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write to us | hotdove home page |
Best wishes for the new year! As new parents, we’ve found it hard to keep in touch as much as we would have liked this year. We hope this newsletter will help us stay connected with everyone dear to us. |
| All About Alexander | In the past
couple of months, Alexander has started to walk by balancing himself on
furniture and walls. One of his recent tricks is to hitch rides on
the legs of passers-by. He has never crawled, preferring instead
to scoot, or “bum around”.
Zander is a smiler and a flirt. On the rare occasion when a bystander fails to acknowledge him, he shamelessly tugs them on the arm, squeals and bats his lashes until he is rewarded with a smile. He has overcome the health problems that plagued him during his early months. We have become specialists on infant eczema, learning to keep his skin woes at a minimum by avoiding dairy, clothing him in natural fibers, and using bath oil and cortisone creams. An opthamologist prescribed glasses for Alexander's far-sightedness (he considers the glasses useful only for the “glasses-on, glasses-off” game). She referred him to Sick Kids’ Hospital, where he was diagnosed with Coats’ Disease, a rare condition involving leaking blood vessels in the retina. Fortunately, it affects only his left eye. Zander has now had three operations. He recovers quickly, and is always full of smiles by the following day. In December, the surgeon reported that he was pleased with Alexander’s progress. Most of the excess fluid has dried up, and the eye is healing well. We will soon be able to patch his good eye, to encourage the left eye to work better. Visiting Sick Kids’, and seeing children afflicted with conditions far more serious and debilitating than Alexander’s is humbling. We feel blessed that his health problems were diagnosed early, that they are relatively minor and treatable, and that he is receiving care from specialists at such a world-class hospital. |
November, 1999: 1 year old
factsheet on Coats' Disease by Royal Nat'l Institute for the Blind (RNIB), UK |
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Well, one year as a daddy, and I can
only say one thing: Whew! Let’s have more…
This was my third summer sailing on Ryan Jones’ C+C 25, and we had a great season. Ryan (skipper) renamed Hideaway before the season, to Good 2 Go, because, well, we were! We had a pretty busy schedule, racing twice a week and entering five regattas. We are much more competitive than last year, and frequently win races with a crew of only three (Ryan, Lorenzo and me). End result? Second place overall in our fleet in Cobourg, voted Most Improved Crew, and Ryan and Lorenzo won the Sportsmanship award for turning back during a race they were winning to ensure the safety of the second-place boat. Next summer will be even better! At the beginning of the year I received my certificate as a professional engineer, and was "elected" (by decree, thanks Mr. Chairman) to the board of directors for the Lake Ontario chapter of the Professional Engineers of Ontario. My primary contribution is as the chapter’s webmaster (http://www.peo.on.ca/chapters/lakeontario/default.htm). My big project this fall, after figuring out how this wife and son thing works, has been installing a gas furnace with all of the duct work, wiring and piping. Those of you who have had electric baseboard heating can understand why the labour is worth it. |
Launching the Spinnaker |
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I’ve been surprised by how much I
enjoy living in a small town. I feel comfortable and settled in Cobourg
now, having met many people – initially through Jerry (who knows everyone
in town who has ever been in a local bar or restaurant); but also on my
own, through La Leche
League meetings, volunteer work, and a local woman’s group.
When I read in the local paper that a new youth literacy program was starting, I volunteered my services. As the READbound training consultant, I have developed a tutor training program and training manual, and assisted program director Lynn Faris to train all volunteer tutors. This year, I joined a Cobourg chapter of Beta Sigma Phi. The group consists of about 15 professional women, and almost all the members are mothers of young children. We gather twice a month for social and cultural events (eg., ear candling, wine tasting, going on a fall family excursion to a “fun farm”, exchanging gifts at Christmas, etc.). At the beginning of the year, I returned to work for author Dr. Bill Pfeiffer, for whom I have been doing research and publicity from my home office. Bill will soon be publishing a new book entitled, Join the Global Tax Revolt: the Underground Economy. Through the summer, I also taught private PC/Internet lessons, and designed websites, including one for Mackechnie House Bed & Breakfast (the place where we got married). At the end of the summer, I began the About.com orientation training program to be an Internet guide. About.com guides research, select, classify and annotate web sites related to their area of expertise, and write at least two feature articles a month. My Adult/Continuing Education site went "live" at the beginning of November and it is currently receiving approximately 5,000 hits a week. My pay is partly based on the number of hits the site receives… so please visit, and visit often! Make it your homepage or bookmark it, and tell others about it! In October, I started a contract with Centennial College to develop curriculum for two English as a Second Language pilot courses -- Customer Service and Business English for Professionals. In the middle of November, I started to teach at the Scarborough campus five mornings a week. I love being back in the classroom, but the commute (200 km, i.e. 2 hours/day) is taking a piece out of me. We are facing the reality that our best employment opportunities are in and around Toronto. Much as we love Cobourg, we are entertaining the possibility of moving closer to the city. |
new mom |
