The Family Edelhay: Jordan, Alex, and Angus

Angus is babbling all the time. Every once in a while we can even understand a word. Angus is going all over the house pointing at things and saying "this!" "this!" "this!" Mostly he's interested in all of the lights, paintings and photos in the house.

Other 'words' we think we've recognized:
* that
* water
* mama
* da

My Aunt Annie has passed away. She just celebrated her 106th birthday. I have wonderful memories of her warmth and her spunk.

The following is the eulogy delivered at Aunt Anne's funeral:

The Eulogy For My Grandmother
By Richard McGinis

I have spoken to several friends about my grandmother' s
passing. We speak of the history she saw made in her life –
electricity, automobiles, radio. The telephone, TV, two World Wars,
antibiotics.
I joke about her legendary thrift, and my own presumption of
immortality given her genetic makeup.
But her legacy is not about longevity or history. As I have had the
chance to speak to a small portion of the people whose lives she
touched, I have become aware that her legacy is something much more
important. Whether the story is about how she made sure that poor
children in her neighborhood had something to eat during hard times
from the small store she ran with my grandfather, or the sisters she
paid to put through nursing school, or the Sundays she spent
comforting a terminally ill neighbor, bringing food and washing
linens, or knowing how to help my cousin come to terms with the death
of her father, knowing just what to say, and how. Or, finally, the
example she was to the women of our family, by being ahead of her
time as a working woman with a strong belief in education, and the
freedom that it brings. Her legacy, it seems clear to me, is one of a
life led in genuine love and service to others, and her earnest
desire to give others a hand up to a better life, and a better way of
living.
Indeed, this legacy is a very powerful one, a forceful example of the
best kind of life that we can all live when we take a real interest
in each other's well being. As we go on with her in our hearts, we
take with us a vision of a powerful transforming force in our lives,
and the lives of those whom we touch in turn. This vision makes us
all better people, and shows us the way to the fullest sort of life –
a life full of love, love carried into fullest action by a commitment
to powerful values, an abiding faith in a higher power, in each
other, and in each other's basic goodness.
As we go back to our day-to-day lives, let us honor her memory and
bear witness to the strength of her example, remembering that it was
not simply how long she lived that mattered most-it was how well.

Angus started walking this weekend! He is still a little shaky but he is spending more and more time on his feet. We shot some video on Monday to document this momentous milestone.

Angus has started noticing airplanes. When he hears a plane, his whole body tenses up and he looks up at the sky. Once he spots the plane, he watches it fly all the way across his field of vision.

Angus is also loving the playground. He has discovered the slide. He loves banging on it to hear it's hollow metal sound. He loves the anticipation of reaching the top of the slide. And he loooooves going down the slide. He isn't quite ready to do it himself yet, but it's still exciting when viewed from mom or dad's arms.

Angus may have also learned the art of the temper tantrum. After he first discovered the slide, we had to leave. Angus started kicking his legs and flailing his arms while yelling and trying to get to the ground. It's happened a few times since then too. For now, Alex and I are just trying to play it cool, and not let him get a rise out of us.

Angus at 11 months...

Eating:
- Angus's favorite food this month is cheesy vegetables with meat.
- Angus is drinking lots more water and less formula.
- Jordan accidentally bought 6 lbs of pluots from Amazon Fresh. So Angus's pluot intake is at an all-time high.
- Angus is eating a lot. He has really upped his intake of food. He's both chubbing out and lengthening. He's also sleeping a lot. Hello growth spurt!

Sleeping:
- Angus started getting up at 4:30 am, so we moved his bedtime from 7pm to 8. Now he's waking up around 6am.
- Angus has become a napper! He's regularly taking two 2 hour naps a day, with a snack nap around 5:30. This is quite a change from his newborn days when we could barely keep him asleep for 45 minutes.
- Angus knows when he wants to go to sleep. He seeks out his dad, his bottle, and his snuggly blue blanket when he gets tired.

Listening to:
- "For the Kids" -- Cake covers Mahna Mahna, and Guster sings a song about being clean.

Reading:
- Angus still loves "Spring is Here". He is also liking the vegetable book.
- Angus and his nanny Chelsie are going to storytime at the library most Thursday mornings.

Playing with:
- Angus is loving his new walker wagon. He's even able to steer the wagon a little bit. It's giving him newfound mobility.
- Angus is loving his pacifier. He's getting more attached.
- Water... Angus went to the wading pool and to Lake Washington for the first time. He experienced waves, and sand, and sun, and splashing, and pool toys. He held onto our hands and toddled around the wading pool. He learned how to splash. After all that, he finally has become a boy who loves the bath. He'll spend 20 minutes in the bath now, splashing around.
- Angus loves his new toothbrush. This month, Angus has started to like imitating Alex and I. We got him his own toothbrush and he loves sticking it in his mouth. When Alex or I do it at the same time, it cracks up Angus.
- Angus loves his singing gumball machine -- he knows how to put the balls in and out.
- And he loves anything that bounces. It's fun to throw hard balls at the floor and to see them bounce back. Grandpa raised this to an art form by bringing out the golf balls, then having them ricochet around his tile bathroom.
- Angus loves opening and shutting anything, especially doors. He's discovered where the corner tupperware cabinet is and he knows how to pull out the lids. Also... he likes banging the cabinet doors. The louder the better.
- Angus is getting really attached to his blue blanket. When he's tired, he seeks it out and starts rubbing his face on it.

Skills:
- Angus is still babbling. He's making so many different sounds
- Proclaiming ... Angus sticks his hand out, attracting attention, gives a little speech ( da da da da adja!), then does something impressive like taking a step.
- Standing, standing, standing.
- Clapping
- Angus took his first steps on his own and has gotten really good at walking while holding one of our fingers.
- His jokes and activities are getting more complicated. Angus likes playing hide and seek. He hides behind the rocking chair while we call out... "Where's angus... angus... angus... " Then he appears from behind the chair with a big, happy proud smile.
- Angus has learned how to kneel down and look under doors, which is pretty darn cute.

Events:
- Angus grew 2 new teeth. Now he has 4 on top and 4 on the bottom.
- Eczema is still bad. We use hydrocortisone on his face for a couple of weeks. Applying Vaseline while he's in the bathtub every day is really helping keep it under control.

Angus has been inventing his own games all day. In one game, he figured out how to knock a little block along the floor with his hand while crawling like a little baby soccer player. In another, he took the clackity ball and rolled it up and down the track for the window. He also invented the 'climb into and out of the diaper box' game.

Alex and I are learning how to invent games too. We turned the 'climb into the box' game into the 'climb into the box, pretend the box is a speedy car and race around the house' game.

Every time Angus figures out a cool new game, he gets so excited and proud of himself. He wiggles and pumps his legs, then he looks at Alex and I and starts clapping. Then we're all clapping, and so happy, and so proud.

Angus is stringing together steps. This morning he waited until he had a large audience. Then he thrust his hand into the air (as if he was going to give a speech). Then he took 3 steps in a row and stayed standing!

This evening he put his new stepping skills on fine display when his grandpa stopped by on the way home from the airport. He was stepping, and clapping, and laughing, and hugging, and stepping some more.