We Are Still Here

Yes, we're still here. It has been a crazy month—though July is even crazier—and we just haven't found time to do any blogging. We'll work on it. Promise.

peek-a-boo

Our friends Sue and Elise joined us for dinner a few nights ago. After dinner, we all retired to the living room where Jonie and Sue played the rowdiest game of peek-a-boo ever. Jonah was so pleased with her hiding and surprising skills. Hilarious.

It's Happening....

After many weeks of playing with the potty, letting stuffed animals sit on the potty, and practice runs at the potty, tonight we had our first real success! An honest-to-god poop in the potty! Okay, there was another poop on the floor near the potty but, after all, isn't it the intention that counts?

As with every good try on the potty, Jonie earned two star stickers (one on each hand), and many excited high fives for her efforts. Of course after I gave her the stars, she looked at them, looked at me and said, "Mo-mo sta!" (Translation: more stars.) Though she may never be satisfied, we are feeling very proud of her bathroom victory. A diaper-free life is waiting on the horizon. We can feel it.

Photos

A few photos for you.

Jonie has graduated to a booster chair! She is getting pretty good at feeding herself with a spoon, but sometimes the frustration is just too much to bear.


She can be motivated to use the spoon when it is covered in cookie dough, however.


Thanks for the great Easter box, Nana!

A couple of new desires in Jonie's world. She wants to carry around as many things as possible. It is really funny to watch her cram one stuffed animal into her armload (often using her head and shoulder to hold them all in) just to have another one fall out. This effort can go on for several minutes.



She's also become really interested in walking around in our shoes. Sometimes this is relatively easy--as with slippers and other light weight shoes--and other times it is really difficult for her. She managed to get her feet into my sneaks but then wanted to climb up on the couch with them on her feet. Each time she lifted a foot to try to climb on the couch, her foot came out of the shoe. After a few failed attempts, she basically had a meltdown. We had to take the shoes away. (You can see the frustration mounting in the bottom photo.)

Quicksand Babies!

The other day I was in the kitchen doing some dishes (or, more likely, sweeping Jonie's lunch up off the floor) while she played in her room. All was quiet and then I heard and urgent, "Daddy!" coming from her room. I hurried in only to see this scene. She had climbed in the toy box to be surrounded by her babies, and they had taken her down.

Bubbles!

Now that we have (mostly) moved past the bubble-eating phase, bubble baths have made a grand entry at our house. Anne put Jonie in a bubble bath a few nights ago and it was as if she was in heaven on earth. Pure joy.

Just to Say

We are busy and exhausted as usual. After vacation and a short week at work, we are back in the swing of things. Trying to find some balance. Reveling at Jonah's amazing development; it has seemed to hit warp speed. She is stringing words together like an old pro. "All done milk." "Big box." "Help, please." "More bubbles." "Bye-bye Mama." It is something to behold.

I have no big event to recount, nor do I have any pictures to post. I am the last one awake tonight, and even though I am tired I am enjoying the quiet of the house. I just finished writing a paper abstract for the upcoming AAA (American Anthropological Association) meeting this fall, and am resisting the urge to work on Chapter 3—which I've been writing for about four weeks now.

I know this is not really the forum, but I just felt like saying that I am sad. I am sad that my government is willing to go to the brink of a shut-down over the funding of abortions (a legal procedure, the last time I checked), but will gladly sell out to big pharmaceutical companies rather than using its power to bargain down the price of medications. I am sad that NPR is being defunded and unions are losing their rights to collective bargaining while the people who contributed to and benefited from the financial meltdown are doing better than ever. I am sad that there is no money for schools, but we are flying missions over new countries every day. (Why is that, again?) I am sad that the best response we can muster to a spate of gay teen violence and suicide is a web campaign promising that "it gets better." (When is that, again?) No, this is not new. And no, I am not discovering this for the first time. It just feels so stark and hopeless right now. Freedom is a good thing. I value the freedoms that living in the United States provides me. I really do. But radical freedom is dangerous. It releases each of us from the obligation to care for anyone but ourselves. In fact it compels us to step on each other as we fight to stay out of desperation and poverty, to maintain our membership in groups that are socially desirable for fear that ours is the next cost that the nation cannot bear. I am sad. I worry for myself, for my family, for my child. How can I teach her the value of right action—to care for others, to defend those who are powerless, to cooperate, to believe (I mean really believe) that differences between people are what help us to learn and grow not just as individuals but as a collective—when the collective of which we are a part invokes these principles not as foundations of action, but as so many advertising campaigns? *sigh* All of this is to say that if NPR goes off the air I'm going to go f*cking bonkers.

Papa Love

This afternoon I got an email from Wendy, a woman that we met on our cruise last week. Wendy was one of Jonie's many admirers. She took some great pictures of Jonie and Papa Doug, and promised to send them along when she got home. Lo and behold, here they are!

Two award-winning smiles.

One happy Grandpa.

(As a bonus, these photos also feature Dad's forehead half-moon sunburn acquired on a sailing trip that very day. Classic!)

The Whole Gang

We proudly announce the first photograph of all the children born to members of 'The Sperm Club.' Three couples created this club over two years ago. And now, we all have children! Jonie is accompanied by Ezra (middle) and Eliot (right). This is a big deal. We're so happy to be a growing, and gorgeous club. What a crew!

Cruise Photos!

We just got back from a week-long cruise through the Caribbean with my family. Having never cruised before (at least not that way), the whole thing was new to us. Our ship, "The Adventure of the Seas" is one of the ten largest ships in the world. The world. Yes, huge. Our first day—all day at sea—was a struggle. But on the second day we arrived at our first island destination, Barbados. Jonie finally got in the water. She loved it. Splashing and sand digging? She's your girl.

On the second day grandma and grandpa took Jonie and Anne and I joined Jenn, Noah and Brian on a driving tour of St. Lucia.

Our tour guides stopped to pick us some wax apples. They were mildly sweet, but pretty dry. Apparently, they weren't quite ripe.

On day three we arrived in Antigua. Anne, Jonie and I struck out on our own and found a fantastic beach. We played in the water, ate some curry, and enjoyed a beautiful day.

Here is Jonie doing one of her crowd pleasing tricks. This is the face you get when you ask her to smile. Menacing, right? Paradise is not good enough for her. Not good enough.

Checking out some coconuts.

Some gorgeous beach girls.

Each night when we arrived back at the ship, Anne and I were exhausted. But not Jonie. She was roaring to go. We did a lot of chasing up and down the ship as she stopped to wave and high five everyone.

More to come...

This is the hardest thing we have ever done.

Really.

Love,
(exhausted, overworked, frustrated, fending off sickness, driven to accomplish) anne & eric

A Little Break

After you've spent several long days at the business end of a demanding toddler, you need a break (to put it mildly). Jonie is becoming more and more frustrated as her desire to communicate outpaces her ability to sign, speak or gesture to let us know what she is thinking. This ends with a lot of pointing and whining. And frustration on all sides.
Fortunately for us all, Val and Tom came down a few weekends ago and sent us out for a nice night on the town. Don't we look smashing?

Tonight is a more typical night for us, though. Jonie is sound asleep and Anne and I have been working ever since. It is just past 10:30 on a Sunday night, and we're both trying desperately to get caught up so that Monday doesn't hit us like a ton of bricks. This is hard.

Morning Hair

I have no idea what goes on in that crib that results in hair like this. Good morning!

Ready for Anything!

There's nothing a girl can't handle in her ladybug boots. Jonie has really been enjoying her naked time lately, but this new found pleasure has unfortunately coincided with a cold spell. We compromise with no-pants-time or no-shirt-time. Tonight, though, she wanted her boots.

Busy

Jonie is becoming a very busy girl. Now that she has mastered walking (more or less), she is everywhere, all the time.

This includes some light robbery, for which gloves are really handy.

Ree-Ree

Our girl loves books.

Catch Up

We know that we have fallen woefully behind on our blog posting (but thanks, Grandma Val, for never letting us forget it). So this post is an attempt to make up for it all. We begin with some photos from our Christmas trip to Michigan.




This is the trip when Jonie really learned to walk. She had to avoid Stella (the loving but pushy Labrador) and chase after the cats, Willy and Ruby. They were strong motivators. Plus she got to see her Auntie Brennan.

And... open presents, and...





Pose in some family shots...





So all is well.

We had a great trip to Michigan this year. We got to visit with lots of family and were fortunate to have the chance to say goodbyes to Anne's grandma, who passed away two days after Christmas. It was a special trip, and we're so glad we got to be with the family at this important time.