Merry Christmas

Here's our family Christmas photo this year:

This is not M.'s real smile: this camera caught her mid-burp! But hey, mouth open, face looking friendly, practically a smile. And all of three of us are looking at the camera! Send that one out to family and friends, folks.

We had a fantastic Christmas holiday! First, we headed to a Doubletree hotel in Lancaster County for a very special event. We surprised my Dad there (he thought he was heading to an afternoon concert) for his 65th birthday, and we spent two days playing in the hotel's indoor kiddie-water-playland. M. really loves the water – I guess I should sign her up for some swim lessons in the summer.

It's not easy to see, but the kids are wearing matching "I <3 Grandpa" shirts, and my dad has his own Grandpa shirt too. We're becoming one of those families that goes on cruises together...oh wait!

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day in the Land 'o Plenty. After a festive Seven Fishes dinner, my mom crowned the evening with a Buche de Noel. I've never seen M. so interested in a flame before. Please note the kids' Christmas pajamas, which I really loved:

Jingle Bells

Christmas morning!

M. particularly interested in my mom's new purse

On the day after Christmas, we headed to my in-laws' in NJ for Dave's family gathering. This year we had representatives from Vermont, Long Island, and NJ! Kids were very cute, and we had a very successful gift exchange. M. got a big haul of toys from her very generous aunts and uncles and cousins. Always special to be together...

Michigan and Waterloo

Way back in October, we took M. on a big road trip: first, we visited Ann Arbor, our old haunt:

Few of our friends still remain, but we could catch up with collaborators and former mentors – and now my cousin David is there. It was a disorienting feeling, to see the ways in which everything has changed, yet are pretty much the same. College town life!

We headed further west for a stop at Hope College, where I was invited to give a talk at a World Languages conference. My best friend from high school, now also a language professor, co-organized the conference, and it was such a treat both to see him in his element and to visit with his beautiful family.

From Holland, MI, we drove east across the border to visit my family in Waterloo, Ontario. We stayed with my aunt and uncle and got to spend precious time with my Ye-ye in the nursing home where he now resides:

I feel so sad that my Grandma didn't get to spend more time with M. She would be so tickled by M.'s enjoyment of books and her constant, tuneful humming. My Ye-ye doesn't know who we are anymore, and he won't remember a thing about our visit, but that's okay. Having a baby has taught me that every day is a special gift to be cherished for what it is, and these were definitely days together to be cherished.

M. in Autumn

Before the cold really hits, we've been trying to enjoy the outdoors with M.! She loves the sound of the crunchy leaves underfoot, and she is very interested in celestial objects (moon, stars, sun, and even airplanes and helicopters). She doesn't talk much, but one thing she clearly says: "Go, go, go!"

Halloween 2017

I loved the pictures of the kids from last year's Halloween, so I thought I'd better update for 2017! This year, M. was a turtle. She loves the picture of the green sea turtle in Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?, quickly flipping through the preceding pages in order to get to the turtle. Fortunately for us, Grace had a turtle costume ready to be borrowed! She didn't like the hat much, but that's probably to be expected. She joined in the trick or treating with a beautiful butterfly and a cute cow:

She mostly enjoyed swinging her bag and crinkling a potato chip bag in her fist. I'm not a big fan of Halloween, but it was fun to walk around with the kids on such a beautiful afternoon – and to quit before the big kids came out with their scary costumes!

Resurrected!

It's been a long time since I've posted...almost six months! The main reason for the hiatus was the beginning of my extremely intensive summer program. No time to post pictures and write when I was teaching 8 hours days, commuting, nursing, writing two conference papers, etc. And then I suppose it's taken me a while to regroup and get comfortable with writing again.

Because I'm into completeness for completeness' sake, I'll post a few pics of M.'s 12 months and her first year birthday party. She continues to be our star!

Her birthday party, hosted by Dave's parents, was cheese-themed. Though she napped through most of the party, the rest of us enjoyed a blind cheese-tasting contest, cheesy Italian food, and cheesecake desserts.

Wow, even though these pictures really are only a few months old, it seems like a long time ago! M. changes so fast, and nothing seems to stay the same. Here she is yesterday, boldly feeding a rather aggressive goat at the petting zoo:

I don't know if I'll manage to go back and write up the posts I've skipped over the past several months, but I'll do what I can!

11 months

These photos were taken a few days late, but here they are! Maddie at 11 months...she can take a few steps, climb over a step, and wave bye-bye now.

She's getting stronger-willed, having more desires and more persistent about communicating them to us. She is our lovely ray of sunshine!

And let me not neglect my photographer's assistant, big cousin A.! A. picked out Maddie's outfit and provoked lots of smiles and giggles for the camera.

Next month will be the big one!

First Mother's Day

Today was my first Mother's Day! Dave and I agreed not to go overboard for each other for Mother's/Father's Day gifts...after all, it's supposed to be up to the children! But I still had a lovely day. We went to church and enjoyed the sunshine afterwards:

I relaxed afterwards by making brunch for 7 — still more fun than waiting to eat overpriced and mediocre brunch out at some restaurant!

My mom demanded pictures with her three grandchildren. I noticed that she didn't request a picture with me.

The present that I wanted from Dave was some family time, just the 3 of us. We very rarely spend time together these days. Whenever one of us is with M., the other is trying to work; and when M. is asleep, that's really the time to be productive! So we did something unusual today to mark Mother's Day: we explored a nearby park together! It has a nice playground, and a pool and different rec courts, and even a nature trail! I'm looking forward to going back to walk the nature trail in the summer. And hopefully once Dave's grant is in, we'll have more opportunities to enjoy time together.

But for all the joy, it is sorrowful, too. We were in Canada last weekend for my grandmother's funeral, and this is our first Mother's Day without her. I would have expected to call her this year, and we'd put each of her great-grandchildren on the phone, and she would love to hear their voices. I already miss her so much.