At the Feet of the Master

This is what happens at our house when a bowl of popcorn is present.

Maia Moves

Maia, with a little help from her dad, has already developed some moves. (You will also see why Maia's dad is still working to get his grin under control. It may be a losing battle. That's only right.)

Little Baby Sparkle Princess

While Liam awaited the arrival of his new first cousin, he decided to call Maia "Little Baby Sparkle Princess." Uncle Mike may have provide Liam with some help in coming up with that name. Yesterday, Little Baby Sparkle Princess and her parents left the hospital and went home.

The front of her traveling outfit said "Daddy's Angel." There are even two cute little wings embroidered on the back.

Aunt Betsy provided a cap. Maia was all snuggly warm in her car carrier.

Barney was quite fascinated with Maia. Ozzie was rather indifferent, but then Ozzie is a cat, after all. Barney often whimpered whenever he heard Maia crying.

After a nice dinner, Jess and Mike put on a movie, and so Maia watched (?) her first movie with her dad. For the record, her first movie was Prince of Persia. Kathie and I saw the whole movie. We suspect Dad, Mom, and Maia slept through most of it.

Meet Maia June

Maia June Stalbaum was born to Jessica and Michael Stalbaum on January 19, 2011 at 10:03PM. Vital statistics: 7 pounds 4 ounces, 20 inches, long fingers and toes, and a head of very cute, soft, black hair (which the hospital staff immediately adorned with a tiny pink bow). Mother and daughter are doing very well. The father is still working at getting his grin under control.

For starters, here is a three generation picture. Grandmother Kathie is very impressed with her new little granddaughter. Once we can get these three together with Great Grandmother Novy, we can do a four generation picture!

Here are the proud parents with Maia. What a great looking family.

Maia is busy learning about her hands and how good they feel in her mouth. She has taken to nursing very quickly and to the related task of using up diapers.

Everyone thinks she is quite the pretty little girl.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow

Our lake home has a camera that looks out over our deck towards the water. When it sees a sufficient level of motion, it sends us a 5 second video. Nearly always, this is a result of weather conditions: wind making the trees move or falling snow. Occasionally a bird flies by, and once in awhile our trusty neighbor can be seen clearing snow from the deck. In all cases, it is fun to receive a pleasant winter reminder of a place that is giving us so much happiness in our retirement years.

Here is a little taste for all of you faithful readers. We definitely need to get up there next month to do some cross-country skiing, to enjoy the beauty of the winter, to visit our neighbors, and maybe to enjoy a fish fry at one of the local eateries.

Christmas, 2010

I'm a little late getting this posted, but here are some miscellaneous shots from our holidays. First of all, our tree was smaller this year but especially pretty, I thought. It has been sucking up water like crazy and even sprouting new buds! I wouldn't be surprised to see that it has sent out roots!

Josey already knew how to open gifts. For Tighe, this was a new experience.

Here is Kathie's new cocktail shaker for use in Iowa. We already have one up in Wisconsin.

Kathie's mom and I are always joking about sporting events. She likes to tease me with silly questions about the games. I guess I do subject her to watching quite a few. Anyway, I thought two rule books would be fun surprises in her stocking. She seemed to really enjoy getting them and even asked me to autograph them for her.

On Christmas Day, Kathie's whole family was able to come and spend a couple days with us.

A few days later, Will, Rob and Betsy's families arrived for a Christmas gathering. Henry, being into dinosaurs these days, had gotten a paleontologist's kit from his Uncle Van. He brought that along and worked on it in my shop.

Eleanor and the rest of the grandkids were eager to begin opening gifts.

Clara consulted with her dad about the appropriate gift-opening protocols.

Meanwhile, I managed the extrication of gifts from beneath the tree.

Betsy received a book containing a record of her blog postings from 2005 to 2006. Similar gifts were given to Carrie and Sandy.

Anders was especially into gift-opening this year.

And there was lots of chair-lift riding. Dad would have found this hilarious.