It has been another great year in Rowley World. We are blessed with good health (good enough health anyway) and the happiness (net total) that comes with raising a toddler and being pregnant.
1) The Rowley family relocated from Ann Arbor, MI to Frederick, MD, mostly for Jon’s job (but partly to escape Michigan winters). We really love the new location, as there are abundant outdoor activities and wildlife to keep Oden happy. Frederick has a great downtown, and we are only 1 hour from DC or Baltimore. Please come visit!
2) Patricia and Jon celebrated the 5 year anniversary of the day they met on May 22, and their 4 year wedding anniversary on November 26. We are even more in love than when we got married – with Oden there is lots of extra love going around.
3) Oden turned two on July 4, and has made all the huge progressions that toddlers make from 1.5 to 2.5 years of age. He has gone from barely pronouncing 1 syllable words to complete sentences with decent grammar. His climbing and jumping skills have dramatically progressed as can be seen in his
early to
later videos throughout the year.
4) Patricia got knocked up again, and the family is expecting a new little boy in late February! We are positive he will be just as sweet, loving, and intelligent as his big brother.
5) Oden has established several new skills such as
scaling walls to
fixing furniture to
putting puzzles together.
6)Oden says “please”, “thank you”, "your welcome", and "bless you" consistently and is a very loving child giving hugs and kisses without discretion.
7) Oden has the first part of potty training figured out (#1) and can go without a diaper (he asks for one when he ‘needs’ it).
8) Oden successfully graduated to a big boy bed in December of this year. He cutely calls “Momma! Time to get up!” and “Done sleeping now!” without getting out of bed when he is awake.
9) Patricia celebrated her last day of working for the EPA on Dec 15, and has officially made the transition to fulltime domestic goddess.
10) Jon got his dream job as Director of Cell Therapy R&D Lonza. He gets to help drive the technology development for large scale cell production that will be needed to bring stem cells and other living cell therapies to the masses.
Oden caught 4 or 5 salamanders during the hike. Here is one of them:
And then Oden let it go....
Oden was such a big boy, navigating the rocks and roots all by himself:
Mamma enjoying getting Shai out into nature:
Oden loved climbing on the rocks:
Daddy and Oden playing in the creek at the foot of the Falls
Daddy and his boy at the Falls:
When we awoke the next morning, his face tubes were gone, but he still had the IV in his hand (poor thing). However, we got the go ahead to start feeding at 9:30 AM. He was doing great.
Dad got a cold at the wrong time (the day before!) and had to wear a mask in the NICU. We hope Shai won't come down with a cold when he comes home.
