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!