Master of Science in Engineering

Pardon the delay on this post; it's been a hectic month. But as of May 3, 2008, Mark is officially a Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering. And that's according to Georgia Tech, who has pretty high standards for such things. Makes him sound pretty smart, huh? Well, you should know... he really is that smart.

Due to Nick's wedding and a bunch of other stuff we had going on last month, we opted (and by we I mean Mark; I was not on board with the decision... for the record) not to go to Atlanta for the hooding ceremony. But one of our friends from church, whose grandson graduated from Tech this semester, did go. And she brought Mark back a program from the commencement ceremony. Isn't that ridiculously super-nice? I meant to ask her ahead of time, but it slipped my mind... then we found out last Thursday (the first time we had seen her since), that she had thought to get an extra, on her own. She said they didn't read Mark's name out loud since he wasn't there, but she gave a silent cheer for him anyway.

Since we weren't at the ceremony, I have no cap-and-gown picture to post to remember the occasion of the conferring of Mark's master's degree. What I do have is a picture taken on the day of his high-school graduation. I know it's not as impressive, but it's amusing, and it's Mark in a cap and gown, right? He was honored for his brilliance that day, too - math student of the year (I don't think they called it that, but you get the gist). That was ten years ago this month. (I feel old all of a sudden.) Weren't we cute (and skinny!!) back in the day?

(Excuse the missing corner - this pic was originally cropped to fit in a photo album... you know, the kind with actual printed photos. Remember those?)

Congrats to you, Mark! I was proud of you then, and I'm insanely proud of you now... partly your out-of-control intelligence, but even more than that, of your hard work. I love you!

10 Month Update: ...He Can Stand!

We found out yesterday that Nathan's legs aren't just for kicking after all. For those of you whose kids instinctively put weight on their legs from a very young age (some as newborns), this won't be impressive to you. But for me, the mommy of a child who has resisted pretty much every effort to bear weight on his legs, this is huge.

After months of dangling by the crotch in his exersaucer, spinning in circles in doorways as he dangled in the johnny-jump-up, Nathan is now happy to stand on his own two feet. And since you haven't seen enough video footage of him recently (ha!), you should definitely not take my word for it, but see the caught-on-camera proof.

You probably can't tell in this video, the way Mark is sitting and not knowing how tall our couch is in real life, but Nathan is really tall. We didn't realize how tall until he was standing next to Mark, and came up well past his knee. He's 29 inches... which isn't that tall for his age (it's well above average, but not off the charts or anything), but since we hadn't really seen him vertical before this week, it came as a bit of a shock!

I know that standing is one step (pun intended) closer to walking. And I know that my life will get infinitely more difficult when Nathan is mobile. Still, it's a relief to see him doing something developmentally normal. Late, but normal. Yaaaay Nathan! I'll clap my hands for you, even if you don't want to do it for yourself!

Lowcountry Splash

Since we hadn't been on the road enough in May, we thought we should sneak in one more long weekend away before the month was out. Mission: accomplished!

On Saturday, Mark and I (along with our friends Sarah and Neil... yes, the same Neil who licked out our soup pot the last time he ate dinner at our house) swam in the Lowcountry Splash, which is a 2.4 mile race in the Charleston Harbor. My mom did it, too.... but that should probably go without saying at this point, right? I mean, when have you known us to do some outdoor distance event when mom isn't there? She beat us all, too, which also should come as no surprise.

Anyway it was the first open water-event for Mark and Sarah, and first of any kind of swim event for Neil... and we all finished! Mom came in after about 52 minutes, Mark at 55, me at 56 (I searched for him the whole race and didn't find him until the finish chute), and Sarah and Neil at about 60 minutes (they stuck together for support... or romance under the new Cooper River Bridge, maybe).

Before you get too excited and proclaim that we all belong on the US Olympic team, I should tell you there was a current. In our favor. And it was faster than any of us can swim (about a mile and a half per hour). The hardest part, honestly, was trying to stay behind the start line before they started the race. Or maybe the hardest part was keeping my composure when I swam into the start line (a bunch of noodles strung together... oh yeah it was hi-tech), after making the incorrect assumption that they would have removed it from the water. At first I thought it was a huge fish or something. Ew. Or maybe, since Nathan spent the night with another Sarah (his first night away from Mommy and Daddy) and I managed to bring only some of the breastpump parts with me to Charleston (not enough to pump, clearly), maybe the hardest part was managing my boobs for the first half of the race, before milk finally leaked out and relieved some pressure. Or maybe it was swimming and swimming and swimming towards the Ravenel bridge and never getting any closer. (Anyone who has approached the Eiffel Tower by foot knows how it feels to move closer and closer towards a large structure, and never actually seem to get there. Y'all, this bridge is so much bigger than the old one.) At any rate, it wasn't the distance that was hard -- we all managed just fine (partly in thanks to my sister Ashley's awesome get-ready-for-Charleston swim-workouts).

We're proud of ourselves, but we did admit afterwards that we wished it had been a little more difficult (as crazy as that sounds), so we'd feel like we had accomplished something more. At the same time, having the current in our favor and finishing with really good times made the whole event much more easygoing, much less serious, than others have been... which was kind of nice. After riding our bikes in a hailstorm, we were due for lighthearted event, I think.

At some point I will update this post with a picture of us at the finish, but I have to wait for someone to email me some pics. Somehow we managed to get all the way to Charleston and back and not take our camera out, even once. In the meantime, enjoy this picture of the swim start with the bridge in the background. If you want to experience Charleston from a new perspective, this is a neat way... "get under it!" Also, it's a great first event if you're interested in trying out the sport of open-water swimming.

Peekaboo!

One "first" I didn't include in our St. Croix post is that Nathan can now play peekaboo... as the peeker. He's long been amused by someone else hiding and popping out in front of him... but sometime in between when we left for vacation and when we came back home, he figured out how to hide himself and pop out to surprise us. Sometimes he does well, behind and blanket or cloth diaper. Other times he's a little lazier, burying his head in my chest and then looking up, or even just looking away and then looking back. He will now do this pretty consistently when we say, "where's Nathan?" -- I love that he understands verbal cues! (He will also clap on demand, even without a hinted hand gesture, but we have yet to capture that on camera.)

So in case you haven't played peekaboo in a while, Nathan would like to play with you now.

St Croix!

We took Nathan on his first beach vacation last week, to sunny beautiful tropical St Croix. Yes, we have beaches in the Carolinas... decently good ones, actually. And we really did try to arrange a beachy vacation much closer to home by extending an upcoming trip to Charleston. But with the hotel/condo prices there during Spoleto, and the minimum weeklong rental requirement, it ended up being cheaper to go to the Caribbean instead. (It's not as crazy as it sounds - I had some super-cheap tickets - like, less than $80 each - through work.)

St Croix is an easy decision for a beach vacation for us. Remember how we did an ocean swim race a couple of years ago, and my brother Brad liked it so much he decided to live there? Well, he's still enjoying his Virgin Islands life, and this week Nathan got to meet his Uncle Brad again - for only the second time ever. (The first time was about 4 days after his birth, so I don't think it made much of an impression. On Nathan, anyway.)

Let me tell you how relaxing this vacation was: ridiculously relaxing. We had a gorgeous condo, right on the beach (let me clarify... right on the beach... our back porch ended in the sand)... the whole place was open and airy with cool tile floors and an awesome breeze. We didn't plan anything ahead of time, so the Type-A in both of us got to just chill out for a bit. (We needed that, for our mental health.) Nathan could sleep in his own room far enough away to not be disturbed by Mark and me, but close enough that we could still be within earshot while lying on the beach or lounging on the porch. (Tell me that's not the perfect baby-vacation scenario!) The whole place is just so peaceful and relaxed!
And getting to see Nathan and Brad together was so fun. I'm sure at first he seemed like just another baby, but by the end of our long weekend, Brad was hugging and kissing him and we had to wrestle to get him back almost as hard as we do when Ashley's around. (If you've never witnessed it, I should tell you... that's substantial wrestling.) He seemed so proud of his little nephew, and Nathan really took to Brad's blond hair and sunglasses.

Besides this being the Nathan's first family vacation, we had a lot of other firsts as well.

1.) First plane ride.... Nathan was a champ. A champ, I tell you. Hardly any fussing, and there was an empty seat near us on every leg so we could bring the car seat on board (he sleeps better there than in our arms these days). Speaking of angels on shoulders.

2.) First boat ride.... we went sailing on Brad's boat (well, his boss's boat) for more than 6 hours one day, and Nathan had nary a complaint. He dozed for a little while, but handled himself with a lot of composure considering the almost-nonexistent nap. And that's a long day for a baby in the hot sun! (Yay Aveeno Baby 55+!)

3.) Mark's first time snorkeling. He's 27. Isn't that crazy? He said he felt like he was in an aquarium and he kept expecting to see people looking at him through a window. Ha!

4.) A new word... Go! We have been reading the book "Go Dog. Go!" a lot with Nathan, and when we gave it to him on the plane, he yelled, "Go!" It didn't take us long to realize that he will say "Go!" when you hand him any book... but whatever. He's still a Genius Baby! to me.

5.) Nathan has started scooting around on his front. He adamantly refuses to use his legs, so he's basically dragging himself on his arms... he turns in circles and goes backwards better than any forward motion we've witnessed. But it's something, and it's super-cute.

6.) First night in Florida.... due to the aforementioned cheap ticket, we had pretty limited schedule options for our flight, so we had to overnight in Florida on the way home. They only had 10 minutes (they said) to load us on the plane and get off the ground in St Croix before the crew was flying illegally... I have never seen such chaos in boarding! That crew really wanted to get home to Miami. And all the while, Nathan was yelling, "go, go!" Which was sort of amusing except for the nagging fear that the flight might get cancelled after we had waited for hours and hours and hours in what has to be the smallest airport in the Caribbean. The good news about our return flight is that we did not have to go through Texas the next day, as originally planned.

I'm not gonna lie... this will go down as one of our most memorable vacations to date, even though it was far simpler and less exotic than some we have taken. There's nothing like a gorgeous beach and your family to make you feel happy, huh?

For more pictures of our vacation in St Croix, click on Nathan in paradise, below.

by mgoetts

Mother's Day in Santa Land

[Edit: I drafted this post a while ago - on May 14, apparently, but didn't actually remember to post it until later. So you're not crazy. I'm just a doofus.]

My first Mother's Day. That's what the rest of the world would consider it. If I'm being honest, though, I have enjoyed MDs for the last several years... every since Bowden (and then Simon) joined the family. But this year is different since I have canine and human children to celebrate. And since we were still in Waynesville for this MD, I didn't actually see Bowden and Simon at all. Which was harder than I thought it would be. (Stop making fun of me. I really like my dogs, ok?)

I think the thing that made me most feel like a mom is that before we left town, I had to get a new swimsuit. (My leftover-from-college tankini is pretty much dryrotted and barely survived the pregnancy.) I probably should have given up belly-baring swimsuits years ago (like, after the freshman 30)... but I didn't. But post-Nathan, I think I would truly frighten people if I exposed them to the mass of skin and stretch marks that is my postpartum tummy. (Can I call it postpartum if it's been ten months? Let's go with yes.)
So anyhoo I went to Kohl's before our vacation in search of a cute one-piece that was somewhere between a fat-girl suit and a string bikini. Know what I ended up with? The Mom Suit. It might not look like it on this model, but I assure you it's a Mom Suit. [Sigh.] I feel so old. What's happened to me??

In other my-world-is-officially-upside-down news, I found myself yesterday at a place called Santa's Land. No, it's not in the North Pole. It's not a special shopping center open only in December. Apparently the natives from Cherokee, NC thought the best way to bring tourists to their reserve and share their culture is an playground/zoo/magic show/amusement park for toddlers. (Earlier in the week, Mark had been laughing at a billboard for it, wondering what in the world it could possibly be, and who in the world would want to go there. Ironic, no?) Mark's friend Jeff suggested we take all the kids there to burn some energy... so we rolled our eyes, packed them up, and let me tell you something... it was awesome.

Aside from the constant Christmas carols in the background (which I actually liked, but could be potentially annoying for some), the mostly-creepy magician (who was also the person in charge of feeding the bears), and the cash-only snack bar, this place is pretty perfect if you have four kids under the age of three. Nathan was a bit young for a lot of the stuff, but he did ride his first merry-go-round, and had fun on the slide. They had baby versions of roller coasters, car and boat rides, and a ferris wheel big enough for our whole family to ride together. They have an eclectic collection of animals (mostly ones you can pet or get very close to in their cages) and lots of playground equipment, too. All with a Santa theme (though I'm still not sure why that's necessary... a Cherokee theme would be much prettier and more educational... and relevant). I know the whole thing sounds insane, and I probably would have said the same thing a year ago (actually I said it last week)... which just goes to show how much your life changes with a kid. Diapers, nursing, sleeplessness, car seats, baby songs... all those are easy mental shifts. Santa's Land is the official indicator that you've fallen off the deep end.

Happy Mother's Day to me!

(For more pictures of our Santa's Land adventure, click on Nathan and his safari hat, below.)

by mgoetts

A New Mrs. Goettsch

I'm writing this up on Balsam Mountain in Waynesville NC, where I don't have good internet access... so it's likely it won't be posted until we're back home in Raleigh. What brings me to Waynesville, you ask? Well, Mark's brother Nick finally tied the knot with his love Barbara this weekend.

We're so excited to have Barbara in the family. She is a sweet, gentle, kind soul (our family needs more of those). I've known Nick since he was a preteen (scary, huh?)... I've seen him throw temper tantrums over video games, I've heard him play violin so terribly that Barbara's love of bluegrass should make her want to disown him - promptly, I've watched as he turns any occasion into an opportunity for fun, a prank, or a party. Needless to say, I've seen a lot of Nick laughing over the last eleven years... but I have never seen his face shine with so much joy as when he's with Barbara. They were both so emotional during the wedding service that pretty much everyone in the room got choked up with them!

I realized yesterday that Nathan will never remember a time when Nick and Barbara weren't married. He won't remember watching them morph from two college students into one family themselves. The result of this weekend's ceremony.... the uniting of these two people... for Nathan it will just be... normal.
Nick and Barbara: Congratulations to you! I hope that when everything is "just normal" and you settle into your life together, you remember the butterflies and excitement you felt today. I wish you a lifetime of it. We love you so much.

(For more pictures of our wedding trip, click on the chapel below.)

by mgoetts

Eleven Years and Counting

Eleven years ago today, Mark and I had our first date. We saw Austin Powers in the theater. The first Austin Powers. You know you've been together a long time when they show your first date movie in a marathon on TBS every other weekend.

In those eleven years, here are some quirky things I have learned about Mark:

1.) He doesn't like to touch greasy or squishy things. This includes massage oil, lotions (he uses sunscreen spray), and even soap (he does wash himself, don't worry... he has a loofah and body wash like any respectable woman).

2.) He can dance. Like, club dance. And he likes to. Surprising for some of you who know him but haven't seen this particular talent in action.

3.) He gets fired up enough at sporting events to holler at refs and umps. This includes stadiums full of 90 thousand people where no one could possibly hear him, as well as church softball games where the people in charge hear every word.

4.) He loves fruit. I can't think of a single fruit he doesn't like.

5.) He has a knack for always being able to find the best red wine on the menu.

6.) He is a Rule Follower. In almost any sense of the title. Which isn't surprising if you know him.

7.) The one guilty pleasure he will admit to is a fondness for techno music.

8.) He will do anything to get Nathan to laugh. I call him a laugh whore.

9.) He claims not to understand Dutch (his first language) well anymore... but he laughs at jokes when people are talking in Dutch around him. Hmmm.

10.) He is a sucker for a movie with a great soundtrack, and is sometimes distracted from what's happening on screen by what's happening in the background score.

11.) He was a great boyfriend and now he's a great husband. I love you, Marky!

Ashley and the Beast

Remember when my mom completed a half-ironman last fall? And then my sister Ashley rode her bike to the top of Beech Mountain?

Well, these two are at it again. They've been in St. Croix this week for what's apparently one of the hardest half-ironman courses on the circuit. If you're at home counting, that's a 1.2 mile swim in the ocean (apparently for this race, you have to swim to the swim start - odd, huh?), a 56-mile bike, and a half-marathon run (13.1 miles). As part of the bike course, there's an exceptionally difficult hill, affectionately (or maybe not so much) referred to as The Beast. For you cyclists out there, this is what the race's website says about The Beast: Twenty-one miles into the bike, The Beast is a 600-foot climb in a stretch of highway 7/10 of a mile long with an average grade of 14 percent and a maximum grade of 21 percent. And that's with 35 miles still to cycle, and a half-marathon yet to run. Yikes.
According to the finish results, Ashley and mom both completed the whole course - and this is Ashley's first 70.3-length event... as if racing that far isn't hard enough, she conquered The Beast her first time out, too!

I haven't talked to her yet, but knowing Ashley finished makes me swell with pride of my baby sister. I kind of get all sappy when I think about it - she's really an amazing person. Ashley is only 13 months younger than I am, so we've never really known life without each other... there have been times when no one seemed to exist except the two of us, actually. We've had our ups (and they were way up!!!) and downs (you guessed it - pretty bad) over the years, but I couldn't be happier that she is the sister I've been given. So in light of her recent accomplishment, it's time for a list of reasons she really is AshTheSuperhero, and was even before The Beast.

1.) She can find humor in everything. I can't count the number of times there's a (seemingly) normal conversation going on, and I look over to find Ashley's shoulders shaking with laughter. Her laugh is contagious and when she is in a good mood she lifts up everyone around her.

2.) She sings all the time. Our family had a "no singing at the table" rule, and I'm pretty sure Ashley's lungs were the reason this was necessary. I think there must be a song running through her head constantly. She has admitted that as she swims, she moves her arms in rhythm with whatever music is floating through her stream of consciousness, and I suspect the same is true when she bikes and runs. Know that song from Mary Poppins, Step in Time? (If you don't, click that link and go watch the video!) Ashley can make that song into anything she's doing. She has been known to tack the phrase "step in time" at the end of any task, and sing while she works. I kid you not.

3.) She's a great mommy to her pup, Rita. She's always been attracted to animals with similar personalities to hers, and Rita is no exception. As you can imagine, these two are quite a handful.

4.) No people are famous unless Ashley and I have heard of them; likewise, if we know who you are, you're a superstar.

5.) She speaks fluent French. Just one of a myriad of academic talents. Unfortunately, speaking German isn't one of them... just ask the concerned waiter in Munich who heard her "practice" her German before going to Oktoberfest... "Ich brauche einen Arzt," in a French accent, very loudly. (She was asking for a doctor, if you don't read Deutsch.)

6.) She brings out the best in Nathan. No matter how fussy he is, she's happy to hold him and snuggle him and play with him. Sometimes I think she gets as much joy from making him laugh as we do. I have to wrestle him away from her harder than any of the grandparents, believe it or not!

7.) She knows who she is. She doesn't pretend to know exactly what she wants in life, or what career path she'll end up on, or the type of man she'll marry. But she has a gut instinct and she knows how to follow it to be true to herself. Even if it rubs someone the wrong way sometimes, she refuses to apologize for who she is.

8.) She's fun to travel with. Whether we're getting lost in Apex due to an involved conversation about snot, or singing Do Re Mi through the Austrian countryside on a tour bus, or riding the Parisian metrobuses without fare cards, it's never not an adventure.

9.) She's a great storyteller. Which comes in handy when you love to tell the same stories over and over again, as we do.

10.) When the two of us are together, we rule the world. Just ask anyone.

I hate to be predictable, but...
Love you, Ashley (step in time)!

Monkey Feet (Nine-Month Update)

As of this week, I have officially been worried about Nathan's slow weight gain (and weight loss, at times) for a third of his life. Let me say that again: a third of his life. I am tired of counting calories, tired of trying to get him to take "one more bit" and nurse "one more minute," tired of watching all the other kids sit and stand and pull up and even crawl in some cases, while trying to convince myself that Nathan is normal in Nathan's way. It's exhausting me, frankly.

So I'm done. Nathan is a baby for such a short time, and I am not going to waste his babyhood being stressed. He weighed in at 17lbs on Monday, which, while on the smallish side, is on the chart and perfectly normal and I'm just not going to stress anymore. He'll bear weight on his legs, he'll sit without wobbling, he'll pull up with his arms when he's ready, and no amount of stress or worrying or fretting will change that... all it does is take valuable energy away from enjoying my son. In the grander scheme of things, I have way more regarding Nathan's health to be thankful for than stressed about. So I'm done.

[I need to note here that although I have let go of my stress, Nathan has had an extremely fussy week. What gives? Although he did sleep all night, without any fussing, at Kelley's this weekend. In his car seat on the bathroom floor, but whatever. It worked.]

One of the great things about Nathan's pretty delayed gross motor skills is that he has developed creative ways to compensate. My favorite example of this is his monkey feet. I think I have mentioned a couple of times that he can grasp something with his toes, bring it from one foot to holding it in both feet, and then swing it up into his arms. Much more efficient than learning to get up into a sitting position to pick a toy up, right? We finally, finally, got him to do this on camera.