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Subject: Postcard from Portland
Dear Family and Friends,
Then sing, young hearts that are full of cheer,
With never a thought of sorrow;
The old goes out, but the glad young year
Comes merrily in tomorrow.
--Emily Miller
Happy New Year, all! We celebrated, as we suspect most parents of a
toddler did - by going to bed early. Liz and I popped [1] the champagne
at 9pm as we watched the Times Square ball fall on the telly [2]. By
10pm we were ready to retire. We did awake shortly past midnight -
thanks to local revelers who had moved their festivities into the
street. We said "rabbit, rabbit, rabbit" (does anyone else do that the
first of each month?), wished each other Happy New Year, and resumed our
slumber.
December was cold and wet and will not be missed. We had a cold snap
that lasted nearly a week where the mercury dipped into the low teens at
night and did not make it past freezing during the day [3]. We also had
our first snowfall. It wasn't much, but ADP decided to close early -
forcing me to join the clueless multitude of motorists who had turned
downtown into a massive parking lot. My usual 40-minute commute was
transformed into a 3 hour exercise in patience *sigh*. When I lived in
Boston, a paltry dusting like we had wouldn't have had any effect on
traffic whatsoever.
Liz's mom visited us last month to join us in celebrating Christmas. The
company was appreciated - as was the cooking and baking :-)
Unfortunately, Elisha is still going through her stranger anxiety period
and didn't warm up to Priscilla until nearly the end of her visit.
Hopefully she'll get over this phase soon.
Elisha scored heavily in the Chanukah and Christmas gift categories -
even though we all did make a conscious effort to not go overboard. Of
course, the wrapping paper and boxes were her favorites. In fact, she
spent the better part of a half-hour shrieking for joy over the gift
wrap imprinted with Dalmatians and puppy paw prints in which was wrapped
the calendar given her by her Great Aunt Suzanne. She has been having
loads of fun playing with the Noah's Ark, replete with 2x2 zoo, she
received from her Gram Pris. She's also been enjoying her pint-sized
chair, also a gift from Gram Pris. Elisha can't get into it herself yet,
but once placed there she shouts for joy. The back of the chair is in
the form of a dog's head. Elisha likes to point at its eyes, nose and
mouth (which we verbalize for her) and we think she's starting to learn
body parts from it. The biggest hit (so far) is the Fisher-Price
activity table [4] that she got from Liz. We still have one more gift to
give her (starter Legos) which we've deferred since she was a bit
overwhelmed by the presents she's already opened.
It's a trifle early for Elisha to appreciate the religious significance
of the holidays, but she found the Chanukah candles and Christmas
decorations fascinating. We were worried that the tree would prove to be
too tempting a distraction, but she adopted a "look, don't touch" policy
without any coaching from us!
The weaning process has begun now that Elisha is past her first
birthday. We've cut out her morning nursing altogether. As soon as she
wakes up I take her downstairs for a sumptuous feast of pureed fruit and
hot cereal. She's adjusted well to this change. She's still
breastfeeding before bed, but how long that lasts will be a function of
nature and logistics. It's been a wonderfully nurturing experience for
both Liz and Elisha, and Liz will miss the intimacy and bonding it has
provided. Our little "E" is no longer so little.
Elisha's training has gotten her in shape for the gold medal in the
crawl in the next Olympic Games. We have to keep a close eye on her or
she disappears! She's also been working hard on the "free stand" event
and has gotten pretty good a some crux moves, like no-hands transfers
from one piece of apparatus to another (i.e. chair to chair). We suspect
she'll be taking her first steps shortly. She nearly breaks into a run
when she pushes her activity walker around the living room.
On Christmas day we had a bit of a scare. Elisha was in her high chair
eating some cheese, her favorite food - and choked on a piece. Liz and I
were able to quickly get her out of the chair, orient her face down and
give her firm slaps between the shoulder blades, ejecting the wedged
Gouda. Elisha cried, but recovered her composure more quickly than her
parents or grandmother. It was her first taste of Gouda, and the last
she'll see of that for a while. We'll stick to cheddar, which she's had
no trouble managing.
This past week Elisha has discovered a new trick nearly every day. Last
Wednesday she found out what fun it is to put on the rabbit ears she
wanted nothing to do with last Halloween when Liz dressed her up as a
bunny. She screeches at her reflection in the mirror while she
alternately dons and doffs her cottontail chapeau. For a while now she's
delighted in opening her mommy's dresser drawers and doing a sort-merge
on her socks, etc. I've started referring to her as our "disbursement
officer" :-) Well, last Thursday she discovered a gold colored headband
in the drawer and immediately put it on! She parades around with her
crown, pausing the coronation procession to admire herself in the mirror
we've placed on the floor for her. She IS a little princess! Last
Saturday she looked at us and shrugged her shoulders. Liz and I were
ROTFL [5]. We have no clue where she picked up this new gesture.
Yesterday she started smiling with her eyes (grinning hard enough to
force some crow's feet). She also exhibited a strange fear yesterday
while we were replaying a show we had taped - FFWD phobia. Every time I
tried to fast forward past commercials, she became quite unnerved - so
we just let the ads play. Have any of you parents seen this in your
children? We'd be curious to know.
Our plans for January are to try and recover from December :-)
January, month of empty pockets! . . . Let us endure this evil
month, anxious as a theatrical producer's forehead.
--Colette
We wish you an auspicious 1999 graced with good health. Until next
month...
we love and miss you all,
Sandy, Liz and Elisha
[1] Okay, I eased out the cork :-)
[2] via satellite on an East Coast station
[3] Alright, I can hear you Minnesotans laughing derisively at our
"puny" winter.
[4] http://www.fisher-price.com/us/babyu/product.asp?s=bubrilliant&id=221
[5] talkmode for "rolling on the floor laughing"
see http://www.science.uva.nl/~mes/jargon/t/talkmode.html
_________________________________________________________________
Data harvested from http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/climate/index.php?wfo=pqr
CLIMATIC SUMMARY FOR PORTLAND OREGON
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PORTLAND OREGON
240 AM PST FRI JAN 01 1999
...TEMPERATURE...
HIGH YESTERDAY... 52
LOW YESTERDAY... 40
MEAN TEMP........ 46 DEPARTURE FROM NORMAL... 7
NORMAL HIGH FOR TODAY... 44
NORMAL LOW FOR TODAY... 34
RECORD HIGH FOR TODAY... 60 SET IN 1981
RECORD LOW FOR TODAY... 14 SET IN 1979
...DEGREE DAY DATA...
HEATING
YESTERDAY... 19 DEPARTURE... -7
MONTH....... T
DEC CLIMATOLOGICAL REPORT FOR PORTLAND OREGON...CORRECTION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PORTLAND OREGON
857 AM PST FRI JAN 01 1999
TEMPERATURE DATA......
(DEGREES F)
AVERAGE MONTHLY TEMPERATURE.... 40.5 OR 0.3 DEGREES ABOVE NORMAL
AVERAGE MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE.... 45.5
AVERAGE MINIMUM TEMPERATURE.... 35.5
HIGHEST TEMPERATURE WAS 57 ON DAY 12
LOWEST TEMPERATURE WAS 11 ON DAY 23
HEATING DEGREE DAYS (BASE 65) COOLING DEGREE DAYS
MONTHLY TOTAL ........... 753 MONTHLY TOTAL .......... 0
DEPARTURE FROM NORMAL.... -16 DEPARTURE FROM NORMAL... 0
SEASONAL TOTAL (JUL-JUN). 1599 SEASONAL TOTAL (JAN-DEC) 547
DEPARTURE FROM NORMAL.... -228 DEPARTURE FROM NORMAL... 176
PRECIPITATION DATA....
..RAIN..
TOTAL FOR THE MONTH......... 6.74 OR 0.61 INCHES ABOVE NORMAL
TOTAL SINCE JANUARY 1ST..... 46.07 OR 9.77 INCHES ABOVE NORMAL
GREATEST 24 HOUR RAINFALL WAS 2.02 INCHES ON DAY(S) 27-28
..SNOW..
TOTAL FOR THE MONTH......... MM
TOTAL FOR THE SEASON........ MM
GREATEST 24 HOUR SNOWFALL WAS INCHES ON DAY(S) MISG
..NUMBER OF DAYS..
WITH .01 INCHES OR MORE 21 HIGHS 32 DEGREES OR COLDER 4
WITH .10 INCHES OR MORE 15 HIGHS 90 DEGREES OR WARMER 0
WITH .50 INCHES OR MORE 5 LOWS 32 DEGREES OR COLDER 8
WITH 1.00 INCHES OR MORE 1 LOWS 0 DEGREES OR COLDER 0
SKY CONDITION......... SEA LEVEL PRESSURE............
NUMBER OF DAYS CLEAR .. MM HIGHEST 30.76 INCHES ON DAY 21
NUMBER OF DAYS PTCLDY .. MM LOWEST 29.55 INCHES ON DAY 02
NUMBER OF DAYS CLOUDY .. MM
WIND DATA.............
THE AVERAGE MONTHLY WIND SPEED WAS 9.8 MPH
THE FASTEST TWO-MINUTE WIND WAS... 36 MPH FROM 90 DEGREES
THE HIGHEST PEAK WIND GUST WAS.... 44 FROM 100 DEGREES
REMARKS...
12TH. NEW RECORD MAX MINIMUM TEMPERATURE. OLD RECORD 46 IN 1988
28TH. NEW RECORD MAX MINIMUM TEMPERATURE. OLD RECORD 46 IN 1950.
RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PORTLAND OR
1030 AM PDT WED DEC 23 1998
THE OLD DAILY RECORD MINIMUM FOR THE PORTLAND AIRPORT WAS BROKEN THIS
MORNING WHEN THE THERMOMETER DIPPED TO 11. THE OLD RECORD WAS 13 DEGREES
SET IN 1990.
--
Sandy, Liz & Elisha Tigard, Oregon School of Herring
webfeet@herring.org bigfish@sns-access.com http://www.herring.org/
And that's the news from Portland
where everything is green, rolling stones gather moss,
and the rainfall is always above average.
Most Recent Update: Friday, 12-Sep-2008 14:39:40 PDT
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