Here Comes the Sun!

While we're grateful for all the much-needed rain we received last week . . .

. . . we're glad the sun came back out so we could head to the playground for some fresh air.

Joy even met some new buddies who took great interest in her.

Ever the trend-setter, Joy inspired her new little friend to put her hat on, too.

Club GAL (Grandmas And Literacy)

Joy is lucky to have both sets of grandparents so close by. What's more, both grandmas share two of Joy's main interests:

Cuddles and books. Here Phillip's mom teaches the hazards of hobnobbing with crustaceans: "Beware the crab! I think he knows/Just how to pinch your little toes!"

Here's my mom facilitating tactile development: "That's not my puppy. His tail is too fluffy."

Important life lessons, both.

Sand Castle competition

Each year Ken Johnston, the administrative assistant to the director of the lab I work in, sends us all pictures from a sand castle competition. I don't know where this annual competition takes place (I know that it's at some beach somewhere, but whether it's a natural or artificial beach, I don't know). See below for some pictures from this year's competition.

It's pretty amazing what people can do with sand!

Ten Perfect Piggies

Family Home Demolition

We want to start involving Joy more in our Family Home Evenings each Monday, so tonight we tried to come up with a baby-friendly activity and lesson. Our solution?

Mama and Daddy took turns building towers out of blocks . . .

. . . so Joy could knock them down.

"Daddy, this tower doesn't stand a chance."

Looks like our polka-dotted wrecking crew is a little worn out.

Daddy closed home evening by reading "My Little Book About Jesus" for our "lesson."

I don't just share my Cheerios!

While it may be true that I haven't learned to share my toys yet, I do know how to share my books, in addition to my Cheerios. See, in the picture, I'm holding "A Color of his Own" out to Daddy. Of course, I'm not just giving him the book...I want him to read it to me...but that can still be called sharing, can't it?

Blessing Rachel Anderson

Matt Mercker and Mike Anderson are both good friends of mine from USC. We started as Freshmen together in the fall of 2000, went on our missions at about the same time, and finished our undergraduate degrees together (well, almost: Mike did a 4+1 program, so he finished a year after us two). As we each got married and started families, and after graduation, we all ended up in different places (well, sort of: I'm still in LA doing graduate work, and both of them, independently of one another, ended up with jobs Las Vegas).

I love to see both of my good friends whenever I get a chance, and that opportunity came up last weekend. The Andersons recently had their first child, Rachel, and blessed her in church on Sunday, so Kimberly and I left Joy with Grandma Hendrickson for the day and drove out to Las Vegas for the blessing. The blessing itself was sweet, and it was wonderful to see Mike and Shelly, and Matt and Julie.

Mike is in the middle and Matt is on the right. If Mike has anything to do with it, Rachel will grow up to be a Trojan through and through - he's already teaching her to make the fight sign!

Here we all are together (starting from bottom left, and going around the semi-circle): baby Rachel, Shelly, Mike, Kimberly, me, Matt, Julie and their baby Grant

Sharing

Now that holiday travels are behind us, the play group got together again for the first time in weeks.

It was wall-to-wall babies, and they all seemed to enjoy themselves. I'm so glad Joy has this frequent opportunity to interact with other kids, and experience the give and take of playing with others. She's still learning the concept of sharing toys . . .

. . . but she has at least learned to share her Cheerios. Maybe she gets a kick out of turning the tables--feeding the person who usually feeds her.

Photo Shoot and Cover-Up

Success at last . . .

When Joy and I were out for a walk today, I finally came across some of the local parrots who were close enough for a decent picture. Say "Cheese and crackers!"

In other news, since Joy is now a year old and blankets are no longer taboo, I've decided to start getting her used to sleeping with one. Sure looks comfy, doesn't she?

2007: The Year in Review

This year, I came the closest I've ever gotten to sending Christmas cards: I actually bought a box of them and started compiling an address list. And that's as far as it got. Sigh. Perhaps next year I'll actually manage to send some off. In the meantime, those of you who know and love us in spite of our non-card-sending faults will have to get our family news the old-fashioned way: by reading our blog.


Phillip is in the second year of a biomedical engineering* doctorate program at USC and has spent the last year analyzing data to develop a model of the motor circuits in the spinal cord. He hopes to be done with his PhD in about three more years. He is currently serving as the financial clerk in our ward and he enjoys working closely with our bishop. He really admires Bishop Muhlestein's genuine love for the ward members, and hopes some of the bishop's charitable nature will rub off on him as the months go by.

Phillip loves being a new daddy, and you should see how excited Baby gets when he walks in the door at night. He also discovered at a recent progressive dinner that, after years of insisting he is a dog person, he actually likes cats, too. Life truly is full of surprises.

*Biomedical engineering involves the technical side of medicine: designing medical equipment, new drugs, prosthetic devices, etc.

This photo is pretty indicative of Kimberly's year. After nearly three decades of coming and going pretty much as she pleased, it was a big change to suddenly have every day's plans at the mercy of another person's nap schedule and general whims. It was a tough adjustment at first, but she wouldn't trade the privilege of being a stay-home mom experiencing all of Joy's giggles, discoveries, and milestones. Baby smiles beat a morning commute any day.

When she's not hosting board book readings or whipping up gourmet meals of pureed bananas and squash, Kimberly likes to cook grown-up food, post on two blogs (and comment on many others), and work a few hours a week for Tactara** through our home computer. She also loves her current assignment to work with the 12- and 13-year-old young women at church. They're sweet girls who keep Kimberly young.

**Tactara is the telecom company Kimberly worked for full-time before Joy arrived.

In the last twelve months, Joy has grown from a rather inert newborn to a full-blown, stair-climbing, chaos-causing, heart-warming toddler. She has taken at least one step but still prefers to crawl, and she enjoys going for walks outside in Mama's backpack carrier (thank goodness we live in So Cal, where you can go for a pleasant stroll in the middle of winter). Joy likes book-related activities (listening, perusing, pulling them off shelves), and she is a definite over-achiever in the tooth department. We just discovered she has four molars, making twelve teeth total.

Happy New Year to you and yours from the Hendricksons. We feel so blessed, and we're looking forward to another great year.