The last thing we need is a longer 2008 !?!?

The boys in France has decided that the earth is running slow in its annual slog around the sun. So now 2008 needs to be made one second longer by adding a leap second. [The official notice] How on earth they did not notice that we have had enough of 2008 is beyond me. Wouldn't it be just as easy to add a second to the beginning of 2009?

I don't think they make words to describe the kind of year that this has been (At least none that I would want my mother or grandmother to read). We have all been through the ringer in so many ways it is hard to know where to start. I have looked over this blog from time to time this past year. Every time I end up with the strangest feeling. The events behind the posts comes rushing back, as does the sinking feeling. It's a great way to remember where we have been and an important reminder of what we still have in front of us.

Tyler is doing great! He's is really starting to like the rice cereal. Sharron took his monthly "Penguin Picture" today and sure enough he's still growing like a weed!


Rachel giving Tyler a kiss.


Despite not liking 2008, I am reminded everyday that the events as awful as they were at the time developed into the kindest sweetest little boy. I may never want to do that again, but I also wouldn't trade Tyler in for anything.

Festive Holiday Photo Update

It has been a while since our last post. Overall things are going well. Tyler is doing GREAT! and growing like a weed. His eyes are tracking better every day and he's even tried rice cereal.

Between the ice storm and the holidays we've been running flat-out for a few weeks now. We were without power for 6 days and out of our house for 7, it took an extra night to re-start our house. As of Dec 23 PSNH still reports 2,000 homes without power.

I thought it was about time to do another gratuitous photo update so here goes.

This clip was taken the the morning after the ice storm. The sky is clear and what you see falling is the 1/4" of ice coming off the tree branches. Almost all the ice was off the trees by the afternoon, but the damage was already done.



On Christmas Eve Day Rachel and Dad went out to build a snow man and ended up building a "Snow Castle". It was quite a hit!



Christmas Eve we made cookies.



Christmas day was amazing Rachel knew what was going on this year and really got into it.



Tyler didn't have a clue what was going on, but really likes his Giraffe.







This was the year of the Penguin, Aunt Lys made Tyler his own stocking.



Rachel and I went out sledding after the Christmas festivities had wound down.
And the ever popular "Walking off into the sunset" pic.



Happy Holidays to all!

Lots of Ice.

We're now working on our fourth day with no power at home. The ice storm took out most of the region on Friday. New Hampshire had almost half a million customers without power at the peak of the outage.

We have been camping out at the compound. My grandmother has a generator so we have been able to keep Tyler warm and comfortable. We hope to have power back today, but the same could be said all weekend. PSNH (The local Utility) reports 138,000 homes still without power, with slow and steady progress. Once we get power back I expect it will take 6 to 12 hours to get the heat started again and then we have to clean up all the clothes and dishes used on our adventure.

It's been a LONG day.

It's 9:40 am and 11 degrees(F) outside, I've been up for at least 5 hours...

I don't know if she got upset about something, ate something that didn't agree with her or is just plain sick. but at about 4:30 Rachel got sick and necessitated changing just about everything. We have been sitting in the Family room watching various Disney and PBS programming ever since. She seems to be feeling at least a little better now that the sun is up. I hope that sticks.

Rachel just said "Santa Clause coming soon". She is really getting good at stringing words together. Thanksgiving is over so the Christmas-ification of our house is well under way.


(Rachel making some very careful adjustments to the tree as it goes up).
(Tyler making sure that the trains run on time, note the head control!)

Early Intervention was here last week and was just thrilled with his progress. Not much else to report at the moment, In Tyler's world boring is a good thing at the moment. Back to work for me.