Davis Family Newsletter 2009

If you're reading this newsletter, it means we actually finished it and mailed it out! Hurray!! With both of us working full-time at the end of 2008, we were too busy to write a newsletter or Christmas cards. When Shirley was laid off in January, we actually welcomed our new and (slightly) less hectic lifestyle. Mason continued to attend his preschool full-time, while Evan stayed at home with Mommy.

In February Mason began a months-long obsession with musical instruments. Of course his two musician parents were quite proud. During the height of his interest, he was able to identify all of the instruments of the orchestra. His favourite instrument was the basset horn, sort of a Middle Ages alto clarinet. Eventually this obsession would be replaced by one with jigsaw puzzles. And that obsession finally has been superseded by one for superheroes, robots and catching bad guys.

Around the same time, Evan began to emerge from babyhood, learning to crawl at lightning fast speed all over the house. He also began to show a strong dislike for most kinds of foods, especially vegetables. At least he loves his milk! In April Evan turned one and took his first steps. Lately he has also developed a strong attachment to his blankie. As much as we've tried to introduce new blankies to him, apparently only this one will do, and it goes everywhere he does.

At the beginning of May, both Evan and Mason had surgery to get ear tubes. They had suffered terribly with ear infections all winter long, but the tubes have made a huge difference -- for them and for us!

In May we headed to Canada for a two-week vacation spent in Kitchener, Toronto and Ottawa. The trip from Kitchener to Ottawa was our longest road trip to date. The kids had no problem with the long ride, but Evan had a rather high fever and we quickly headed to the doctor upon reaching Ottawa. Evan was fine, but what shocked us was that a doctor's visit could cost only $30! We celebrated Mason's birthday in Kitchener with a big party, attended by all of his cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents.

In August we were invited by friends to stay at their cabin in Lake Tahoe. The kids enjoyed their first visit to a beach. We also took our bikes and the bike trailer and enjoyed a wonderful 4-mile ride downhill from the cabin -- the ride back up the hill was much more challenging, especially for Mark, who was pulling both kids and the trailer. Don't feel too badly for him, as Mark returned to Tahoe for the Google Search Quality offsite a couple of weeks later, and had an opportunity to relax sans famille for a couple of days.

In September we went camping overnight at Lake Chabot with two other families. The campground is only about half an hour from home (and close enough to civilization to hear BART trains), but it was a good first camping experience. That month Shirley also started attending night classes, towards a certificate in VLSI Engineering.

In October Evan turned 18 months old and we enrolled him in the same daycare that Mason attends. Having accompanied Mommy when dropping off and picking up Mason for many months, he was very familiar with the school and the teachers, so it made his transition to daycare very easy compared to Mason's.

After a couple of false starts, Evan really started to get serious about talking in November. He is now picking up new words daily, and gets very excited when we confirm the correctness of his new words. He is also getting quite good at repeating the letters of the alphabet and the numbers from one to ten.

In December Shirley had an unexpected return to the workforce. Her old company offered her a great opportunity which would use many of the skills she had learned in classes she had recently taken. The work schedule is part-time, which should help in finding that elusive work-life balance. Getting a Christmas newsletter out this year means we're off to a good start.

Happy Holidays!