Since she's arrived it's been wonderful to hear from and be visited by most of family, friends, neighbors and acquaintances, though admittedly it has subsided a bit since the first month. It's been very comforting and pleasant to see such outpouring of affection towards someone no one knows and we've been glad to bask in the reflected glory of the blank slate with limitless possibilities.
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Sept. 23, 2002 - Jane in giraffe sweater
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It's surprising how quickly we've fallen into parent mode on so many levels. Like typical parents with newborns, we not so secretly suspect that our child is the most beautiful, smartest and all around best kid around despite all evidence to the contrary. Fantasies of her future greatness abound, recharging our unrealized dreams of doing great things for humanity. Not that we're doing bad things. Generally we like to think of what we do as good things...but great...hardly.
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Sept 23 2002 - Dad with Jane & Maddie
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Anyway, back to the fantasies of her future greatness: Randy actually caught himself day dreaming about reading some future album (?) liner notes where Jane Curtis, the new queen of jazz piano…or better yet…jazz accordion…was thanking her father for his influence in playing the bosa nova tunes of Antonio Carlos Jobim as lullabies. We only wish he was making this up.
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Jane considering sleep (or perhaps a career as a jazz
accordionist...) in her swing
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Baptism
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September 22, 2002 - Jane's Baptism
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We celebrated our first wedding Anniversary on September 22nd by having Jane baptized in the Catholic church, or more specifically the Christ the King school basement in U. City, since unfortunately the actual church was undergoing major
renovations. The priest got Jane's middle name wrong but we're sure God can figure out that "Jane Emily" and "Jane Amélie" are actually the same person. It was a beautiful day made all the happier with the warmth of both our immediate families attending.
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The Sage and Curtis+ Clans
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Jane was baptized in the Lonsway-Sage family baptismal gown that has been in the family since Jane's Great-Great Aunt Angela wore first it in 1906. It has been used by 4 generations of
Lonsways, Sages, Brennans and now Curtis's (approximately 15 people) and is still in remarkably good shape.
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Jane in ancestral
baptismal gown
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Her Godparents are Rosemary Sage (Aunt Ro-Ro) and Todd Hammond (Randy's pal since 7th grade).
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Jane with her parents and godparents
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We'll bet that several people are wondering "What the heck?" knowing the vast differences between Randy and Bethany on the continuum of religious belief. Did Randy find religion since the miracle of Jane's birth?
No, he remains a die-hard atheist (yes, the pun is intended). However before getting married, they had agreed to
baptizing any children and Bethany's introducing them to the Catholic faith through their formative years. The choice to be confirmed in the faith would be delayed and left to each child based on an educated knowledge of the church and that both parents would respect the choice either way. Hopefully it will work out as trouble-free in practice as in theory.
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Godfather Todd Hammond with Linda & David
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And before anyone calls the Missouri DFS [Department of Family Services], that's water in the Amber Bock bottle. Still you have to question their choice of brands...
At the beginning of the month, we took Jane on her first road trip to see the family members in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania and attend Bethany's 10-year college reunion. She slept most of the way but occasionally would wake up. We used the digital camera to check up on her in the backseat, facing backwards.
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Janie on the road in her car
seat
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First up was an overnight stay to see Uncle Justin, Aunt Jennie and cousin Katie in Indianapolis.
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Aunt Jenny and Cousin Katie with Bethany and Janie in Indy
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En route, we stopped at Canonsburg, PA home to Perry Como (as depicted in marble) AND Bobby Vinton. The Sarris Candy shop was also pretty cool.
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Janie, Randy and a marble Perry Como statue in Canonsburg, PA
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The next day we pushed forward to Ben Avon/Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and set up home in cousin Robert's room at Aunt Katie and Uncle Don's house. We happily stayed up late that night, as well as the subsequent 3 nights, just talking to Katie and Don and sharing stories.
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Janie and Uncle Don
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On Friday, we visited Washington, PA hometown to both of Bethany's parents, her Aunt Katie and her alma mater. We spent a couple hours and had lunch with her great Aunt Sissy and Uncle Jim in the afternoon.
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Janie, Aunt Katie & Bethany
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On Saturday, we met up with Bethany's old W&J College suite-mates Judy & Heather, and Heather's husband, Brian, and their 14-month-old daughter, Madison. As Judy was expecting, breakfast conversation centered on the three of them comparing maternity experiences. We went to the football game in the afternoon where it appears that about 15% of the male student body was on the team. The Presidents won and it was kind of funky hearing "Hail to the Chief" as a school fight song.
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Madison, Judy, Bethany and Heather at the W&J Homecoming football game with a gruntled Randy in back
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On the return trip home we stopped in at the University of Dayton to visit Uncle Micah, treating him to dinner and breakfast. With 7 days sleeping in 3 different places Jane did great!
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Bethany, Jane and Uncle Micah at the Bob Evans in Dayton
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The following weekend, we went to the Hammond A-Frame at Innsbrook for their annual Devil Dog Garlic/Fall Festival. The fall colors weren't at their peak yet but it was a fun and relaxing time as always. Being a seasoned world traveler at this point the overnight spent elsewhere was just like at home (complete with a feeding in the middle).
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At Innsbrook - Janie, Aunt Rhonda, Linda and David Hammond
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Jane joined the Devil Dogs at the Train Wreck Tavern in Rock Hill for their send off of their long time ace Kathy and her husband Alex, who are leaving for leaving for Lehigh University to set up a zebra fish genetics lab there.
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At the Train Wreck Tavern with Devil Dogs
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Jane had her 2-½ month doctor visit on the 17th. We are happy to report that at exactly 13 lbs. she is in the 90th percentile for babies her age, and at 23 1/8 inches she's in the 75th percentile! We're taking bets on who's going to weigh more: our little Janie or the Turkey served at Thanksgiving dinner! She had a total of 4 shots (DTP #1--HIB #1--Polio #1--Pneum #1), which did NOT make her a happy camper, but we did manage to compose ourselves before leaving the examining room, which was no small feat. That night, we thought we each heard a "MA-MA" and a "DAD-DY" in the midst of her evening round of "I just had 4 shots & I ache" moans. Either she's pretty smart or we're a bit delusional (and no, we're not taking bets on that one!).
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17 October - A happy Jane despite 4 shots earlier in the day
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Although it's not Halloween yet, Jane still like dressing up in her
giraffe
hat when going out.
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Halloween 2002
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Our little pumpkin, as a pumpkin
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Randy took Jane around to see all the nieghbors (or rather the other way around) and mooch some beers in the process. Although she wasn't able to enjoy any of the treats, at nearly every house she performed her trick of spitting up. We're so proud.
November 2002
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3 November - At the Sages having our picture taken for our Christmas Card
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Cousin Lloyd, Jane, Gramy and Gral
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Thanksgiving 2002
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Jane enjoying her first drumstick with help from Bethany
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Thanksgiving at Aunt Rhonda's with Jane and Bubba
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Thanksgiving Friday - Aunt Lisa and Jane
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December 2002
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December 4 - Bethany and Jane playing around
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December 5th Jane enjoying her first snow from the safety of her car seat
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Happy Jane
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The Sage women Christmas tree shopping at Chaminade
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December 18 Bethany and Jane with tree
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Jane Amélie Curtis
