Holiday Musings from the Curtis Home 2004

Once again it’s time to recount our doings for the year in a short and sweet manner, so without further ado here’s an abbreviated recap of the year in the growing Curtis home.

The dust has settled here (literally) and has been mostly swept up in our home addition. Randy tiled the two upstairs bathroom floors, but most of the other “little” weekend projects—such as tiling the new bath tub surround and adding trim to the 1st floor addition rooms—remain undone. We had hoped these endeavors would be completed by now, however, like the Cardinals, we have to say maybe next year. It really does feel like home here again, and we are extremely happy with the new space.

The Best things in Life are Free, if you have good health insurance…
On March 30th we became doubly blessed with the birth of our second daughter, Catherine Hope, or simply “Cate.”

The Curtis Family expands by 1

Originally her hair was fairly dark and we thought she might take after her mom, however her eyes have remained bright blue and her hair has lightened to almost a strawberry blond shade like Jane’s. Bethany is sure that strangers looking at her out with the girls think she’s the nanny for Jane and Cate, since they bear little easy resemblance to her, rather they favor Randy and Bethany’s father (funny, since the five Sage kids look little like him, all having their mother’s dark hair, eyes and coloring). Cate has been an exceptionally pleasant baby, rarely fussing and even sleeping through 6 hours of the night after just the first couple weeks. Now at the 8-month point, Cate sleeps 11 hours at night, sits up on her own, and makes various clicks, squeaks and squeals to express her happiness or frustrations; she is quite the rolling dervish on the floor, and she enjoys solid foods (if you call vegetable puree “solid”). We get a big hoot watching her jump in her springy chair along to the beat of her favorite Harry Belafonte tunes. Cate weathered her first neighborhood camping trip like a pro in September, and she attended her first political function with Bethany at a “Catholics for Kerry” rally at the Basilica in October.

Big sister Jane looking out after Cate on her first camping trip

Older sister Jane has transitioned very well to her new role as big sister, often offering to “help.” For the most part she has made the shift to shared attention without a glitch, though occasionally we have to watch her from hugging Cate too enthusiastically (i.e. choking) or just letting go of Cate when she’s had enough “holding” time.  Jane doesn’t show much interest in throwing a ball (not that this is necessarily a bad thing during the indoor season), and it is with such pride that we watch her rush across the room to snatch a long forgotten toy from Cate, claiming it as part of her dominion with the clear vocalization of her two favorite words of late: “NO, MINE!”  (It appears that selfish materialism is more of a natural state, while sharing and understanding are a learned trait). 

Jane "reading" (i.e. showing) a Clifford book to Cate

Actually Jane’s communication skills are rather good – she is constantly surprising us with words we didn’t know she knew, and she will repeat just about anything she hears (NOT always a good thing, especially when daddy is working on home projects!).  Her love of music is very sophisticated as well, as she has learned to favor the Mary Poppins soundtrack and the polkas of Frank Yankovitch (not that her father has had any influence in this regard…).  Jane watched the Olympic Flame make it’s way through Webster Groves with Bethany and Cate in June, and in August she rode on the Giant Ferris Wheel at Forest Park with some of the Sage clan in commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the 1904 World’s Fair.

To keep up with our expanded family, we bought a Toyota Sienna minivan in March. Bethany originally had misgivings about this first step towards the dreaded soccer mom image, but finally she relented (see term “kicking and screaming”) and is now completely thrilled with the new vehicle.  We celebrated by taking weekend trips with the family to Dayton in May and Indianapolis in July.  But the real test was the 2,400 mile, 11 day journey to the beach in North Carolina and back in August, returning with stops to visit friends and family in WV, Pittsburgh and Indy.  It was a joy to see the girls play in the ocean for the first time.

Bethany and Jane playing in the ocean at Atlantic Beach, NC

Jane’s experimentation with her own version of the Rebel Yell at the Cracker Barrel in Fredericksburg—like the Union Army a century and a half earlier we left town with our tails between our legs (see “terrible two’s”)

Discovering that Jane talks in her sleep – and just what do 2-year-olds dream about you may wonder?: “Snacks... cookies... doughnuts... Peeps… okay!”

(along with Maddie, Bert, Brazil, two unnamed guppies and a snail)