Congratulations Dr. Spencer Young!

This past Sunday we celebrated the end of an era. I can personally vouch for the amount of work and dedication that has gone into Spencer's doctorate. It would have been a tremendous accomplishment even if it hadn't been one of several major projects he's had on his plate lately. I'm so proud of him!

The last time I was in Madison for graduation it was for Spencer's MA degree and we were still dating. It is amazing to think of everything that has changed since that time. Spencer and I married, moved to Milwaukee (requiring Spencer to commute to Madison--which he did without complaint) and welcomed Eliot into our family. So much has happened, and yet in those three short years Spencer produced a doctoral dissertation that drew gushing praise from his defense committee. Spencer has always been a good example to me of someone who seeks knowledge and looks for it everywhere. Whether he's deciphering a 13th century Latin text or reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar to Eliot, Spencer is always interested in learning something new.

Belly Laugh

Eliot has a great time with his dad. Spencer has taken to calling him "Yankee Bean" and is getting pretty good at eliciting a laugh (a task that is more difficult than you'd think, what with Eliot being so smiley and all).

A Happy Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving is such a wonderfully relaxing holiday. Eliot supervised all of the preparations and kept busy sorting through his box of "tools" at Grandpa and Noni's.

That weekend Spencer and I took Eliot down to Indiana to attend a wedding reception for our friend Bryn Grisham (neé Goates) and her new husband Zac. Spencer and I were great friends with Bryn in Madison. Attending French conversation group with Bryn in the back room of a little coffee shop on State Street is one of my favorite Madison memories. We are so happy for her and Zac and seeing them was well worth the trip.

It was also good practice for next spring when Eliot and I plan on driving down to South Bend, IN on the weekends to visit Daddy who will be installed at Notre Dame as a visiting scholar.

Happy Halloween!

Eliot's first Halloween was a blast. Our farm pumpkin made a nice Jack o' Lantern with one lower right tooth (just like Mr. Eliot--though today we found tooth #2). Eliot and I dressed up (though not exactly on Halloween). They say there's always some truth to a joke. Perhaps the same applies for costumes, 'cause you know I'd take a bullet for this boy.

We've been enjoying the Wisconsin fall. There have been some really beautiful days. The leaves are pretty much all on the ground now, but last week the whole city was a blaze of color. We've taken some nice walks and Eliot has loved watching the maple leaves outside his window at Grandpa and Noni's.

Breakthrough!

Eliot's first tooth has seen the light of day! It was discovered this morning as a small white line along his gum line. It's just visible in the photo above (one of about 20 attempts to capture it on film). If you run your finger along his gums you can feel its sharp, serrated surface. So all this grumpy, clingy, feverish, drooling, gnawing, chomping business has been for a legitimate reason after all. Congratulations to our little guy!

Bath time!

The girls at work threw me a baby shower--in some shadowy, previous life--and the question was posed, "What is Nora looking forward to most about caring for her baby?" Any or all of the offered suggestions could have made the cut, but the one I picked was bathing.

I have loved giving Eliot his baths ever since that first sponge bath back when his belly button consisted of a plastic clamp.

Graduating first to the kitchen sink, then to the bathtub, Eliot has grown to love them too. Now when I turn on the water to draw his bath his legs start pumping in anticipation and he reaches down toward the water.

Bubbles are a fascination, plastic cups and whiffle balls a delight, and that gurgling sound as the water drains, an unfathomable mystery...

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

This past weekend Eliot and I drove out to the farm to find the perfect pumpkin for Eliot's first Halloween. Barthel's Fruit Farm features prominantly in my own childhood. When I was young (well, younger than I am now) my family and I would head out to Barthel's in the summer to pick fresh strawberries and snap peas. In the fall we picked apples and pumpkins. Trips to the farm were always followed with a flurry of culinary activities. Strawberry freezer jam, strawberry pie, applesauce and apple crisp were just some of the things we looked forward to.

When Eliot and I arrived at the pumpkin patch things looked a little less promising than we'd hoped. After trudging around in the mud, and picking my way around peices of smashed pumpkin, I had decided that we were going to have to return to the main barn to select a nice, clean specimen.

But just at the edge of the patch, we spotted it. Sitting upright with a nice, shiny round face and a gently curving stem (perfect for taking hold of), our pumpkin was waiting patiently for us. Eliot seemed pleased and we headed back to the barn where I sipped some warm spiced cider and Eliot supervised the apple sorting machine with rapt attention. We got some good pie apples (which we transformed into apple crisp later that evening) and counted the outing a great success.