1996-12-14 Woozle writes to Grandma

Dear Grandma,

Yes, the errant grandson writes! Mirable dictu! Sacre Bleu! Bon Ami! Of course, now I shall have to be terribly witty and clever in order to make up for the vast geological spans of time since my last letter, and I'm not certain I am capable of it. I will do my best.

I will cheat and draw upon the creativity of another by relaying some Amusing Anna Anecdotes:

1. Anna has discovered how to snake her way out of her safety chair in the car. Like a silicon micro-Houdini, she wrests one arm free, which then allows her to rotate ninety degrees and free the other; then it’s all over. So we have taken to tightening the belt an extra tug. Anna’s response to being unable to wriggle out is "Help! I’m too stuck!"

2. While riding in the car, she tends to go into monologues which incorporate all the various words she is practicing -- long diatribes about cars (beebeep!), dogs, cats, bears, tigers ("RRRR!") fire trucks ("RRRR!"), p'weese cars (op. cit.), choo-choo trains (hoo-hoo!) c'pooters, tee-bee, snuggling, all the people she knows, bunnies, etc.

3. She saw a picture of "The Jungle Book" videotape (to which we will all doubtless be subjected when we visit after Christmas) and started singing about the "bear nessessies". She also knows "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", which goes something like this: Hop hop hop hop hop the world so high, hop hop hop hop a don’t fall down!

4. After watching part of "Fantasia" the other day, we were walking through an office supply store when suddenly Anna made it very clear there was somewhere she wanted me to go. I followed her arm-tugging (she pilots me while I carry her) up to a display of Mickey Mouse pencils. She didn’t seem to want one especially; she just wanted to know what they were, to confirm that it really was Mickey Mouse, and to acquire some more words. A successful mission.

In general, Anna continues to demonstrate that she is extremely bright and enthusiastic about life. She is well along on learning how to dress herself (she's definitely got the undressing part down, and the rest is in progress) and attend to other matters, and though shy she still clearly enjoys interacting with people of all ages.

Other than that, our existence has been largely less amusing but manageable nonetheless. I am currently looking for real employment using the World Wide Web -- this was not possible just a year or two ago, but it certainly seems to work pretty well now. After spending maybe one hour posting my vital stats to two different job search sites, I received about six inquiries for more information. So I am hopeful that something will happen with this.

In any case, I hope all is well with you, and we look forward to seeing you at New Year's.

All our love,