This year has been very busy for us. So busy that the letter writing has, for the first time, been delegated to Bob.
On June 12th Mary Anne gave birth to our son, Peter Thomas. As Mary Anne had hoped and planned, she gave birth without any medication, or for that matter, much medical intervention at all. She did this by arriving at the hospital only thirty minutes before Peter's birth, and 28 minutes before our doctor. We barely had time to get Mary Anne on the bed, and for 28 minutes we thought Mary Anne was going to deliver without our doctor. While it was pretty close to Mary Anne's ideal birth, as one of the nurses told us the next day, we really should have shown up earlier. And next time we will show up earlier, if Mary Anne lets me know when her labor starts, rather then waiting 6 hours so that I can finish painting windows.
Peter is a joyful lesson on how different babies can be from each other. He, unlike another child of our intimate acquaintance, is easy to please. When he wants to be held, he lets us know by fussing. He stops fussing not when held, but when he sees you coming. Peter goes to sleep easily. Peter fell asleep for me more times in his first week then his sibling did in her first two years. The first few times this happened I thought something was wrong with him. It took us a while to get used to a baby that went down easily; initially it felt unnatural, as if we were getting away with something. We're used to it now.
Peter is a font of liquids and gases. Susan almost never spit up; we actually returned some of our bibs. We are buying them back for Peter. He spits up; he drools; he burps; and he smiles the whole time. Peter has a special fondness for tenors. A brief song from any tenor is enough to calm him down, no matter how hungry or tired he is. This drives his mother nuts. His favorites include "The Wheels on the Bus," and "Holy is His Name." Peter doesn't seem too fond of "Susan the Cannibal." I think it is a little too high pitched for his taste.
Susan has adapted well to her new role as the big sister. We expected her to be a bit upset with Peter for diverting Mommy and Daddy's attention, but we were wrong. She's been upset with Mommy and Daddy, and doesn't blame Peter at all. She is actually rather fond of Peter, and tries to comfort him when we take too long. When Peter falls over, Susan tries to upright him. After a string of Susan's misbehavior I told her a story about George, her older sibling who behaved badly and was returned to the hospital. She told me in no uncertain terms that I could not return Peter.
Susan continues to amaze us with her new found abilities. I've come home to chairs piled on chairs, right next to the bookshelf with verboten toys. She uses the front door keys to get out when the back door keys are out of reach. We've also recently discovered that she knows her letters better then she lets on. With the help of a finite supply of cookies and her cookie eating father she now understands the number zero, and the beginning concepts of addition and subtraction.
She loves music. When we go to Great-Grandma's house, the piano is a prime attraction. She makes up her own melodies and repeats what she hears in our choir. Singing gets her attention.
Susan's civil engineering career continues. He favorite backyard activities are moving rocks around, moving dirt around, and moving her toy vehicles around.
In March Susan began arguing with us. Instead of simply saying "No" she now negotiates, or offers up alternatives. After asking Susan to put away her toys, so that Mommy wouldn't trip on them, Susan said "Mommy can step over them, see?" And then, just in case Mommy didn't understand, Susan repeatedly demonstrated how to step over the toys. When we asked Susan to remove her toys from the steps she told us to "just stay on the wood" and pointed (over and over again) at the uncovered section of the stair tread.
We continue to sing in the Saint Luke's contemporary choir. Two children, along with my lack of skill or training make it a challenge. Peter passes his choir time being adorable in the sling or passed around as needed. Susan spends her time in the pews or sitting at our feet, sometimes easily bored.
Our travels this year have been curtailed by Peter's birth. Our last trip before he was born was a long weekend in North Carolina, where we attended our godson, Patrick Ohotnicky's, baptism and surprised Mary Anne's mom with all her children coming for her 60th birthday. Our first trip after Peter was born was a train excursion to Saint Louis for Mary Anne's sister Sarah's bridal shower. Susan thought we were going to see the shower in Aunt Sarah's bathroom. As Peter hates his car seat almost as much as his sister did, we put off his first long distance car trip until the Meyer Thanksgiving in Ohio. We were pleasantly surprised that Peter is a much better car traveler than his sister was at his age. Christmas we divided between both families, spending the week before Christmas with Mary Anne's family in North Carolina and flying home to Chicago on Christmas Eve. We look forward to a more typical year of travel for weddings, showers, graduations, holidays and maybe even a real vacation in 2005.
Bob, Mary Anne, Susan and Peter Zeh