Dear Family and Friends,
This year our letter may be filled with more cute things that Susan does than updates on her parents’ activities. But let’s face it, she’s the one you want to hear about anyway, right?
Susan gave up crawling as her primary mode of transportation the weekend of her first birthday. She had been taking a step or two at a time for about a month, but that weekend, surrounded by little people running circles around her, Susan decided she wanted to keep up. She’s been running ever since. Susan especially loves being chased as she runs up and down the hall and around the dining room table. We spent one weekend with the Shirley’s in Tuscola watching Susan and Jacob poop each other out running from the kitchen to the dining room, around the table, and back. It pooped us out just to watch!
Speaking of running, Bob decided against running the Chicago Marathon this year. He opted instead for running laps around the dining room table with Susan. But my sister Katie ran it, and my parents came to help cheer her on. Race day we all (including Susan) woke up absurdly early to take the El downtown and follow her around the course. She looked pretty good and avoided collapse. However, her time was still minutes short of qualifying for Boston.
We have a bookworm on our hands. One day when Susan was about 13 months old, she spontaneously picked up a book and brought it to me to read. I immediately sat down, took her in my lap, and read her the book. Until that day, getting her to sit and read with you was a challenge. But that day began Susan’s love affair with books. She has names for all her favorites; can you guess what they are (answers are at the end of the letter): (1) Bunny; (2) Bop Bop Bop; (3) Mary Anne; (4) Ding-dong; (5) Grammy; (6) Fish; (7) Cat; (8) Tom; and, (9) Baby Jesus.
Susan is becoming a well-seasoned traveler, with five plane trips in the 21 months since her birth, four of them in the last year. We took our first family vacation, spending 10 days in warm, sunny, smoggy, & traffic congested LA last February for Matt and Clara Hess’ wedding (Bob was the best man). The highlight for us was spending time with friends, not only the Hess’, but also the Kubiak’s (who we had last seen six years and two kids ago), the Fruchterman’s, and my sister Jessica who drove in from Mammoth Lakes, California, to see us. We also enjoyed strolling through Laguna Beach, watching Susan crawl through (and eat) the sand at Hermosa Beach, and a lazy Sunday drive up Highway 1.
We took a second “quick” getaway over Halloween weekend to visit our friend Jay in Mt. Morris, New York. We almost missed our plane! Due to a slight miscommunication, we took a late El train, ran from the El to the terminal, checked our bags with an excellent skycap, got in a long line at security, ran from security to the gate, and were the last people on the plane. The rest of the weekend was much more relaxing. We visited the Rochester Children’s Museum for Halloween trick-or-treating with Susan dressed as a dog, spent an evening with Bob’s friend Cathy in Rochester, and saw both of Jay’s parents at the same time.
Susan’s other two plane trips have been to her grandparents in North Carolina. Over Labor Day weekend all of us flew into Chapel Hill to surprise our Dad with a 60th birthday party. Sarah’s “friend” Dave even flew in for the event! Dad knew we were coming, but not that he was having a party. We spent many hours finalizing details via email over the summer. The party was a success. My Dad was totally surprised when he walked into the party and was greeted by the faces of his brothers and sisters, his mother, and many dear friends.
While Susan is an excellent flyer and has gotten over most of her car seat difficulties, we have not ventured farther than Toledo in the car. After about 1.5 or 2 hours in the car, Susan starts squirming and says, “I’m stuck.” I tell her we are all “stuck,” but she doesn’t empathize. We are grateful for the gracious hospitality of our friends the Riley’s. We regularly stop and spend a couple hours with them on our way to or from Toledo. They live in the South Bend area (about halfway) and have a son four months younger than Susan who makes a great playmate. I don’t know how many times we have pulled in their driveway as Susan was about to lose it!
The “choir baby,” (as she was known by some parishioners) made it through the 2001-2002 choir season in Mommy’s arms while Mommy sang. However, as June approached, our 15 month-old started to get squirmy and had to be taken out by Daddy a few times. We weren’t sure what to do when choir started up again in September. Our first Sunday back on, we tried what we did the previous year. Susan made it though warm-ups (she probably was sleeping with her eyes open), but couldn’t keep still or quiet as soon as we started the opening song. Getting a babysitter to sit with her during Mass didn’t feel quite right to us (it is our responsibility to bring her up in the Faith). So Daddy and Susan quit choir. Susan is happy with her freedom and Daddy in a pew every Sunday and has made only one trip to the cry room since.
Although Susan doesn’t like being confined in a sling while Mommy sings during Mass (another version of the “I’m stuck” syndrome), she does love music. She is already singing and dancing. All the words to her first songs were, “no, no, no, no, no.” I knew it was singing because when I sang back to her, “zoomy, zoomy, zoomy, zoomy, zoom,” from our choir warm-ups, she changed her, “nos,” to, “zooms.” Her repertoire has expanded, but the only song I recognize is, “The Itsy Bitsy Spider,” and only because she tries to do the hand motions with it.
When Susan wants to dance, she says, “dancing,” and pulls us to either the CD player or the computer. She turns on the speakers and adjusts the volume. She has two dances. One is a “butt dance,” bouncing her whole body up and down to the beat of the music. The other is a “sway dance,” when she swings her body right and left (somewhat violently) like a pendulum. They are so cute (and the only reason that I sometimes wish I had a video recorder)!
Life as stay-at-home-mom finally feels “normal” to me, and I think I am (almost) ready to add another “challenge.” I worked on one architecture project this year, expansion plans for my mother-in-law’s business, The Schaumburg Academy of Music, and I’ve learned a lot.
And we are now in Chapel Hill for Christmas with my family. All of my sisters will be here. Susan is running around with her dog “cousin” Bear and getting lots of love, hugs, and attention from her aunts and grandparents. Meanwhile, I am working on this letter, hoping to get out our Christmas cards before the New Year, and have yet to wrap the presents I shipped from Chicago. Susan reminds me in her own way what the season is really about. Nearly every day in December she has said to me, “Daddy work, Mommy shopping!” This reminds me that my family should come first. And Susan’s joy and excitement with the “light tree,” and Baby Jesus in the manger scene help me to see Christmas again through a child’s eyes. We wish you the blessing of time spent with family and friends and the joy and wonder of a child this holiday.
Peace,
The answers to the pop quiz are as follows: (1) The Runaway Bunny; (2) Hop on Pop; (3) Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel; (4) Disney Babies Book of Sounds; (5) But No Elephants; (6) One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish; (7) The Cat in the Hat; (8) Time for Tom; and, (9) A Christmas ABC. Let us know if you got all nine books correct. We will take you out to dinner!