This page displays all entries in the topic 'Family News'.
It is very, very hard to believe. Cora has lost her second — Second. SECOND! — tooth.
How old must her father be? The father of the one who has lost her SECOND tooth? He cradled her in his arms, she a mere infant at the time. A mere infant who has not merely begun to lose her teeth, but has now lost her second — Second. SECOND! — tooth.
Jason’s been undergoing radiotherapy for two weeks now. The weird thing about it is that, despite how scary and awful the idea of “getting radiation” may sound, what I’m going through is no trouble at all. The type of radiation I’m receiving is very localized and leaves no side effects besides a little bit of sunburn-like tenderness.
The other day I was sucking on a breath mint as I went in for treatment. Because I must hold perfectly still while the radiation is applied, I held the breath mint immobile against my tongue during the treatment. The breath mint burned my tongue like a mouthful of Scope while the deadly, horrible radiation shining into my back didn’t cause even noticeable warmth in my skin.
As some of you are aware and some of you are not, Jason’s cancer from five years ago has recurred and we’ve been treating it since January. Everything is going well and we have reason to hope that all the cancer is gone now.
We didn’t leave anyone out of the loop on purpose but there are lots of our friends who will be getting this news for the first time here. Figuring out how to pass along what we’ve been dealing with has been one of the tricky parts. It made us feel very needy to raise the subject again and again and again with every friend we met even if he or she was hearing it for the first time. And when considering when or what to tell someone, we know there’s going to be more accurate info to pass along if we just wait to say something until after the next doctor’s appointment or procedure, so there’s always the feeling that we should keep it under wraps for just a bit longer. If you weren’t in the know until now, thank you for being a friend about this.
A tech. installed our fiber optic phone and data connection today. Why do I choose to update my web page and talk to my grandmother via laser beam? Because it’s so cool that I can!!!
We just had a baby! Cameron was born in September and is doing great.
We had a poll running here asking what our friends thought of the names we were considering, and allowing them to suggest some names of their own. Cameron was a reader-suggested name and had the most votes from everyone else. That was not our only consideration in choosing the name but it was helpful. Thank you.
As we mentioned during the poll, Jason frowns on popular names. For our purposes, popular is defined as any name that has ranked in the top 50 in the Social Security Administration’s Baby Name Data in the past 10 years. The name “Cameron” is a little too popular by this method, reaching 31st place in the year 2000. It’s a great name though so Jason learned to lighten up.
Cora’s political awareness began at age three when she started watching re-runs of The West Wing with her dad. (She called the show “Mr. President” because the president was her favorite character and that’s how everyone addressed him.)
With our family’s chance meeting of Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich this weekend, Cora’s exposure to politics goes up another notch. We explained to her that a governor is like the president, but only for one state. Cora was happy to get her picture taken with any kind of president.
Callie was less impressed. As we were talking with Governor Ehrlich she yelled, “A Cow!” and ran off to chase the Chick-Fil-A mascot who had just strolled by.
We’re back from Jamaica and our bathing suits are drying in anticipation of whatever much-less-exciting swimming we may yet have ahead of us later in the summer.
Jamaica made for a wonderful vacation: our girls got their first airplane ride; the weather was beautiful; the Jamaicans were kind.
Photos at Flickr.com.
We’re beginning a Spring/Summer of travel and adventure with a trip to the Beaches Negril Resort in Jamaica. This is our family’s first big vacation since having kids so we’re very excited and a little nervous about it.
We live on the approach path for BWI Airport so the girls see dozens of airplanes an hour, but this will be their first time inside one. I’m sure the girls will love the ride but mommy and daddy aren’t so sure about the patience that may be required of us.
So, back soon. Please carry on.
Cora turned four years old today! Tina and I can’t believe that our little baby, born mere moments ago, has somehow snuck in a fourth birthday already. It’s obviously way ahead of schedule.
Cora’s Aunt Becky took us all to the National Aquarium in Baltimore today to celebrate. Pictures at Flickr.
Callie recently turned 2 years old! We have pictures up at flickr.com
Happy Birthday, Callie!
