The biggest changes are watching Cora grow up into a verifiable toddler. She has (knock on wood) been a pretty easy-going baby so far. She doesn't really complain except when she has a reason to, and she's gotten really good at communicating her desires (for which we credit her day care, where they have taught her a lot of baby sign language). Her very wide vocabulary includes "eat," "drink," "more," "all done," "water," "milk," "please," "thank you," and "play." (She does actually know all of these words and uses them appropriately... she will actually differentiate between a request for milk and a request for water, and I think she understands that they're both specializations of "drink.") Her spoken vocabulary is still pretty limited. She knows something that's close to "mommy." And she regularly says both "daddy" and "doggy" but they sound exactly the same, so context is really important. She started walking a little after her first birthday, and she's really cruising around these days. And she's become a climber: stairs, chairs, you name it.
Maya is in first grade this year. She has really settled into the idea of school, and I think she may actually be starting to enjoy it. Her big loves are music and art. After much pleading, we also signed up for real dance classes this year. I was afraid the novelty would wear off, but it doesn't seem to be, and, watching dance class, it does seem to be one of the times that Maya is quite focused and attentive. She's also started up swim lessons once a week, and she's much more comfortable in the pool these days. She loves Girl Scouts (and I will say, I feel like we lucked into the best troop ever... Maya has some very good friends among the girls, and Tim and I think many of the parents aren't half bad either). There were two girl scout camping trips this year: one in the Spring that Cora and I skipped, and one this fall that the whole family attended.Maya and her dad even got to attend their first father daughter dance this year. Maya also did soccer again this fall; for some reason I was talked into coaching the rag tag team of nine five to seven year olds. Let's just say I feel like I've done my time.
I feel like I've said this for something like five years in a row, but nothing's really changed for Tim or me. We still have the same jobs, and they're still pretty much the same (which is, for the most part, a good thing).
As is always the case when we write this report, we did have some great travel adventures this year (it was important to get Cora's first year inaugurated right, so we got her that important first passport stamp). Before that, though, we spent a long weekend in San Francisco in May. I had to go out for a conference, and it turns out that there was a big road race that weekend, too. So the whole family went; we caught up with old friends, made some new ones, and saw new pieces of San Francisco. In June, we spent three weeks in Italy. It was a pretty fantastic trip. Tim's mom Audrey went with us for the first two weeks. We spent the first week in Florence (I had a conference), where we also hung out with our friends from Trento. After a fantastic week in Florence, we spent a handful of very lovely days in Perugia and Assisi. From there, Audrey went home, and we spent a really nice and relaxing four or five days with our friends in Trento (which was a welcome break from the more fast paced tourist activities). At the end of the trip, we spent three days hiking and exploring Cinque Terre, which we've been wanting to do for a while now. We also took a family trip to Colorado, where we met up with friends from college. It was really fun to get together after so many years, and we had a nice side visit to the mountains. In smaller trips, Cora and I went (with my mom) to San Diego in March, we all took a weekend trip to Houston for Labor Day, Cora and I went to Minneapolis in October, and I took a (very quick) trip to London just a week ago.
We hope you've had a great year. Here's also hoping that we get to see all of you in 2014!
2 comments:
promises, promises.
Well done.
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