Bob Dylan

Lots of intended posts + no actual posts = poor blogging (+ where did the fall go?)

This isn't a long one, but Eamon's dancing - finally captured on video - seemed to merit at least a mini-post.  I recently (and finally...) picked up a copy of Highway 61 Revisited and Eamon seems to like it quite a bit.  Here he is grooving to Like a Rolling Stone, until he sees the camera and asks to look at pictures instead.  I love it.

A bit more of the house

Well, after a failed copy attempt (it's complicated) I've lost a bunch of the pictures that I took for a post, but most of them probably weren't very interesting anyway.  Some that are left have Eamon and Erica (in the house), too, so . . . bonus.  We cooked out on the grill for the first time the other day, which you can kind of see looking out the back door through the porch.  Green tea "Kalua"-ish shoulder with some pickled vegetables.  I didn't really taste the tea, but there's nothing wrong with salty and hickory-smoked as a main flavor.  Dave gave us the grill, so we invited him over to share.

Through the door is the office, which is also where the train tracks go.  You can see it around the corner to the left in the picture below, looking out of Eamon's room.  Our bathroom has a real sized tub in it for grownup-sized baths.  The window in there is kind of cool, too.

Up the stairs is our room, which is painted a nice deep sky blue.  The closets came with pretty curtains.  Bridget and Tracy painted it in good colors throughout.  Cool light fixtures, which one adventure with the fuse box later mostly now have LEDs.  50W for the bedroom light instead of 500 should help - surprisingly, our house uses more electricity than our apartment.

Our bedroom looks over the back yard.  The shed is big enough for our bikes and trailer, a mower and some tools and such.  Eamon has been riding around on his seat behind Erica's handlebars and seems to like it.  There's a Trader Joe's down the bike path just a little bit, which is no Johnnie's of course, but nothing is or will be (for anybody, I imagine - sad people, rich Johnnie, Whole Foods).  No Indian grocery store with cheap almonds yet, but there's an Indian restaurant nearby (next door to Jac's, halfway to Trader Joe's).

Here's the kitchen nook, which used to look out on a maple and spruce tree.  We're checking out apple trees to put in as tribute, which involves me occasionally reminding myself that we don't really want a full sized apple tree.  Any suggestions on type?  Honey Crisp seems to be in the front running.  Eamon liked the sound of Wine Crisp, which a little Googling reveals have an interesting and Illinois-ish backstory. Erica is rationally suspicious of its advertised "spicy" flavor tones, so that will have to be our second tree sometime.

And, finally for now, the living room, from the front door (by the kitchen).  To the right for Eamon's room and the Office, to the left for where Hope and Clint hang out.  We snagged a snazzy new couch for this room from the end of a final-days sale for a furniture store.  I think all agree that it looks great right now in my parent's basement.  

That's the house.  We love it and are slowly learning what to do with it.  Our love to friends and family, thanks for stopping by.

Happy July

So here we are, one day after the bar exam and two months since we all left Boston.  Still haven't quite put all the pieces together for a photo tour of our house, despite my promises.  We still love it and I re-promise to eventually put up some representative shots.

Eamon is doing great and it looks like the fall is shaping up really well for both him and Erica.  He recently grew quite a bit, but still can't quite stand up in dad's boots.

Madison has been relaxed and beautiful and friendly, although we think often of Boston and people there. We all (Eamon included) enjoy looking at pictures of friends and memories.  Eamon knows a lot of names, helped along in Matt's case by a lucky overlap between one of our best friends and the also sandy-haired star of Trucks, Trucks, Trucks!  He's also been trying out quite a few two-word combinations, lots of useful things like "big car," "peace sign" (from one of his dinner plates), and "knee pit."

Dani, and Audrey and Drew are in town, so we've been having fun seeing all of them too.  

Finally, here's at least one (a little bit old) picture of part of our house.  This is part of the fence out back - you can see our fancy shed in the background.  The flowers are mostly gone now, but there was a stretch of days when right around dinner time the sun would break through the trees and filter right onto the lilies.  It's hard to complain.

Hi from Madison

I'll put up some more complete pictures of everything soonish, but Hello to all from Madison!  We've safely arrived, cats and all, and finally moved into our new home on Thursday.  Everybody is settling in fine, including Eamon, who so far really likes pushing his lawnmower down the bike path to the park.  He also had fun wandering the neighborhood with our across-the-street neighbor, Griffin, and his parents.


A quick picture of our little guy at the Children's Museum...  He took some hard tumbles yesterday, hence the scraped knee and forehead.  Such is the price of exploring...

And here's a quick map of where we are, because I can't figure out how to change the main display map for the blog. Any help on that would be appreciated . . . :-)

 

 

And then this happened....

Eamon is walking!  He's been taking a few tentative steps here and there for what feels like months, but over the last few days he's really been stretching out distances he'll go.  Yesterday we noticed him bopping around by the laundry machine carrying a few things back and forth a few steps.  Then, that evening, he just sort of took off on an unaided journey down the hallway!  Yay, Eamon!  And yay for Mom and Dad's backs, which can begin to straighten from the perpetually hunched position of walking with a toddler who has a deathgrip on your finger....  I took this video today, as Eamon skillfully avoided starting his nap.

Enjoy! (Go ahead and watch it again and again.  I certainly have.  As has Eamon, much to his own delight.)

I promise a cute post is coming about Christmas, but I couldn't find where Rory saved the pictures, so you'll have to wait for sledding and cousin bedtime story cuteness for a bit longer.

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!!!!

Travels and Fun!

Lots of traveling since the last post.  We flew out to Wisconsin to see family.  It was a quick trip, but we got to see the Drucks and the Vanderkolks, plus the Fosters.  Eamon did some thinking with his Aunt Sue . . .

. . . played with Baube . . .

. . . hung out with dad's Grandma and Grandpa and some cousins . . .

. . . and had some quality time with Grama and Grandad.

We've also had some visitors here.  Our cousin Zach came up from DC and  Allie,  from North Carolina.  

And Gramberg was here too!  Eamon really likes his books and has started to be pretty selective about which one he wants to look at.

Life is good.  Work has been busy for both of us, but also interesting and engaging (at least more often than not).  My ankle is finally getting close to healed, which means I can get out and run again.  So nice.  Erica has been looking at schools and getting excited about her prospects while moonlighting as a goal-scoring machine for her soccer team.  

Plus, Eamon is a delight, although he is becoming quite opinionated and determined about what he wants to hold/see/eat/do, which can be challenging.  He's still loves music and has started to clap along to songs in addition to bobbing his head and body and waving his arms like a conductor.  He's been increasingly interested in standing up to check things out, especially magnets on the fridge, kitchen drawers, and his toy box.  

Of course, balls are still a thrill!

And bath-time has started to be a lot of fun.  Who doesn't love splashing?

Sad to see summer fading away, but I'm also kind of excited for the fall.  Hope everyone is well.