If we owe you an e-mail, a letter, or (in many cases) a thank you note, we promise, we have a good excuse. And she's the most adorable excuse we've ever seen. On August 3rd, we welcomed Cassandra Rowan into our lives.
And she has certainly keeps us busy! She's at the stage where she enjoys holding her toys, especially if they make noise, and she'll play in her exersaucer for ages, spinning around to play with the its various toys.
The cats aren't quite sure what to make of her yet. Mungo has been seen playing with her dangling toys at the foot of her "jumperoo", and both cats have on occasion rubbed up against her for attention. Rumpel appreciates the new furniture and toys - he fits quite nicely into Cassandra's bouncer, and has been seen checking out her highchair for leftovers. Admittedly, that was mostly when her cousin Alex was visiting, since he has a better selection of food than she does.
At just over four months, Cassandra is enjoying one meal a day of solid foods. She started eating solids earlier than we expected, when at 3 1/2 months she practically threw herself off Eric's lap, drooling at Frances's dessert. At her four month check-up, the doctor approved adding vegetables to her diet, so she varies between those and rice cereal. So far, she's only had "yellow" vegetables (why do carrots count as yellow?), but there's an artichoke in the fridge with her name on it.
But, surpringly enough, the year didn't start in August. And there were a few things going on that weren't baby-related. In March, we bought a Toyota Prius, which is one of those neat hybrid cars that gets lovely mileage. Because they're so scarce, we didn't get to test drive one, so we didn't realize how gadgety it was until it was delivered. It's fun getting into a car and pressing the POWER button to start it.
The day after the Prius arrived, Frances flew to Las Vegas to represent the online magazine The Lady Gamer at the GAMA Trade Show. The show was worth the trip, but Las Vegas... well, it's not really worth a visit if you don't gamble.
In May, we flew to Portland for a Bat Mitzvah and to visit with family. In the process of exposing Eric to some of Portland's wonders, we sought out The Tao of Tea and enjoyed their teas so much that Eric received a membership to their monthly tea club for his birthday.
In late July, we sold our house. Unfortunately, in late September, we unsold it - the buyers backed out on the last day of their 45 day contingency period, a week and a half before our closing date. If you're wondering where our holiday cards are, well, they're packed, along with half of the house. We're still deciding how much to keep packed.
In November, we fulfilled a years old promise to take Frances's niece Jesse to a convention by dragging her along to Dorkstock, a gaming convention which Frances was co-chairing. This was the first of many gaming, science fiction, and fantasy conventions that Cassandra will attend over the years. She has a custom drawn Chez Geek card - Baby crying - to celebrate the occasion.
Now we approach Cassandra's first Solstice and Christmas, both of which have good chances of staying white, with snow on the ground since December 8th. She's already opened some of her gifts, and will certainly enjoy playing with the wrapping paper on the others as the holidays arrive.
Planning ahead, our only major trip next year should be a trip to England and Scotland in the spring. We won't know our actual travel dates until Eric's vacation request is approved, hopefully some time in January.
Due to computer crashes and replacement, we do not have e-mail addresses for everybody that is reachable online. If you're receiving a printed copy of this, we don't have an e-mail address in the database for you. You can reach us online at CtrlAltTabby AT comcast DOT net (Frances) or Cotzbalam AT comcast DOT net (Eric). For those of you without an online presence, we're still reachable at 515 W Roosevelt Rd., Wheaton, IL 60187. We also have a lovely answering machine at (630)510-0558.