Hi all,
We’re deep into January and still no Xmas letter. It was so delightful to hear from everyone, I thought it’d be nice to return the favor and give y’all an update, so here it is! This sight is always being updated with new photos of Sara so it might be worth saving the URL. This letter is just a summary of the entries throughout the year, so read our past blog entries for more info.
Sara
14 months and she just keeps growing. She’s a delightful, joyful, curious, dynamic child. She loves saying, “Dada” for almost everything. She refuses to try “Mama”. She has decided to communicate through signs. Just in the past 2 weeks, she’s started using the sign for ‘milk’. She’s quickly added ‘more’ (clapping her hands), ‘phone’, ‘bye bye’ and ’sleep’. I think she might be using a sign for ‘all done’, ‘change me’, and she’ll clap when you say paddy cake. She enjoys walking while holding onto a hand and takes a few steps on her own. We’ve all had colds and she has started covering her mouth with coughing. She loves to laugh and is our constant source of entertainment.
We’re currently searching for childcare. Anyone in the market for nannying? Our beloved nanny, Cora, had a hard fall while shopping, broke some bones, and needs several months to recover. We visited and she’s back home and doing much better.
Sara’s been doing lots of traveling. She’s been to Atlanta twice, Milwaukee, San Francisco, and Wyoming. Her favorite activity is hiking. She just gets a glimpse of the baby backpack and cries if she’s not instantly placed in it and hoisted on Daddy’s back.
Travels
Our big trip was to Wyoming to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks over the summer with my parents. It was a mile marker for me. It’s the first time we had been hiking and camping for a long trip since my hip replacement 2 years ago. We spent 2 weeks total car camping, one week in Colter Bay, Grand Tetons and one week in Madison, Yellowstone. Sara really bonded with her Grandpa, often playing with his pocketknife and change purse (under close supervision). We got to visit with our friend Ken Hapner for several days. We took daily hikes and took lots of photos. One of the most striking was a sunset photo session at Old Faithful.
We did a few shake down camp trips in June to Deception Pass campground with Mom and another at Baker Lake with our home group. High points were finding out our 8 man tent has plenty of room for 3 adults and one child to entertain themselves during a 3 hr rainstorm and kayaking alone with Wayne in a friend’s boat with a view of Mt. Baker while friends cared for Sara.
Mom took care of Sara while we had our first trip away this fall to Port Townsend. We enjoyed exploring the town, shops, restaurants, and local trails. We especially liked being able to stay in a B&B (not normally doable with kids). We took a weekend trip last spring to Mt. Ranier and were able to stay at Alexander’s Inn with Sara. It’s almost as good as a B&B.
We visited our Bay Area relatives to show off Sara on President’s Day. Then San Francisco came to us when Steph, Bob, and the M’s (my cousin’s family) came to visit in June. We have travel horror stories from our visiting Heidi and her family (my good friend from college) in Milwaukee over Thanksgiving, but enjoyed the time we were there. Wisconsin is the only place to get cheese curds. We visited Atlanta twice, once in the spring to show off Sara to our siblings (all the parents visited at Xmas 2003) and recently this Xmas for 12 days! I’ll just say it’s wonderful to be able to spend intimate time with family, shotting rockets in the park with Matthew and Allen, photographing the Chihuly exhibit at the Botanical Gardens, climbing Kennesaw with my family, playing w/ Justin and Skylar, and visiting w/ friends. Finally, my Mom continues her quarterly pilgrimages to Seattle for milder, cooler weather and her other grandkid. Shirley and John came out over Labor Day and Shirley is currently here helping care for Sara while we find a new childcare situation for her.
Karen
I continue to work at the Veteran’s Hospital part-time running an outpatient back and neck clinic with my friend and colleague, Annie. It’s tremendously rewarding work and sharpens my physiatric skills. It also gives me lots of time to be a mother to Sara. I regularly go to a Christian Mom’s group that provides me support and have enjoyed discovering the “Mommy network” (once you’re a mom, you have instant rapport and conversation topics with any other mom). My big project for the coming year is Oral Boards, part of my professional certification. I will be traveling to Minnesota in May and taking a course in April to review all the facets of my profession. Spiritually, we continue to worship at Bethany and continue as deacons. It’s nice to have a church home that Sara will grow up in.
Wayne
Pixar is still Wayne’s professional home. He did make the switch to the group in Seattle this year, so no more trips to San Francisco (yeah!) The flip side of that is we had to pay for our own way to the premiere of the Incredibles in SF in October. Speaking of, wasn’t it incredible?!! I think it is their best production yet. Sara got a mention under “Production Babies” (late in the credits) and Wayne one mention. Wayne didn’t do any snowboarding last year, nicely to help me get acclimated to Sara. We were much more active with hiking, camping and photography. Wayne continues to excel in photos (check out the blog) using his digital Nikon. He even got asked to take a friends Xmas photo. With the first dash of snow, Wayne is ready this year. New board, new bindings, old skills coming back quickly. We are planning a trip to Whistler very soon.
Us
We’ve maintained relations by doing twice a month dates and having lots of humor. Sara certainly has changed our lives, but not to be too cliche, I wouldn’t have it any other way. She’s such a joy and a blessing. We’ve also been blessed with the settling of Jon and Claire, formerly of Baghdad and Germany and good friends from medical school, just 10 blocks from our house. It’s like having family close by. We are looking forward to a trip to Alaska this summer with my parents and hope to do some snowshoeing before that.
I hope the New Year finds you well. God Bless!
