Poor William

We took these pictures a few days ago. This box is normally where all his stuffed animals go but last weekend it became a William box. Unfortnately, William and I are home for the second day in a row mbecause he is sick. Nothing major, just bronchiolitis, but he has about every minor symptom a kid can have. He still is sweet as ever. We can't wait to see Michael and Molly next week (if they make it).

We are having another snow storm. It was a incredibly cold and snowy November. No need to yearn for a white Christmas here. It feels like it has been winter for a long time already. James is doing well. He is part of lego robotics and they have there competition this week.

Apple Kings

Pictures of William

Baseball for James

After a six year hiatus Bethel had Little League this summer. A dedicated group of adults worked hard to bring it back. Even though James was gone for the first part of the summer they let him join late and below James is going to tell you about playing baseball this summer.

Well, baseball is fun and all but out field was boring because nobody hit the ball hard enough. I liked batter and 2nd base best. We won almost every game for two reasons we had the best batters and we had the best infeilders where the ball usually goes.

Happy Birthday William!

William is 1!

Wow, what a year. Beautiful baby boy who is smiley, sweet, likes to chuckle at himself, with brilliant blue eyes and feathery (not a lot) hair, whose favorite person is his big brother James, who loves to eat and used to prefer to crawl on his back, who loves visitors and whose first clear word was Kitty and loves to snuggle (although he likes to start with a head bang) who has a great disposition and almost never cries and enjoys everything. We are so lucky.

Some pictures

I know it has been forever. Here are some pictures of William. He is furniture surfing now!

My new nephew- Logan William

Born today! Both mother and baby are doing well. Congratulations George, Meg, Nathan, Addison and Samantha. Can't wait to meet Logan and Samantha in person in June.

William's First Campfire

New Books

The boys were very excited to get new books in the mail from Grandma Molly and Grandpa Michael. William loves books. He is reaching for Harold and the Purple Crayon in the above picture. He does require supervision with paper books because he tends to be a little rough with things. William likes to hit everything he can reach. He also bit his brother the other day, but it really was a love bite.

Spring has finally come to Bethel. The snow is almost all melted. It will be a few weeks before the river breaks but the slough behind our house is open. If you look closely you will see two ducks. That is the true sign of spring for people who grew up here, the return of the swans and ducks. Jamie has been riding his bike all morning. William is currently taking a nap in his darkened room. We have had to block out the sun with aluminum foil to induce him to sleep. He wanted to stay awake all summer with the Alaskan sun. Terrence and I have been busy with work and trying to get some spring cleaning done. Everyone is energized by the end of winter.

Easter

We had a nice Easter. We went to the town Easter egg hunt which was really slushy and muddy. However, that is preferable to sub-zero which it has been in years past. We had a great time skyping with the Newport side of the family on Saturday. Here are some pictures of the boys with their baskets and a bathtub picture of William from yesterday.

Eight Months (almost)

William is almost 8 months old. He is changing a lot. He likes to grab and poke and yell now. He really likes to eat. His favorite vegetable is carrots. I am amazed that I have a child who will eat vegetables. He is making lots of sounds that sound like words but I don't think he is saying anything yet. He likes to drink out of our cups and the bath tub (if I would only let him- which I won't). He is still scooting around on his back but he is looking like he might try crawling someday.

Pictures of Camaii

It has been a tough week here. The lack of basic services in the face of so much need is upsetting. So I thought some pictures from the Camaii Dance Festival would cheer me up. We had a good time going this year. I didn't take any pictures because I had my hands full with William so I thought I would share some from the website.

Would you trust your freedom to these people?

I would. Here is a picture of Terrence and the other attorneys at his office.

Update

I have meant to post more pictures and movies but I have not. I will make that a goal in the coming weeks. Everyone is doing well. William is a delight. He is getting more motivated about moving around. His sounds are also starting to resemble human speech although we aren't recognizing any words yet. Perhaps he is speaking Albanian and we just don't know it (that is the language he hears all day at daycare). He has been so healthy, we are really lucky. I was fearful that he would get sick since he was going to daycare but overall he has been sickness free. I think his caregiver is very careful about about cleanliness. There are a lot of respiratory problems here in the Delta but luckily William seems to be unaffected. He also avoided the flu which has been going around

James received another report card and he is advanced in reading and math. He is very social and enjoying his time with friends. He has also been sickness free this year.

Work has been challenging and rewarding. We have had some good outcomes lately which is a welcomed change. The lack of basic services including housing and mental health services continues to appall me on a day to day basis. I don't know how the people here deal with it but somehow they do.

Camai Dance Festival is this weekend. I will try to get some pictures but this event fills the high school with wall to wall people. We went last night for about two hours and William really liked the Yupik Dancing.

Time

The picture of our back yard was taken at 8pm local time. Day light savings doesn't make a whole lot of sense when in a few months we will be experiencing almost continual daylight. I am really looking forward to our Alaskan summer this year. Last summer I was too pregnant and too tired to appreciate the daylight but this year we are going to get out and enjoy it. We are going to spend a lot of time out on the river, camping and fishing.

We are also looking forward to our vacation in Indiana and Michigan. We have acclimated to the long flights and they really aren't so bad. It is so nice to know that we can jump on a plane and be home in less than a day. It was really comforting to be able to make it back for Grandma Jane's funeral. It assures us that even though we are in Alaska we can still make it home and spend time with family.

Maybe, on a good day

As the world celebrated International Women's Day Tuesday, researchers in Britain revealed that an average working mother gets barely 26 minutes to relax in daily life.

Juggling a job with looking after children means the average British mother does not even get half-an-hour to herself, the study revealed.

Family

Grandma Jane passed away and we were fortunate enough to be able to attend her funeral. Within twenty four hours of receiving the bad news we were in the midwest and surrounded by family.

William was able to meet so many relatives. James really enjoyed being able to be there with his family. We all really enjoyed being able to celebrate her life.

Busy, busy , busy

The good news is, baby got a tooth and started cereal. Jamie was in a spelling bee but the poor guy got the word howitzer. We didn't even know how to spell it. We also got internet which means I will be blogging more often. However, so far it isn't fast enough to skype. We are told that it can be so we have to work with tech support and work out the kinks. Enjoy the latest pictures.

This is our life

A friend of ours in Bethel is most likely moving out of town. This has prompted Terrence and I to think about our plans. Our track record in the past has involved lots of moves and changes so it might be surprising to some that this time the conversation revolved around staying where we are. We had this conversation in January on a day with a -25 windchill so we must really mean it.

Of course this does not mean forever. I promise we will not retire in Bethel. It does mean that for now this is our life. We have wonderful weekends indoors with James and baby. We get up each work day and drive the short way to work on icey roads to fight with lawyers and health care officials. We commiserate with each other and our coworkers about the injustices we see several times a day. We don't miss movie theatres and bars because our lives are so full with family and work. We are actually doing what we said we wanted to do when we were optimistic wide eyed teenagers. Only it is in a place we couldn't have imagined, a cold, somewhat broken but beautiful place.

More pictures from Grandma and Grandpa's visit