A NEW YEAR...
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By the time the chaos of Christmas was passed,
Sophia looked like many of the adults felt. Dawn had battled a
virus through the holidays and remembered little of Christmas Day. Both
Sophia and Brandon coped with low-grade fevers, coughs and runny
noses. Fortun- ately by the first of January, the ailing were
recuperating, just in time for the next big celebrations. |
| First there was New Year's Day. We
shared the traditional meal, supple-mented with dishes the
attendees would actually eat: green beans instead of black-eyed peas
and lime jello salad instead of greens. While everyone was together,
we took a family picture ... plus a few more. |
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BRANDON'S 4! IT'S A SCOOBY DOO BIRTHDAY...
Last year Spiderman was it for party decorations. This year, Brandon
requested a birthday party with Scooby Doo accessories. He wasn't disappointed.
A table cloth, plates, napkins, cups, hats. A helium balloon.
Gift wrap. And, of course, the cake.
Brandon and Sophia spent another long weekend at Pap's and Nana's. Bob
dubbed Sophia "Shark" because she had an insatiable
appetite. She's also developed her own signing technique,
combining the
signs Brandon's demonstrating properly below: "eat" (tapping the mouth
with the fingers of one hand) and "more"
(tapping the fingertips of both hands together).
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| Brandon signing "eat" |
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| Brandon signing "more" |
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| Using the fingers of one
hand, Sophia taps the palm of the other: "eat more." As soon as an
adult with access to food notices her signing, Sophia heads for the
kitchen. |
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WINTER VISITORS
Maintaining a friendship requires work. When the people
involved live hundreds of miles apart, the effort demands dedication.
That's the kind of relationship Dawn and her friend from childhood, Inga,
have. Their friendship began when they were less than two years
old. Where one girl was, the other was generally beside her.
When they were eight, we relocated to Ohio; later, Inga's family went
to South Carolina. But they've remained as close as sisters,
and their friendship has endured.
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Dawn and Inga
Two years old |
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Dawn and Inga
January 2004 |
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| Mid-month, Inga flew to Ohio with her children, Hayden and
Lydia, for a weekend visit. It's interesting to me that Dawn
and Inga are two weeks apart in age. Brandon and Hayden were born six weeks
apart; Sophia and Lydia, eight weeks. Getting the six of them
together was not difficult, but getting everyone to sit and look at the
camera was. |
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Copyright ©2004 Kitty Park
