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Summer 2008

Hello again! It's been a few months, but webpage updates take longer when you decide to tear out all the nasty stuff iWeb puts in and go back to some pieces of hand-coding. Let me know if this format works and all the pictures are linked correctly again...

On to more important matters. We've had a great summer! Melissa taught one class over the summer quarter at SCU, and has had some research work to do; Joel has been staying home and watching Eliza a bunch, and doing fun activities with Benjamin. Besides lots of baking cookies and testing out new recipes, we've traveled to many local attractions: Great America, Gilroy Gardens, the Children's Discovery Museum, and the San Francisco Zoo. We've seen dozens of friends and family around the Bay Area, and had visits from Spokane, Denver, and Austin. We even took a trip up to Ashland, OR to see a couple of shows at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, an amazing event with two children!

All good things must come to an end, however. Joel has obtained a new job at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, ending his six-month stint as a stay-at-home daddy. Melissa is preparing for fall quarter as well. Benjamin is back to full-time preschool (he was home more for the lazy crazy days of summer) and Eliza is getting ready to enter day-care. Eliza can roll over from tummy to back now, and even occasionally back to tummy. She likes eating rice cereal and mashed bananas, and applesauce and pureed carrots; she tolerates green beans. Joel will be preparing sweet potatoes and peas for her sometime this week, as she encounters new culinary dimensions. Eliza and Benjamin get along very well; the worst Benjamin does is sometimes forget how strong he is. Benjamin likes to sing to her when she's fussy to help calm her down, it's great!

A big thank-you to all our friends and family who have helped us move from a one-child family to two children. It's a big change in routine, and your help and advice have been invaluable. Now excuse me while I go get some sleep -- I'm sure another diaper change is imminent!

Benjamin in the July 4th parade	Beth and Melissa breastfeeding	Eliza asleep in red white and blue	May and Eliza
May happy with a baby	Putting together train track with the Edmonds	Benjamin and Ellie ready for breakfast	More train track building
Ellie and Eliza	Benjamin demonstrating airplane flight	Benjamin loves his sister Eliza	Neighborhood kids meeting Eliza
In the exercise cube	This is a turtle, Eliza	Sitting on daddy	Cute Benjamin
Don't drop the babies!	Julian and Eliza acting cute	Fay and Nicole meet Eliza	Trip to the DeYoung museum
Benjamin and Nicole	Eliza plays the kiddie piano	In the high chair for the first time	Lucia feeds the rice cereal
Yummy yummy!	Relaxing at Ashland	Blowing bubbles	Reading with Brian
Reading with Nadine	Results of morning blackberry picking	Exercising with Eliza	Looking at Nadine
Out for a real adult meal	Yet more time in the cube	Eliza in a cute sleeper	Bathing in the sink
On top of a turtle at the SF Zoo	Friendly siblings	Posing with sunglasses	How many books can we read tonight, Daddy?
Eliza and Michael	Clown face	Meeting at the local park	Eliza in a dress
Bob the builder	Looking down at Golden Gate Park	View of San Francisco	Don't jump in the pool!
Hiking through the dense ferns	Joel and Eliza at the park	Which way was the car again?