December 2006

Blake is turning out to be a very active fetus. Becky's doctor wasn't able to get an accurate heartbeat because he wouldn't stop moving around. At the beginning of the month, I was barely able to feel him but by the end of the month his kicks and punches started becoming very pronounced. Kyla once told Becky that "after Fetie comes out he needs to say sorry for kicking you."

Another of Kyla's memorable quotes: after cousin Brianna got in trouble for spilling pop on the floor, Kyla said, "don't worry Brianna, I spill everything."

Like Blake, the rest of us have also been very active, mostly because of the holidays. The Neels came with us to chop down our tree, and Kyla got a kick out of decorating it. This was the first year where she got excited for Santa Claus to bring her goodies, so she had a list of requests for him when she sat on his lap and was sure to leave him some milk and cookies in case she was borderline on the naughty/nice judgment.

When the big day(s) actually arrived, we again ran the gauntlet doing Christmas Eve at the Chambers', Christmas brunch at our house with the Saulsberrys, Christmas evening with the Pritchards, then to Ellensburg for Christmas with the Houstons, and finally Christmas/New Year's Day with the Hovenkotters. She was very thoughtful saying "Thank you that's so cute," when given a gift, sometimes even before she opened it. She made out very well and we are now working to find room for her latest plunder. Some notable gifts include a new baby doll (a boy of course), sled, digital camera, doll house, and lip balm (don't ask me why, but she loves that stuff).

The holiday season also includes Becky's birthday. Kyla and I kept ourselves busy most of the day so she could relax after all of her hard work getting ready for Christmas. She may be only a year away from turning 30, but those youthful good looks ensure that she still gets carded whenever she buys alcohol.

Now it is time to look forward to 2007, which will be a big year for our growing family. Right now we're thought of as a "little family," but by this time next year we'll be more of what people think of as the stereotypical American family; two parents, two children (a boy and a girl), a pet, and a house in the suburbs. Pass me the apple pie.

Holiday Message 2006

As 2006 draws to an end it is once again time to reflect where the last 12 months have gone.

Of course the big news is that Kyla is going to be a big sister! Her little brother is due April 26, 2007. Becky and Brett have not yet been able to settle on a boy name though Brett has been diligently compiling all possibilities into a spreadsheet. In the interim we're referring to him as "Fetie." At our last appointment the doctor was unable to get an accurate heart rate because Fetie wouldn't stop moving around, which is making us nervous that Kyla will prove to be the easier of the two. Regardless, we're all very excited for the new arrival, but we've got a lot painting to do and boy clothes to buy in the meantime.

Kyla is now a two-year-old with a lot of energy and a mind of her own. She works very hard at putting bedtime off as long as possible and has mastered a number of stall tactics. She enjoys going to two toddler groups, exercise classes, playgroup, and the library with Becky; swim class with Brett; and gymnastics class with Grandma Linda. She can sing her ABC's as well as identify several letters, count in both English and Spanish (thank you Dora the Explorer), and ride a tricycle.

Becky had heard that every pregnancy is different, so she had high hopes that this one would not involve the acute morning sickness that Kyla's did. She did not get her wish. Fortunately she's in the easy phase now after the nausea of the first trimester but before the discomfort and sharp kicks of the third trimester.

Brett turned 30 this year ending his plausible deniability about the gray hairs that have been showing up on his head. By day he has mostly done contract work this year, which he used as an excuse to convince Becky that he needed a new laptop, but recently took a full-time consulting job with Two Degrees. By night he continues to blog, organize pictures, and create home movies on his Mac.

We've started to settle into the house now that we've done a little painting and bought a lot of furnishings, though we've barely made a dent in Becky's to-do list. We've met a few neighbors with children Kyla's age that we've become fast friends with, and two of these families are also expecting babies close to Fetie's due date. You may not want to drink the water the next time you come to visit us.

This year was Becky and Brett's fifth wedding anniversary. After five years of marriage (and seven years of being together) they've been through planning a wedding, several job shifts, a layoff, two real estate transactions, two pregnancies, and one birth. How this phase in one's life came to be known as "settling down" is beyond us.

We hope this message finds you enjoying your holiday season. Have a wonderful new year!

Brett, Becky, Kyla, & Fetie

Hi, My Name Is...

Blake Justin Hovenkotter

The name Fetie is no more, and Kyla is now the lone K surrounded by B's.

Blake has been one of our favorite names for a while, and most of our parents warmed to it immediately when we floated our short list to them. It was originally Becky's suggestion, and I have to admit that when I first heard it I thought it seemed too English and stuffy, but the more I heard it, the more I really liked it.

We never seriously considered making him Brett Junior. We do share a middle name, but this isn't meant to honor me, it is more of a testament to how much we like my mother's taste in middle names. However, our first names are similar in that they are both monosyllabic and begin with B, and consequently we will share initials.

Once we seemed to be settling on a name, and I bought Becky the letters B-L-A-K-E from Pottery Barn for Christmas that match those in Kyla's room. Kyla will be moving back to her original room after we paint it and Blake will move into the middle bedroom because it is already a boyish shade of blue. Setting up these rooms is going to be our big project after the holidays.

At least we now have one less thing to worry about.

"What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet"
Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2

Powerless

On Thursday, December 14th, the local news was predicting a severe wind storm that night, and Mother Nature did not disappoint. By that evening we were already hearing stories of family and friends losing power, and at some point in the middle of the night, the wind claimed ours as well.

The next morning, without really understanding the magnitude of the destruction that had occurred, I went to work. I am currently working on a project for Infospace, which occupies buildings in downtown Bellevue on 108th Ave, and power was on there, probably due to the proximity to Overlake Hospital. At the same time Becky and Kyla joined the neighbors in search of breakfast.

After reading some online news, I discovered that around 1.5 million people in the Puget Sound area lost power that night. Most of Seattle came back up quickly, but the Eastside took far longer. After about two hours Becky and company abandoned their quest and ate at the Neels' (thank goodness for gas ranges).

That night after struggling to get a couple of cell phone calls through (we use VoIP for our home phone) I discovered that Southcenter still had power, so our family and some of our neighbors all went to the mall and ate at The Rainforest Cafe. When we returned home, Becky, Kyla, and I all bundled up and went to bed cuddled together.

The next morning it was really cold in the house, so we quickly packed up and after having breakfast with Doug at a small Bellevue restaurant situated in one of the few powered regions, we headed East. My mother was thrilled to have us over and to fill us up with home-cooking, so we enjoyed a couple of days there.

On Sunday night around 10:00, our power finally returned. On Monday morning I stopped by the house on my way to work to find that it was in pretty good shape; fortunately Kerry already advised us to empty the ice maker in the freezer. I'm not sure how to judge how safe the food is in the fridge as it was pretty cold over the weekend (lows in the 30s), but I think we'll err on the side of caution and throw most of it out.

We were actually pretty lucky compared to those who live further out. The Lasserre's house is in Duvall and don't expect their power back on until this Friday. Some of the pictures of their neighborhood are a bit alarming.

As we begin to put this experience behind us I am reminded of just how heavily our family and the rest of this country relies on electricity, and just how easily Mother Nature can sever that reliance and show us just how vital heat and unspoiled food really are.

It's a...

BOY! Just call me Even Steven.

I definitely would not have been disappointed if Fetie turned out to be another girl, I really enjoy raising little girls, but over the past couple of days I had started to lean towards wanting a boy. If he was a girl, I would always wonder what raising a son would have been like (Number 3 is not off the table, but our plan has always been to stop at two). On the other hand we've got a lot of girl clothes we won't be able to reuse, but we'll be OK.

Becky did not have much of a preference since she already has her girl. Kyla kept flip-flopping on the subject.

We had a girl name picked out, but we hadn't settled on a boy name yet. I guess we're better with girl names, because we had Kyla's name picked out even before we conceived her. Naming our son (I love the sound of "our son") will become an endeavor Becky and I will be focusing on (i.e., obsessing about), so I don't think that announcement will be too far off. If we can't come up with one we agree on in the next four and a half months, I suppose we can just fall back on "Fetie."