Our Christmas Letter

I finally finished our Christmas cards, hooray! In the actual mailing, I surround the text below with multitudes of teeny-tiny photos (mostly of the boys) from the previous year. All photos can be found at my Dot Photo account.

Dear Friends and Family,

It's been another busy year! If you've read the card, you already know our biggest news: we are expecting Baby #3 sometime in May. We had our "big ultrasound" on Dec. 15th -- it's a boy! Seth and Eli are both excited to be big brothers. Seth was hoping for a boy, while Eli said, "I want a baby!" -- so we were able to please both of them.

We visited the B_____, formerly of NYC, in their lovely new home in Chappaqua, NY. We did venture into the city once, for Dim Sum with the C___. It's so fun to see our "Sept 99" babies growing up. I made another trip to NYC to see the finale of Survivor: All-Stars live (thank you for the tickets, E!). Karin and I met in the city on Mother's Day for a quick dinner before the show. We saw several of the Survivors in person while in line, but I was too chicken to ask for an autograph. We visited Dave's parents in Niskayuna several times, and they visited us too. My mom made several trips from WI: partly to visit us, and partly to scope out MA and NH as a possible new home. We took the boys north to visit Nana C_____ and Nana H___, and they also enjoyed a trip to Drumlin Farms with my mom's parents when they were in town.

In between visits back and forth with friends and family, we survived both the DNC and the World Series, attended two weddings (congrats to Delsey & Peter and Jan & Andrea!), took in the very-cool LOTR traveling exhibit, and welcomed our new neice Elizabeth into the world.

Eli continues to be his happy, lovable self. His version of the "terrible twos" is only slightly bad. He is a very typical two-year-old in that he admires both Buzz Lightyear and Dora the Explorer and enjoys both painting and playdoh. He adores babies (both dolls and real ones): when we went to visit his cousin Elizabeth at the hospital, he held her for a very long time and proclaimed her to "his baby" when I tried to pick her up. He remains an animal-lover too, and has gotten a big kick out the various dogs we've visited or had in the house. I'm glad to report that Eli is speaking fluently and clearly; there are no signs of any of the speech problems that plagued Seth at this age.

Seth switched to a new school this year. His end-of-year report revealed that his speech and shyness has improved so much that he no longer needed the public prescohol program (although he still attends a group speech lesson once a week). In September, he started a Pre-K program at a private preschool. His class meets five days a week, for about four hours a day. Despite his initial reluctance to change venues, Seth loves his new school and has made new friends. He is developing strong early math and reading skills, and is very interested in how the world works. He is still a big fan of mazes, pirates, and castles: he had a Pirate-themed birthday party, and was a knight for Halloween. We watch Survivor together whenever it's on, and we share a love of video games. He also enjoys tromping through the woods in the Fellsway or near Walden Pond whenever our friend Megan organizes an outting. She has a knack for relating to children, and whenever we drive by woodsy places, Seth asks when we will go hiking with Megan again.

Dave's first year in business for himself has had mixed results. He signed on many new clients, but not quite enough to make the company profitable enough for us. Although he enjoys working for himself, he's deciding to seek full-time employment elsewhere. If you know of anyone in the Boston area looking for an experienced IT infrastructure generalist or technical manager, please let him know. Dave has continued his volunteer work with the Sterling Institute of Relationship; his stint as the Kitchen Manager for their weekend seminars will be coming to an end soon. He's not sure what (if anything) will be next.

I have continued my volunteer work with with Canine University and New England Border Collie Rescue. I helped with the rehabilitation of a puppy-mill breeder dog, a lovely little gal named Jade. She was so "shut down" by her hellish life before entering rescue, that we all thought she was deaf. She even fooled the experienced behaviorists at Tufts! She made tremendous progress in rescue, and even more in her adoptive home. It was amazing to see her at the October NEBCR reunion, where she looked and acted like a normal dog. We also fostered a crazy puppy named Erin: although it was fun to have a puppy, it was a relief to give her to her adoptive home. By all reports, she continues in her role as "loveable trouble-maker." I spent a lot of weekends this summer and fall volunteering for the John Kerry campaign in NH. Of course I wish the election results had gone differently, but I'm proud of my contribution. My other activities include organizing a Craft Club with friends, joining the local chapter of Mothers & More, and continuing my many and varied sewing, knitting, and scrapbooking projects. This fall, I signed on with Club Z Tutoring, a company that matches students with tutors. They do all the legwork and billing, so the tutors can focus on teaching. I have already had one assignment (a 10th-grader struggling with geometry), and I am looking forward to more.

Kizzy's behavior has been good (she is still on a low dose of doggy Prozac). This fall, she injured herself while playing in the yard: she completed severed her rear cruciate ligament. She underwent knee surgery, and several weeks of intensive physical therapy. The vet was very impressed with how well she has recovered strength and joint mobility. I call her my "bionic dog."

I hope this note finds everyone happy and in good health. May the New Year bring you both luck and joy!

Love,
Dave, Rachel, Seth, Elijah, and Mr. Baby #3

It's a Boy!!

We all trooped over to Mt. Auburn today for the "big ultrasound." The boys were pretty patient, considering how long the tech spent fiddling around trying to get a clear heart picture. Mr. Baby #3 was very wiggly, and kept jumping right when she froze the picture, much to her consternation.

I am pleased to report that all organs and other body structures presented as expected.

Here is a picture of Mr. Baby's profile (head on right, small round dot at top is fist, belly curves to left, knee is left-most bump):




Here is a 3D image of Mr. Baby's face. The doctor had a hard time getting a good shot, but considering it was "just for fun," it's kind of cool.

Ultrasound Musings

My big "Level II" ultrasound is scheduled for Wednesday (15th). The closer I get, the more worked up I get -- I'm really excited to get a little sneak preview, and (barring any sudden unexpected modesty) find out whether Baby #3 will be Miss Baby or Mr. Baby for the next few months while Dave and I haggle over names.

Then I got to thinking.... how many medical tests does a person actually look forward to? Because an ultrasound done by a doctor at a specific number of weeks gesgation is not for fun (or not just for fun) -- it's a medical test to check for major deformities. Gee, that sure took the wind out of my sails.

I've had two relatively easy pregnancies resulting in two healthy boys. Sometimes I feel like I'm really pushing my luck here -- and then again, I know that everything will likely be ok. It's hard to know whether to be optimistically blind to the possibility of things-going-wrong, or pessimistically ignore the vast odds in favor of everything be just peachy.

Of course, it could be TWINS. (There, now I've said it, and now it can't actually happen.)

Seth's Teeth

Today Seth had a tooth pulled. He needed major dental work when he was two and a half. His top four front teeth were severely decayed: the rightmost one was beyond salvaging, and the other three were capped (with white plastic). His first-year molars all have metal caps, and his second-year molars all got fillings. The work had to be done with Seth under general anesthesia -- it was scary to let him go in for surgery, even though I knew it was fairly minor.

The good news is that there was no further decay, and the caps and fillings all held up well.... until about six weeks ago. Seth came home from school with his leftmost front cap missing. He said, "My tooth fell out!" But, when I checked, I could see it had just broken off at the base.

First dental visit (one week later)-- inconclusive. Maybe it's infected, maybe the next one is infected too; or, maybe not. We decide to "wait and see" for a month.

Second dental visit (four weeks later) -- inconclusive. The broken-off tooth is definitely infected and must be pulled, but not until after a 10-day course of antibiotics. The neighbor may or may not be ok, but we are going to let it alone. Why? Because if we pull it proactively, we'll have to take the remaining one too. Otherwise, the last tooth will be out there all on its own, looking funny and (more importantly) being very vulnerable.

Third dental visit (one week later) -- one extraction, still inconclusive on the neighbor tooth. Seth held up well, although he cried some on the car ride home. He decided not to go to school, and instead came to Eli's toddler playgroup. It went ok, although he was more prone to sudden tears than usual.

I will just be glad when his adult teeth come in, and we know for sure whether or not they will have the same crappy enamel as his baby teeth.

Two Holiday Recipies

It's a baking morning! My Mothers&More chapter is having their holiday party tonight, complete with a cooky swap and Yankee swap. For the cooky swap, I tracked down a recipie from my Aunt C. just in the nick of time -- a sort of bar cooky with a sweet crust covered in chocolate, sprinkled with candy cane bits. I remember it fondly from holiday visits to her house.

Initially I thought it would be no problem to find it -- I'd just Google "candy cane chocolate cookies" and there it would be. You would think, wouldn't you? Not so. I wrote to my aunt, and she didn't have it anymore, but she was able to track down the recipie she had modified from her sister (who lives in the same state as I do, oddly). For your culinary enjoyment:

Aunt Cynthia's Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies

1 cup butter
2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
1 (12 oz) bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips (minis melt better)
crushed peppermint sticks (use a ziploc bag and a hammer)

Cream butter and sugar, add egg yolk and vanilla. Add flour and mix until smooth. Press into greased cookie sheet to make crust.

Bake crust for 10-15 minutes at 350 F.

While crust is still hot, sprinkle with chocolate chips. As they melt, spread chocolate to cover crust. Sprinkle with candy before chocolate is cool. Cut into small squares while everything is still warm.

I should warn everyone that might read this, that the cookies are cooling as I write. I am not yet 100% sure this recipie works to produce the cookies I remember! The original recipie said to bake the crust for 20 minutes, but mine began to burn at 15. Next time I will check at 10 minutes. The original called for half as much chocolate, but that didn't seem right either. It is very important to cut while the crust is still warm, or the cookies shatter.

Since the cooky recipie called for egg yolks, and I was already planning to make another treat that called for egg whites, I decided it was fate and I ought to do both at the same time. The other treat is "Swedish Pecans," from a recipie passed around and eventually landing with me and Dave.

Jennifer's Mom's Swedish Pecans

1 lb pecan halves
3 egg whites
1-1/2 cup sugar
pinch of salt
3/4 cup butter

Toast pecans on a cookie sheet at 300 F for 10 minutes. Let the pecans cool.

Whip the egg whites until stiff. Fold in sugar (white or brown) and salt, then fold in cooled pecans.

Melt butter in a non-stick, oven-safe pan. Put the pecans in the pan, and stir to coat pecans in butter. Back in 325 oven for 30 minutes, stirring every ten minutes. While cooling, stir occasionally so they don't stick together.

Store in airtight container.

I have made these half a dozen times, and I really like them. The only modifications I made to the recipie were as follows: (1) I increased the amounts to account for a 1 lb bag of pecans (that's how they're sold in my local store), and (2) I tried brown sugar instead of white, and it was good.

This particular batch of Swedish Pecans is destined to be part of my Secret Santa gift in my "September 99 Mommys" group. I'm also crocheting some snowflakes, and making a quilted snow-flake theme table runner/door decoration.

In other news, I'm definitely feeling Mr./Miss Baby moving around on a regular basis. I am so looking forward to my big ultrasound (a week from today). I hope that we will discover the gender, so I can be more accurate. I find myself tending to use male pronouns.... is it because I only have boys, or because this one is a boy too? Who knows :).

So Much Time, So Little Time

It's been quite a treat to have evenings stretch before me without the obligation to spend 2-3 hours writing. So, one might ask, what have I been doing with the resulting free time? I could be working on one of my endless craft projects or catching up on my scrapbooking. I could be reading something worthwhile, or cleaning house. I could be planning for Christmas. But what am I doing instead?

Playing Baldur's Gate II.

In other news, my very first tutoring student is mine no longer. For the last four weeks or so, I've been meeting with a lovely sophomore girl who was struggling with geometry. We've been meeting twice a week to go over her homework and tests, and do the endless variety of new problems that I make up for her to practise.

But, this week, her mom told me that she had gotten into some special math program on the weekends, 4+ hours of math, and that they felt that continuing with me would be overkill.

I'm very sorry not to be seeing her anymore. I have really been enjoying writing up problems and refreshin my knowledge of geometry (which was one of my favorite math classes ever). But, it's times like this that I am so, so glad I signed up to tutor through a company (Club Z) so that I don't have to deal with the billing, etc. I can just leave happily, without a bad taste in anyone's mouth. D. (who is my contact at Club Z) says this happens, and he already has a couple of prospects for me. It's been really fun teaching again.