I just learned that my uncle, Mike Steadman, passed away quietly last night just a few days short of his 65th birthday.
Mike was a great guy who managed to maintain his sense of hope and humor throughout many years of treatments for stroke and, finally, cancer. I’ll remember him, in particular, for the paintings he produced in his later years, and for the wonderful poem he composed and read at his grandson Ben’s funeral last spring.
Mostly I’m feeling terribly sad for his wife Margaret, my cousins Dean, Pete, and Pat Steadman, and for little Madie who’s lost both her brother and now her grandfather in such as short span of time. The Steadmans are some of the strongest, most loving, most positive, and best people I’ve had the good fortune to know. It just seems unfair that such good people have had to endure so much pain of late.
There will be a service for Mike this weekend. You can find more details on my cousin Dean’s blog.
To Margaret, Dean, Pete, Pat, Madie, Peggy, and all the rest of the extended Steadman family: We love you so very much. You are all in our thoughts and prayers.
June 27th, 2007
Super-quick update on Anna’s progress…she’s walking! She doesn’t do it ALL the time and she’s still pretty cautious, but she’s most certainly getting around more and more on two feet. Of course, we are excited beyond belief. Her physical therapist says that in a couple of weeks she expects Anna to be walking pretty much all the time. I guess that’s our cue to finish all the child proofing.
In other news, Anna had her 15-month check-up on the 15th of June. She weighs 23 lbs and is 32 1/2 inches tall (50th and 97th percentiles, respectively). Everything seems to be going well developmentally, and I hope I’m not jinxing this by saying that her ears look good! Let’s hope we don’t have to battle any summer ear infections.
Anna is finally acquiring some words! No longer is everything “bah” – she now says “Dada” and “Mama”, “Bir” (bird), “Dat” (cat), “Ba” (bath), “Buh” (book), “tic” (tickle), “go”, etc. As you can see, we don’t really have any final consonants, but I think those will come with time. She’s also picked up a ton of signs – dad, mom, rabbit, bird, dog, book, drink, shhh, sleep, please, more, food, cat, cow, gorilla, telephone, etc. I’ve learned quite a few signs myself in the past couple months! When I’ll ever need the sign for elephant, I’ll never know.
That’s about it for now…I hope to capture a “walking” video in the near future. I’ll be sure to post it if I can catch her in the act.
June 25th, 2007
Just a quick post to let folks know that we’ve posted some new pictures on Flickr. These include pictures from our trip to Kansas to visit family.
I’ll try to post an update on what we’ve been up to soon!
June 10th, 2007
