The blog lives...

Deep apologies to all of those who may have visited and wondered what happened to our blog. Not too long after our last post, we headed stateside for a holiday visit. It was great--full of friends, family and food--and exhausting, and I honestly think that we are still recovering here...I know I'm still trying to shed the extra pounds I gained from Christmas goodies.

On Christmas Eve, we flew from Frankfurt, Germany, to Portland. Elliott was great on the flight, Theo, not so much. It was a long flight for him. There was a welcoming committee waiting for us at the airport, eager to meet the new adition and to see Elliott again. After short naps, we joined the annual Lee family Christmas Eve dinner, and Theo got a chance to meet many of his relatives for the first time. Elliott and Theo were very lucky boys and got loads of gifts...it may have established an unrealistic precedent for visiting the US! The next weekend after Christmas we flew to Idaho to visit my grandma and other family. And then, right before we headed home on January 6, Theo was baptized. His godparents, Gwen and Ryan Sullivan, came all the way from Boston to be with him on his special day.

The plane ride back was similar to the first, and I have vowed not to do a long haul flight for some time. I think the time-change was hard on all of us, especially the baby. He's still struggling to sleep at night, probably as a result of bad habits picked up on the trip and while recovering from the trip. As soon as we returned, Elliott started a new day school just across the street from our house. Theo is sitting up by himself like a champ now and will be crawling soon. He gets onto his hands and knees and then rocks or pushes himself backwards, which causes dramatics.

The month of February will be full of adventure as we have visits from my mom and dad and from Cameron's sister Vanessa. We have trips to Portugal and Italy planned so hopefully we'll be able to update sometime in the future with exciting travel footage. There are some new photos on our Flickr site.

On a sad note, the Andres family dog Hugo was put to sleep last Saturday after suffering from cancer. We will all miss him; he was a patient and loving dog. Elliott will especially miss "Yoga," as he was known.