Has July 4th Come Early?

Someone has developed an independence streak. Whether it's peeling her own orange or going up the stairs, Claire has adopted a "I can do it" attitude. My little girl is growing up so quickly. Good thing, because in 6 weeks or so, she will be a big sister! Lynn has an ultrasound tomorrow morning and I can't wait to see the baby.

Two weekends ago we took Claire on her last free flight. We are going to have to start paying for her tickets after she turns 2. Anyway we went to Florida to visit Grammy and Grampy. As you can see, it was warm enough to go swimming. Grampy and I even got to play 9 holes of golf. She just loves swimming. Too bad she still doesn't care for the ocean or the beach.

Last weekend we went to Nick and Kristi's (and Sam's) for dinner. Nick was changing Sam's diaper and Claire was right in there watching the action (making sure Nick was doing a good job). She points to Lynn's belly when we ask her "where's mommy's baby?" and answers yes to, "Are you going to be a big sister?", but I am pretty sure she doesn't know what's coming. Heck, we don't either! The voting is tied for boy or girl and there are only 34 more days left to vote. We are still desperately seeking names, so please email them to us.

I will post pictures from the ultrasound tomorrow when I get them.

Happy New Year!

Claire had a great Christmas with Grammy, Grampy, Lola, Uncle Paul and Auntie Taya visiting (we did too). Even Santa made a surprise visit to our house to see Claire - she wasn't too interested in Santa. She was spoiled by all of the attention she got, and we were spoiled too as family members lined up to play with her. To the right is Uncle Paul and Claire outside, looking for airplanes - she has a knack for spotting them in the sky. Claire also went to the Georgia Aquarium, which she loved because of the fishes in Finding Nemo. I got a season's pass to the Aquarium for Christmas (from Claire) and Claire gets in for free, so I suspect we'll be going there a lot - that's like my buying Lynn a power tool for her birthday. Needless to say, everyone had a great time over Christmas, especially Claire who is now learning to play the drums on Rock Band

After the house emptied on Dec. 29, our friends Kim and Jason (and kids) from Dallas arrived to spend the new year with us. We went to the bounce house again. Claire was not as timid this time around. We also went to the Georgia Aquarium. Did I mention I got a season's pass for Christmas from Claire? Everyone celebrated New Year's Eve together with sparkling apple juice, followed by fireworks in the front yard, with the kids watching from the front porch. The adults barely made it to midnight.

Lynn is doing well with baby number #2. I feel bad I have not written much about him/her. This one is quite a bit more active than Claire was. He/she has a strong heartbeat and we go for an ultrasound in a couple of weeks. It is hard to believe that we only have 8 more weeks to go, and then the lack of sleep cycle repeats itself. Well, it is a small price to pay for such joy. And speaking of joy, I would be remiss if I did not tell you that our neighbors Kristi and Nick (guitar player in above video) had a baby girl, Samantha, on Dec. 31. You can follow their chronicles of parenthood on their blog.

And the last bit of good news, Nick and I were earned a t-shirt at the local watering hole for reaching a certain level of beer consumption. "Years of preparation got us to this momentus occasion. Hard work really does pay off", said Nick Estes, as he rested his pint on his belly.

Finally, you can see some photos from the past couple of weeks here. We are flying to Florida for the MLK weeking to see Grammy and Grampy. Pictures to follow.

Season's greetings!

The good news: After logging nearly 100,000 miles on a airplane this year, we are done with traveling for the year! The better news: we have lots of time to spend with the Bear. Last weekend, when Lynn was in Seattle, I took Claire to see santa. First, let me preface this story by saying that for the two week prior, we had been preparing Claire to meet St. Nick. "Santa!, Santa!, Santa!" was all we heard for two weeks. Our neighbor has a life sized santa is his front yard and we would visit Santa daily.

So the moment of truth arrived last Saturday when I took Claire to visit Santa, who made a special trip to our neighborhood clubhouse. We walked in and Claire sees Santa and starts pointing and saying "Santa!". It pretty much went downhill from there, as we approached Santa for the photo op, Claire's grip around me tightened and the waterworks came on. After several minutes of trying to get Claire to sit with Santa, we abandoned the idea. It was a far cry from this! You can see more Santa photos here.

This morning, we needed some family time. So we took Claire to the local bounce house. $7 for the three of us to get in - what a deal! At first Claire was tentative, not wanting to get in/on the various houses/slides. But after a few minutes of mommy and daddy bouncing around, she got into the spirit of it. Her favorite thing by far was the slide. After an hour and a half, mommy and daddy were exhausted. We will send Uncle Paul and Aunt Taya here with Claire when they come next week! More photos from today and a video are located here.

update from lynn

so, it is true. mark is a slacker :). he hasn't updated the blog in forever, so i (lynn) am going to try.

claire and i have been in florida this week visiting my parents. we have had an absolute blast. we went to the beach (bear is still not a fan of the sand) and saw three dolphins, we swam in the pool every day (bear wasn't keen on it at first, but now we can't get her out of the pool!), we colored and danced and sang and bear followed grampy around like a shadow! photos from our trip can be found here.

we are gearing up for the holidays and will put up our holiday decorations upon our return. bear can "help" this year!

baby #2 has been very active lately and was actually kicking his/her sister last night as bear sat on my lap to watch shrek.

hope you all have a wonderful thanksgiving. hug those nearest and dearest to you and send out virtual hugs to those that you can't put your arms physically around.

thanks to all of you for being such important parts of our lives

-lynn and bear

updates...

Ok, ok. I haven't posted anything in nearly 3 weeks. We have been so busy. After returning from Greece, Lynn spent the following weekend in Rome with our friend Suzanne and her mom. They came to Montepulciano for 4 days and also visited Florence and Pisa. the next weekend a former student of mine and his wife came to visit for 2 days. The program wrapped up uneventfully the following week and at 1 am on Nov. 4, we headed to Rome for our flights to Frankfurt and then on to Atlanta. Claire slept on the bus ride to Rome. Once at the airport, Lynn discovered that she was booked the Nov 6 flight from Rome to Frankfurt and the Nov 4 flight from Frankfurt to Atlanta. It took nearly two hours (at 4am in the morning) to sort this out. Claire slept all the way to Frankfurt. On our flight to Atlanta we got a basinette for Claire, but she wanted nothing to do with it. She stayed awake for the first 5 hours and then slept for the last 5 hours in Lynn's arms. Lynn was pretty sore by the time we got to Atlanta.

It took us nearly 90 minutes to clear immigration, customs and security, and then another 90 minutes for Lynn's parents to pick us up. We forgot to call them when we landed. They were staying at our house on their way to Florida, and just left this morning. We certainly enjoyed having them with us and I am sure Claire did too.

It took a couple of days for Claire to get over jetlag, but now she is back on track with respect to her sleeping schedule. I am sure Claire won't remember any of our adventures in Italy, but hopefully this blog will serve as a travelogue for her to read one day. The ladies at her daycare were sad to see her leave - that's them in the photo. It was a great experience for Claire. Overall we had a great time in Italy, but we are not sure if we want to do it again. I was asked to be the director for the Fall 2011 program. It is a lot of work and admittedly Lynn bore then bulk of the parenting. I think it would be more than twice as much work with 2 kids. Plus I would be on call 24/7, dealing with things such as doctor's visits, missing linen, bus schedules, etc.

The day after we returned home, Lynn and I went to the doctor's for an ultrasound. Claire's sibling is healthy and growing. 10 fingers and 10 toes, and no, we don't know the sex of the baby. Claire went to the doctor's the following day for 4 vaccinations and boy did she cry. She was measured at 35 inches, but we didn't think that was right. When we got home we remeasured her and got 33 inches. I think she will end up being 5' 10" when she is older.

On Friday night, I am heading to Chile to present a paper at a conference and will return on Thursday morning. Lynn and Claire are heading to Sarasota on Thursday morning, so we will have breakfast together at the airport. Claire's trip to Florida will be her second last free flight, as after she turns 2, we will have to start paying for her to fly. I think we definitely got our money's worth from free flight for her.

That's been our last 3 weeks in a nutshell. The traveling for us ends in mid January, as the due date approaches. We will have a full house for Christmas and hopefully lots of photos and stories to share with everyone.

-

Weekend in Greece

We went to Athens, Greece this past weekend with 4 students. It was so nice not to eat Italian food for a change. Of course, our one full day in Athens was spent in the rain, but a at least it was not a heavy a downpour as it was in Venice last weekend. We took Claire to the Acropolis to see the ruins, including the Parthenon, but she was asleep as we walked to it. Once we got there, strollers were not permitted, so we got her up (she was craaaaaanky – just like her mom). Fortunately for us, Claire really likes the students who came with us and they like her, so we could pass her off to them for a break. Anyway, some photos of the weekend are here.

Normally I don’t like to ask people for favors, but I am making an exception this time. We have some friends who have been trying to adopt a baby for a while now. They have hearts of gold and will make phenomenal parents. They have a lead on a potential adoption. I am asking for your prayers for them, the baby and the mother of the baby that everything will work out.

Next up, Suzanne and Joanne come to Italy.

Rain, rain, go away...

Another whirlwind weekend. This time Venice was the place and did it ever rain. We stayed in Padua and took the train (30 mins.) to Venice on Saturday. It was sprinkling when we arrived at the train station in Venice, but after boarding the ferry, the sky opened up. We got off the ferry at St. Mark’s square and immediately got drenched. Claire fared a little better as we were using our umbrellas to try to keep her dry. We ducked into the world famous Harry’s bar to wait out the rain and get a bloody Mary - they were $30, so we went back out into the rain – staying dry never cost so much! After an hour, the rain let up and we headed straight for a jewelry store (not my idea). I was never so glad not to have had that Bloody Mary (or ten of them), as I needed the money to pay for Lynn’s jewelry.

Lynn and Claire headed back to Padua after 3-4 hours in Venice so Claire could nap. Lynn said Claire had a meltdown on the train. I stayed in Venice, as the sun came out and I enjoyed a beer overlooking the Grand Canal. By the time I got back to Padua (around 5pm), my clothes were complete dry – it’s amazing what a good beer can do! Saturday night, Claire wouldn’t sleep in her travel cot, so Lynn brought her into our bed. She took up about 50% of the space in the bed, lying sideways. But of course, you don’t wake a sleeping baby, so I made do with my 10%. She was an absolute angel on the four hour bus ride home, playing with several of the girls sitting near us on the bus. On Sunday evening, we got the final grades for our Italian class. There were only 5 students achieving an A+ among the 31 of us taking Italian. Yes, Lynn and I were among those 5.

Some photos of our weekend in Venice and Padua are posted here. Next weekend calls for more rain, this time the setting is Athens, Greece. Stay tuned and stay dry.