A Long Overdue Blog....

Apologies to the Grandparents... We replaced our broken camera with another, and it took some time before we got around to uploading the necessary software to download pics...

We have had a busy few months since Anderson's b-day on 9/5.

First, we headed off to Albuquerque to visit with Ted, Marie, Massimo, Tazio (the 2 uber-cute sons of T & M). They remained our friends even after Anderson had his major meltdown one night and had many of us up for a while.

Though the Balloon Fiesta (the hot-air balloon festival) was the original reason we told T & M we were coming, we did also get Journey tickets for the night so that we could all experience Journey live. Little did we know that Albuquerque would get 1/4 of it's annual rainfall the very night we were outside and listening to great 80s music...the little guys were tough, but we gave in after 1-1.5 hrs!

Anderson loved getting access to new toys - he was especially enamored with a 'talking grill'....


Here is Tazio, uber-cute son #1.
We also hit the aquarium in Albequerque...(Anderson only experienced a mini-meltdown here...)

And here is Massimo (uber-cute son #2)....
You would think that attending a famous balloon festival would have us brimming over with excess shots of colorful and creative hot air balloons....no such luck... Instead, we have a picture of the world-famous Spam-mobile...

One of the many attractions at the festival was a chain saw 'sculpture' competition. Essentially, take a block of wood, a chainsaw, and make something nice. There were some unbelievable creations. The sponsor of the competition saw Anderson as an ideal marketing target, so he got a free cap. To be honest, he didn't seem that thrilled with his new acquisition...



But the horses were another story...!



In early November, we hightailed it to Atlanta for a surprise 40th wedding anniversary party for my parents. They are still maintaining that they knew nothing about it, so apparently we were actually able to pull off a real surprise. Norbert/Masako did an excellent job with finding the venue (and who knew that we would also end up with a Slovak waiter!). Looking at our pictures, I realize that we didn't do a very good job of taking a variety of shots. My apologies to our family/friends for the paltry offerings!




A couple of weeks ago, we went to San Francisco for a fertility society convention. It was hilarious to watch Anderson try to get a hula hoop in motion on the kid's playground.


The city is gorgeous, however...and now it's much more apparent why people spend so much to live there!


The downside to our beautiful, well-located hotel room was that it was TINY. The only real playing area was on the bed. This got old fast...VERY fast. After 2 nights in a row of Anderson meltdowns, Jason/Anderson made an early departure 5:30 in the AM on day 4.

Last weekend, we had a brief visit from Matt, June, and Rivers (Anderson's future girlfriend - at 3.5 yrs, an older woman). Hopefully we have enticed them with enough Wii to have a competition at our next visit. We also had lunch with Carol last week, and she very patiently endured an active/impatient little boy.

Finally, this past week we celebrated Thanksgiving with my parents in Austin. Anderson got some good grandparent time and plenty of turkey.





Our next challenges include continuing with the renovations on our current house, cramming for my oral boards (April), recovering from a lost wallet 2 weeks ago (found w/o the money inside) as well as a hit/run to my newish car :(

Life is busy, but everything is still going pretty well all things considered!

...and the 1st year has gone by!

Dear Parents & Parents-in-Law:

Our biggest apologies for being so slow with the updates. We've had our fun here with the recent hurricaine (which actually missed us quite easily - but our friends Matt/June/Rivers were not so lucky in Houston!)

Jason has been very busy at work - in a position he just adores....just ask him for details :) Thus, I have finally gotten around to posting some pictures.

We had Jason's friend Mary and her 3 INCREDIBLY BEHAVED and SUPER COOL sons over a few weekends ago. Munch got to experience the concept of 'siblings'. The guys were great about taking in a 4th brother...

(BTW, the story at daycare is that Anderson's teachers are having to catch themselves before they refer to him as Mr. Munch...oh this is going to be a tough nickname to let go of...)to be fair, he does eat a lot!)

Another random picture of total inebriation...
And finally the birthday boy, getting some birthday boy instruction...or he is just mesmerized by the $75 worth of Winnie the Pooh paraphenelia that his dad insisted upon. We were so going to get out of Toys R Us with minimal birthday purchases, until Jason saw the mega sports playcenter (you climb up, go down the slide on the other end, and have multiple sports related activities on the other 2 walls...it's sitting in our family room).

The crowd that Anderson was having to entertain...
He finally got the hang of it...
And celebrated in full birthday boy style (followed by a birthday suit showing). (This picture was a little staged by yours truly. Apparently our son favors carrots and peas over chocolate cake - go figure...)

Thank you to everyone for all the lovely gifts. They were very thoughtful!!

And lastly, Mr Big Boy is taking his 1st steps (as of yesterday)...we are preparing for the journey ahead!

The Haircut ...

Getting strapped in by a stranger with sharp objects? Thanks, Mom and Dad ...

Jason here. So Anderson just graduated from college. Okay ... not really. It just seems like it's been so long since we've given an update that it seems feasible. Busy. When not busy, lazy. We've had company and work has been busy for both of us, but here's the haircut update ...

So when Natalie last wrote, Anderson's hair was - as Natalie put it - out of control. I was okay with the long locks and was always a fan of the sixties, but Natalie didn't like the long locks and didn't like my "let's not bathe him for a week and make him into a true hippie" idea, so we decided to get his hair cut. The big question was where.

My family members know this, but most of my friends do not. My father frequently attempted to cut my hair when I was a kid, even going to the point of purchasing a "barbering at home" kit, which he brought home with pride when I was around 5 years old. Unfortunately, as well-intentioned as my father was, he did not also purchase the supplement to this, entitled "*How* to Cut Hair at Home Without Embarrassing Your Kid". His engineering mindset was simple ... the hair is long. I'll cut it. It won't be long anymore. Simple enough, right?

Except that the cut was never even. So he had to balance the other side. And then the other. You can see where this is going, right? Every haircut resulted in a shaved head. I have multitudes of school-age photos that demonstrate my father's barbering technique. Having suffered through this, we decided that Anderson would see a professional.

But what kind? A regular hair stylist can surely cut infant's hair, but we opted for the overpriced kid's specialty haircut. $16 for a stylist to spend 5 minutes cutting the 4 strands of hair that your kid has. And there's always a line, because every family is there taking pictures. Like these ...

Looking at the camera. Inner thoughts? "Someday I'm putting you in a bad nursing home..."

Mom, placing Anderson in a sleeper hold ...

Promising to take him back to Sea World ...
Over. Bring on the women ...

So Anderson now looks more like a little boy that an infant. This is important, as he has graduated from the infant room to the toddler room, where all of the kids are bigger than him. Well, in weight. He still has a head that matches most 3 year olds ...

Thankfully he's leaving the infant room as one of kids has been biting his arm. The day care center makes up "incident reports" and lets us know that Anderson was bitten. They don't, unfortunately, tell us who the culprit is. Natalie and I will be hiring a lawyer in the near future to bring the criminal to justice. This being Texas, we're pushing for the death penalty.

That's all for now ...

Our Hippie Child

Though we've been talking about it for months now, it is becoming more and more obvious that Munch needs a bit of a trim. He hasn't had an official haircut yet, but watch for a more shorn 'do in the weeks to come...



To escape the Austin (100 degree) heat, we ventured to San Antonio a few weeks ago to bake in their (100 degree) heat :) We packed in a visit to the Alamo, Sea World, Children's Museum, and a pretty interesting/gripping outing to Ripley's Believe It or Not. I haven't been to a place like that in ages. But there's still something grotesquely appealing about all the weird stuff people do...

Anderson made some new friends at the Children's Museum...

And learned his way around an udder...
The real winners were the fish. He got very excited and started squealing loudly when he saw them swimming around.
Anderson also had his first swim in the hotel pool. He braved the floaties well - and tolerated the size 3T swimsuit (his belly 'demands' a larger size!).
At the Alamo, there was a generous individual who was giving out hugs - for FREE! Oddly, no one was accepting his kind offer...

At Sea World, Jason did the daddy thing and won Anderson a little Shamu...



The following Friday (last Friday), Jason left for a 8 day trip to Montana with the boys...leaving Munchie/I to fend for ourselves. We went to a baby shower on Saturday and another summer party on Sunday at the most unbelievably nice house...fountains, 20 ft ceilings, stone floors - a relative castle...


Luckily Jason came home today and we are back to a family again. Yay, no more single parenting! Anderson has been walking around with his toy walker. We'll see how he progresses to the real deal in the next few weeks.

On another note, friends Jennifer & James had their daughter Callista this evening - many congratulations on a super fast labor and happy/healthy baby!! We're anticipating some cute pictures :)

A Tennessee Wedding...

So we went to Tennessee last weekend for Diana & Aaron's wedding... Here are Dad/Diana coming down the 'aisle' (the wedding was held at a quaint B&B Inn in the Smoky Mountains...)

But before we get to the wedding, let's review what we did in the hours leading up...

It took 2 (semipainful) flights to get to Knoxville (unfortunately Anderson isn't always the most cooperative traveler. However, he lights up (and stops crying) when anybody new starts giving him attention - faker!)). We attended the casual rehearsal dinner, and then we set out for the famed Dollywood early the next morning. Though it cost us $50/adult for 2+ hours, Jason decided that it would be a big mistake to miss it while we were there... So...

We ran into Madeline...
And Peter Rabbit....
Saw one of Dolly's cousins performing...and just took in the charm :)

We rode a steam train (complete with authentic inhalable coal dust!)...


And Anderson got his first ride on a carousel...

Some of the gift shop items were of questionable taste...


And then the wedding!!


The beautiful bride and handsome groom :)



It was a sweet/simple ceremony followed by sit-down dinner. Jason was his typical self and grabbed the video camera for some informal taping of dinner and wishes for the lucky couple.

Early the next morning, we were blessed with the babysitting services of Grandma & Grandpa Burger, and went off to play....:



This weekend was a little more tame :)

We went to our first 'All Ivy' event, where Jason became an honorary alumnus of MIT. We joined 4 other MITers for a competitive bowling match against the other Ivies (Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, etc). As has apparently been our reputation, we crushed our competitors :) Yes, the Beavers actually have some 'athletic' skills....! Anderson was so mesmerized, he fell asleep in the middle of the game...