January 11, 2005

This is a cheater update.  I’m just going to attach the Holiday letter and pretend I updated. 

Greetings from the Ptak Family.  If I had read that greeting last year, I would have assumed this letter to be from one of David's relatives, but no, it's us now.  Carter John Ptak was born January 24th! We have had all the ups and downs of new parents and have enjoyed almost every minute. Carter is a happy, healthy little boy who currently is crawling everywhere (but standing whenever he has something to lean against) and getting into everything he can get his hands on.  We've had a rising tide of off-limits items as his reach has extended upwards. 

As far as us, late in 2003, after living in our RV (“Tiny”) for nearly a year and a half and traveling around the country, we finally became land bound again in Portland, Oregon. We are really enjoying our new hometown and have been striving to make it feel more like "home" by exploring and making friends.  We bought a great house in NW Portland with 3 bedrooms, nearly an acre of land, but still just 15 minutes from downtown. It is very idyllic – surrounded on all sides by trees and greenery.

I'm a stay at home mom and in July David finally bit the bullet, dusted off his work clothes, and went back to work at his old company, Synopsys. But for Carter's first 6 months we were able to split child care 100% (well, except for the breast feeding).  That was an opportunity that most fathers don't have and he is an even better dad because of it.  He is still in charge of the bath/bottle/bed routine and he does a great job every night! Those first few months of having to go to work every morning were a bit of a transition, but he will even admit to liking his job on some days now. (Hey, it's still a job - tooling around the country and taking care of a baby are a lot more fun and we will have those memories for a lifetime.)

We haven't completely gotten over the travel bug, however. Plus, Carter needed his travel initiation this year, so before David went back to work we visited many of Carter's relatives and admirers in Minneapolis, Alaska, and California. We've also been very lucky to have helpful and social visits from so many people this year!! We owe special thanks to my mom and to David's sister, Michelle, for all the time they spent with us during Carter's first few weeks as well as their additional visits during the year. Their help and support were invaluable.  Thank you also to the many others who made the trek out to Portland to visit and help.  Of course, we look forward to seeing more of you in the year ahead.

As far as the last member of our little family, Pluto, I think his life has changed the most.  At least David and I knew the baby was coming, Pluto woke up one day to this little "thing" in his house and his world has been turned upside down ever since.  He now has many more rules imposed upon him, PLUS, he has to constantly keep an eye on the crawling kid to make sure he's not about to be ambushed.  He has been stoically resigned to the whole situation, and we try to give him some undivided attention occasionally. Things are looking up now though, as Carter learns to feed himself and many, many, MANY things end up on the floor.

It has been a life-changing year which we no doubt will always look back on fondly.  May good health and happiness find you all in 2005.

Love From The (Oregon) Ptaks,

Betsy, David, Carter, and Pluto, too