Midwinter Reflection

Throughout the month of December - as is the case most years - I naturally reflect back a bit on the year. What were the major milestones, where did we travel, what did we accomplish... This December has been entirely different. At periodic moments I hauntingly flash back to various moments of intensity throughout the fall with Evening's diagnosis and surgery. It seemed that as we were going through it - we just took each step as it came - because there was no other way around it - for Evening's sake we would do what was needed. Looking back now - its down right chilling how difficult and harrowing things were - and how unbelievably strong she was and continues to be. I estimate she is about double the size she was for the surgery - and to think about that little lady going through all of the procedures she required - absolutely floors me and breaks my heart. We are so very thankful and blessed for the results and her continued strong development. I will never forget those days and nights of the Fall of 2006 - as much as they still hurt - they are cause for great inspiration. Without a doubt - 2006 was the best year of my life thanks to Ruthie and Evening.

The sweet little lady is so very sweet and continues with quite the kick. Ruth now categorizes her as sassy, no longer feisty. She's moving like never before with this back arch limbo contestant move that is pretty powerful. She uses this move with powerful legs to inch across her crib in record setting pace. All her moving and grooving has also given her a pretty sharp bald spot on the back of her head. Its sweet but funky.

We look forward to some time together over the holidays - plan on heading to the Ithaca Farmer's market for the annual Rutabega Curl, heading to Rochester to see the Merles and Doyles, and also heading to Strong for a follow up and echocardiogram. They discussed the potential of having to put her on medications to get a good echo, but also have a room full of videos and TVs to sedate her if shes interested. As much as I am against having her zone out to the TV this may be a good occassion - perhaps we'll through in the Oregon Duck Football highlight video or a Bills Superbowl tape - no wait - that would only make her much more upset than they're looking for.

Evening Tree

One, two, three - cheese! After a day of decorating the tree Evening is a bit beat. Here we are seen in our holiday ware courtesy of Laurie Ahlers at Cornell. Blog enthusiasts may remember some of the earliest pictures of Evening in this hat...well Laurie was kind enough to customize some for the whole family. I like to get a lot of mileage out of my hat.

Wore mine out to the Southview Treefarm in Danby this weekend. The owner cut me a deal on the tree because the hat helped scare away the deer. I in particular love how it is juxtaposed with the Carhartt jacket. Oh and by the way - Evening is tucked under Ruthie's jacket - in the bearcub snow suit - here's an inside look...

We are all quite well and enjoying the holidays as they unfold.

Winter in Ithaca

Its just about that time of the year when we reach out to young Evening and teach her what its like to be an Upstate New Yorker - layer up to face the stiff winds, pull out the snow shovels, and complain about the coaching of the Buffalo Bills. I can just about see myself saying to her - "Not just anyone can handle Upstate New York winters, that's why so many people flee south and west - they can't hang with it - now button up, put on the hat and be proud." Winter is flexing its muscle and I'm trying to thicken my skin. We kept hearing about the wicked storm rolling in this weekend - and took that as an excuse to hunker down and take in a nice chunk of college football's last weekend. I'll have you know that both Evening and I called the UCLA upset of USC. Feel free to call Evening's tip line for the bowl season - she's got the over/under for every game out there.

Ruthie is fulling embracing motherhood along with the holiday season. I've been coming home to a full on Christmas funhouse each afternoon - decorations and tunes. I believe I successfully diagnosed Evening's "stomach ache" the other night. Turned out to be a little too much of Angela Landsbury's "Holly, Jolly Christmas". The ailment was successfully treated with a heavy dose of Bob Dylan.