Monday, May 24, 1976 Right now Aaron is playing with Alan for a second while Alan takes a study break…now he’s back chewing on my knee. Aaron has gotten to the game-playing stage. I’ll drop the washcloth on his tray, and he’ll whisk it off and try to throw it on the floor. I’ll catch it and throw it back on the tray. He will play this until I’m tired! In the morning, Alan will hide under the sheet, and Aaron will pull the sheet off his face. Over the face again, off again. Over—off—over—off…of course accompanied by much laughter and squeals of delight.
Only one more packed lunch this year, 1½ days of class for Alan, one final, and two days of comprehensives!
Tuesday, June 1, 1976 Well, Aaron has mastered the art of whisking open the curtain around Alan’s desk area, and now unless I put up an additional barricade of pillows, I have to chase after Aaron every five minutes or he’s in trying to help Alan study. Right now, he is, per usual, trying to help me write by moving my clipboard and chewing on my knee. He’s gotten awfully demanding since he seems to know that Alan doesn’t like him to cry these days while he studies.
Sunday we went to Jackson to Alan’s Aunt Annie and Uncle Bernard’s cabin at Round Lake. It was Aaron’s first crawl in the grass, and he just seemed to love it. There are so many dogs and so much garbage around Detroit that we never let him roam free. He busied himself eating grass and maple tree spinners, twigs, ants, etc. Luckily he’s pretty clumsy yet and didn’t catch any ants!
We finally got Aaron a car seat, and I think it’s an excellent one. [Car seats for infants weren't mandatory until the end of the '70's.] He’s all strapped in like a race car driver and a lot safer than he is on our laps. He really fussed at first when we went on a trial run, then played, and eventually fell asleep. We’re hoping he sleeps a lot on the way home to the Soo.
Wednesday, June 9, 1976 Last day before Alan’s comprehensives. He was up at 5:00 am as usual but is also quitting at 5:00 pm for dinner and prayer meeting as usual, then an early bedtime so that he’s hopefully refreshed for two very long days of exams!
Aaron is sitting at my feet under the kitchen table, munching on a tidbit of banana from lunch that I accidentally forgot to wipe off his high chair at lunch time. He has spent the morning rolling around some cans of pork-n-beans and empty margarine containers, checking out all the rooms in the house for lint balls or other taste treats, and pushing the kitchen chairs around the floor. Now I see he’s snagged a thread off the edge of my blue jean cutoffs!
Yesterday the two of us went for a trip to see Annie Lull (and her mother), who is now one year old. She has lots of dandy toys and is pretty interesting herself. Both the kids are relatively gentle, and although Aaron is smaller, he is typically more often interested in joining her play than she is in joining his. If he starts to reach for something that she has, Annie puckers up to cry, and I whisk him away to play with something else, which suits him just fine.
Unless you hear otherwise, our plans—as of today—are to head north on Wednesday. Alan is done Friday night; Saturday is the freshman class picnic. Sunday is church and a trip to Jackson to take our stereo and other valuables to store at Aunt Annie’s. Monday is a trip to the zoo for Aaron. Tuesday is clean, wash, and pack day, and a dinner date with some friends. So, I don’t know how rested we’ll be when we land, but we will have had a very good “honeymoon” to recover from school I think. We are very excited to see you!
HAPPY END OF FIRST YEAR MED SCHOOL TO US…WE SURVIVED!
Just love the pictures, Kathy.And of course: Aaron is a beautiful baby!
Thank you, Sarah! I always think of Aaron’s kids as having a lot of their mom in them, but looking through the old pictures does make me realize that there’s lots of their daddy in there too!