Thursday, December 31, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
It's all good!
Actually - much more than good! It's heaven. There are way too many good photos to put them all up, and we haven't even given Lily her first bath.
Lily's footprints hanging off the boxes on the hospital form- she is a big girl:
At her first doctor's appointment - She's over 10 lbs!
The new family at home:
First time out for a walk - Ellie was totally on her feet on day three.
Lily's footprints hanging off the boxes on the hospital form- she is a big girl:
At her first doctor's appointment - She's over 10 lbs!
The new family at home:
First time out for a walk - Ellie was totally on her feet on day three.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Sparky's newest person
In the words of new dad, Jacob Fenton:
"We're elated to report that Ellie Harvill gave birth to Liliana Ruth Fenton this morning, Oct. 1, at 10:44 a.m. Lily and Ellie are both exhausted, but otherwise doing well.
Lily was about 21 inches long when she arrived, weighing 9 pounds 15 ounces. She appears to have outgrown newborn-sized diapers before being born."
I'm packing to head out to Philadelphia for most of the month. I can't tell you how happy I am, or how proud I am of these three remarkable people, the family Fenvill!
I swear they had the same blankets when my kids were boen...
"We're elated to report that Ellie Harvill gave birth to Liliana Ruth Fenton this morning, Oct. 1, at 10:44 a.m. Lily and Ellie are both exhausted, but otherwise doing well.
Lily was about 21 inches long when she arrived, weighing 9 pounds 15 ounces. She appears to have outgrown newborn-sized diapers before being born."
I'm packing to head out to Philadelphia for most of the month. I can't tell you how happy I am, or how proud I am of these three remarkable people, the family Fenvill!
I swear they had the same blankets when my kids were boen...
Friday, September 25, 2009
Baby is almost here!
I'm getting ready to go to Philadelphia for the arrival. Young and Jacob are getting ready to be self sufficient. Ellie is getting ready to pop....
Friday, September 11, 2009
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Time and Relativity
Today is the fourth anniversary of our friend Ben's death at the age of seven. Definitely makes me feel the strange relativity of time, the loss still feels so immediate, and yet the journey from that time to this has taken so long. His family is in my heart today especially.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Long Pause there
Sorry about that.
It was partly facebook - its so much easier to blurt something there, than actually composing things like sentences. And so much happened, it was daunting to catch up.
And then there was the fear of blowing the gaff on Eleanor... She's pregnant and didn't want the news all over the internet too soon!
Yes. We are going to be grand parents! Baby girl is due October 8. She and Jacob visited last month:
And Alex and Jessica bought a house in San Francisco! Also a huge, life changing event!
It's gorgeous!
It was partly facebook - its so much easier to blurt something there, than actually composing things like sentences. And so much happened, it was daunting to catch up.
And then there was the fear of blowing the gaff on Eleanor... She's pregnant and didn't want the news all over the internet too soon!
Yes. We are going to be grand parents! Baby girl is due October 8. She and Jacob visited last month:
And Alex and Jessica bought a house in San Francisco! Also a huge, life changing event!
It's gorgeous!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
Awards Night - Half Moon Bay High School
Jacob went back to school, nearly full time yesterday, and last night he received two awards, for English and for History at the Half Moon Bay, High School Awards Night. He doesn't really have multiple heads.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Time travel
I had a fabulous trip to Los Angeles, the city of my youth, last weekend, starting with dinner with two of my oldest friends, Eric Stone and Susannah Gordon. I never did manage to get a picture of Eric, so here is one from his website:
I stayed with Suzy and the next day we went to the 40th reunion of our high school class - Oakwood 1969. Here we are getting ready for the party with two other girl friends, putting on our make up and talking about, you know, woman stuff:
I had lunch with Peter Bernstein, who was terrific. This is a photo by Michael Fox, not taken that day, but better than anything I have:
.jpg)
The reunion itself was a blast - I realized that I really like all these people, not just because we have all this history; they are smart and funny and full of good stories. See some pix (facebook folks - you've seen these already.)
But here's the weird time-warpy part. The reunion was at the home of Kim Selbert: a classmate, not just from high school, but also elementary school, and she is living in the same apartment complex my family lived in before I was five. I would be talking to someone, marveling at memories from high school, when suddenly the sight of the rounded edges of the concrete steps would transport me further back to riding my tricycle in that courtyard (or the identical one two buildings down).
Sunday, in another burst of synchronicity, I visited my cousins, only to discover it was Diane's birthday, and the day after her son, Austin's.
Both Diane and Linda, her mom, took pictures, which I hope to swap out for these. Note little Paige who is walking and talking and who absolutely adores her big brother - for him she smiles! I missed seeing the rest of the clan, but what a gift it was to see Alan, Linda, Diane, Austin and Paige.
And, joy - I got to see Chuck. Here he is in his natural habitat, surrounded by devices:
I stayed with Suzy and the next day we went to the 40th reunion of our high school class - Oakwood 1969. Here we are getting ready for the party with two other girl friends, putting on our make up and talking about, you know, woman stuff:
I had lunch with Peter Bernstein, who was terrific. This is a photo by Michael Fox, not taken that day, but better than anything I have:
.jpg)
The reunion itself was a blast - I realized that I really like all these people, not just because we have all this history; they are smart and funny and full of good stories. See some pix (facebook folks - you've seen these already.)
But here's the weird time-warpy part. The reunion was at the home of Kim Selbert: a classmate, not just from high school, but also elementary school, and she is living in the same apartment complex my family lived in before I was five. I would be talking to someone, marveling at memories from high school, when suddenly the sight of the rounded edges of the concrete steps would transport me further back to riding my tricycle in that courtyard (or the identical one two buildings down).
Sunday, in another burst of synchronicity, I visited my cousins, only to discover it was Diane's birthday, and the day after her son, Austin's.
Both Diane and Linda, her mom, took pictures, which I hope to swap out for these. Note little Paige who is walking and talking and who absolutely adores her big brother - for him she smiles! I missed seeing the rest of the clan, but what a gift it was to see Alan, Linda, Diane, Austin and Paige.
And, joy - I got to see Chuck. Here he is in his natural habitat, surrounded by devices:
Saturday, April 25, 2009
What Happened (!!??!?)
Jacob's (and the rest of us) just got back from five days in the hospital at LPCH, for what is looking at this point to be more late effects of radiation.
He's home, on some new medication that has him totally zonked, so it's hard to say exactly how he is doing, but home is definitely a good thing!
The hospitalization was to rule out some other problem: first and most horribly, a return of his tumor, and then other increasingly unlikely explanations for his sudden decline. An MRI on tuesday ruled out a solid tumor. Unfortunately, his tremor had gotten so strong that they had to use massive general anesthesia to quiet it, and there was still motion blur on the spine series, but it was still pretty definitive.
An EKG ruled out some heart possibility that no one explained to me, and an EEG on wednesday was also normal.
Finally, yesterday, he had a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) and vials of his spinal fluid were sent winging off to labs in all directions. The ones they did at Packard were all normal. Very low tumor markers - which rules out distributed microscopic tumor.
So we are left with radiation effects. We"ll just going to have to wait and see how things go. Hopefully, once he gets used to the medication, he'll perk up.
He's home, on some new medication that has him totally zonked, so it's hard to say exactly how he is doing, but home is definitely a good thing!
The hospitalization was to rule out some other problem: first and most horribly, a return of his tumor, and then other increasingly unlikely explanations for his sudden decline. An MRI on tuesday ruled out a solid tumor. Unfortunately, his tremor had gotten so strong that they had to use massive general anesthesia to quiet it, and there was still motion blur on the spine series, but it was still pretty definitive.
An EKG ruled out some heart possibility that no one explained to me, and an EEG on wednesday was also normal.
Finally, yesterday, he had a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) and vials of his spinal fluid were sent winging off to labs in all directions. The ones they did at Packard were all normal. Very low tumor markers - which rules out distributed microscopic tumor.
So we are left with radiation effects. We"ll just going to have to wait and see how things go. Hopefully, once he gets used to the medication, he'll perk up.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Anniversary of sorts
Yesterday was the fifth anniversary of Jacob's brain tumor diagnosis. He has survived for five years, when so many other kids didn't make it. He's grown from an eleven year old fifth grader to a sixteen year old sophomore with a bit of a soul patch. He is remarkable.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Happy birthday ...
Actually, it was last week, and Passover and Easter have intervened, but here's a picture of him Bowling on the actual day:
And here are the extended Harvii celebrating the night before:
Especially the brothers H:
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Announcing Gabriel Liam!
According to his Grandma Mishy (who was there!) "Little Gabriel Liam entered the world St. Patrick's Day, fairly even-tempered, very handsome, and ready to nurse. He is a big baby and healthy with all his parts."
Congratulations to Melanie, Sam, and big sisters Bailey and Blaire!
Congratulations to Melanie, Sam, and big sisters Bailey and Blaire!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
More Building
Building has commenced on all fronts. Young and Matthew suited up and went below decks to clean out old rotting insulation so the workmen could get down there:
Here's Barry in the hole. Evidently its a fairly rare event.
And finally - getting ready for the new beam...
Here's Barry in the hole. Evidently its a fairly rare event.
And finally - getting ready for the new beam...
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Building
Building has commenced on all levels.
Dorothy and Katy spent the weekend with us, and Blue and Young introduced them to the Art and Science of blowing up block buildings with mouse traps.
You construct the building so it depends on a single block near the base, and carefully insinuate an activated mousetrap beneath. The you build a sort of mechanical fuse of dominos, such that the final one to fall sets off the mouse trap.
They got one building to fly straight up in the air before separating into individual blocks and crashing down.
Dorothy and Katy spent the weekend with us, and Blue and Young introduced them to the Art and Science of blowing up block buildings with mouse traps.
You construct the building so it depends on a single block near the base, and carefully insinuate an activated mousetrap beneath. The you build a sort of mechanical fuse of dominos, such that the final one to fall sets off the mouse trap.
They got one building to fly straight up in the air before separating into individual blocks and crashing down.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Uncle Tom
This is my mother's younger brother, Tom, probably circa 1925. I thought it was a swell photo.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Progress
Finally, some real progress for the first time since we took out the wall between the kitchen and the living room last fall.
Young built this mockup of the island so we could figure out exactly how big to make it and where to place it. Notice the building permit tacked to the post!
Today I ordered the glulam beam that will span the room, obviating all but one post, and the hardware to attach it,
and this weekend we ordered a gas heating stove (like a woodstove, but non-polluting). It's going to be beautiful and warm!
Young built this mockup of the island so we could figure out exactly how big to make it and where to place it. Notice the building permit tacked to the post!
Today I ordered the glulam beam that will span the room, obviating all but one post, and the hardware to attach it,
and this weekend we ordered a gas heating stove (like a woodstove, but non-polluting). It's going to be beautiful and warm!
Monday, February 9, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
