Howarth Family

Cupcake Birthday Party

Clint Howarth — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 14:09:24 +0000

Despite many near-misses due to tantrums, Fiona made it to her third birthday. Friends came over for a cupcake decorating and eating celebration, and everyone had an excellent time.

Violet is communicating very clearly now, with sentences, smiles… mixed in with the occasional blood-curdling scream, which we’re trying to replace with punctuation. Fiona was never really the screaming in mid-conversation type, but she and Violet have a good balance now.

“Violet, would you like to play with me?”
“No, thank you,” Violet says. (sounds like: no eck you)
“Please?” as Fiona tries to grab toy from Violet.
“AAAAAAAAH!” Violet says to the grab.
“AAAAAAAAH!” Fiona says to Violet’s scream.
“Uhhhhh,” the parents say.

Happy New Year

Clint Howarth — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 18:00:12 +0000

The girls had a wonderful holiday season. Santa must have missed some of our status reports on naughtiness.

Violet’s speaking more every day, and it’s a joy to hear the difference between “No, thank you”, “No”, and “No WAY”. She finished getting her teeth in, and loves using them to eat grownup foods.

Fiona’s coming out with sentences that we didn’t teach her, which for a language geek like me is absolute joy. She was accepted to the preschool we applied for, and she begins class in the fall. Exciting and scary for us all.

Next up for us is Fiona’s third birthday, followed shortly by Violet’s second. Everything happens too quickly!

A bunch of new pictures in the Gallery.

Happy New Year!

Storyland and the White Mountains

Clint Howarth — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 14:42:54 +0000

Last month, we all took a vacation to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. Storyland is everything you could hope for in a theme park for young kids. We hiked, played, and enjoyed our time in New Hampshire. I think we’ll be back next year! New pictures in the gallery.

Goodbye to Summer

Clint Howarth — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 16:28:26 +0000

The new pictures in the gallery are from the end of the summer season. We spent a lot of time in the backyard and went to King Richard’s Faire. Getting ready for Fall!

Mid-Summer

Clint Howarth — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 21:28:10 +0000

We’re all really enjoying the big new backyard, although we could do with a little less heat wave.

A large update in the gallery. Enjoy!

Settling In

Clint Howarth — Sun, 02 May 2010 17:08:22 +0000

Not unpacked, because I don’t know if that will ever happen. New wiring, appliances, kitchen and bathroom floor, gutters, and new playset built in the backyard. Holes in the wall for in-progress networking project. Some walls are stripped of wallpaper, some washed, and some painted. Learning about garden beds and weeding and discovering what plants we have. The girls really love the house.

Fiona asks real questions now, and surprises us by springing words that we didn’t teach her (not the bad kind of surprise yet, fingers crossed). Violet went from crawling to standing to walking in a snap. And then naturally to grabbing everything she can off of tables and counters.

All getting ready for Violet’s first birthday. We’ve been taking a lot of pictures to make up for lost time; enjoy the gallery update!

Spring Comes Early

Clint Howarth — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:08:36 +0000

…and the whole family is getting to know the new home. A new collection of pictures is in the gallery. Happy Spring, all!

End of Winter update

Clint Howarth — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:58:15 +0000

We spent an hour this morning finding the wire needed to get the pictures off the camera. Rather than wait until we finish our home projects (which is looking to coincide with never), we instead made a gallery update that covered the move out of our apartment, our move into our new home, Fiona’s birthday, and the girls playing in the backyard.

Purchase and Move and Renovations

Clint Howarth — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:05:43 +0000

In the last two months, we’ve conquered the financial world and bought a grand old house. We then moved in and have since been consumed by many renovations to this home, mostly performed by us. Roughly half our belongings are still in boxes, and each box is unpacked either by necessity or by Kate’s indomitable will.

We’ve been taking pictures. The girls have adapted admirably to the new residence, and I’ll update our gallery as a reward to myself for learning to network my new home, as my computer has become the family computer and the hardware we use to transfer pictures/movies from our camera is still safely packed away. It’s tough to say “I need to update the family website” when surrounded by this wallpaper.

new software assistant

Clint Howarth — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:12:57 +0000

Came back to my desk to find that Fiona had helped me with my work. Can you spot her contribution?

Fiona-assisted coding

My first thought was, “How much should I bill her out at?”

Then I realized that she’d ask for back pay in a few years.

Ideas for a new plan are welcome.