"Habby, Habby, Habby" Birthday

Addie's face, post Birthday cake! Please note that it is in her hair, eyelashes, and up her nose. We had a LOT of fun watching her go to work on their birthday cake.


"Habby" is what Addie says now as she's tooling around with her new toys. It means "happy". If there is something better than seeing your one year old crawl around all day declaring how "habby" she is, then I wish you'd tell me. Personally, I can't imagine it.

Like everyone else, this time of year is incredibly busy for us and I have a lot of things I'd like to blog about for the sake of remembering them. That's going to require me to post fairly frequently, and I have a little bit of trepidation about getting it all done. But here goes.

So, Miss Addie is 1! I have quite a time getting her to sit still for pictures, so I'm starting to rely more on videos and "stolen" snapshots. As most of you know, she and Tim share a birthday, so this is a very special day for all of us. They have something really cool to bond over, and I get to be increasingly grateful that I'm not where I was a year ago. So we are all happy!

Here Adelaide is standing on her tiptoes to choose a bow for her outfit.

She does not like sitting still, as you can see.

Checking out her birthday outfit.

And yes, she is very "habby" and very active. If I had to try to describe her in one word, I'd choose "vigorous". She's very strong in her likes and dislikes and has definitely learned to make her opinion known to us. On the positive side, that means that her likes are delightful. She crows with happiness and has a HUGE grin and is quick to laugh and attack us with hugs and "kisses" (a wide open mouth placed on our faces).

She has also learned the art of the fake cry and the temper tantrum and she's pretty quick to display those as well. That's a little less fun and a lot more challenging to parent. We aren't exactly sure how to discourage her from whining when she doesn't have the words or the signs for complex desires. It's one thing to teach her a simple sign or word for "up" and another entirely for "but I really want to eat these tasty Christmas tree needles and I'm positive it won't hurt me. Just let me try". By the way, it is amazing how many pine needles have ended up in her diapers. And it really hasn't hurt her. So I guess she was right, in a sense.

Speaking of language, Addie can really speak quite well for her age. She says at least 20 words on a fairly regular basis. She goes through phases with her words. There are days that she repeatedly says something and then it will disappear for a few weeks, only to pop up again without warning. Current favorites are "wooooooowwww (wow)", "tool (cool)", and"hot", along with some serious outliers like "tie-guh (tiger)" and "dee (which stands for dirty, which I can only assume she gets from my combination of a Southern drawl and an attempt to enunciate for her, resulting in a word like durrr-deeee).

She does tend to be shy with her language around other people. It takes her a while to warm up enough to begin babbling. The real exception here is "hi" and "bye". Ads is enchanted by her ability to interact with new people this way. Everywhere we go, she tells strangers "HI!!!!" in her loudest voice, usually accompanied by a big wave. Needless to say, this is a huge hit. It cracks Tim and I up also, because she can be sitting on our laps and out of the blue, she'll suddenly say "HI!!!" to us, with a vigorous wave. She enjoys "bye" as well and likes to say to "Bye-bee, bye-bee" to every.single.person. when we're leaving a place.

Her birthday (and Tim's) was mostly wonderful. It was a Thursday, so Tim had to work, but I didn't have Calum, so I was able to really spoil Addie. I tend to encourage total self indulgence on birthdays, so I let Ads do whatever she wanted. This included 1) eating her oatmeal with her hands and 2) playing in the dog bowls (usually strictly not allowed). I've discovered that what my daughter really wants to do is make a huge mess. And then make another. And another. So that was enlightening for me, and fun for her. And Adelaide discovered that dog food really doesn't taste good, so we all learned something.

We had a lot of snow that day (shocking) , so we weren't able to get out quite as much as I'd planned early on in the day. I'd planned to take Addie out for lunch to Noodles to get her favorite mac n cheese and then to do some shopping. We settled for a quick Target run after the plow came through and a lot of inside fun. We took a loooooooong bubbly bath together and a delicious nap. That evening we met Tim for dinner at Chester's, one of our favorite restaurants downtown. We had a great dinner and then came home for cake and presents.

Addie got a block table and some books and toys and clothes. She didn't know quite what to make of the whole "present" thing, but she loved her new toys. Here is her slightly confused but pleased face as we opened up one of her presents.

And she loved cake. Boy, did she love her cake. Lita (short for Abuelita) and Grandpa made Dad's favorite "Bonnie Butter Cake" and Addie was a big fan.

Here she is seeing the cake for the first time.

And here she's seen enough...

The Great Crawl for the Cake is on! Here she is, examining her cake.
And the sugar rush is beginning

Here it is, full on sugar hitting her bloodstream! Opening up a present. Love this one.

We didn't actually do cake and presents until Sunday of that week because I got some variant of Ebola on Friday. That put a slight damper on the rest of our birthday plans, but luckily Tim and Ads stayed healthy.

We also had a party on Sunday evening for Tim and Addie. We are SO grateful to our friends that made it out after a crazy weekend. It meant a lot to us to celebrate with our "family away from family". Inexplicably, I didn't take any pictures of that gathering OR of Tim and Addie, the birthday folks, together. I don't quite know how that slipped my mind and I can only blame my Ebola. Betcha I never let another birthday pass with THAT happening again!

And for the multimedia portion, here is Adelaide eating cake. I offered to film Tim as well, but he wasn't interested in that. :-)

The Backlog! Part 1

First of all, of course my baby is one now! That's another post though. For now, I'm just going to post some of the videos that I've had saved up. I've been 1) very busy and 2) very sick (stomach bug) so I'm a bit farther behind than I want to be at this time of year. Thus, the post short on words but long on multimedia...


First, some pumpkin carving. When I look back at this video, it's hard to believe how beautiful our fall was from here in the depths of bitter winter. BTW, snowiest month EVER recorded in Rochester. Words fail me when I try to describe how I feel about being part of this historic occurrence.




And some more pumpkin carving. Please note Tim's concentration with his electric saw. I was trying to get a video of Addie riding the center turntable, but it didn't work out.



I'll address more of the backlog later on...for now, it's time to tackle those last few Christmas chores.

The Blizzard of 2010

It snowed here this weekend. Although that's a bit of a mild understatement. It's as if Noah would have come off the ark and said "Yep, we had some rain." Allow me to paraphrase Noah...we had some snow.

About 20 inches, give or take a few. With howling winds and some sub zero temperatures thrown in for good measure. "I am Nature, hear me roar."





And I got stuck in a snowdrift. At the end of my own driveway. Which was good and bad, if you think about it. Good, because all I had to do was trudge about 10 feet inside with Addie, so she didn't get too cold. And bad, because you know, it was about 10 feet from my front door. I'd like to think that takes a special talent. Fortunately, my neighbor managed to free me and get the car back in the garage. (If you are wondering why I was heading out at all, let me just say that I was supposed to be at a brunch for spouses of interviewees this weekend. Needless to say, I didn't make it.)

My neighbors are great. They snowblew (? snowblowed? used a snowblower on?) my driveway, which was lovely, as Tim was mostly gone the entire weekend. They are big, burly no-nonsense men with large trucks and snowblowers that could tackle a glacier. Two of them headed over to me and my fruitlessly spinning wheels and said "Are ya stuck?" to which I just replied "This is exactly why you don't bring a North Carolinian to Minnesota." They guffawed (really, they did, it sounded exactly like "guffawguffaw") and said "North Carolina is probably looking really good right about now." Well, yes, good sirs, it does.

After that, I pretty much stayed holed up for the entire weekend. I did trek outside for about five minutes with Adelaide to get a few pictures. It was literally five minutes because it was about -10 at that point.

My little penguin, cold nose and all

It was really hard to get a picture of her with her mouth closed because she kept saying "Wow! Wow! Woooooowwwwww!" I'm not sure if she was delighted (Tim's genes) or horrified (my genes.)



Back in the house, and I wanted a few shots of her in her oh-so-cute hat.


All Addie wanted to do was grab the camera. Here she is, on the move.
And of course, she wanted the hat off. I'd say she gives her hat about 10 seconds before she takes it off. Silly girl. Of course, she now has a "big girl" carseat (in which she look soooo tiny) and she can't really get her arms up to her head to remove her hat. So mostly it falls down over her eyes and she rides around with a virtual blindfold. Every time we reach our destination, I start laughing to see her with her hat starting right above her nose.

What Goes Untyped

Sometimes I hate blogging. Maybe that comes as a shock, but I have a feeling some of you can understand exactly what I mean.

Don't get me wrong, I mostly love my blog. It's this incredible living document that allows me to record all my memories of our family time right now. In fact, my blog feels like a member of my family...not on the level of a person, but like a beloved family pet. One that I don't manage to feed for weeks at a time. Minor detail, that.

But yes, there are times that I hate doing this. And honestly, it's not the things that I write about that drive me crazy. It's the things that I don't write.

Sometimes its because I started this, and if I don't fully commit to it, it hangs over my head. Like a small voice saying "PRECIOUS MOMENTS ARE GOING UNRECORDED!!!!" in a not so small way.

Some of it is because I have times when I want to rant about something. Like...oh let's just pick something random....winter that lasts for half a year. Mere coincidence, of course. But I don't do it, because some folks that follow this blog are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome native Minnesotans and of course, it might be offensive to them to see someone politely questioning their sanity why people enjoy this climate. I've always thought that you needed a REALLY good reason to hurt someone's feelings, and total honesty on a blog is just not good enough unless it keeps you from stoning the local snowplow.

The biggest reason though is that some of the heaviest things in my life don't belong solely to me. They belong to other people, people I care deeply about, and it just isn't my place to share my feelings about their stories with the greater world. Even though those stories might affect me deeply. Even though it might be all that I can think about at times.

We've all heard the phrase "the elephant in the room". This is like "the spider in the Web." I coined that phrase, feel free to use it. ;-) Bad puns aside, I think most amateur bloggers try to avoid sticky threads. You know what I mean by sticky threads. The things you would never put on the family Christmas card letter. "Judy started her freshman year at Yale where she is apparently majoring in binge drinking if her grades are any indication!!!" The ones that don't avoid those threads are the best bloggers but I'm not sure they have much domestic tranquility. Which, as I continue this bad pun/metaphor, makes the rest of us careful little ...um...well...insects, I guess...that live to blog another day. And there is nothing wrong with that. But sometimes it feels so false to me, to paint a picture of only the light in my life...though I truly thank God that the light nearly always overpowers the dark.

A lot of this post is whistling in the dark, because in truth, I am suffering deeply for a loved one at this moment. If you don't know the story, don't worry, it doesn't concern anyone you care about. Well, besides me, of course. If you do know, then you know, and you too have been grieving. It is not my story, and I have no wish to tell it, so please don't ask. I can't blog about it, but I wanted to acknowledge the pain of it. It was keeping me away from this blog, out of fear of the consequences of acknowledging it. So here it is, acknowledged and respected. And now it can move on its way.

And while there are things I can't publicly grieve, there are some things that I can publicly celebrate.

Sisterhood. Both the blood and the chosen kind. Thank God for the richness of womens' friendships in good and bad times.

My husband, my best friend.

Trips home. They restore my soul. Something in me is intrinsically tied to that bit of red red earth right in the heart of my native state. It's the mental equivalent of pajama pants. Your "day" pants might look amazing and you might enjoy the heck out of them, but you breathe a little easier in your cozy pants.

And my baby girl. She's 11 months old and sassy as she can be. Her various pictures and videos deserve a post of their own. So for Addie fans, just stay tuned. I have a bit of a backlog to address, and I will do that, I promise you. She's still amazing and she'll get her just praise in due time. :-)

In the meantime, I am focusing on prayers for peace, mercy, and grace for those in need of healing.

Thirtysomething

That's me, as of yesterday. Actually, I'm just plain old 30, I haven't attained the additional "something" yet.

I know I'm supposed to have age angst. Our society tells us in myriad ways that youth is king. If you can't actually be young, you can pretend to your darnedest with special creams, and vitamins, and machines designed to pummel your cellulite, and toxins that erase your wrinkles, and if all else fails, surgeries that can lift, tuck, pad, and re-shape us into better versions of our younger selves.

However, I'm just glad to be entering the fourth decade of life. I'm excited. Already, I have experienced so many incredible places and met so many interesting people. I know the 30s will have their trials. That's life. But I have also have a zest for the adventures and relationships that I will have during these years.

And my husband made sure that things started off beautifully for me. He organized a party for our year, which was a lot of fun. We have a lot of friends in the 3rd and 1st year as well, but our year alone is quite the crowd. There are 12 residents, their significant others, and ...wait for it....16 children already present and three more on the way, at last count. Needless to say, it's a houseful. But it's wonderful, and I enjoyed it immensely.

Tim also spoiled me on the day of my actual birthday (Sunday) by allowing me to sleep in (bliss), making me a delicious breakfast, including my favorite orange rolls, and allowing me a super duper long afternoon nap (double bliss). We originally planned to go eat and shop as well, but it was a really icky day, so we stayed inside and cuddled all day and watched movies. It was restful and blissful.

I am lucky, I am loved, I am living. It's been a good birthday.

More on the rest of life later!

She's a "Perfect" 10

Adelaide is 10 months and 10 days old. And yes, we think she is perfect.

The dictionary gave me 22 possible meanings of the word perfect, which I find quite pleasing. I know English is a PITA to learn, but honestly, it's an amazing language. We have more words than any other language, for one thing. And the words that we do have are marvelously flexible...sometimes overburdened, yes, but that also makes them really weighty and chunky and fulfilling.

Anyway, back to Little Miss Perfect.



The meaning of "perfect" that I'm referencing here is exactly fitting the need in a certain situation or for a certain purpose. And Addie fits into, and completes, our family exactly. She has now been out of me for longer than she was in me. That feels significant to me. It's concrete affirmation that she's her own person.

I can see others in her, of course. I see her father every time I look at her (who doesn't?!?!) and I see my mother when I see the gold fleck in Addie's right eye. I adljsee my dad's crooked grin and my own super square and chunky baby teeth. She has flashes of temper (my side) and moments of shyness (Tim's side).

But mostly when I see Addie, I see someone entirely new. She's strong and vigorous, and praise God, healthy. She's bright, funny, and clever. She's affectionate and loving. And to her parents' eyes at the very least, she is beautiful. Her bright eyes, that little button nose, her dimpled hands, those sweet cheeks, and those long lashes make me giddy with love and pride.



We had a bit of a struggle to get to Addie. But she's here, and she's even better than we dared to hope. She's "perfect".



Ok, so my hymn of praise and thankfulness is done for now. It'll be back, I'm sure, because that's the kind of cornball that I am.

But in other news, we are just trucking along here in the Roc. We had our Fall Festival, which was a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone that made it out despite the tricky weather.

Tim is done with his travels for a long while, so that's good. We're also enjoying having Calum (our friends' son) during the days. It's been a change for Addie and I, but in a good way. Calum is a great little guy, very pleasant and even tempered, and he and Addie seem to enjoy one another a lot.

The multimedia portion!

The photos in this entry were all taken by Rachel Sviggum. We ventured out to the Plummer House one gorgeous fall day and these were the result. Her website here: http://rachelsviggumphotography.blogspot.com/

This video cracks me up, although I don't know if anyone else besides the grandparents will find it funny. Addie loves going into Indiana Jones' dog crate and this is just a short video of her having a great time going in and out...and in...and out...and back in...and back out. She also occasionally tries to go into Rocky's crate, with much less success. She's gotten herself stuck in there twice already and now eyes it a bit askance. With good reason!

Our Trip to Boston

I've been an exhausted blogger lately. Which is to say, I've been an exhausted "failing to blog" blogger lately. There isn't any special reason for my sleepiness, other than having an active 10 (!) month old. And yes, Addie turned 10 months on Saturday. I have a whole slew of thoughts on that ...that I will get to later.

For now, here are some my favorite photos from the Boston trip. I promise to update more about the actual trip itself later. The short story is that it was amazing. :-)

At the aquarium. She loved it, if you can't tell from the super excited look on her face.


Hanging out in the Common with Dad. She was cracking up here...I think Tim must have been tickling her.
Addie loves sitting on her Dad's shoulders. She especially loves pulling his hair and his ears. I love the sassy cap and Tim's expression of...um...joy?
A sweet father and daughter moment down by the Harbor.
Here we were trying to get a nice picture of the two of us. It didn't really work out...
Because Ads started to get a little ...CRAZY...on me.

And then we both started to crack up. This is a video of Addie at the aquarium. If you know my child, you know that it is EXTREMELY rare that she is totally silent (unless sleeping) but here she is very quiet and very interested in the fish.




And another quick video of us spending some family time at Boston Harbor.

Friends and Family

I've always thought of myself as person whose life abounds in blessings. I have many things to be grateful for...too many to enumerate in my short "while-the-baby-gets-her-bath-time"...but I've always felt particularly happy to have a family that I'm friends with and friends that feel like family.

One of those "friends that feel like family" was able to visit this week, and it was food for the soul. And not just any type of food either. Not like "i'm bored, I think I'll have a snack" food. Not like "I'm tired but I've got to make something for dinner, so where's a handy box type mix". No, this was GOOD food. Like a good pinot with herbed cheeses and artisan crackers and fresh grapes and little quaint spoons of honey and chutneys to mix and match.

Leslie, I hope you're not offended that I'm comparing you to a cheese plate. The implication isn't that you're cheesy, but that you're freakin' great, because there is almost nothing I love better than a good wine and a good cheese plate.

Anyway, I didn't intend to get quite so deeply into the food description. But there it is.

And here's my friend, holding my baby, which makes me so so so indescribably happy. Leslie and I have been best friends for years now, since freshman year of college. And I'm lucky enough to have a lot of "bffs" but each one of them is special and totally irreplaceable. And it's just like Leslie to read a book about friendships and decide on a whim to visit. See her take on it here, at her blog.
http://phillipsfamnc.blogspot.com/2010/10/perennial-friends.html



Regardless of motivation, I was delighted to have her for a whirlwind visit. She has two beautiful little ones of her own, so she couldn't be away long, but we made the most of her time.

There was a quick visit to Lanesboro, to take in the scenery and some really delicious local food. That was really the perfect thing for us to do, because we used to take off in college constantly. We'd get some food and listen to music and drive the back roads of Chapel Hill for ages, talking, singing, and savoring the finest fast food our money could buy.

Our palates and consciences have mature a bit since then, so we were happy to find local grass fed beef and local veggies on the menu at the corner cafe.

Here's my cheddar bacon burger.


And Leslie's burger with brie. Which leads me to believe that she will appreciate my "you're a cheese plate" spiel.

Anyway, her visit was short but great. And I appreciated her effort more than I can really articulate. Though I'm going to try.

One of the hard truths of life away from home is that...well...you're away. Obvious enough, but really hard to live on a daily basis. Actually that's not even true. The day to day is pretty easy. You get caught up in your daily round and you do your thing.

But on a fairly regular basis...let's say a least a few times a week...you find yourself sorrowing over the fact that you're away from someone in particular. Not just thinking about them, but actually catching your breath and grieving for a few seconds that you're apart. Because you're missing that person and the daily rituals of their life, big and small. A lot of times its my mom that I miss. And my sisters...how I miss my sisters! And my dad and my brother. And of course, my friends. I am missing Ashley's pregnancy and Leslie's children growing up and Kristin's new dog and Mary Katherine's new house and Chloe's wit and Lauren's wisdom and Cameron's brand new little girl and her store, and ...the list goes on and on.

And they're missing my life. And my baby. My precious, amazing little girl. They don't really know her. I know that they all, every single one of them, adore her. But they don't KNOW her on a day to day basis. And it really kills me.

And that's not a post full of blame or guilt, because honestly, we are all living crazy lives, most of us far from home. And finances and jobs and spouses and time and all of those other big grown up commitments are real and important.

BUT that's why I loved Leslie visiting and why it means the world to me to have a picture of her with Addie. Because I wouldn't really be me without my friendships, and I wouldn't be me without Addie and I NEED my girls to know my baby. And I know how hard it is to make that happen.

And I'm so so excited that we got our time together and so so thankful that you made the effort to visit the Roc. Friend, you're a cheese plate for the soul. ;-)

Anyway, some of that sounds sad, and truly, some of it IS sad. And I think that's ok. It should go without saying that there are great things about being where I am...more great relationships to build, great opportunities for our family, etc. But life isn't just about the cherries on top. Sometimes there is a big scoop of really crappy ice cream in your sundae...like rum raisin, ugh, sick....and I think it's ok to talk about that too. As long as you don't get so annoyed by the rum raisin that you forget about the super awesome scoop of Phish Food right next to it. I'm really into the food analogies tonight for some reason. If you're now hungry, forgive me.

Before I go eat something (because I'm clearly hungry!) , I wanted to end on a slightly lighter note. I've got some videos of Adelaide to share!

And before that, I would just like to note that Leslie and I drove right through Fountain, MN, which is...and I kid you not....the Sinkhole Capital of the United States. Not only is Fountain the proud possessor of this extremely dubious honor, it proclaims this very accolade on its city sign. So as you drive into the town, you see a sign saying "FOUNTAIN....the sinkhole capital of the United States." I think someone should clue the town fathers in that this is NOT a good thing. This is a really bad picture of the sign, but it's as close as I can get. Take my word for it, it really does proclaim its title proudly.

http://www.bluffcountry.com/fountain.htm

Anyway, Addie.

My baby is growing up so fast. In this first video, Tim and I were delighted and appalled by how grown up she looked in her clothes. I was about to join my friends Diana and Laura on a walk, and I dressed her warmly because fall is definitely here in MN. I think she looks so cute, but so ...un baby like...in her outfit. And I wanted her to demonstrate her newfound ability to wave hello and goodbye, but instead she showed off her ability to shake her head "no" very definitively.




And in the second video, I'm still trying to get Addie to wave. I failed again, but it's kind of funny nonetheless.

Addie turns 9 months, a shotgun party, and more ...

Well, this is my first post as a guest-blogger (this is Tim writing) and I have to say I'm a little nervous about living up to the standard Tara has set. She's an amazing writer, and I look forward to her posts as much as the rest of you. Well, enough dilly-dallying: let's get to the meat ...

Since Tara's last post, Addie turned the ripe old age of 9 months. In honor of the celebration, Addie went exploring in our room as you can see below. She's under our bed and loving it. She's becoming quite an explorer these days and is really working on her crawling speed. She's got to be up to at least 1 mile an hour by now. Her favorite thing to do is get up to ramming speed and bowl into Tara, sending them both flying (slight hyperbole) and laughing like crazy (not at all hyperbole). Another thing Addie really likes are the dog crates. Tara got a great shot of her coming out of her new-found fort. Given Addie's propensity for the dog crates, under our bed, tents, and crawling under bed sheets, I have a feeling she's going to be one heck of a fort-builder when she gets a few years older ... can't wait for that!

A few days later, one my consultants (Dr. Sems) had his yearly shotgun party. As I learned last year (sadly), this does not refer to shotgunning beers. Rather, Dr. Sems is a big hunter and every September has a shooting contest with shotguns and clay pigeons. He has an ideal set-up in his backyard with trees and farmland surrounding, so it's plenty safe. There were probably 30 people in the contest, plus another 40-50 people not shooting. Even though I didn't shoot in the contest, it was fun to watch and see people in their element. I got some great photos, which are below. The guys shooting are Presley and Greg, some of my fellow residents. Addie didn't seem to mind the ear plugs, but she did NOT like sitting on the 4-wheeler (even though it wasn't on).

Sometimes when it's warm, we'll let Addie crawl around in just her diaper. This has been fine up until now, but somehow she figured out how to adeptly undo her diapers. She also seems to understand that she is "supposed to" have a diaper on, and in true kid fashion, gets away from "trouble" as quickly as possible. Of course, we don't tell her we think it's adorable. Tara got a great photo of Addie making a break for it. She seems to be quite pleased with herself. (Note the background with Indy sniffing the recently deposited diaper.)

As some of you probably know, my Mom and her husband Steve are developing a resort in Panama. It's on an island called Bastimentos off the east coast of Panama, just south of the border with Costa Rica. They've been pouring their blood, sweat, and tears into this project. This is especially true since spring, as they have essentially lived in Panama to oversee the project. They've been back to the States for a only a handful of weeks out of the past six months. I know it's been hard for them to be away from family, and especially hard for my Mom to be away from Addie. They've been wanting to get us (Tara, Addie, my sisters, and me) down there to see their pet project. Well, we now have plans to go down and visit! We are going in January and will be spending a week there. While we are very excited, there is always some red tape to get through. So I started looking over our passports and realized Tara and I needed to renew ours. And even Addie needs a passport. Yes, she needs the whole kit-and-caboodle. That includes the application, which required an input for height! I thought it was pretty funny that the application for children had a spot for height. Luckily, we had Addie's 9 month appointment just last week and found out she is now 2'4". It felt kind of funny putting that down, but hey - if that's what they want, they can have it. So we're trying to do the passport photos on a budget, and given that we have a nice camera, we took the pictures above (with some obvious cropping needed). I like the one on top better - what do you think?

For those who don't know, I am taking a year of my residency to focus on research. One of my colleagues and good friends, Justin, and I are looking at a new drug delivery system that could be very useful for orthopedic surgery. It's never really been tried before, so we're really excited. But the amount of ground work that goes into research is exhausting. It's not fun either - mostly emails, meetings, committees, applications, paperwork, reading, literature searches, etc. Finally we have our money, we have all the committee approvals, and we are going to start in earnest on the actual research within the next few weeks. Our experiment will last about 6 months, so I'll be at it for a while. But if the results turn out how we expect, this project could open a new door in drug delivery for orthopedic surgeons. Wish me luck! :)

Tara and Addie are fortunate to have a great group of moms/kids to hang out with on a regular basis. Most of the moms are married to my orthopedic surgery colleagues, so Tara has a group to commiserate with about a resident's lifestyle. And Addie has a group of kids all within a few years that help her socialize. Tara went out to meet a group at a nearby park earlier today and got some fun pics of Addie. My favorite is the scrunched-up bulldog face. We haven't yet figured out why she's making that face, but it puts us in stitches every time she brings it out. The picture on the right shows Addie doing the typical baby thing - putting everything she can find straight in her mouth.

Well, this has been fun writing for the blog. And for a send-off, I figure I had better show you how much Addie takes after me (if you can't already tell just by looking at her). This last pic shows Addie putting down some (supposedly good-for-her) cheese puffs in true Dad style. Tara will be writing next, and probably for a while after that. So until next time ...