness, however, so here are some pictures to remember him by (I only wish I had some old pics scanned…they’re so much better!):

ppp|Papa and Rebecca

Papa and Rebecca

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ppp|Papa and his siblings

Papa and his siblings

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ppp|Papa and Ainsley

Papa and Ainsley

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ppp|Papa and Grammy

Papa and Grammy

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ppp|Papa and Grammy at our wedding

Papa and Grammy at our wedding

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He Was A Good Dog

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ppp|Kirsten and Beaux

Kirsten and Beaux

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Beaux, 1992-2006

Beaux wasn’t doing so well on Wednesday night. He had starting having some severe seizures around supper time, so my dad took him to the vet. They gave him some valium to control the seizures, and kept him overnight for observation. The vet said that the seizures were probably brought on by a metabolic problem or a tumor, both possibilities for a 14-year-old dog. If the valium therapy worked, they would have recommended a treatment plan. Unfortunately, after he came off of the valium, his seizures started up again. So today at 1 p.m., dad took him to be euthanized.

It’s a sad day for everyone in our family. Beaux has been with us for so long, and he has kept my parents company at home since Kirsten and I have moved away. I would have been about 13 years old when Kirsten got him as a project for 4-H… we couldn’t have known what an impression he would make on all of us. Kirsten trained him and took him to shows at the fair as part of 4-H, and though he was never the most well-heeled dog, he did pretty well and we were proud of him and of Kirsten’s work with him. Beaux was very loyal and friendly, and very protective of his family. Being a corgi-terrier mix, he had an incredible herding instinct, and he would always follow us upstairs to keep watch when we went to sleep. We loved him even during his mischevious moments, like one evening when dad and I were down in the basement, and Beaux just ran right down and peed on the floor right in front of us. We actually had a pretty good laugh about it at the time. After I left for college, I didn’t have as much chance to see him, but every time I’ve come home to visit since then, he’d be there wagging his tail, full of energy, and happy to see me.

In his later years, he’s had his share of problems… from ear infections to arthritis to other disorders, mom and dad have taken care of him the best they can, but it’s been tough. I think he has probably been suffering for a while, but God bless him for hanging on as long as he did and staying with mom and dad.

I never thought I could get this choked up about losing a pet, but I am. We’re all going to miss you, Beaux. You were a good dog.

For more photos of Beaux, see my [photo tribute](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/etcetera/occasions/beaux_tribute/). If anyone has more photos of him, I would be happy to put them up.

If you were friends or family of Beaux, please leave us a comment to share your thoughts and memories of his life.

A Cheese ‘n’ Taters Valentine

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fff|ppp|Mmm, cheese!

Mmm, cheese!

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Tonight, Becky and I had a Valentine’s dinner, sharing some foods that we love. I made Becky a plate o’ cheese, with five kinds of cheese (gouda, gruyere, muenster, monterey jack, and cheddar) and cheese-flavored Ritz crackers. There are few things in this world that Becky loves more than cheese. Luckily, I’m one of them. 🙂 Becky made me tater tot casserole, one of our favorite dishes. She also made some cute Valentine’s decorations, and I got *two* cards – one from Becky, and one from the baby! I’m not quite sure how the baby was able to write a card… maybe it was dictated to Becky telepathically?

Anyway, it was all good. Hope everyone out there had a great Valentine’s Day!

Video Killed The Photography Star?

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fff|ppp|PV-GS150

PV-GS150

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Thanks to some closeout pricing, funding from various sources, and a hefty amount of research, we have purchased our first camcorder. We decided on the [Panasonic PV-GS150](http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Panasonic-PV-GS150-Camcorder-Review.htm), a compact [MiniDV](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minidv)-format camcorder. It uses [3CCD](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3CCD) technology to capture excellent video, and it fits in the palm of your hand. We have yet to take it out for any serious testing, but I think that you can expect to see some new movies on our site within the next few months, and definitely plenty of them after the baby is born. (I know, not everybody on the web wants to see every delightful moment of our baby’s life. We will do our best not to go crazy with it.)

The only trick for me now is going to be trying to balance my existing interest in photography with my new interest in videography. The PV-GS150 does have the capability to take still photos, but it’s not anywhere near as capable as its cousin, Panasonic’s [DMC-FZ20](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/geekiness/panasonic_lumix_dmc_fz20/). We’ll probably end up carting both of them around, and maybe Becky and I will do a bit of cross-training to split up the photo and video tasks. Hopefully the quantity and quality of my photography won’t suffer.