2013:Year of The Woog

(For those of you randomly stumbling upon this, this is our 2013 digital holiday card/newsletter. Not really a PurrPrints post, but this was the handiest pace for us to put it.)

Dear friends and family,

Jan 6th, 2013, about 8pm

Since it's currently 75 and sunny, it's sometimes tough to remember that it's the holiday season--otherwise known as the scramble for perfect gifts while composing a family newsletter season -- is, in fact, well upon us. That is, until you turn on a TV (or, in our case, hulu. Yep, we're one of those families). Still the warm weather doesn't stop the fact that another year is drawing to a close -- and one of the most significant ones in our lives. 2013 has been a big year for us, for obvious reasons.

On January 6th, at 7:52 p.m., Ryan was born, all 21.5 inches of him (he was a looong baby; his dad, who was present at the birth, called him "the baby train"). Over the past year, we've taken hundreds of photos and recorded way too many videos of basically asinine moments where Becca inevitably sounds like a total mommy stereotype (much to her professorial disdain).

Grandma and the glow-worm

In other words, for the last year -- as will come to a surprise to no one with kids -- almost everything has been focused on him. So we have no exciting trip around the world stories, or cool cultural events attended stories, or suspenseful work drama stories. We do, however, have stories about Ryan (a.k.a.: The Woog -- a story in and of itself):


Ryan's early days, when he had to wear a "bili-blanket" that made him glow like a sci-fi character. His first smiles and crawls, getting attacked by a tickle monster or exploring the local children's museum for the first time. Ryan getting his first home improvement lesson or his first exposure to post-modern fiction (warning on this last one -- once the story ends, it doesn't stay a G-rated conversation for long -- we were more than a little sleep deprived at that point). Even Ryan interrogating a balloon, as his dad put it, for over 10 minutes.

Clark 2013 reunion

Most recently, Ryan's travels to Cincinnati for a Clark family reunion over Thanksgiving, where he had a wonderful time meeting his cousins and a terrible time meeting air travel.


In other words, we've plenty of Ryan stories to deluge our friends and family with -- but we'll let our excessive video-recording and photo-shooting habits do that for us :)

Ryan meets his grandpa

Early team indoctrination is essential

So is early nerd indoctrination ;)

Early beach indoctrination hasn't gone so well yet though

The force is strong in this one...or perhaps just oversized?

Puma tolerating Ryan for a few seconds while he's quiet

In non-Ryan related news, there are just a few updates:

Becca was granted the state school equivalent of tenure this year at DSC, a production that took a great deal of effort and which guarantees no real level of job security higher than what she already had, regardless of what Fox News might claim to you about professors and their cushy jobs.

Mark has continued to slave away at the kitchen home renovation project when Ryan is sleeping. When Ryan's awake, he teaches his dad how to demolish block towers and the proper way to eat yogurt.

Whizzer, our parrot, found a new home with a lovely semi-retired woman who could give him the level of attention he needed.

Allie Mae, our 14 year old cat, passed away--though first she had the chance to leave Ryan with some good kitty memories, which was particularly sweet of her since our one remaining cat, Puma, makes a beeline out the nearest door whenever Ryan makes a sound.

All in all, we've felt very fortunate this year and we're looking forward to 2014. If any of you get sick and tired of the cold weather, feel free to come down and visit us. There's an awesome playground right around the corner, conveniently across the street from a Mexican place with delicious guac -- and margaritas ;)