As you can see from the picture, Eric is adorable. He is a source of wonder, warmth, and merriment to all whose lives he touches. Strangers approach him, pat him on the head, chuck his chin and cheeks, and tell him and us how beautiful he is. Eric is a little embarrassed by the attention and grows quiet when such fusses are made; sometimes he jokes about it later. In addition to his sense of humor, Missy, Curt, and other adults with whom he spends time are amazed by this two year-old's memory, powers of observation, resourcefulness, compassion, and how articulate he can be. His most favorite pastimes are getting "nunnie" (nursing) and playing with his cars, trucks, and other motor vehicles. Eric continues to be in perfect health--or nearly so. Early next year we expect he will need to have some work done on his front teeth (cavities have developed where a tooth was chipped). In order for the dental work to be performed, Eric will probably receive medication for the first time in his life.
Missy became a La Leche League leader in July. She has been helping women with breast feeding and parenting. One nursing mother she knows, Kathy, went on a medication for a week that would be dangerous for her child to receive. Missy, and other women in her LLL group, expressed some of their milk so Kathy's child could continue to drink breast milk while Kathy was unable to nurse. (Kathy called the expressed milk "liquid gold".) As she attained this LLL leader position, Missy gave up two others. The spring soccer season was her last as team captain. She'll continue to play but without the responsibility of organizing the team. On July 15, Missy resigned from IBM. She volunteered for a generous workforce reduction package since she was not expecting to return to full-time employment for at least a few years. It was a difficult decision for Missy that her former manager, Nishan Bouroudjian, made easier by indicating a position would probably be available to her if she ever wanted to return. Missy was thought of highly and her resignation is a loss to IBM.
Curt is doing well within IBM, considering its circumstances. The project he has been on for two and a half years is nearly complete. The application he helped create is part of a family of products that was introduced as "the most important networking announcement IBM has made in 20 years." His application demonstration to an English energy company was considered critical in their choosing IBM as the backbone telecommunications provider in a potential $60 million dollar contract. (The customer later changed their mind because the technology was considered so new as to be risky.) As part of the project Curt worked in La Gaude, France (on the French Riviera) for three weeks in August, then again for six and a half weeks in October and November. On the second stint, he came with Missy and Eric. The photo in this letter was taken on the promenade overlooking the Nice beach. The beaches weren't crowded in the fall--though we still saw some topless women--but the water, beaches, mountains, historical and artistic sites, and the miscellaneous tourist attractions provided us with wonderful entertainment and educational opportunities. Seeing the museums and artisans is motivating Curt to pick up his paintbrushes again.
We expect next year will be a challenging one for Curt in IBM. He will be under new management, on a new project, and under increasing pressures owing to IBM belt-tightening. Next year he will be sharing an office for the first time in seven years and he has been stressed and saddened by seeing friends, coworkers and neighbors, layed-off, transferred or resigning. Curt has been offered the opportunity to work for the first six months of 1995 on assignment in La Gaude. We are in the process of deciding whether or not to take that opportunity.
Our home business, Alternate Healthier Choices, is enjoyable, enlightening, and still in the red. We have been exploring various marketing strategies for our audio tape program, Healthy Pain Free Drug Free Childbirth, including attending and selling it at a Midwifery conference in Chicago, but we've not yet found one channel that produces more revenue than it costs. We have created our second product, Have the Wedding You Want for Less than $500, but have not yet made this book generally available to the public. A wedding project was especially timely and meaningful since four of the seven friends who reviewed the draft copy of the book were or will be married this year. Tami Sandercock and Steve Holsten had a personalized, unforgettable wedding in October in North Carolina and we're looking forward to sharing in the wedding of Mike Frantz and Lynne Rice in Pennsylvania in December.
As you probably know, we enjoy travelling and do quite a lot of it.
This year we came close to overdoing it. We visited friend and Eric's
Amie, Carolyn Bloemker, in Washington, DC in March (we were deeply moved
by the Holocaust Museum) and vacationed for two weeks in California in
May. In addition to seeing sights in Los Angeles, San Diego, Yosemite,
and San Francisco, we stayed with our soon-to-be-married friends Tami and
Steve in LA, and Dan, Claudia, Miriam, and Julian Pitt in San Jose (just
south of San Francisco). In the second half of the year, we spent
more time on the road than at home. We spent nine days in Pennsylvania
with Curt's family, four days in Charleston with Missy's family, three
weeks in La Gaude for Curt while Missy and Eric traveled to Michigan and
Ohio seeing family and friends, five days in Chicago for the Midwifery
conference and vacationing, and nearly seven weeks on the French Riviera
with a three day weekend in Florence and Pisa and a four day vacation layover
in Paris on the return flight. We still had enough travel energy
to make an end of the year visit to Pennsylvania!
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