Newest family photos

Growing up

Sorry folks, Natalya just isn't awake all that often when we're ready to take pictures. And when she is, we apparently haven't figured out how to hold the camera still...


The good news is that she's smiling and cooing a whole lot more these days.




Ari playing with and within the box of wooden blocks that her Grandpa
Barr gave her for Christmas.


These days, if you can't find your shoes, good luck--there's no telling where Ariana left them!

Galimoto

This is called a galimoto (toy vehicle made out of wire). It was a fair trade gift from Lilya, a youth from Houston Mennonite Church, who spent some of her birthday money last November to purchase it for Ariana during the annual Texas Mennonite Relief Sale. Ari loves to push it around all over the place!

A few weeks later

The last few weeks have been a bit intense. Just as I (Tim) was about to return to work at TLU, Natalya came down with RSV, a respiratory virus that is somewhat common in babies but maybe less common in 2 week old infants, or at least more worrisome. Thankfully, because we rushed her to the ER as soon as we realized her fever was too high, she came home with us less than two hours later. While we were there, I saw the final few minutes of the Super Bowl. Wierd, but nice, since we don't get good enough reception at home (in the bottoms) to pick up the signal.

She's doing fine now--we all are actually--and life seems to be a little bit more predictable, but maybe not any less intense! Yesterday was her 4 week birthday. She's been pretty congested for most of her life so far, and she definitely didn't like the steroids, so it's been wonderful to see her smiling every once in a while these days.