Benjamin Michael Singer -- 10 Months!

It's almost the end of January, and it is COLD COLD COLD in Michigan.  We've gotten a fair amount of exercise shoveling snow as well.  Our house has not fared quite so happily; we awoke one early morning a couple of weeks ago to water in the basement, water on the walls, mold in some corners, and in general not a very happy Joel and Melissa.  It seems that we need a new roof, as well as repairs and cleanup of the damage.  We've found a good local contractor for the roofing job, which should start next week if the weather cooperates; our insurance will cover some pieces of the damage, but much is just due to "wear and tear" on the house and is not covered.  Makes you wonder why you have home insurance in the first place (grumble...).

November and December were tough months for Benjamin, in that every time we turned around he seemed to have a new ailment:  a cold, another ear infection, a reaction to the antibiotics to treat the ear infection (no more sulfa drugs for Benjamin!), and finally a nasty case of the stomach flu that he very kindly also gave to Joel.  He was finally getting over that when we whisked him away on an airplane to visit lots of relatives and friends in Austin, TX for Christmas break.  Everyone was quite happy to see him, and despite some unpleasant incidents on the flight down we will actually fly with him again someday soon.

After Austin we flew to San Jose for a week in the Bay Area.  Benjamin and Melissa visited wineries with Lucia and Jack while Joel played bridge in Reno. We reconnected for New Year's Eve in Sunnyvale. We enjoyed seeing many friends there, including three other babies born in 2004 that we'd never met before:  Kari and Jeremy's son Griffin (11 months), Beth and Jon's son Peter (8 days old!) and Other-Beth and Rob's son Alexander (12 days old!).  There must be something in the water...!  It rained steadily for most of the Bay Area trip, but our Santa Cruz visit was fun anyway, and Benjamin loved touching the ocean for the first time.

January has been more fun for Benjamin, in that he's regained a very healthy appetite and really seems to be enjoying playing and reading and examining the world.  He even made it through a cold (caught at day care) without getting an ear infection!! He likes playing "catch" with Joel, rolling a ball back and forth on the floor, and he loves tearing up a plastic puzzle-mat that Aunt Rachel sent (thanks!).  He's about 24 pounds and 31 inches at ten months of age, large but not as big as he used to be on the percentile charts.  He has object permanence and 2 bottom front teeth, and he's working on crawling, walking, and talking -- we eagerly anticipate each of those activities!