We have experienced a healthy, growing, loving, family-centered year. We believe a key for what we consider a valuable and successful year is Missy's and Curt's continued dedication, and Eric's response, to attachment style parenting. Missy and Curt enjoy parenting; seeking to understand Eric, helping him feel "right," aiding his understanding of the world around him, and modelling health. We spend a lot of time in mutually beneficial play, story-telling, and discussions, growing our intra- and inter-personal skills. We try not to hurry Eric into learning and doing but give him the time, space, freedom, security, and opportunity to develop according to his genes and desires. We try to approach our struggles, our conflicts within ourselves, with each other, or with non-family members, as opportunities to grow.
Eric is now four years old and is still fascinated by cars, trucks, boats, planes, rockets, and trains--anything that goes. During the year he attended three stock car races, two remote control car races, three airshows, a car stunt show, and (his favorite) the Richard Petty Museum. Eric even got lug nuts and an autographed tire from King Richard Petty's #43 car! He toured a dozen aircraft, a battleship, destroyer, naval museum, transportation museums, train museum, and the racing hall of fame. Eric rode steam engines, subways, trams, a tractor, a winnebago, jet planes, and propeller planes. He sat behind the controls of jets, W.W.II planes, military boats, a tank, helicopters, a stock car, a Model T, and a steam locomotive. He drove a dozen pedal powered vehicles, a riding mower, a small electric jeep, his own battery powered Lamborghini, a remote controlled car, and slot cars. Eric's launched model rockets, flies kites, and, almost daily, throws paper airplanes. During the year he attended a variety of races, car and air shows, and transportation themed museums including (his favorite) the Richard Petty Museum. Eric even got lug nuts and an autographed tire from the King of stock car racing, Richard Petty's #43 car! He got to ride and sit behind the controls of a host of land, air, and sea vehicles. His toys and play are typically oriented around "things that go" and his room--he just moved into it last month--is decorated in a "fast car" motif. Eric continues to amaze his parents with his various intelligences. He listens intently to songs then sings the lyrics when Missy forgets them. His fine motor skills are such that he can string necklaces with beads so tiny Curt can barely see their holes. Eric is figuring out letters and their sounds and loves rhyming words and being read with; he has written a book, Eric's China Story, about "when he was bigger...." He has a great memory and is able to discover analogies and apply his surprisingly wide awareness in varied fields to develop unexpected solutions to problems. In his tumbling classes and daily around the house Eric demonstrates an impressive strength and agility and boundless energy. Eric is learning, and helping Missy and Curt learn, how to understand and express his intense feelings. That has been a family challenge.
Missy thoroughly enjoys being home with Eric. This year they joined a group of homeschooling parents and children. Our home learning is very unstructured and we expect it to remain so for at least a few more years. In January, Missy underwent knee surgery to repair the anterior cruciate ligament she tore playing soccer late last year. Her dedication to conditioning prior to the surgery and rehabilitation for several months afterwards led to a speedy recovery. She played soccer again this summer without pain or weakness in her knee. As a La Leche League (LLL) leader, Missy continues to help moms and babes overcome problems with breastnurturing and provide, what we think are, healthy answers to parenting questions. She organized and ran the bookstore at the annual NC LLL conference in Greensboro and it was a tremendous success! She's already been asked to assume that responsibility again for next year. Missy's handicrafts this year included a Michael Schumacher Formula 1 racer's outfit for Eric, curtains, several dozen greeting cards, and a Creative Memories photo album. In September, Missy's grandmother Esther Nielsen gave her hundreds of old photographs--including pictures of her great, great grandfather--that Missy is organizing into a multi-generation family picture book.
As part of leading a discussion group on Stephen Covey's book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Curt identified the eight most important roles he has in life and how he wants to be in them. He believes that exercise is helping him to make wiser, conscious choices about how he invests his time and energy. One of the results of his re-directed efforts is a large painting of World Champion Formula 1 driver Michael Schumacher in his car on a wall in Eric's room, Curt's first significant painting in ten years. Curt's IBM responsibilities have shuffled over the year. In January he was the only multi-team leader in his organization leading two of the six teams extending, supporting, and testing the portable Systems Network Architecture (P-SNA) product, by August both of those teams had been disbanded due to changing business needs, and in September he became the team leader for the entire P-SNA product. IBM's stock growing 40 points in the last couple of months is probably just a coincidence. (Financier Curt sold a bunch of it just before it took off.)
At the beginning of the year, we had hoped to develop a new product--a book on parenting--as part of our home business. Over the year, Alternate Healthier Choices time was made subservient to family time. We made little progress writing the book as we were mostly living it. We had fun and even some success marketing a current product. We gave five, one evening classes on "How to Have the Wedding You Want for Less Than $500"--our first marketing approach that generated more revenue than expenses--and we gave over two dozen interviews on the topic on radio stations around the country. We are considering other product possibilities that don't require a large investment in research and writing. Eric's book and the Frantzland board game we developed raise interesting possibilities. We think they would be in line with our home business philosophy and marketable if they can be generalized.
As is typically the case, we travelled a lot during the year. In January, Missy, Eric, and mom/grandma Joyce Leslie drove to Columbia, South Carolina to visit Missy's brother Dan and family. In the spring, the three of us visited Washington, DC when the cherry blossoms were blooming to see Chris and Amie Carolyn Groobey, Steve and Tami Holsten, and to meet 6 month old Andy Holsten. In May we attended Bob Ford and Glenna Barkel's wedding (twenty years ago, Missy used to baby-sit Glenna) and visited Missy's parents and longtime friends in Saline, Michigan. In early July we were in Pennsylvania visiting Curt's family and friends, stopping off on the way near Charlottesville, Virginia to visit his brother Will on the mountain top campus where he teaches. In late July we hit the beach just south of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for the annual gathering of Missy and her siblings, and their families. We spent a week of September in Iowa (Waterloo and Des Moines), visiting grandma Esther Nielsen, longtime family friends Roy and Jeanette Brasch, Missy's aunt Julie and uncle Rich, and her brother Don his wife Wendy and sons Stroh and Dalton. In Iowa we not only visited friends and family and did the tourist things, but Missy got a chance to visit some special houses from her childhood. In November, as part of Missy's birthweek, we traveled to Wilmington, North Carolina. Even in cool weather Eric loves wading in the waves and playing in the sand. In addition to beaching and touring, we hooked up again with the Holstens who were in Wilmington visiting Tami's sister Sherry and husband Jeff. Hurricane Fran, whose eye passed over our house, caused significant damage in the Cary area but nothing like the damage it caused in Wilmington. When it hit land its winds were a sustained 100+ mph (compared to the mid-60s in Cary). We lost a tree and a few large branches. We saw houses in Wilmington lying on their side.
It was a year rich in visitors. Joyce visited us for a week early in the year and Curt's brother Will came for a weekend shortly afterwards. Niece Rachel came for a week in mid-June and she and her family, Missy's brother Jim, wife Marilyn and children Rachel, Matt, and Paul met us in Cary in July on the way to Myrtle Beach. In late June, Curt's brother Dan, wife Cheri, and children Kimberly, Brian, and Jacob spent a few days with us before all of us made the trek to Pennsylvania for the July Fourth holiday. In November, the Holstens stopped by for a few days on their way back to DC from Wilmington.
We ended the year as we do most years, visiting Curt's family and friends in Pennsylvania.
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