Carrie, our youngest, has become an avid talker and a strong communicator. We have noticed that she likes to use the word ‘Remember’. As in, “Dad, we need to pick up Jeri. Remember?” or “Mom, you said we could have some ice cream. Remember?” It reminds us that the other two had their catch phrases as well. Jeri was well known for saying ‘Actually’. So that when Brian would say, “Let’s get in the car.” Jeri would reply, “Actually, it’s a van.” And of course, Zac is famous for saying “What?” As in “Zac, did you hear what I said?”
Carrie is becoming more independent all the time. She potty trained herself back in October. She decided to start wearing ‘underwear’ one morning. (Not ‘panties’ or ‘underpants’. Get the words right, Dad.) It took another week to figure out that this required using the toilet, but she quickly got the hang of it. She is already capable of using the toilet at the store or at a restaurant and telling us when she needs to go. We are ecstatic that we are free of diapers.
Carrie has lots of personality and is just as willful as all Birgens. She has the ability to really tell it like it is. When Brian asked “Carrie, are you going to eat your pancakes?”she replied “No, I’m just going to look at the them.” She stubbornly refuses to be weaned, sneaking into our room in the middle of the night and cuddling up to Mommy. The older children have been teaching her how to scream to get her way, by giving in to her when she fusses. She is far too intelligent not figure out cause and effect.
Zac is doing well in first grade. He is popular with the other children and the teacher. He is quite the cuddle-bug and will sidle up to anyone who will let him: Mom, Dad, Carrie, Grandma, his teacher, etc. He is a great reader, although he prefers Pokémon books and cartoons. Zac started cub scouts in September and has really taken to it. He is becoming quite proficient at the piano and has a great ear for music. He is even singing a solo at the Christmas Eve service.
Jeri is in fourth grade and is finally being challenged. While she absolutely adored her third grade teacher, her new teacher has been working her much harder with much more homework. Jeri has started walking the eight blocks to Wartburg College after school and doing her homework in Mariah’s office, instead of playing at the daycare. Jeri is dealing with harder spelling words, in-depth research projects and a brand new math curriculum. Brian and Mariah are very happy to see Jeri learning how to work hard to deal with more difficult assignments. Jeri is also in tumbling and girl scouts, as well as taking piano lessons with Zac. She wasn’t as motivated at practicing as Zac, but recently has really taken to learning to play the Christmas tunes on the piano.
Mariah is still busy running the honors program at Wartburg College. In the spring she took her Scholars out to San Francisco on an Organic Food tour. Brian and the kids all went out with her, to see Cousin Tilden and the other Radcliffe relatives. The family and the Scholars took the train back across the country. Mariah has also been busy redesigning the Calculus curriculum at Wartburg, to be more applied with an emphasis on computations and modeling. She spent the summer in Iowa City working at a Research Experience for Undergraduates, the same one that Brian worked at last summer. She worked on a variety of modeling problems with a variety of talented students from all over, while Brian stayed home and tended house.
Brian taught his “Historical Roots of Math and Physics in Germany” course again this May. He took 10 students on a three week tour of Germany, drinking beer and visiting scientific archives all the way. Mariah met the class in Berlin and tagged along for the last week, while Grandpa Don and Grandma Katie stayed in Iowa with the kids. Apparently the grandparents’ immune systems are not used to being exposed to everything the children bring home these days. They were very happy to spend time with the children and very happy to head home.
The family (mostly Brian) has started a new hobby of geocaching. This is essentially using billion dollar technology to find tupperware in the woods, in the form of a handheld GPS unit. Brian and the kids went geocaching in San Francisco, Brian and Mariah went geocaching in Germany, Brian and the kids went geocaching in Iowa City. So far our family has found over 400 caches on our various trips and close to home. Brian is happy to take anyone along who is curious, but be warned that he is still learning the hard way what poison ivy looks like.
We had a bit of excitement in October when Jeri started having some stomach pains. What Mariah and Brian thought was the flu turned out to be appendicitis. Jeri was hastily scheduled for laparoscopic surgery and came through with flying colors. She was back at school before the end of the week (although she was excused from P.E.) and bounced back quickly. The appendix had not burst, so it was a very routine procedure, and we are quite glad it took place without any complications.
Our life is filled with many fun and exciting journeys; some planned, some unplanned. Some are literal trips, like the ones to San Francisco or Germany. Some are more conceptual, like potty-training or starting boy/girl scouts. We expect that the coming year will continue to take us new places. We know that next summer we will be visiting South Dakota and Ohio for the Birgen and Kill reunions. We are looking forward to spending a summer without losing a parent to Iowa City on a research binge. However, we fully expect some surprises in the coming year that take us to new venues.
May your life be filled with happy surprises and blessed routines. May there be peace in our world and in our hearts. We hope that this Christmas season will find you surrounded by the people you love. We wish our friends and family all the best.