About Rio… Rio recently finished an art club at a local educational toy store called Zany Brainy, where he did simple crafts each week. He is now in a cooking class, and will start a music class next week.
         Rio does about two and a half hours of school each day. He reads two or three easy reader books, does simple addition and subtraction problems with the help of an abacus, and keeps the above-mentioned weather chart.
          As part of his schooling, Rio now fully prepares one meal every week, all by himself. His first meals—things like spaghetti with salad & Jell-O, and pizza with cookies—have been tasty successes, and he hopes to prepare some more complicated meals in the future.
          Rio enjoyed his very first ride on the Utah Light Rail (the local commuter train) recently, when he went to the Symphony with his mother and brother. It was an exciting day for him—he loves trains these days, so going on the train was a thrill, and he got to chat with his hero, Keith Lockhart, after the concert, which was about space and featured music from Star Wars!

About Ewan…At 7 ½ months old, Ewan is chubby (21 pounds) and cute. He smiles all the time and giggles at everything. He wants to learn how to walk—he stands up with our help and tries to balance himself, laughing maniacally the whole time. He likes to stand at our picture window, looking outside (it is even more fun when Rio plays outside!). He won’t have anything to do with crawling or being on his stomach for any amount of time—he wants to go straight to walking! He has a surprisingly strong personality for a baby this age—he knows exactly what he wants, and will make his wishes very well known! (See story on next page!) He is about to get his first tooth.
     Ewan’s looks change interestingly. He never seems to be the same boy at any given moment. Sometimes he looks exactly like Jerry’s baby picture. Then with just a raised eyebrow or sly grin, all traces of Jerry go from him, and he is the spitting image of Suzanne’s dad’s baby picture! It’s difficult to say which is the closer match. Ewan has always had striking and unusual looks. His eyes change from bright green to blackish-brown depending on the light and the time of day. His hair is unusual too—in natural light, it looks dark brown, but in artificial light it looks reddish blond. He is quite unique.

About Jerry…Jerry recently played the part of lumberjack, when he chopped down a tree in front of our house! Actually, he only removed the part that was rubbing up against the house, which amounted to more than half of the tree. Our living room is much brighter now! Jerry also spent many hours during his last vacation updating his Star Wars room, building new shelves to display his collection, mounting all of his puzzles, and making scenes with his figures. (He bought up all of the Star Wars items of Rio’s that Rio no longer wanted—including his life-size cardboard C-3PO!)

About Suzanne…Suzanne has been having great luck selling her Ukrainian Easter Eggs (Pysanky) on eBay. At the time of this writing, she has sold 21 eggs, and has made about $360 altogether. The eggs have sold at prices between $10.00 and $38.00. She also sold six eggs to a good friend. She enjoys the art, and tries to make an egg every two or three days as time permits. When the Easter season is over, she will have to come up with some other eBay idea to occupy her and make a little fun money!

That’s it for now. Next time we hope to have some news of a family visit…

Jerry was trying to get Ewan to crawl by placing a toy outside of his reach. Ewan took one glance at Jer, and then calmly reached behind him to pick up a different toy. His look said, "Phooey to you!" So then Jer took that toy away from him and placed it out of his reach. Ewan surveyed the situation, looked at Jerry, and let out what could only possibly be described as Baby Expletives. Jerry laughed and said, "I think he just cursed me out!"

Rio has been learning about movement lately. One day he ran into the bedroom where his work-tired father was lounging, pointed a finger at Jerry, and declared, "You have NO MOMENTUM!" (Jerry gave no arguments.)

Ewan occasionally says "Da-da-da." Not necessarily to mean "Daddy," though Rio sees it that way. One day, Rio came to Suzanne with a drawing and said, "Ewan was saying Daddy, and Dad’s at work, so I drew a picture of Daddy for him, so he won’t miss him."

One day a topless Rio came to his mother, looking contrite and clutching a bundle of old, worn fabric. He said, "Something happened that's called an accident." Suzanne asked him what it was, and he unfolded the fabric to show a large tear in the threadbare cloth of a shirt. It was a shirt made of a bug-patterned fabric, and it has been his very favorite article of clothing since she made it for him at the age of 1½ years old. Suzanne examined it, and the tear was so large that there was no way to salvage it. She said it was okay; that this shirt had given him two and a half years of good service, and that it was so old now that it wasn't a surprise that it finally tore. She told him to bundle it up, thank it for being a good shirt, kiss it, and throw it away. He tried to smile to show he didn't care, but the tears in his eyes told a different story. He struggled very hard to keep from crying.

Suzanne’s heart ached. She examined the fabric again, and said that maybe she could make a stuffed animal out of it. He brightened and suggested a dog. Suzanne checked her pattern box and found a pattern for a dog toy. So the fabled bug shirt is soon to be reincarnated as a plaything. Our little boy was happy again, and we really got our money’s worth out of that fabric!

We are in the habit of giving Ewan tiny tastes of this and that--a drop of juice on a finger here, a bread crumb there, a tomato seed, a lick of olive, etc. So one day Suzanne was making jalapeño poppers stuffed with cream cheese, deep fried. Rio wanted a bit, so Suzanne broke one in half and gave it to him, and he disappeared. A second later he came back and happily said, "I gave it to Ewan." Suzanne rushed over to find Ewan sitting there with a mouth full of warm batter-dipped jalapeño-spiked cream cheese. He had this look on his face like, "Hmm, this is an interesting situation..." Suzanne wasn't worried about a choking hazard because they are so soft, but really! Jalapeños for a baby! She scooped out what she could, and he licked the remaining cream cheese off of his lips. What a trooper!