Christmas 2000

Our big news this year is that, after years of trying and a couple of miscarriages, we were blessed with another beautiful baby girl, our own millennium baby. We wanted to name her Isaac (see Genesis 18:11-14) but settled on Lane Camille (we mostly call her Laney or Laney poo). She is named after one of her second great grandmothers: Camilla Naomi Lane. We feel she was truly a miracle baby. Lenore had blood pressure problems when Jensen was born (10 years ago) and off and on since. With this pregnancy she had no sign of high blood pressure until delivery and since has had to be on medication and required a hospital stay of a couple of days when baby had been home from the hospital one week. Laney is a very good baby and has a wonderful disposition. She is almost always ready to smile or try to talk baby Spanish or laugh. So far, Laney has been way easier than the first two and we tell Ailsa and Jensen that often!

One interesting note regarding the birth: probably because of Lenore’s “advanced” age and because we did not consent to an amniocentesis during the pregnancy, the Pediatrician said he was concerned that Laney might be trisomy 21 (Down syndrome). He cited a couple of physical characteristics (I wasn’t sure I could see what he was talking about and told him all those traits came from the Smith side of the family anyway.) The upshot was we were left in semi-suspense for six weeks after her birth until we heard officially that she passed the chromosome test.

She tested our mettle during her blessing. A young convert girl was confirmed just before and our most recently released bishop performed that ordinance. Laney was fine during the whole meeting until the long-winded ex-bishop started what seemed like a 15 minute prayer that went on and on. What began as a mild squall of fussing during the confirmation soon developed into a stage 4 Hurricane of wailing all through the prayer. Just about the only part the audience could hear was a barb from her father about her "lively spirit". This elicited polite laughter from the congregation.

Jensen has become a bit of a “scare bear”. She’s worse than a medical student. Every new ailment she hears about, she thinks she is developing that sickness. She has also become wary of all the virulently poisonous plant and bugs that infest our household and yard and are ever trying to invade our domain. Soon she will require inspection of all her food, clothing, and school items for the minutest speck or spore of toxins. Right now she plans on being a ballot dimple counter when she grows up. We might have to move to Florida!

Our kids are wonderful and a joy to have. If there were any trait we would delete from their personality subroutines it would be their need to fill any “dead air” with the sound of their own voice, usually commenting about some inane kid TV program. (In our day these were Kimba the White Lion, Speed Racer, and Gigantor. Nowadays these are Sailor Moon, Tenchi Muyo, Gundum Wing, Tsoonami. The common thread is that we are under attack by a contingent of Japanese Animationists!)
Lenore finished her stint as PTA President. They gave an honorary award to Laney too since she attended most of the meetings in-utero. Lenore also finished her time as teacher's aid at the elementary school and now enjoys a fairly undemanding part-time job doing some on-call tasks for the company I work for. Understandably one of her most difficult tasks is to find enough time to rest. One good thing about once again being a member of "La Leche League": She is able to get her shopping fix by “window-shopping” on the shopping channels while nursing the "Babbit".

In my cycling this year there was one notable event. My cousin (who lives about 45 minutes north of us) and I went up just outside of Logan to do the Cache Valley Century ride. We just did the metric Century (about 67 miles). Considering my previous 100 milers I figured this would be a walk in the park. Well, something went wrong with that theory. It was a little hilly and a little windy and we are both big guys (larger riders do better on the flat with no wind). But, I think we have to take some of the blame ourselves. We were dead after only about 25 miles. We didn't prepare well nutritionally and we didn't hydrate enough. We had older guys passing us when we were 2/3rds through. When we finished, about 15-20 of the 100 milers had already completed the course. Our egos were thoroughly deflated.

Ailsa has been working a lot baby-sitting for neighbors. She has a permanent gig for the family across the street that pays her about $50 per week. She has enjoyed spending the money. But, we also taught her about the wonders of earning interest. So she put $600 into her mutual fund. That was around August when the market was doing so nicely. We've tried to avoid looking at our funds lately. She also started junior high and loves wearing her school uniforms (not). The last two years of elementary school she really figured out what the joke was and got good grades. So far she has done very well in some of her classes and not so well in others. Part of the problem is she thinks she is miss fancy pants with all of the money she earns. I keep telling her that if she is going to mess up in school she might as well buy a trailer home and let her teeth fall out right now. She had to have the New Harry Potter book the morning it was available and had it read in about three days. She has read the whole series now about 7 times. One of the things she bought on eBay this year is an old silver clarinet. Now she has one she can leave at school and one she can leave at home.

We look forward to spending a wonderful Christmas season and vacation as a family at home. We wish you the same anticipated fun and happiness. We hope you realize, as we do, that our family and friends are the best part of our lives. You are our best gifts from Heaven. May you seek and be worthy of Our Father's greatest blessing, an eternity of joy with your loved ones.

The Lilliywhites
twlilly@netzero.net