(no subject)
Here's our 2008 Christmas letter (finished on the 10th day of Christmas and mostly mailed on the 11th day of Christmas). It was formatted better on paper.
Dear Friends and Family,
The theme of this year would seem to be: busy. Helen has gone, from a nicely immobile lump to a fully mobile toddler, capable of injuring herself in new and exciting ways (our local emergency room is excellent). Both Kris and I have been keeping busy with work, but not much to say on that, so we’ll get to the pictures.
December 2007: Helen contemplates melon. Melon contemplates Helen. Melon lost.
Helen got her first taste of solid foods last Christmas, but it took much longer before she more than a tiny amount. Now she sometimes eats as much as we do. Her tendency to use half full bowls as a hat or scarf has increased her bath frequency dramatically. Since she rather enjoys baths, I sense a plot…
April 2008: Kris’s brother gets married
Kris’s brother got married in April. Helen fell asleep before the ceremony began and stayed asleep through most of it, including while Kris gave a reading wearing. Here Helen is sleeping at the reception.
June 2008
After a long day of babying, Helen ran out of energy in the midst of a drink. With the speed she can go from wailing at the world to unconscious, you’d think we’d be able to find an off switch somewhere…
In June and September, we took Helen to the beach.
She seemed pretty suspicious of the approaching water, but loved crawling across the sand. She also tried to eat sand, but it ran through her fingers before she could get it to her mouth. She settled for licking it up.
August 2008: Out for a stroll in Central Park
Helen seems slightly confused about the way strollers are supposed to be used. She can be quite insistent that she be the pusher not the pushee. She also is rather fond of pulling our luggage (very slowly, in random directions) in the airport, even when it outweighs her.
September: Helen thinks the goat is awfully suspicious!
When Kris’s mother and John’s parents came out to visit in the fall, we used their visits as an excuse to see the Bronx Zoo. Helen liked the animals, especially at the petting zoo, but she didn’t want to touch.
September 2008
We also used the in-laws’ visit as an excuse to visit a local historic site. They had a functioning water-driven grain mill (you can see the mill pond in the background). We’ve been making corn bread from the stone-ground corn meal we got there. Kris found it ironic that the bag of water-power ground corn refers you to a web site for recipes. Helen spent most of this day wanting to walk while holding onto someone’s fingers.
October 2008
In October, we went out to visit two sets of friends of ours in Indiana. Helen had a great time playing on their swing set and using their other toys. We had a great time catching up.
Keeping with her character, Helen did try to eat the hay.
October 2008: A Visit to Baltimore
We have a number of friends who live in the Baltimore area. This year we finally got our act together and headed to Baltimore. We wandered around (that’s where this picture came from), ate at the One World Café, and made a trip to the National Zoo. At the National Zoo it was raining incredibly hard and we all got very soaked. The zoo had a deserted restaurant where we got some hot chocolate and warmed up.
Helen’s reading (appears to be) advanced.
They say to “read to your child”, and since Helen was born, I’ve been trying to figure out what that meant. She mostly would want to grab the book, and got really annoyed if you didn’t give it to her. At least half the time, she’d try to eat the book.
The Baby Bjorn is awful, long live the ergo.
Sometime during this year, Helen got heavy enough that the Baby Bjorn was hard on the back, so we bought a new baby carrier (the first we bought-the four others we’ve used have been gifts).
Helen is quite in love with her red hat. She signs hat a lot, saying “ahhh”, and sometimes wears it around the house.
We haven’t been out hiking as much, but still manage an occasional outing. Perhaps the most impressive of the year was a 7.5 mile hike in Rockefeller State Park we did with some friends of ours. What made this impressive was that our group included two babies who (1) needed to be carried, and (2) didn’t synchronize their eating or diapers.
Dear Friends and Family,
The theme of this year would seem to be: busy. Helen has gone, from a nicely immobile lump to a fully mobile toddler, capable of injuring herself in new and exciting ways (our local emergency room is excellent). Both Kris and I have been keeping busy with work, but not much to say on that, so we’ll get to the pictures.
December 2007: Helen contemplates melon. Melon contemplates Helen. Melon lost.
Helen got her first taste of solid foods last Christmas, but it took much longer before she more than a tiny amount. Now she sometimes eats as much as we do. Her tendency to use half full bowls as a hat or scarf has increased her bath frequency dramatically. Since she rather enjoys baths, I sense a plot…
April 2008: Kris’s brother gets married
Kris’s brother got married in April. Helen fell asleep before the ceremony began and stayed asleep through most of it, including while Kris gave a reading wearing. Here Helen is sleeping at the reception.
June 2008
After a long day of babying, Helen ran out of energy in the midst of a drink. With the speed she can go from wailing at the world to unconscious, you’d think we’d be able to find an off switch somewhere…
In June and September, we took Helen to the beach.
She seemed pretty suspicious of the approaching water, but loved crawling across the sand. She also tried to eat sand, but it ran through her fingers before she could get it to her mouth. She settled for licking it up.
August 2008: Out for a stroll in Central Park
Helen seems slightly confused about the way strollers are supposed to be used. She can be quite insistent that she be the pusher not the pushee. She also is rather fond of pulling our luggage (very slowly, in random directions) in the airport, even when it outweighs her.
September: Helen thinks the goat is awfully suspicious!
When Kris’s mother and John’s parents came out to visit in the fall, we used their visits as an excuse to see the Bronx Zoo. Helen liked the animals, especially at the petting zoo, but she didn’t want to touch.
September 2008
We also used the in-laws’ visit as an excuse to visit a local historic site. They had a functioning water-driven grain mill (you can see the mill pond in the background). We’ve been making corn bread from the stone-ground corn meal we got there. Kris found it ironic that the bag of water-power ground corn refers you to a web site for recipes. Helen spent most of this day wanting to walk while holding onto someone’s fingers.
October 2008
In October, we went out to visit two sets of friends of ours in Indiana. Helen had a great time playing on their swing set and using their other toys. We had a great time catching up.
Keeping with her character, Helen did try to eat the hay.
October 2008: A Visit to Baltimore
We have a number of friends who live in the Baltimore area. This year we finally got our act together and headed to Baltimore. We wandered around (that’s where this picture came from), ate at the One World Café, and made a trip to the National Zoo. At the National Zoo it was raining incredibly hard and we all got very soaked. The zoo had a deserted restaurant where we got some hot chocolate and warmed up.
Helen’s reading (appears to be) advanced.
They say to “read to your child”, and since Helen was born, I’ve been trying to figure out what that meant. She mostly would want to grab the book, and got really annoyed if you didn’t give it to her. At least half the time, she’d try to eat the book.
The Baby Bjorn is awful, long live the ergo.
Sometime during this year, Helen got heavy enough that the Baby Bjorn was hard on the back, so we bought a new baby carrier (the first we bought-the four others we’ve used have been gifts).
Helen is quite in love with her red hat. She signs hat a lot, saying “ahhh”, and sometimes wears it around the house.
We haven’t been out hiking as much, but still manage an occasional outing. Perhaps the most impressive of the year was a 7.5 mile hike in Rockefeller State Park we did with some friends of ours. What made this impressive was that our group included two babies who (1) needed to be carried, and (2) didn’t synchronize their eating or diapers.