Benjamin Michael Singer -- 2.5 Years!

Happy Fall!

It's amazing how hectic the last three months have been, since our last webpage update. We are delighted to be writing this from our beautiful rental home in Santa Clara, CA. Since right now it's 70 degrees out and sunny, and if we were in Ann Arbor we'd be shoveling snow right now, we think this is a win.

Joel has found a job as a claims analyst at LifeMasters, a medical management company in the health insurance field. Melissa's father Jack was a great help in the move as Joel had to head to Santa Clara almost two weeks earlier than Melissa and Benjamin. Amidst our hectic move, we managed to enjoy Scott and Ky-Van's lovely wedding in Burlingame. Soon after our move to California, we enjoyed a number of birthdays and play-dates with our Bay Area friends, culminating with our housewarming / Joel's (almost) 35th birthday party on September 16th. We have been kept quite busy in organizing furniture, papers, kitchen items, books, and all else that goes along with a move.

We are already frequent visitors to Happy Hollow Park and Zoo, and have seen several other Bay Area attractions (focusing on those appealing to two-year-olds, of course). In addition to the zoo's jaguar and parrots, Benjamin absolutely loves riding carousels over and over and over and over...again! We were delighted to welcome Joel's parents as our first out-of-town vistors. With them we explored the Oakland Zoo, where Benjamin was fascinated by the giraffes, elephants, monkeys, and other animals. This past weekend we enjoyed a trip to San Diego and attended Jimmy and Kiri's wedding. We also stayed with two other Wellesley families and their children, and saw may other members of the Beebe Bunch.

Benjamin has coped with the move fairly well. It took him a week or more to adjust to the three-hour time change. He liked sleeping in the closet instead of the playpen, in the time before the crib arrived on the moving truck; we purchased him a "big-boy bed" from Ikea, but now he prefers his crib again. He likes the big staircase in the new house and his new parks and playmates. He's definitely learned many more words and more reasoning skills. And we have learned that unpacking boxes with a two-year-old is a challenge...