Holiday Musings from the Curtis Home 2005
It’s been a quiet year here in Lake Woebegone…
Actually it hasn’t seemed all that quiet here but in comparison to the major events in our lives the last few years (2000-moving in together, 2001-marriage, 2002-Jane’s birth; 2003-house addition, and 2004-Cate’s birth), it has been relatively non-momentous year with no additional offspring or debt accumulation.
Randy’s done a fairly good job of updating the website every month or so with pictures and stories of the latest goings on at the Curtis home. If so inclined, you can read the quarterly scrapbook pages: Fall, Summer, Spring, and Winter, or skip it for the abbreviated version below.
Where is the Life That Late We Lead?
Although only 3˝ years ago, our pre-children lives are a distant dreamlike memory, so immensely has parenthood changed so much about our lives and who we are. To anyone with kids we don’t need to explain, to those who haven’t reproduced, we now know that words won’t get you there.
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Jane and Cate playing
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So Jane and Cate are the focus of our lives, as is evidenced by the scores of pictures of them we post here.
We’re generally grateful for Jane’s abundant communication skills and self-esteem (but not always—she can be quite opinionated and sassy!). At the age of 3 Jane started attending pre-school 2 mornings a week in August. To our extreme surprise, her teachers initially commented that she was a very quiet and polite child (she’s younger than most of the other kids in her class). However, a couple months later they commented that she had come out of her shell and was exhibiting what we know at home to be her more familiar, stubborn behavior, she exemplifies the acronym BOS (Bossy Older Sister) on a regular basis. Potty training has been an on again/off again thing, but she’s pretty much got the “No. 2” thing down. Jane is a precocious “big girl” who loves going camping, “reading”, giving directions, traveling, wearing dresses and going out to eat.
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Bethany and Jane decorating our "holiday tree"
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Back in January Cate was crawling at 9 months of age, but it took another 6 months to start walking (her first steps were in Texas this July). Although not the Chatty Cathy her big sister has always been, her speech is progressing better (especially now that her sister goes to school and isn’t always there to answer for her!). Cate is quite the daring eater, pretty much gobbling up anything put in front of her – she is actually quite fond of spicy Indian cuisine. Unfortunately once she switched to more solid foods, coming out the other end was another matter and it took months to get a regime down to unplug her. She has learned to stand up for herself and doesn’t let Jane get away with too much bossing. Cate is a sweet child with an infectious smile and gentle voice who loves swimming, hanging upside-down, and going down the slides at the playground.
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Randy and Cate at Maramec Springs
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Bethany continues to revel in stay-at-home-mom mode, refereeing two very active and competitive girly-girls who typically resort to hair-pulling when conflicts arise. Jane’s starting preschool was a bit traumatic for B… On the first day of school Jane rushed right in and never looked back. Mom, immediately, and most unexpectedly, started trickling tears (okay, gushing). But Bethany has enjoyed getting involved as the parent of a preschooler, accompanying Jane’s class on their first field trip and undertaking the sizeable project of sewing the classroom’s fall quilt (Gramy should be proud!). She continues to look forward to her weekly visits with other akin moms at playgroup and relishes her monthly girlfriends’ outings (including a road trip to the Lake of the Ozarks in early December). She also co-produced two neighborhood block parties and began attending political meetings. Not exactly Desperate Housewives but we’re just as glad to not have that level of intrigue here on Tuxedo Boulevard.
Randy completed his 11th year researching and analyzing former and active military property for environmental hazards for the Corps of Engineers. He did get a 33 day “break” to “visit” New Orleans in October to help in rebuild the flood protection system there. The trip was a professionally enriching and challenging experience that doesn’t summarize in a sentence or two, though Randy blathered on for 4,000+ words in his website review. As always, the job overall required lots of travel (97+ days on the road for 14 trips out of town).
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Curtis Family - 4 June 2004
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Fortunately the family got to join him for a few trips. In February Bethany returned to Orange County, CA for a week sans children. In June, the whole gang drove to Fort Worth and back, via Springfield, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Highlights: Bass Pro Shop, OKC Federal Building Memorial, feeding ducks, the World’s Largest McDonald’s and Gilmore Girl DVDs. A couple weeks later, we packed the Sienna up for a trip to Norfolk, VA via Indianapolis, Pittsburgh and DC (highlights: Papa Murphy’s Take and Bake pizza, breaking the Ciccone shower, 2 IKEA excursions, smuggling cases of regional beers across state lines, way too much sand in our suits at Virginia Beach and countless choruses of “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes”). Other road trips included a couple other visits to Indy (highlights included play set assembly, cousin mingling, more duck feeding and human pyramids at the Wall Party) and Chicago for the nuptials of Micah, the last Sage sibling to get married (highlights: Navy Pier, Superdawgs, mullet night with the White Sox and learning that Catholics aren’t considered Christians by some sects). We also made our annual Maramec Springs camping trip (highlights: FISH feeding, and wine-tasting, eating good cheese and grape pressing at the Heinrichhaus winery in St. James).
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The Curtis Family
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Home Improvement - We made some good progress on list of uncompleted projects on our 2003 addition project, including: additional attic insulation, 2 bathrooms worth of wainscoting and trim; replacement of the sidewalk from front to side and the long awaited trim on the first floor (YAY!!!). There’s still several thing left before we’ll call the addition complete and move on to new improvement projects.
Happy Holidays (Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, etc.),
and a Joyful, Peaceful New Year!
Randy, Bethany, Jane & Cate
(along with Maddie, Bert and Brazil)
RBJC Curtis Family Front Page