Holiday greeting 2009

Seasons greetings, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah:

Instead of a formal letter, we're using our family blog to give you updates on our lives and tell you some of the highlights of the year.

2009 marks the first full calendar year with Austin, so much of our activity revolves around the little guy. We've watched Austin go from crawling to walking to running -- often with a ball and bat in hand. In fact, "bat" and "ball" are often the first words out of his mouth in the morning. He was just waving hi at the start of the year. Now, he says a bunch of words, starting with mama, dada and agua, and even knows some letters in English and Spanish. Sometimes, Austin will count to six, skip over seven, and go on to 10. He loves anything on wheels -- trucks, buses, bikes.

Michael and I still have jobs with the Orange County Register. Michael continues to cover USC sports. I recently took over as the Disney/tourism reporter, writing about the county's largest employer in the Around Disney blog.

Our schedules allow us to split child-care duties. Our wonderful nanny, Ana, comes 15 hours a week to fill in the gaps.



Our relatives visited us several times this year. In the winter, Austin's paternal grandmother, Noni, and Aunt Alison, escaped the Chicago cold to see us. Great Aunt Debbie and Uncle Marty also spent time with us while Marty attended a conference in Anaheim. Austin's maternal grandparents made it out for Austin's first birthday in April.

In late summer, both grandmothers took turns filling in for our nanny, who took a three-week vacation. Both Noni and Grandma seemed to really enjoy the extended time with their only grandson -- and we enjoyed the break by having them around to help out.



We also traveled to see the grandparents and other relatives -- three times to Tucson for my side of the family and twice to Chicago for Michael's side. Sadly, one of the Tucson trips was for my grandmother's funeral.



We've also tried to take advantage of the many fun activities in Southern California.

We made a trip to the aquarium when Noni and Aunt Alison were in town. In the spring, we got a deal on annual passes to the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park. Austin loved seeing the monkeys and the elephants when we went to the zoo twice over the summer. For Fourth of July, we went to Angel Stadium for a baseball game, which is very close to our house.



With my new job, I got an annual pass to Disneyland. Because Austin still gets in for free, Austin and I are spending a lot of time at Disneyland. Lucky kid.

When he was first learning to talk, he surprised me one day by saying "Mee Mo!" when he saw a picture of Mickey Mouse on our way to the park. I guess it comes with the territory. Now, "Mickey Mouse Playhouse" is one of his favorite shows, along with "Sesame Street" with Elmo (also one of his first words).



Now, we are preparing for the holiday season. Unfortunately, we'll be split up for Christmas: Michael has to cover a bowl game in San Francisco, while Austin and I go to Tucson. But we the three of us celebrated Hanukkah as a family this weekend.



Most magazines this time of year are doing end-of-the-decade wrap-ups. It's made me realize that Michael and I have spent nearly a decade in California. We both moved out to So Cal -- separately before we met -- in 2000. It seems pretty crazy that we've now built lives here away from our hometowns. Now, we have our own little family in Orange County.

For fans of the blog, we have unfortunate news. We are putting the blog on indefinite hiatus. Both Michael and I write blogs for a living, so it's becoming a bit of chore. However, we know that many of you want to see pictures of Austin. So, I'll be putting up photos regularly on a Picasa site: http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahctully/. If you want to be notified about new ones, please send me an e-mail to let me know: sarahctully@yahoo.com.

Also, you can always become my friend on Facebook. I post photos there sometimes, too.

We hope that this holiday message finds you all in good health and spirits. Please keep in touch!

Love, Sarah, Michael and Austin

Christmas in November

Earlier this month, the whole Tully clan headed to Tucson for a sort-of early Christmas. My sister, Laura, has a baby due in mid January, so she won't be able to come to Tucson for Christmas. So, we all decided to get together early and have her shower, which our Aunt Diane nicely hosted.

Austin barely left the Tully house. Why should he? Everything he could possibly want was there.

Most of the time, he hung out with Grandpa, who did pretty much everything Austin asked him to do.

They read books.



Grandpa let him use this driving console, as well as sit in his real truck.



And Grandpa let Austin play with his guitar. Austin's great at air guitar, by the way.





Then, Grandpa was wondering why he was tired. Hmm, wonder why....

Austin also had a stream of visitors to the house, including Uncle Bob. Austin had met Bob earlier in the day and he was pretty interested in him. Austin kept calling, "Bob," and bringing him toys.



Austin showed Cousin Megan this apple.



Of course, Austin got to see his aunts. Here he is with Aunt Karen, who he calls Tia.



And here he is with Aunt Laura. He calls her Whoa-wa or Tia. He also saw Uncle D, who he calls D.



Laura was pretty worn out from the pregnancy and rapid growth of her baby boy. (He's already four pounds!) So, she had to rest quite a bit. Austin joined her in bed to read a book.



He was enjoying himself so much that he asked for five more minutes.



Of course, Grandma was there, too.

Austin is always happy to see Daddy.



We'll see most of the family again when we return for Christmas.

The Lion and the Bee

Halloween has become a kid holiday again.

As an adult, I used try to come up with some creative, pop-culture related costume. I would even go to that Halloween parade/party in Hollywood that they show on T.V.

Now, it's all about Austin. But that's OK.

It's like being a kid again.

For the first time in many years, I bought a pumpkin to carve with Austin.

Well, I carved the pumpkin and he enjoyed looking at it.

He also got a mini pumpkin for free at the grocery store. I drew on a happy face and let him color it himself. (He was wearing the helmet before we started the pumpkin process.)

Later in the week, I took Austin to a Treats in the Streets event in Old Town Orange. After we parked, the train was going by nearby. Austin watched it in his lion costume.

An old fashioned fire truck was at the festival.

Austin had to get out of the stroller to look at it.

Nearby, a petting zoo had a yak, llamas, little goats and other animals.

Austin sort of blended in with the animals.

On Oct. 30, Austin and I went to the pumpkin patch at the Irvine Park Railroad. He's wearing a glow-in-the-dark skeleton shirt from his Aunt Karen.

It was hard to direct Austin to put his head in these little picture booths. Here, he's a little corn.

And a witch.



Austin liked looking around at an inflatable black cat.

Austin was extremely excited about going on the train. We had watched the train go around the park a few times. When we were in line and the train pulled up, he started jumping from side to side and asked to get "Up" so we could get on the train right away.

Here we are waiting to go.

One of the employees offered to take this rare, joint picture.

On the train...

Austin took a picture with the engineer at the end of the ride.

Austin usually doesn't know how to pose, but he sure posed well for this picture. I think he was watching the other kids pose before him. He's showing his teeth.

Here's the full measuring stick.

He looks like a little jack o' lantern with his few teeth. Don't worry: He has many more teeth on the top.

For Halloween, Austin and I went to a Pre Trick-or-Treat Party. Austin and I both dressed as bees. But I forgot to ask someone to take a picture of both of us. Here's a picture of Austin playing the toy guitar at the party.

We didn't go trick-or-treating. Instead, Austin was more excited to hand out candy to kids at home. He thought it was the greatest thing ever.

-Sarah

Gra-grain visit

We're not sure how he came up with it, but Austin invented his own word for Grandma and Grandpa. It sounds something like Gra-grain.

Most of his words sound similar to what they are: (kuh-kuh for cracker, Bee-boo for Big Bird.) Not Grandma and Grandpa. But what can you do? At least he knows who they are. I think they enjoyed the recognition.

As Austin would say it, Gra-grain came for a visit in late October. The main reason was so Grandpa could go to the U2 show with me, Michael and Aunt Susan. It's a big tradition in the Tully house: Grandpa (my dad) took me to my first U2 show at age 14 in 1987. We've been to four U2 shows together.

Still, I think Austin was the main attraction for both grandparents.

Grandma brought Austin a new Halloween Mickey Mouse (Mee-mo) coloring book and triangular crayons.





Grandpa helped him color.



On Sunday before the show, we walked over to a pumpkin patch/kid area in the parking lot of the mall near the house.



Austin liked looking around. Coincidentally, Grandpa put him in an orange shirt, so he kind of blends in.





Austin really liked watching some kids drive mini trucks. Next year, he'll be begging to drive them.



Austin found a comfortable, pumpkin chair.



Another angle.



Austin thinks these little pumpkins are balls. He threw one on the ground.



After Grandma and Grandpa left, Austin kept asking for the rubber gloves when I washed the dishes. He's never asked for them before. I thought it was something that Grandma let him do. She says no.

A coincidence?



We'll be going to visit Gra-grain this weekend. More from their house later.

-Sarah