Morning Walk in Oriental
Celebrating the New Year by enjoying a morning walk in Oriental.
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BIG NEWS
THE BOY is ENGAGED!!!
He asked Emily on New Year’s eve and (to great delight to us all) SAID YES!!
The irony is that Christie, Steph, and I (and Steph’s mom, who was visiting) had all worked hard over dinner planning the perfect proposal for them. (We did this while we were visiting at Christie’s house in Raleigh last week.) Maybe we’ll have to use those plans for the wedding. I’m sure Emily, the Boy, and Emily’s family will allow a birds’ takeover of their wedding.
Their current plans include buying a house in June and getting married later in the summer (maybe August)? I realize that hearing about the Boy getting married AND buying a house in one sitting is a lot to take in. But it’s all true! Yeah, Boy! Yeah, Emily!!
We are SOOOO happy!!!!!!!!!!!!! And we need a beautiful engagement photo to archive here (ahem, Boy…?)
Morning in Oriental
A beautiful, misty morning off the dock in the backyard of Paul’s parents in Oriental, NC. The water is an inlet to the Neuse River.
Oriental New Year’s Dragon
The Chinese Dragon, dancing down by the docks in Oriental, North Carolina. Following the head is a long train, under which locals walk and support the beams that hold it up. People change places throughout the parade from the audience, so the whole parade is a huge mix of people. It is also considered good luck for the year to touch the Dragon, so the streets are packed (as packed as they can be in little Oriental!)
Oriental New Year’s Party
Banners leading the New Year’s parade in downtown Oriental, North Carolina. I particularly liked that the banners are for many different years… including one in honor of the Y2K bug! They were carried by all sorts of folks from the town… basically, anyone who made a New Year’s appropriate banner that they wanted to carry!
Rotavirus?
After another morning of vomit from our little guy, I went and saw the doctor. Looks like Will has a little rotavirus (viral infection of the GI tract, most common cause of nasty stuff for kids under three). Not sure where he picked it up, but considering the way these types of viruses are usually spread, I really don’t want to think about it.
He had a long afternoon nap on my chest (he woke up and cried everytime I tried to put him down, so finally I gave up and vegged with him) and we spent the afternoon chilling out, playing a bit (he’s really low-key today), swinging on the porch swing, and having a fun time brushing the cats (Will picks up the fluffs of hair and tries to put them back on the cats). He is eating a bit: he scarfed some tofu and gram cracker (which his digestive system quickly and efficiently disposed of in the way most appropriate of someone with a virus). He’s also had juice and water to great success (in addition to lots of nursing).
According to the doctor, we should be enjoying ‘normal’ behavior from our son by the 6th (my birthday!)
…And Finally Home!
We left last Wednesday (the 29th) for Oriental, N.C. and just returned (Sunday the 2nd) from a great trip filled with celebration. We celebrated: a belated Christmas, New Year’s holiday, and two birthdays (Kevin’s, Jan. 1st, and mine, Jan. 6th)! Some highlights:
Impromtu dinner and visit with great friends!
— Christie and David (my college friends) and Steph and Mike (and Steph’s mom) hosted us for dinner and got to finally meet Will! (Christie and Steph were bridesmaids in our wedding.) We had a great time and were so happy to see them!
Playtime with Will!
— Grandpa George reading at story to Will about “Tinky-Winky’s skirt”
— Aunt Amy helping Will with all his presents (and maybe even having more energy than Will??)
— Everyone pitching in on diaper changes (we understand that Grandpa George managed at least two biggies!)
— Aunt Amy singing “Do your ears hang low?” over and over and over….
— Nana Nancy talking with Will and hearing all his wonderful words: thank you, good-bye, gato, moooo, hello!, hi!, uh-oh, and more!
Deciding that Will is especially special, both from biased and unbiased sources:
— Somewhat biased child development specialist’s (e.g.: Nana Wisneskey) opinion was that he was incredibly verbal, tons of fun, super curious, secure, and expressive.
— Totally unbiased stranger: she approached us in the airport to comment on Will. She had watched him play and came over to ask about him, introduced herself as a child development specialist, and got into conversation with us. When she learned his age, was very surprised and said that he was both remarkable skilled and impressively verbal and gave us suggestions on activities to continue his development in this regard.)
Christmas:
— Lasted four days. It took this long — Will opened a present or two a day!
— Was filled with great food and gifts: including a beautiful watch and flower pot for me, robe for Nana, Tulane gear for Amy, Kevin, and Grandpa, and house-work gear (like masks!) to go with his nail gun (!) for Paul.
New Year’s:
— Involved a big party where we met with Wisneskey family friends, put on party hats and gathered noise-makers and went to see the running of the Oriental dragon. The town has a Chinese dragon that locals (ie: anyone who wants to run under it and help) carry a few blocks back and forth downtown. It was GREAT fun!! We met lots of fun people, including a retired Michigan School of Public Health ameritus faculty who had lots of stories about my Michigan profs. We all touched the dragon for good luck and took lots of pictures. We did not stay downtown, though, for the dropping of the Croaker at midnight (think of the New Year’s party in Time Square, except with a fish on a dock.)
Birthdays:
— Found out Kevin was the first baby born in his county shortly after midnight. Celebrated the afternoon with walks downtown, lunch at the marina, coffee at The Bean (where we saw Paul and Amy’s parents in a photograph on the wall!), and tours of the many boats in the dock
— Hummingbird cake: heavenly white cake filled with amazing things.
— Cool backpack and beautiful engraved silver bracelet for me, bamboo wind chimes and dress watch for Kevin.
— Playing lots and lots of “Apples to Apples”
Great trip…. until the end!!! Everyone (save me and Kevin) got very ill with some sort of stomache flu. All the Wisneskey’s— sick! Even Will threw up a couple of times in the car on the way to the airport this morning (a new challenge for us: digging clean clothes out of the car, cleaning out the carseat, and trying to not be puked on ourselves), Paul required many stops along the way as well. It was a long trip home and we are so happy to be back!
Shoes, hats, kleenex…?
Will is doing a great job copying actions. These include:
— Filling his mouth with water and spitting it out (this used to be our game in the shower…. I had no idea that he would memorize it and try to re-produce it everywhere)
— Putting on shoes
— Putting on hats (although he generally prefers putting them on and off other people over himself)
— Taking kleenex up to his nose/face and making sounds as if he’s blowing his nose
Christmas #1 in Review
Cool stuff:
– Learning that Will LOVES to be carried around in Uncle Skip’s arms
– Watching Will play with Skip and Emily
– Playing “Settlers of Catan” with Skip and Emily
– PapPap playing “pillow fight” with Will
– Granna playing “gonna getcha” with Will
– Granna opening presents for Will
– Great food (including my veggie chilli and famous triple C’s!)
Cool presents included:
– Paul’s super-cool Bose headphones (to help him work in relative quiet)
– Granna’s egg poucher (we all learned about this!) and favorite robe
– PapPap’s cordless drill, golf shoes, and practice net
– Lots of toys!! Including Pop-on block set, peek-a-blocks, “press and go” plane, wacky saucer, remote control duck, plush bowling set, animal musical instrument set
– My goregous Mingon Faget earring/necklace set (famous local jewelry designer)
– Multi-meter and stud finder for Skip (domestic Boy!)
– Teacher stickers and huge tote for Professional Educator Emily
He got it!
He knows where hats go..!
