Yes We Did

Happy 1st Birthday Xander!

I'm not sure if it's more of Xander's celebration or ours, this first of many birthdays.  A year ago today we delivered Xander into the world.  In the last 12 months we've had ups and downs, adventures and misadventures. We've watched Xander grow up, and perhaps we've grown up a little too.  Certainly we've grown into a family, and although I didn't know it was possible, our love for our son, and each other, has grown too. What a year it has been! 

How to celebrate?  While Xander would have been perfectly happy with his dinner of strawberries and oranges and asparagus and salmon, we really felt the need to get the classic photo of our child eating his first cake.  This has been a blog with words describing our feelings, our family and our life, but it has also been a journey in photos- we needed a photo!  Okay, we needed 6!

And for those of you who like to see how generations change and stay the same, here's a picture of Erin enjoying *her* first cake!

Skiing at the Eiseman Hut

This weekend we headed for Vail and the Eiseman Hut.  It is one of the 10th mountain backcountry huts, located a little north of Vail.  The Eiseman hut is a long hike, 10 miles and 2500 ft of elevation gain.  The reward is a beautiful hut in amazing ski country.  We started off hiking early on Sunday morning, with Russ, Becky, David, Suzy, Justin and Kristie.  It was a good thing we got an early start, it was a long hike, nearly 7 hours and I think all of us, except perhaps David and Justin, were pretty wiped by the end.  Fortunately we had fabulous weather, it was warm and sunny the entire time, none of us needed jackets.  Xander was AWESEOME and slept and relaxed in the chariot the whole time.  We stopped for a couple of quick breaks for him.

The hut was a very welcome sight, and we enjoyed a relaxing evening.  I was pretty exhausted after towing the little man all day long, and Erin unfortunately wasn't feeling well either.  We found out later she actually had strep throat!!

The real draw of Eiseman is the amazing skiing.  We had a fantastic day of skiing on Monday, maybe some of the best terrain that I have ever skiied.  There was lots of good snow, at some times I was weaving back and forth between trees, skiing the crowns between the tree wells, it was spectactular.

We hiked back up after each run.  I was suprised at how easy it was to hike back up to the hut when I hadn't already been hiking all day.  I think it took me over two hours to hike the final section the first day hauling Xander, but a little under an hour when I was fresh without a heavy pack or towing the little man.

We skiied out on Tuesday, leaving early since I had a plane to catch that evening.  Erin and I took it slow at the beginning, because it was tough to control the chariot on the way down through the steeper tighter trees.  The rest of the group caught up to us after a couple of hours where the trail widened up and we all skiied out the rest of the way together.  We made it back in time for me to get everything unpacked and Erin to make it to the doctor and get some antibiotics before I had to head out of town for work.  A great vacation!

-Jake

Xander and Utensils

Xander has been interested in utensils for a while now, he likes to hold a fork in one hand while he eats with the other hand...  As a result, we typically don't give him anything too messy to eat by himself.  Today we decided to let him have a go at eating oatmeal on his own.  The results were, well, predictable.

Eat like Mom and Dad      Eat like the Dogs             Eat like Xander!  

-Jake

A week with Grandpa

My father has spent the last week here in Colorado, and it was wonderful! We had the chance to enjoy one-on-one time together in a way that we haven't had for years. Top on the list was checking out Nederland's "Frozen Dead Guy Days" which celebrates the fun of winter in the mountains and the quirky cryogenic preservation of one very real, very dead, frozen Grandpa in a tough shed.  No, really.  Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly as exciting or "lively" as I thought it would be- but we did wander around town, and got to watch one kiddy-coffin race before Xander declared himself bored and ready to go home.

During the week we took a few long walks, talked about everything and anything, went the library's story

time, took Xander swimming and spent time just relaxing and reading. I was really glad that Xander and Dad were able to get to know each other better and play together.

We even made it up to Crested Butte.  Dad watched Xander while Jake and I spent a whole day skiing together on Friday, and on Saturday Dad tried downhill skiing for the first time - awesome!  The time flew by and I couldn't believe it when it was time to take Dad to the airport this morning.  I miss him already.

Xander-English Dictionary

Grandpa Charles has now independantly confirmed what Jake and I were afraid was wishful thinking on our part: Xander has real words and knows how to use them!  They do require a bit of careful translation, however, for those not fluent in baby talk:

Maaaa*! = I am feeling a wee bit parched, and I would like to have some warmed milk immediately- IMMEDIATELY!

Dadada = Dad!  I love you, let's play.

Ah-o = Otto

Bids = Blitz

Mama= Mom!  I love you, is there anything to eat around here?

{clicking tongue} = I am hungry and would like to eat what you are eating, or anything else I can find to put in my mouth.

Baa= Balls are so totally awesome- see mine?  Let's play!

Bobcat = Bobcat  (Not sure how it is that he got this one, but he parroted it perfectly after hearing us talking about the animals.... surprised the heck out of us, and he hasn't said it since)

Na = Bananas are really fun to eat- and they taste good too- are there more?


Xander also is getting good at signing "All done" and "Pick me up" and still has his "Yes" face but hasn't really mastered "More" or "Please" or other signs yet.

More to come... I'm sure!

Grandpa is here!

Grandpa Charles came in last night late and this morning Xander and Grandpa have already had lots of fun playing!  Later today we'll go up to Nederland... but more on that in the next post!

Life is Good!

Xander played at Jackson's (Jack's) house yesterday- and Jack had such a marvelous toy walker!  Xander just *had* to have one too.... and Mom caved in and bought his first full-priced brand new toy.  It was worth every penny to watch the confidence Xander showed in taking his stroller all around the house, and then outside in the cul de sac.  He was *so* proud of himself!  Jake and I were grinning ear-to-ear as well. 

Life is Good.

Jake is Excellent!

It is so nice when I have my observations of the world validated by outside "experts."  In this case, while I have always known that Jake is excellent (and brilliant, and handsom, and kind, and...) both NASA Goddard (Jake's customer) and Ball Aerospace (where Jake works) both are in complete agreement.

Last night we went to the Ball Aerospace Excellence Awards ceremony and were treated to a wonderful dinner where I showed off my new (more conservative) hairdo, and showed off my husband of almost 10 years, Jake.  The president of the company and Jake's managers and team-mates said wonderful things about him while presenting him with an Engineering Excellence Award.  Congratulations Jake!!

Excert from the customer at NASA Goddard:

On behalf of the James Webb Space Telescope Science Working Group, I am writing to thank the JWST mirror teams for their excellent progress towards launch. When serious project studies were started in 1996, there was a tremendous tension between the people who said these mirrors could never be built, and those who said they could do them. To achieve the results today, we held what amounts to an Olympic competition with studies, tests, reports, reviews, and finally hardware. We chose the beryllium technology in 2002, believing that success was possible but without of course knowing all the subtleties of beryllium manufacture, machining, stress relieving, polishing, thermal distortion, and cryogenic testing in the presence of vibration. Now we see success within our grasp, with mirror segments that meet and in several ways exceed specifications, ready to go on to the next parts of the program.


The Science Working Group received a report from Lee Feinberg on progress at our meeting on Feb. 18. They were so impressed that they asked me to write a letter of appreciation. They were shown that the mirror segments are very smooth, which clearly is essential to our ability to reach the scientific objectives of the mission.

When I inquired more deeply, I learned that the following specific achievements were behind this result. The teams have:

• Validated the JWST Cryo-Null Figuring Process,
• Developed a method to stabilize mirrors at cryo and generate an accurate cryogenic target map,
• Produced a PMSA assembly that meets a stringent surface figure requirement,
• Produced an ultra-light, cryo compatible optical mirror assembly shown to survive launch environments,
• Successfully polished the EDU to a condition that met all final figure requirements,
• Developed a method to disassemble and reassemble a mirror with less than 5nm rms figure error change, as needed to protect the actuation system from polishing and coating processes,
• Developed metrology to measure a mirror at Tinsley, BATC, and XRCF to repeatability of less than 5 nm rms,
• Developed a method to match all 18 segment radii of curvature at cryogenic temperature using a combination of actuation and polishing, and
• Developed a bonding and assembly method to limit deformations to a mirror surface.

It was impossible to be sure to recognize all of the team members who have worked to bring about these results, but we are well aware that some people have individually worked thousands of hours to achieve them, and some people who are not on our list below have also made essential contributions. Please extend our thanks to all the people who worked on these mirrors!

(Jake's name is specifically mentioned in the list!)

Sincerely,

John C. Mather
James Webb Space Telescope Senior Project Scientist

Erin's New 'Do

No more Blue!

Choking, Puking, Cleaning, Bleeding and Stealing... but no photos

Believe it or not we had a really great time this past weekend with the Spuhlers up in Crested Butte.  The Spuhlers are really excellent skiers and can really take advantage of the CB terrain in a way that the Lewis's cannot (yet).  It was wonderful to have another family to trade off baby duties with.  Alex and Xander get along really well and are much the same size, although of course Alex, being 16 months old, is more mobile and capable. 
Saturday was our turn to ski and I got to test out my new Alpine skis and bindings.  They handled very differently than my AT set-up and it took a little while to figure them out, but it was a lot of fun!  While we were away Audra and Peter took the boys up to the resort briefly for a cup of coffee and Xander came away with one of the pens.... his first appropriation.  We're so proud...?

Sunday Jake and I tag-teamed with the little boys and were having a marvelous time reading stories when Alex started projectile vomiting all over Jake and the couch.  We spent the rest of the day periodically cleaning up boy, clothes, and various furniture or carpet.  For a kid who was pretty sick, he was certainly mild-tempered and quite cuddly.  Jake actually spent over 2 hours just cuddling with Alex and I think Jake really enjoyed it- Xander not usually being the cuddly-type.  Xander was playing away, and happily exploring his increasing mobility- but did give himself his first bloody lip after bumping his mouth into the coffee table.  Luckily the tooth didn't cut deeply, and Xander quickly shrugged it off.  Likewise, Xander shrugged off his first experience choking on food earlier that morning- he'd stuffed too much finger food in at once, and when he breathed in after a cough, it got stuck.  Luckily Jake and I were right there- Jake said "choking!" and as if we'd practiced it, I grabbed Xander, Jake released the highchair tray, and we slapped him twice in the back- instantly clearing his airway.  Moments later, Xander was finishing breakfast.  Tough kid!

While Jake had things under control, I spent much of the day scrubbing and scraping the grout and caulk in both bathrooms, there being a nasty mold hiding there that simply had to be removed for my comfort.  It was hard work, but worthwhile- the bathrooms now look so much better!

With all this excitement, mixed in with some good meals, watching the Olympics, sledding and skiing, we never did get any photos taken.... a terrible miss.  We'll have to have the Spuhlers up again soon to remedy that!