7 Years Old!

Just over 7 years ago I was in Baltimore, 9 months pregnant and HUGE. We had just moved there for dental school 2 months previously. It was hot, it was humid and it was miserable. Fortunately my mom flew out to help with the birth (of course the baby arrived just 2 days before her scheduled return flight - thanks mom for staying an extra week!) which saved my sanity and we had a wonderful time taking walks, chatting, watching movies and getting ready for the baby. Most of you know the story of Ian's birth, so I'll truncate it here and just mention that nearly two weeks late, after an induced labor of 6 1/2 hours I gave birth to this beautiful 10 1/2 lb., 21 1/2 inch baby boy. Here he is:


And here he is a few months later:


(I think he was about 9 months old in this picture, which was taken by my sister Sarah.)

It is hard to believe that it has been seven years since Ian was born. He has grown up so quickly. Ian is truly a special child. He is kind. He is happy. He is good. He is a wonderful older brother. He is smart (oftentimes too smart for his own good), and he is always singing (we're working on curtailing that activity at the dinner table). I am lucky to be Ian's mom, and I hope that I can be the mother that he deserves. I'm writing this here because I intend to print this blog yearly as our family journal, and I want Ian to know how special he is to me and how much I love him. I love you Ian!

Here is a little bit of what Ian has to say about himself:



I have to insert here that these (aside from the Favorite Movie category) are all Ian's uncoached responses. He originally put down "Pocahontas," and I just couldn't let him do it. He's only seen the movie once for crying out loud! And it was the day before (Thanksgiving) when they showed it on the Armed Forces Network. I think his real favorite (he had also recently watched Mulan) is the Pixar Shorts DVD that my sister Rachel gave us for the plane ride over. He's also a big fan of the BBC Planet Earth movies right now. In the Future Occupation category, "artist" was a big surprise. His usual responses are architect, dentist and astronaut. (He plans to be all 3.) Thanks Rebecca and Whitney for the idea of a birthday interview!

Here are some pictures of Ian's party. We had 8 boys including Ian. I was a little worried about how we'd survive 8 K-2nd graders in our tiny apartment, but it really went very well. We basically didn't give them time to get in trouble. In 2 hours we played Pin the Spider on the Web, several rounds of Birthday/Halloween Bingo, decorated Halloween cookies, went on a treasure hunt, ate cake and ice cream and opened presents. No time for mischief! The great thing was that I had all the party stuff from previous birthday parties and it was all new to all of this year's guests. One small benefit of moving frequently - you can recycle party ideas. The cutest moment of the party, I must say, was when it was Naomi's turn to pin the spider on the web. None of the boys could stand to have her place her spider poorly, so as she wandered away from the web, they ALL clustered around her and guided her arm. They helped her place her spider in the very center of the web and then cheered for her and told her she won. What a great group of boys! Anyway, back to the pictures:












So, a couple of months late, Happy Birthday Ian! We love you! You are one fantastic kid!

A Random Smattering

I realize that I am woefully behind (once again!) in my blogging activity.  There are two factors at play here, really.  The first is that I really have been very busy.  (A testament to this fact is that it is now 11:10 p.m. and I am just now sitting down to do this.  And honestly, if I hadn't made a promise to my mom, it would have been put off yet another day.)  The second factor contributing to the lack of new and exciting material on my blog is my perfectionist streak.  I have real issues with quality control.  As in I like to be in control.  Like, all of the time.  And I have a really hard time making something public that hasn't been thought through thoroughly.  (How do you like that alliteration?!)  Writing papers in college was AGONY for me.  I never could just push through a rough draft.  I probably re-wrote every sentence in every paper at least 3 times.  Of course by the time my "rough draft" was done, all I had to do was make a few corrections and it was ready to hand in.  The point is, it took me FOREVER!  And that is how blogging is for me.  I can't just spew it out.  (Not that I'm creating masterpieces here - I just can't stand the thought of a poorly constructed paragraph.) So, tonight my goal is to be done with this post by 11:30.  (I need some time to read before bed after all!)  You'll all just have to be forgiving  - I'm going to try and type without hitting the backspace key too many times.  The results could be frightening. 

Because I'm behind, I'm going to throw together a smattering of pictures from the last month or so.  We'll start with St. Martin's Day.  St. Martin's Day is a holiday in Germany that is primarily for young children.  The children make lanterns (or buy them!) and participate in a parade while carrying said lanterns and singing traditional St. Martin's Day songs.  (Come on, don't you all know the classic "Laterne, Laterne?" )  Ian made his lantern in school.  If I had found a pre-school for Naomi by now, she would have made one too, but I haven't.  I tried to buy her one (I went to 4 German stores) and they were all sold out.  Thankfully Ben was quite handy with twisty ties, glue guns, and the rod from our blinds and threw together a lantern for Naomi in just a few minutes.                  

                                           

Here are the kids with their lanterns. Ian had learned the songs in class, so we had fun listening to him sing in German as we paraded behind the brass band.  There were probably 250 children with lanterns in the parade.  It was a beautiful sight.  By the way, folks, those are real candles (with flames!) in those lanterns.  It made the night exciting!

The next topic in our festival of randomness is wiggly teeth.  Ian has had 2 or 3 wiggly teeth for a very, very long time. After much pulling and tugging and yanking one finally gave way.  Ian lost his first tooth!  Here are some pictures as only a dentist can take them...

                       

Ian was thrilled to have his first visit from the Tooth Fairy.  Did you know that she also pays for teeth in Euros?

*Note - these pictures were taken only a day or two after Ian had lost the tooth.  Much to our dismay, the permanent tooth grew in behind the baby tooth long before it came out.  Dang it!

Our final, and also completely unrelated, subject is winter.  As in COLD weather.  As in, after 3 years in Georgia my system is completely in shock.  We've already had snow TWICE!!!  That's twice as much snow as we got during the entire 3 years we lived in Augusta!  I must say I am not thrilled to have to scrape car windshields again.  Neither am I thrilled to constantly have cold hands and feet.  I DON'T LIKE BEING COLD!  The one good thing about snow is that the kids love it.  They were ECSTATIC to wake up one morning to see everything covered in white.  Of course, we went outside to play.  Well, truthfully, Ben played with them while I documented.  Here are a few pictures...

                                     

                                            

                                                        

Well, that about wraps it up!  Unfortunately I didn't make my self-imposed publication deadline.  It is now 11:55.  Still, that's record time (as in short!) for one of my blog entries.  I guess I don't have time to read....maybe next time I'll be faster! :)