Welcome to the crazy world, Luc!

Okay, so I have been really really bad about updating this blog! The biggest news is that our friends the Sombats have a new addition to their family, Luc Gabriel Sombat! Boy is he a cutie (check out the Sombat's blog for pics)! We haven't met him yet, but we are really looking forward to it, and are daydreaming about all of the good times we will share together in the future. Ethan and Luc are sure to be great pals- as soon as Luc is old enough to handle Ethan's abundance of daycare germs :) So- this is the news that is foremost in our thoughts right now.

Ethan is doing so well! He isn't speaking English yet, but he understands it pretty well. He is also great at tuning us out when he wants to pretend he doesn't understand us. He says "ma ma" and "da da", but it is really hard to tell if he is referring to us when he says it. He loves walking around with a phone (or a remote control, or a shoe) up to his ear and babbling into it. His conversations are complete with pauses, pacing, and changes in expression (both in his face and in his intonation).

Ethan turned 1 in August with MUCH fanfare- we enjoyed every bit of it. We had a nice party at his daycare and they showered him with love and gifts. He was beside himself that day, dismayed at all of the attention (but relishing it completely!). At the begining of September, Ethan graduated from the infant room (diploma and all) and moved up to the first toddler room. It was hard for us to leave familiar territory and to no longer see the faces of the teachers that had loved him so much during his year. But, Ethan is thriving in the new room, lead by Ms. Colleen. She leads them through a number of activities each day- artwork, music, dancing, playground, buggy rides etc. Miraculously, she get's all of the 10 or so toddlers to lay down and take a 3 hour nap each day. Why doesn't this work at home??? Okay- please don't answer that question.

Gosh, there is so much I could say about our little guy. In a nutshell, he is a lot of fun! We are savouring every moment.

Steve just turned 30 and we had a couple of really nice celebrations. He also just got his MEI (multi-engine instructor) rating- for which I believe he had to fly and land a twin engine plane with just one engine running. Steve's mom and I agree that we'd really rather not think about the specifics. Things seem to be moving along nicely for him in grad school. We are both so happy & productive as long as we have our 0.38 Uniball Signo RT black ink pens and Moleskine books to write in. We are still waiting to see if Ethan got a double dose of whatever gene causes this.

I've been busy, but never happier. Sorry if you're checking this and I haven't communicated in a while. In addition to my usual stuff, I'm teaching a biology course to artists now and am loving every bit of it (hopefully the students like it too). My computer is broken now, so I am not going to download any pics today.