This year's odyssey being nearly complete, we send out greetings to all of you, and hope that you are all well.
Elianna arrived, a month early, on April 24. She is named for her great-grandmother Esther Kollenberg of blessed memory, who passed away in February.
Elianna is Aaron's counterpoint. He's blond hair (not so much as before) and blue eyes, she's dark hair and eyes. He was alert from the start, and hated naps; she loves her sleep -- or at least she did until she started teething. Aaron would eat only when necessary, and only enough for sustenance; Elianna's first thought on seeing new things is, "I think I can eat that." Aaron lives to laugh; Elianna is mostly serious. Most importantly, Aaron loves Elianna dearly and does anything possible to help; we'll see how that changes when she starts grabbing for his toys.
Elianna has just passed 8 months. She is crawling, sitting up, and is extremely vocal. She has recently started acknowledging others, reaching out for people, waving, and propping herself up. We expect she'll be walking before her first birthday.
Aaron. Occasional composer, builder, musician, swimmer, concert-goer. Wants to know how everything works, has offered up countless rewiring solutions to all of our electronics. Hooked up his own telephone, and insists on answering every incoming phone call -- which is a good solution for most telemarketers. In December, Aaron saw his first Bruce Springsteen concert. Ask him why he's laughing, and he'll say, "I'm thinking about the Three Stooges." Aaron will be starting kindergarten next year; we will likely keep him in the same place where he currently attends pre-school.
Lori took the year off from most Master Gardener activities, and the home garden was somewhat less populated than usual. The groundhog got all our broccoli and beans, the melons failed, and we never got around to planting corn or fall greens. On the other hand, we had volunteer tomato plants all over the place, and were able to use them up until December 15. The apple trees went wild this year, and we have now pressed about 48 gallons of cider (we now have a 2nd refrigerator just for apples, and it is completely full; the garage was lined with apples for two months), in addition to taking our first stab at dried apples. We now have our own cider year-round.
Matt only went through 2 new desks at work this year, and no management changes. We're hoping we can all ride out the current economic situation, but it's far from certain at this point.
In sadder news, Trico passed away in May. We buried her at the top of the hill; Aaron spoke a few words in memory. We all miss her.
We have included a dozen pictures from the last few months. We hope you enjoy them!
Also, we have new email addresses. We are at orel.ws: Matt is matt@orel.ws, Lori is lori@orel.ws, Aaron is aaron@orel.ws, and elianna is elianna@orel.ws. All previous email addresses will not work. Also, the website address has changed. We also have a new web address: http://matt.orel.ws.
Love,
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Aaron, Elianna, Matt and Lori |
Email: matt@orel.ws |
url: http://matt.orel.ws |