2005: Wedding Bells and First Steps

As another year ends, it is time to update family and friends on the major events of our year. By left-clicking in each picture below, you will be able to see a larger version. Esta carta também está disponível em Português.

Christmas and New Year of 2004 warranted us an opportunity to introduce Daniel to Scott's extended family in Oklahoma. We also got to know Brett's (Scott's brother) fiancee Leslie and her 2-year-old daughter Lexie. (in May Leslie and Brett got married). During the holidays we had a good quiet time around Scott's extended family. Daniel got to meet his little cousin Lauren.

When we got back to Edmonton we started a new tradition: a small "Christmas after Christmas" party at home with a few friends that have (or were expecting) young children. As we are likely to be away from home for Christmas for many years to come, we thought that we needed some kind of holiday tradition for Daniel in Edmonton. This way, as Daniel grows he will be looking forward to the mid-January celebration when he will be allowed to open the gifts left by Santa under the three at home.

We had a lovely visit by Daniel's birth mom, Belinda, and big sister, Mikaela, in March. We all went for a swim and got some nice pictures of Daniel with his birth family.

In early April I spent a week attending a conference in Edinburgh, Scotland. Scott's parents came for a two-week visit to help Scott care for Daniel during my absence. Daniel got a nasty bug while I was gone and ended up rushed to emergency soon after my return with what appeared to be dehydratation symptoms. He bounced back from it rather quickly and on the following week we all spent a few days in a condo in the mountains in Camore, Alberta. Belinda and Mikaela came down there for another visit with Daniel and to meet with Scott's parents.

In mid May Daniel and I went to Brazil for part of my sabbatical. Daniel had a great time in Brazil. Grandma Dioraci would cook everyone of his meals freshly from scratch, and in the afternoons he would get freshly squeezed juice of "oranges from heaven" (that is the name of one of the many variations of citric fruits in Brazil). Daniel loved the very sweet and tasty Brazilian fruits: mangos, papayas, bananas, persimmons, etc. Daniel's babysitter in Brazil, Cinara, was absolutely wonderful. She would calmly talk with him as long as he was awake --- always explaining to him each thing that they were doing. Daniel had a great time playing on the floor with his Brazilian aunt, Salete, every night before bed time. Scott joined us in Brazil in early June and stayed there for the month. In mid-June I left Scott and Daniel in Brazil with my family and I went to attend a conference in Oslo, in Norway.

We returned back to Edmonton in the end of June so that I could start on a new administrative appointment at the University of Alberta (a three-year appointment as associate chair for graduate studies in Computing Science). Soon after our return Daniel became very clingy to me, Scott, and his favorite care-giver in day care. This phase lasted for several weeks before he became a bit more friendly around other people again. Also in July we had the opportunity to spend a day with our friend Judy Packer's family at their cottage by a lake near Edmonton. It was a lovely day and Daniel had his first beach experience in Alberta Beach.

With royal assent given to the same-sex marriage legislation in July, we decided to combine our marriage with the celebration of Daniel's first birthday in August. So on August 13 we had a nice backyard garden party that was attended by a group of our friends. Daniel was a very active participant during the ceremony of our wedding. Daniel's American grandparents were visiting us for Daniel's birthday and they helped a lot with the decoration and preparation for the party.

Later in August Scott went for a week-long horseback riding trip through the mountains around Jasper. He enjoyed the outdoors experience and the beautiful views of the Canadian Rockies.

Daniel had been active for a while, but at 14 months he became very busy! In October grandma Juana came back to Edmonton to spend two weeks with Scott and Daniel while I was attending a conference in Toronto immediately followed by one in Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro. Juana was very excited about being in Edmonton for Halloween so that she could dress Daniel up in a costume.

In November Belinda and Mikaela came from Calgary for a weekend visit. Daniel had a great time playing with his big sister. We had a small birthday celebration for Mikaela here at the house.

Scott is terminating his appointment at the University of Alberta effective Dec. 31. In the new year he will be starting a consulting business in the area of process control. If you have acquaintances in this area that may be not in our circles, Scott is very much looking for networking opportunities.

We are now getting ready to go to Brazil so that Daniel can be at his Brazilian grandpa 80th birthday celebration which will take place between Christmas and New Year at his Beach house. Have nice holidays.