Yet Another Holiday Newsletter -- 2001

December 17, 2001

Dear Ones:

Once again the Murphy Family holiday newsletter has been written at the last possible moment. Will you receive it in the mail? Probably not, if we judge by previous years. We are very good at writing these silly letters. We are somewhat good at printing them, putting them in envelopes and attaching stamps. However, actually getting them to a mailbox seems to be beyond our skills.

To ensure that at least some people get to read it, this letter is going up on the web. If you happen to find yourself with an actual hard copy, treat it with appropriate reverence for a miracle has just occurred. Who knows when we will get organized enough to find a mailbox again?

A Moment of Silence

Maybe I shouldn't talk about a national tragedy in a family newsletter, but the events of September 11 affected us so deeply that I cannot avoid mentioning them. If you are tired of hearing other people talk about what happened that day, please skip this section until you get down to the next bold faced heading.

I suspect that September 11 will be for our generation what the Kennedy Assassination was to a previous era - a defining event that tells us that our innocence is forever gone. I never watch CNN, but I did that day and the next and the next. I felt strangely hollow inside and wondered if I ever would find the part of myself that was lost. Cassie was the only source of laughter in our household, and her blissful unawareness helped ground us in our grief.

Since September 11, I (and this is Hilary speaking here) have been struggling with what to do. I am trying to come up with local actions that I think are meaningful - I called a number of local Muslim organizations to volunteer my support and to ask how I could help. I still have not found an answer yet.

As a Quaker and a pacifist, I think that this war is deeply wrong. It has been effective so far, but that effectiveness is at best a short-term fix. If we truly want to stop terrorism, I believe we need to root out its causes - hunger, poverty and injustice. I cannot change the fact that the richest nation on earth is bombing one of the poorest, but I can speak out against it.

This war is very popular, and being a pacifist or a supporter of civil rights is enough to get one branded as un-American. I disagree. America was built on dialogue and dissent; we are a strong-willed people made stronger by our inherent diversity. The title of this section is meant as irony. I think that we have given enough silence to September 11. So much silence that the voices of protest are barely heard. Whether you agree with me or not, speak out and say your mind. We need all the voices we can muster.

And Back To Your Regularly Scheduled Newsletter

Sorry for the rant. It's out of my system now. I'll even go back to writing about myself in the third person again.

It's been another year of big changes for Hilary. Last year, she was the coordinator for Library Links, a Carnegie grant-funded program that expanded collections and services for new immigrants. During this time she became recognized as an international expert* on collection development in the Somali language, and has since been invited to discuss her work at library conferences in two different states.

The work was very rewarding, but exhausting and ate into family time. Finally she decided that she was tired of big responsibilities, 50 hour work weeks and stress. When a part-time children's position opened up at small community library, she leapt for it. Now she spends half her weekdays with Cassie, and is far happier and relaxed.

In addition to spending more mommy time with Cassie, this year Hilary has worked on improving her Spanish. She took a class, has continued studying on her own, and does a conversational exchange twice a week with a friend who is a native speaker. All of this effort has been useful jobwise, too. Over a quarter of the patrons in the library where Hilary works are exclusively Spanish-speaking, and so Hilary is often called upon to translate.

Hilary's other big news is that her writing has started to take off. In May she got to do her first ever solo reading at Dream Haven book store, and in November she sold her short story, "Run of the Fiery Horse" to the magazine Realms of Fantasy. This was a major breakthrough, since Realms of Fantasy is one of the top markets in her field. The story should come out sometime in 2002.

Find Andy a Job!

Andy has worked for eBenX for over six years. For various reasons, Andy has decided that it is time to move on to other things. Unfortunately, the economy is not cooperating with us. If you have a job for Andy, or would like to commiserate with Andy, or want to find out more than I can discuss in this forum, please contact Andy directly.

In addition to writing resumes and job hunting, Andy continues to pursue all of his regular hobbies. He has a gaming group that he thoroughly enjoys, and he still does quite a bit of volunteer work with the boy scouts and runs art shows at science fiction conventions.

Cassie's News

We all know who the real star of this newsletter is. You may skim everything else in this letter, but baby updates always take precedence. However, Cassie really isn't a baby anymore.

Here are some of the highlights of Cassie's last year.

At thirteen months, Cassie showed her precocity by giving her first storytime. She had always loved books, and one of her favorites was Sandra Boynton's "Moo, Baa, La La La!" She often took "Moo, Baa, La La La" into the crib with her so that she could look at the pictures before going to sleep. On this particular evening, our fat cat Callie was also in the crib and refusing to budge. So Cassie picked up the book, turned to the first page, and then pointed at the cow, saying, "Moo." She then paused and held the book upside down to show the picture to Callie. Then she moved on to the next picture. "Baa," she said. It was not until Cassie had turned the page and said, "La la la!" that her mother realized what she was witnessing: yes, Cassie was "reading" a picture book to the cat!

At the beginning of the year, Cassie had shown no interest in learning to walk, having mastered the fine art of the high speed crawl. Then, at fourteen months of age, Cassie learned to walk and then run in a single weekend, tearing through our house at an alarming rate. We took baby proofing to a new level, moving all fragile things higher on their respective shelving units.

By fifteen months of age, Cassie had a vocabulary of just over two hundred words. She also said her first two sentences: "Dis is duck!" (okay, she was pointing to a picture of a chick, but at that age chicks and ducklings are pretty much alike) and "I want puppy," (upon meeting her first dog.) Not surprisingly, the "I want" construction remains one of her favorites.

By sixteen months of age, she became obsessed with the concept of "stuck." The phrase, "I'm stuck!" was one that we heard on many occasions: when she climbed to the top of the stairs but could not get back down, when she had a favorite toy wedged somewhere and could not pull it out, and whenever she was strapped into the car seat. She even used the phrase as an excuse to get out unpleasant duties. Once, when Cassie was standing in the middle of the kitchen floor, her mother told her it was time for bed. Cassie paused a moment, and then pointed at her feet. "No," she said, "I'm stuck!" Obviously, someone must have glued her feet to the floor when we were not looking...

By seventeen months of age, Cassie began learning her first abstract concepts. She learned all her colors, figured out that the letter "C" stood for Cassie (though she could not recognize any other letters) and had started to sing. Her sentences became more complex: "I want to color with chalk too!" She also started saying "Thank you."

She also did her first active game of let's pretend. Her mother had just said one of those inane cutesy things that adults keep saying to kids: "Are you my little girl?" Cassie answered, "No, I'm puppy. Woof! Woof!"

We celebrated Cassie's half birthday in June. (The holiday rush of last year prevented us from really celebrating her birthday last year.) We shared the party with Cassie's friend Meridian, who was celebrating his second birthday. The party was lots of fun, with a marvelous decadent fudge cake by Meridian's mom, Kathy. Cassie got showered with presents, including lots of duck toys. Ducks were Cassie's greatest obsession, followed closely by puppies and the teletubbies.

At nineteen months of age Cassie made her very first attempt at counting. She held up her hand and said, "Thumb two three four!"

At twenty months of age, much to her parent's relief, a new media obsession swooped in to replace the teletubbies. Cassie discovered Big Bird (whom she obviously considered to be some sort of uber-duck) and was in love. Her favorite pair of overalls has Big Bird on it. She found a stuffed Big Bird toy, and then decided that picture books about Big Bird had to be read to her every night before bed.

By twenty-one months of age, Cassie began showing preference for a lot of girlish things that had not interested her much previously. Her favorite colors were pink and yellow. She liked caring for her plastic baby doll (called "Baby".) She would feed Baby with a bottle, insist that Baby get a diaper change whenever Cassie did, undress Baby (and then demand that the nearest parent dress it again), and swaddle Baby in blankets. She also started playing tea parties. Upon seeing this transformation, Hilary wailed, "When did my daughter become a girl?"

Cassie enjoyed her second Halloween enormously. She wore a teletubby costume, carried her pumpkin proudly, and said "Trick or Treat!" and "Thank you!" at every house. After Halloween, she continued to tote the pumpkin around and say "Trick or Treat!" for weeks afterwards in the hope of getting more goodies.

At twenty-two months of age Cassie learned to climb and started having mini temper tantrums on a regular basis. When finished, she would look up, wipe the tears from her face and smile. "Daddy, I feel better now." She also discovered Winnie the Pooh for the first time, and now has another media obsession.

As of this writing, Cassie is not quite two. She has become a living tape recorder and models heavily off the behavior of both parents. When Hilary was cleaning up a mess in the kitchen recently, she was amused to find Cassie clapping for her and saying, "Good job, Mommy! Good Job!"

This Christmas we will spend in Seattle with Hilary's family. Cassie will get to meet her Grandma Beth, Uncle Alex and all the rest of the Seattle relations for the very first time. We suspect that they will spoil her rotten. It should be great fun.

We hope your holidays go well. Stay in touch. Our e-mail addresses are hmm[at]sff.net and wamurphy[at]qwest.net. Hugs!

Hilary, Andy and Cassie Bear

* The "international" refers to the U.S. and Canada, but it sure sounds good, doesn't it?