Saturday, December 22, 2012

October, November, December - How Time Flies!

It's been so long since the last update.  Eamon has had  not one, but two birthday parties!  (The second was a re-enactment with grama and grandad, the Sithers, and Mike and Marliyn.)  The bonus of having two birthday parties, of course, is that you get to eat pumpkin whoopie pie not once, but twice...  Even without birthdays, though, it's always wonderful to have loved ones visit.




We spent Thanksgiving in Austin with the Rambergs.  Eamon did a great job on the plane.  He was excited to play with the drink tray, and to walk up and down the aisle (with a little help from mom and dad) and say hi to everyone.  (Only one mishap there, where he grabbed the water glass of a very nice man and spilled it over both of us.)  He made great friends on our way to Texas with a man named Dean, who had older kids at home and was very nice about playing back whenever Eamon grabbed at his arm.

Texas was a great time, full of food, fun and family.  Eamon and Max are almost exactly the same age, and it was fun to see them playing alongside each other.  Tina was excited to play with them too, and there was a lot of fun interaction between the three, including some shared bath time between Eamon and Tina.  (Eamon doesn't usually get to play in a full-sized bathtub, so that was a treat too.)  In one of my favorite moments, after Tina went running by the bedroom shouting, Eamon looked up, dropped what he was doing, and then blasted out of the bedroom after her also shouting at the top of his lungs.  So cute!

Frances arranged for a family photo session, which resulted in some wonderful pictures.





In addition to the pool (sorry, no pictures), the park right next to Gramberg's was a big hit with everyone.  Here's Max playing on the slide while Eamon checks out the ladder...


...and here's Eamon making himself very useful handing great-aunt Jane some gravel.


Eamon has been taking a few careful steps, although he mostly still holds on to things (like the vacuum ) to get around standing up.  


Check out the cute slippers from Gramberg!

Eamon continues to love his kitties, and seems to be trying out saying cat and/or kitty when he sees them doing something.  (He also continues to warn us with a very clear "Uh-oh" whenever the cats are someplace they're not supposed to be - or someplace Eamon thinks they're not supposed to be - as well as when anybody drops anything on the floor.)  Here's a video of him trying to entice Clint with Clint's very favorite toy.



Dogs are also a very big hit.  We all went climbing yesterday afternoon, and there was not one, but two dogs at the gym!  Eamon practically lost his mind over it, and we spent a good chunk of time out in the lobby following the dogs around and encouraging Eamon not to stick his fingers up the dogs nostrils (as he likes to do when pointing to noses these days).

Of course, life is not always peaches and cream.  Our beloved Johnnie's has closed!  How do people buy  food when there isn't a grocery store around the corner?  We are slowly figuring things out, but miss our little shop very much.  It was sad to see it go, but we did get to say goodbye to a lot of our favorite employees on the last day, and it was nice to hear that almost everyone got offered a job at Whole Foods, which took over Johnnie's leases and thus bears most of the blame for this disastrous closure (but usefully continues to sell us Hemp milk and the very best apples).


We'll be heading to Madison soon for a week and are all excited to see the Foster family, especially cousins Audrey and Drew.  Here's hoping the snow will stay put and Eamon can try out sledding!

All our love to everyone, an early Merry Christmas, a late Happy Channukah, and so on and so forth.

Big hug!!!!




1 comment:

mom-ster said...

Would love to copy the photo of the 3 of you! Hope your travels to WI (& yes there is still a ton of snow) go as smoothly as your previous flights.