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To my Princess,

Since we have vowed to each other to show our love and affection on Valentine’s Day without spending any money, I have decided to write you this letter. I wish I could say that this letter was only to tell you about my unending love for you, but unfortunately, I must use it discuss some things in our relationship that have recently become troubling to me.

Christian, when I married you, I married a woman who I knew was smart, and capable. I knew that one day you would grow to be successful as a wife, mother, and in a career.

However, since your recent decision to stay home from work to raise our children, some developments have occurred and discoveries made that have me concerned and worried about our relationship.

When you decided to stay home and become a homemaker, you immediately fell into the role. You embraced it and have succeeded exactly like I would have expected you to. What a wonderful gift to our family. You raise our children. You have snacks for them when they get off the bus. You help them with homework. You take care of the baby. You clean the house. You are a good neighbor. Yadda… yadda… yadda… The point is… it’s a full time job, and you are very good at it. So why am I troubled?

Well, after you established yourself as this incredible homemaker to me, the kids, the neighbors, and the family… you didn’t stop. You then decided, that you were going to open your own business, and add “business owner” to your resume. And now, you are doing a great job at that too. You own your own business hosting jewelry parties. You manage the business. You pour your heart into it. You give it attention and nurturing to make it grow. You are obviously very good at this full-time job as well. But you still didn’t stop.

On top of that, you decided to add the title of “Chef”. You have started to cook the most delicious dishes and prepare the most amazing meals for our family and guests. Your spaghetti is awesome. The potato salad… my god… the potato salad. You find ways to hide vegetables into the foods you prepare! You even hid squash in some pancakes and had kids asking for seconds!! You constantly look for new recipes and ideas and are improving all the time. Wow. If you’re keeping count… that’s 3 full-time jobs.

So that’s enough right? Not really. On top of all that, you have started decorating the house. That’s right. Interior Decorator. You are coordinating colors, hanging things on walls, framing pictures… Not only that, but you rearrange. You clean. You organize.

So all of this has been weighing on my mind. I mean, I married a woman who I new would be successful at whatever she chose to do, but I had no idea that it would be 4 full time jobs! How can a woman of your caliber be with a man with only one job? How can I answer my kids when they ask me why I only work one job while mom works four?

But more importantly, how can I adequately describe my love for someone who gives so much to me and our family? How can I give you gifts that are appropriate for a woman of such strength, passion, and dedication?

I don’t think I can. And this is what is troubling me. It is becoming more and more obvious to me, every day, that you own my heart, and I am powerless to control it… more obvious that you have become the very foundation of our family… and more obvious that I would be completely lost and fragile without you by my side.

So, this is my insufficient attempt to explain to a woman of your caliber, that I love you. I love you so very much. Happy Valentine’s Day.

I love you princess.
Always, always.

Labels: Christian, Valentine's Day

We're home!!! And... happy birthday Christian!!

At home, we've started to settle in. When we woke up this morning, we had a big birthday breakfast for Christian with banana pancakes, sausage, eggs, and fresh orange slices. I think she enjoyed that.

After 4 days in the hospital, we finally made it home Saturday afternoon. Luckily, for most of the time we had some really good nurses, including one named Suellen. She was really awesome and did a great job of not only tending to Christian medically, but listening to her and making the time there a little more bearable.

After we left the hospital, we picked up Neo from some friends (thanks John and Laura!), swung by HEB to fill Christian's prescription, grabbed some food, and finally made it home. The good news is that Charlie was comfortable in the car the whole time. Hopefully that will continue for other car rides.

Neo is doing a great job with helping out with the baby. He has been a retriever for stuff - "Neo... quick.. get a towel!". He is also a good diaper changing assistant and a baby soother. He likes to say "Look at brother!" while we are changing Charlie to calm him down.

Overall, things are good. Happy birthday Christian! We love you.

A few more pictures are available in Charlie's September folder.

Labels: birthday, Charlie, Christian, congratulations

Well, he wanted to take his time and make a grand entrance. And he did.

We would like to introduce Charlie - "Charles Anthony Graffagnino" to the world.

Charlie and mom are both doing wonderful.

Christian started having contractions Monday afternoon, but they were not consistent. We talked with Dr. Abbott that afternoon, weighed our options (no pun intended) and decided we would like to schedule a C-section. It was scheduled for Wed at noon.

But throughout the day Tuesday, the contractions started getting more consistent. By the afternoon, they were below 15 minutes apart. As night fell and the full moon rose, the contractions quickly went to 7, then 5, and then at one point, 4 minutes apart. At that point, I called the doctor to have the get ready for us at the hospital, and had a friend come over to pick up Neo. Then, we headed over to Clear Lake Regional Medical Center.

When we got there, we had the help of a wonderful nurse named Melinda. Melinda asked how Christian rated her pain, with 0 being no pain, 10 being the worst ever, and 5 being bad enough to want medication. Christian rated her pain at a 2.

What was funny was that when Melinda did her first exam, and saw that Christian was 8 centimeters dilated! She was bragging to the other nurses that Christian could have had that baby without flinching. The exercises, the vitamins, the diet, the relaxation techniques, the reading... all of those things really paid off even though we decided in the end to have a C-section.

And, when we heard the weight - 9 lbs 2 oz - we knew we had made the right decision. Charlies was 21" tall. Melinda did a great job of helping me to keep Christian calm and talk her through the process. Charlie's APGAR rating at 1 minute was an 8 and was an 8-9 at 5 minutes. Awesome!

Dr. Abbott did an amazing job. She said the surgery went perfectly with no problems. Of course, there are still risks in the recovery, but thankfully, everything is going extremely well.

We are getting to know our new little bundle and settling in with feeding and sleeping at the hospital. We expect to be going home Saturday evening, but that is just a guess.

Thanks for all of the prayers and support. We look forward to sharing little Charlie with all of you. Special thanks to "Mr. Borland" for looking after Neo for us.

Here are the pictures we have so far. Since I don't have internet access at the hospital, my next update might not be until we get back home.

Labels: announcements, Charlie, Christian, congratulations

Well, we had a good weekend, but no baby yet.

I have been worried for a while about Neo adjusting once the new addition arrives. Mainly, I was concerned about him not being able to play with me and mom, and not really having many other kids to play with.

And then, yesterday, this kid rides by on his bike, gets a little past the house, stops, and yells, "Hey!"

Neo said, "What?"

"You wanna go ride bikes?"

"Sure."

The kids name is John, and they spent all weekend together. He is a great kid with great manners. Christian and I met his parents this morning and they played together all day again (and were hard to separate). Later in the afternoon I took them for ice-cream. It looked like they had a really great weekend. They are already discussing sleep-overs and how soon they can get together and play again. Reminds me of the friendship I had with a friend named Karl growing up.

So, it was a good weekend, and we are waiting patiently for the new one. If you think you might be able to make it into Houston to visit after the baby comes, please check out Christian's post on her blog for more info. We want to coordinate visits so that we are aware of who is coming and when.

Labels: Christian, Neo, visits

News news news... lets see if I can remember whats been going on.

Christian and I bought our first pieces of furniture. And being completely new to furniture shopping, we also spent way more money than we should have. Having said that, we did get some beautiful, well made furniture (all solid wood, no veneers, dovetailed joints, etc.) and it should last a long time. This was a bedroom set for the new master bedroom we are working on. I don't have any pictures of the room yet. We still have a few more things to do in there, so after we wrap those up and clean up the room, I will take some pictures. Christian and I really love the color we chose and the new look. It is starting to become our "sanctuary downstairs".

Neo went to the YMCA Camp Pinetree again. This time, he stayed for five days. He really enjoyed it. Pictures are here.

Mom, Emily, and Kam came to visit us last weekend and helped us get some things together in the baby room. Also, Mom helped out with cooking and cleaning, which was a huge help. Thanks guys. We really appreciate it. A couple of pictures of the boys playing are here.

Christian is doing well with the pregnancy. "Enfant" is still doing well and planning his escape.

Neo spent his 2nd to last week of summer vacation at a Karate Camp. Much of the camp was not about karate, but he did manage to get a couple of lessons in, and we think he may try some karate lessons after school this year.

Yesterday, while mowing the grass, I found that the backyard had lots of spider webs. As I was going around weed-eating, I ran across one huge web with two banana spiders in it. Some pictures of them are here, along with a video of me feeding her a worm. These spiders are actually called golden silk orb-weavers, and are very cool. Neo and I had fun catching lovebugs and throwing them into the web and watching the big spider eat them. We threw in a worm after lovebugs started getting boring. I thought the worm might be too big, but the big one attacked it immediately and started wrapping it up.

Labels: Christian, house, Neo, visits

I would like to tell everyone how wonderful my wife is. I feel so blessed to have her as my lifelong teammate, that I felt like writing to the world about it.

Right now, I am involved with a business opportunity that is taking quite a bit of my time. It is a big opportunity, so I am trying to give it everything that I can.

But through all this, I have a wife. I have a pregnant wife. I have a house that we are trying to get ready before the baby. She has every reason to demand that I be at home and I be making her comfortable. She has every right to be upset with me working late.

But, she doesn't. Not only does she not do those things... she is supportive. She understands and helps me out. I am so truly blessed.

I love you so much sweetheart, and I really appreciate the sacrifice you are making for me and our family. It really means a lot to me. And quite frankly, after this business effort is over, and after we have the baby, you deserve a big, something. I dunno what... but you deserve it.

I love you with all my heart. Thank you for understanding.

Labels: Christian

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there.

A special thanks to my mom who put up with me, and continues to put up with me.

Also, special thanks to Mrs. Pam. You raised a wonderful daughter who helps me enjoy life every day.

But thanks most of all to my princess: you have been an amazing mother to Antonio and have always been there for us. We love you.

Labels: Christian, Mother's Day

Some of you know the big news. For those who don't, here it is.

I know the pictures is a bit fuzzy, but it is, indeed, a pregnancy test. And it does, indeed, say "Pregnant" on the indicator.

Last week, Christian went to the doctor and confirmed. We are so excited!

Neo is extremely excited. He has many theories about what is going on inside mommy's tummy. The other day while we were eating, he told mom to make sure she took small bites. And the other night, we told him that he could talk to the baby inside mommy's tummy and that when the baby is born, she would recognize his voice. He got excited and started talking to the baby through mom's mouth. He asked, "when the baby cries, is the sound going to come out your mouth?"

We have been very busy around here starting to get things ready. We have decided to do some room rearranging in the house, which has kicked some room projects into high-gear.

But, when I get some time, I am going to post some lists on the website. As part of our getting ready, we realize we have to get rid of lots of our stuff that has piled up in our house as we just don't have room for even half of it. I am going to post one list of all this stuff in case any one wants it or wants to object to us getting rid of it.

The other list will be a list of baby things we know we will need. We don't want anyone to buy any of it, but we just want to see what is still in the family and what isn't. For example, we had a stroller, and playpen, and lots of things when Neo was born, and we aren't quite sure who we gave it to. This list will just be a "lookout list" for those things so we can see what we should buy and what we shouldn't.

Congrats to us!! Congrats and thanks to you babe!! I love you and I can't wait to be by your side again. Thanks also to everyone in the family who has given us so much love and support. We love you and we are looking forward to sharing this with all of you.

Oh, one other thing: when we got back from vacation, Christian received a nice award from her company. Neo and I were able to attend the ceremony and got a few pictures. They are here. Great job mom. We are very proud of you.

Labels: Christian, congratulations

Christian is preparing to go back to school and get her MBA. The first step of this was preparing for and taking the GMAT. I won't get into the details since Christian will probably tell you guys all about it on her website.

That's right. Christian has a website now! It took us only a few minutes to set up and she is ready to post to her blog. The address of her website it http://christian.graffagnino.net (there is a link to it under the "homepages" section). I am hosting it here on our web server and it is very easy to do, so if anyone else is interested in doing this, please let me know. It can be a great way to share thoughts about decorating a new home, news about grandkids, or photos from a recent jewelry party.

Our refrigerator went out last week. We shopped around but was forced to make a quick purchase. In the end, it didn't have to be, because we lost most of the food anyway.

We eventually settled on a Whirlpool from Lowe's. Whirlpool has been ranked the brand lowest in repairs for 8 years in a row (by Consumer Reports I think). We got a black, 25 cu ft. side by side. It is one of the cheaper ones, so not many bells and whistles, but it has a lot of room. Also, Lowe's gave us 10% off if we put it on a Lowe's card, a $75 gift card, and a rebate for free delivery. And since we have 12 months no payments, no interest, we should have plenty of time to sell our blood and plasma to pay for it :)

We had always hoped to be able to take the house one room at a time and furnish/decorate it buying the exact things we wanted for that room, and then saving for the next room. Now that we have had some expensive repairs to make, and foundation repair coming up, we decided to start decorating the rooms as best we can with the things that we have and not buying anything. This will be kind of fun to see what we can do without spending much money.

The first task was to wrap up the theater room. This weekend, I got in the attic and we installed an outlet in the ceiling next to the projector so we don't have a power cable running down the wall. The only things remaining in there are two movie posters to hang up (we are thinking about using "The Incredibles" and "The Matrix"). If anyone knows a place to get cheap movie posters or cheap poster frames, let us know.

Next up on the list, our bedroom!

Labels: Christian, website