The Rhodys

Dear friends and family,

The holiday season has us thinking back on what has been a blessed year.  Evie, now 4, and Claire, now 2, continue to grow and to amaze their parents, occasionally leaving us speechless.  They are both energetic, curious, and happy children who are eager to experience whatever life has to offer.  Whether we are baking cookies at home or making excursions to the museums or zoos or nature centers we are fortunate to have in the area, Evie and Claire embrace each activity with a kind of vigor that is often contagious (if not occasionally exhausting)!

This year Jason, Lisa, and Evie were able to travel to London.  Many of our pictures from the trip are in earlier posts on this website.  We discovered that Evie was born to be a world traveller.  She demonstrated patience and resilience during our long flight and showed endurance well beyond her 4 years as she walked without complaint through the city and its museums.  It is an experience that we as parents will treasure having had and will probably try to pursue as frequently as possible now that we’ve discovered how much Evie took advantage of it.

Claire stayed behind with her doting grandparents, but will probably not tolerate being left out of much from now on. Claire is funny and quick.  She’s every bit of two-years old, testing boundaries and experimenting. She’s an excellent hide-and-seek player who can creep into the smallest nooks and crannies in the house remaining stealthily silent until someone finally finds her.  Her sense of humor continues to develop, too.  She knows just how to make us laugh at the very moment when we are most likely to lose our patience.  Like the two-year old that she is, Claire emulates her big sister and is eager for her approval.  To her credit, Evie continues to become a patient big sister who plays very well with Claire.

This year we made a four-pawed addition to the family.  On Labor Day weekend, we adopted Sasha, a German Shepherd mix puppy, from the Montgomery County Private Rescue.  Sasha has added lots of excitement to the household.  We initially had intended to wait on a dog, but that resolve didn’t last.  One day Jason took Evie and Claire to the shelter to visit and play with the animals.  When he arrived, there were two new puppies.  When the shelter volunteers took Sasha out to play with the girls, there formed an uncanny bond between them.  Sasha was extraordinarily patient with Claire’s boundless affection, and gentle with Evie’s fears.  Within a few minutes, the pact was sealed.  Sasha was our dog, no matter how we resisted.  She has settled in well with us.  She walks Lisa in the mornings and Jason in the evenings, and throughout the day exercises the two girls.

Jason continues to work for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as a senior program officer.  This year he has had the good fortune to develop international grant programs between the United States and the UK and Germany. He’s enjoying working with scholars around the country and internationally to develop innovative solutions to humanities research problems, from digitizing historical documents to data-mining literary texts.  In a job that combines technology with books, Jason has finally found a home for his inner geek.  He also continues to progress on his dissertation.  It seems like such a long time to work on a project, but his resilience and discipline have been inspiring to his wife.

During the 2007-8 academic year, Lisa took a leave of absence from school to focus on raising Evie and Claire. She feels fortunate to have the chance to spend these formative years with the girls.  Between the museums and zoos, monuments and parks available in our area, she is constantly on the move.  She also joined the local MOMS Club this year and has enjoyed meeting new friends in the neighborhood.  In September, she started working in earnest on her dissertation again, and hopes to have a chapter, finally, completed in December.

We feel blessed to have such full lives. This holiday season finds us thankful and healthy.  We hope that it finds you the same way.

Merry Christmas, happy new year, and much love,

Jason, Lisa, Evie, Claire, and Sasha

Here is the last installment from Jason and Lisa’s camera during our trip to London in January.

2008London6

Evie wrote her first poem a couple of weeks ago. She dictated it to me:

The world is great.

Today is good,

but what we need

is to clean up from the litter bugs.

I’m trying… I really am to get them all online. I’ve left a few out of this installment. I’m sure we can bore you with them in person if you really want. However, these are the interesting pictures from the end of day 2 and up until about 3 PM on day 3. Thank you for your patience and your comments.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lmrhody/2008London3

So, Claire went for her 18 month check-up yesterday. She is growing beautifully, and the doctor was very impressed with her language skills. After Claire carried on a brief conversation about body parts, performed “reading books,” and mimicked the doctor’s use of the stethoscope and the little light doohickey, the doctor concluded that Claire is “very precocious”–though I’m sure she often says that to parents. But Claire, almost to prove a point, when the doctor said “… and you’re happy with her motor development?” answered by standing up, arching her back, leaning on my hand, and flipping her feet over to stand again. The doctor was stunned and concluded, “Yes, precocious is a good word for it.”

We know we’ve been slow about photos, and we have wanted to share these with you. So, here are the first two installments of a 5 part montage. Enjoy.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lmrhody/2008London1

http://picasaweb.google.com/lmrhody/2008London2

There are captions, which you can turn off if they’re annoying you. Also, some are tagged with markers on a map, so you can see where we actually were.

Anyone who’s met Claire knows that all her aspirations at the moment are vertical. She will climb whatever presents itself. It could be a stack of books standing vertically. It could be a set of yaffa blocks… (She likes to climb in the second highest one and sit there like a hen laying eggs); the top of the Leap Frog musical table (which is supposed to teach something slightly calmer than vertical ascent… I think); the top of the coffee table; the top of the kitchen table; and my new personal favorite, the top of the laundry hamper. Not wanting to limit herself to up and down climbing, though… there’s also climbing “through” and “into” which are just as much fun. For example, by scaling the walls of her new toy from Nana and Granddaddy, she has discovered, that you can in fact barrel roll an entire play house across the basement. In the event that she tires of climbing over the play piano to the top of the play kitchen, there’s always climbing into the collapsible laundry basket which also barrel rolls quite nicely.

Claire has formed an attachment to what Jason and I thought to be an unlikely subject, Knuffle Bunny. If you are unfamiliar with Mo Willem’s books _Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale_ and _Knuffle Bunny, Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity_, then get thyself to an Amazon window nearest you! Knuffle Bunny is the beloved stuffed companion of a little girl named Trixie. In the first story, bought for and read to Claire before she was born, Trixie and her father go to the laundromat to do a little wash. Knuffle Bunny is mistakenly tossed into the washing machine, and about halfway home, a prelingual Trixie makes every attempt to let her father know that something is amiss. Her father, however, interprets Trixie’s alarm as a “melt down” (including my most favorite toddler evasion tactic, “going boneless”). Eventually, a search is initiated, Knuffle Bunny is found, and all is well. Trixie even says her first word. When Jason and I went for our anniversary brunch just after Claire’s first birthday, we discovered that Knuffle Bunny has a sequel. We bought the stuffed bunny for Claire and the book for Evie. Since that moment, Claire has slept with Knuffle Bunny tucked under her arm every night.

Claire’s other favorite activities include: swiping a contraband item from a shelf, table, or counter, tucking it under her arm, and running like a mad woman away from a pursuing adult (all the while with an enormous grin on her face); slinking into the bathrooms to find someone’s toothbrush placed just a bit too close to the edge of the counter and “brushing her teeth” whenever she gets a chance; rocking and patting baby dolls to sleep… then dragging their naked bodies around by one foot; building and knocking down block towers; and trudging like Godzilla in a pink tutu through any “Little People” village that her sister has painstakingly set up.

All in all, Claire, we have discovered is turning into our adorable monster: smiling, adventurous, and, well, just a bit mischievous.

Note: I’ve changed the title from “our favorite monster” to “our adorable monster” not because she isn’t a favorite, but because people may be confused… I (Lisa) call Claire “Monster” as a term of affection (a la Sesame Street and the like). It’s a term I’ve always used for Claire… Evie has other names, like “Love Bug”… but Evie has been very careful to correct me when I use terms like that: “I’m not a bug, or a bear, or a cupcake or anything, Mommy… I’m Evie.” And so she is.

Evie started nursery school this fall, and she absolutely loves it. It’s afternoon nursery school, and by the time we’re ready to leave, she’s almost shaking with anticipation. In the car, she enumerates the many things she hopes that she will do. When we arrive, she walks directly into the room without looking back to say good bye. She tosses her tote bag into the “bin” and heads directly for some form of small doll house, puzzle, or role-playing prop–that is if her BFF Catherine is not already in the room. Evie has discovered the joys of finding one good friend who understands you. They find each other as soon as they enter the room and actually “catch up” on what they’ve been doing since the last time they saw each other. This morning, the conversation went like this: “Hi, Catherine! Look, I have my Snow White’s kitchen-maid dress on. Don’t I look pretty? I have a cut on my knee. I fell when I was running, but it’s ok because the blood makes clots and the clots make the skin heal so I’m going to be ok, wanna play?” To which Catherine responds, “Do you see *my* dress? I look pretty, too. Let’s play house, ok” They hold hands, and walk to the kitchen.

In other news, Evie read her first book tonight, Today I will Fly, which is a family favorite. Most of it is memorized, but she “read” the whole thing straight through without significant help. In the book, a pig with aspirations of flying struggles to find a way to make the impossible possible. Despite his skeptical elephant companion’s doubts and chiding, the pig gets help from a pelican and comes very close. The elephant, inspired by the pig, says at the end of the book that he, too, will fly. It’s a fun book to read and has very helpful “word bubbles” to help young readers figure out who is speaking. It’s quite an accomplishment for our little girl. Go Evie!

All in all, Evie continues to live in a world of fantastic imagination. She is alternately, Piglet, Roo, Snow White, Cinderella (of course), any of her teachers, Nana, Grandmom, and Trixie (from another Mo Willems’ story you’ll hear about later).  From writing her own script to a “Winnie the Pooh” play to explaining that her imaginary friends “The Evies” are strong enough to “fight off bullys,” to “teaching Puppy to read,” I’m always delighted to hear what new thing she’s thought up.

More pictures to follow.

Aunt Lisa, Uncle J, and cousins Evie and Claire would like to welcome to the world our newest family member. Zachary Scott Antonille was born on Wednesday, October 3, 2007, weighing a healthy 7 lbs. 5 oz. and measuring 18 inches. We’re thrilled to have him here. Congratulations, Scott and Tanya.