This has been a year of breakneck-paced but ripsnortingly wonderful events and more importantly gatherings with family and friends. Hard to do it justice but OK HIGHLIGHTS: India became a second grader, lost her front teeth, and conquered New York City; fifth-grader Leo became a Disneyland fan plus he and his iPad were everywhere from Apple to the New York Times; Zelly started eighth grade, became a Rubik's Cube, and got serious about soccer; Craig continued to produce fabulous regional science stories at KQED's Quest and earned a NASA patch by going into the stratosphere; and Shannon continued to write a lot about "autism, parenting, iPads, and geekery" -- plus she and her TPGA crew put out a book, Thinking Person's Guide to Autism, which you should buy right now!
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Last December India got glasses. Craig started getting really, really into mushrooms (as did the kids) and we all went to a wonderful family Christmas in Phoenix, topped off with a visit to Joshua Tree.
In January, Zelly turned 12 and had a rainbow cupcake birthday. And there were more mushrooms to forage and watch sporulate!
In February Shannon's mom Mary Pat hosted a writing retreat in San Diego, attended by Shannon's friends Jen Myers, Emily Willingham, and Lori O. We're hoping it will be an annual event. We also got snow in the Bay Area -- a rare occurrence -- which our family celebrated with a truly fun snow-to-sea day. And Zelly won her school's spelling bee.
In March, Leo and Zelly (and Shannon) were featured in Apple's iPad: Year One video, which Steve Jobs introduced in the iPad2 Keynote event. It was weird as hell to see our kids' images stream by on the tech media feeds!
In April, Shannon's brother Dave and his son came to visit, which meant bouldering at Castle Rock, visits to the CalAcademy, and indoor Skydiving. Cousin visits are the best! The kids' Godfather Michael grew a moustache. And Craig's team at KQED produced a much-lauded Banana Slugs story.
In May, Shannon went to and reported on IMFAR, the International Meeting for Autism Research, where she had a blast happily drowning in science and meeting up IRL with many folks in the autism communities (see if you can identify anyone in the pic below). She also gave one of her iPads and autism workshops in San Diego (there are pictures of this one because her mom -- and IMFAR host -- Mary Pat attended). And Zelly and Craig got to attend Z's friend Max's Bar Mitzvah -- Max being the son of Craig's life-long friend Halle.
June was fabulous. India, as mentioned, took over the Big Apple - she fit in perfectly. She and Shannon got to stay with fantastic friends: Luis, and then John & Carol -- and visit our friends Donna, Dan, Alice, & Celia in Atlanta on the way home. Sweet! Leo got to go surfing and kayaking in Santa Cruz with the wonderful folks at Ride a Wave (donate!). And Craig, Shannon, Zelly, and India spent a week in the San Juan Islands with Craig's parents Marty & Janet while Leo was at camp.
July was all about the beach. Many, many beach walks -- with friends like Susan E. at Mavericks, Shannon's brother John at Año Nuevo, and Craig and Shannon all by themselves for an extended Big Sur 17th camping anniversary trip while Leo was at camp (again, he loves loves loves camp). And Craig finally got to see California Condors! India spent that anniversary weekend at home with Grandma Mary Pat (thank you!), while Zelly spent the week backpacking in her favorite High Sierra camp.
Shannon and Jen and Zelly and India went back to San Diego in August so Shan & Jen could go to the BlogHer conference. They stayed with Shannon's mom (shock!), roomed with the glorious SJ, and made risotto with Marco Pierre White! Craig and Leo joined the San Diego fun after BlogHer ended, and we all spent tons of time at Leo's favorite place, The Beach. While we were in San Diego, our boy got invited to go surfing with Surfer's Healing (donate!). On the drive home we stayed with Shannon's brother Mike, who introduced the kids to Back to the Future via the largest flat screen TV I've ever seen. You'd think the guy got some kind of discount.
September was all about soccer for all three kids in three different leagues. Yeah! India lost her front teeth and started piano lessons with our favorite Ukrainian instructor. Leo also got a music lesson, from the inimitable Stephen Shore (thank you again, Stephen!). Stephen was in town to speak at Leo's school's annual Morgan Autism Center conference, where Shannon gave her own talk about iPads and autism. (Leo's school is a phenomenal resource, yet is struggling financially -- please donate if you can.)
In October Craig made everyone who knows him apoplectic with jealousy as he rode in a NASA SOFIA stratospheric observatory flight - f0r work, of course (his teammate Lauren's resulting radio piece is a must-listen; the video portion is coming). Shannon attended HP's Hacking Autism conference as an advisor. Our friends Paul & Theresa visited from the Bluegrass State! And Halloween was tremendously fun, with traditional Dosen-hub trick-or-treating - India was a vampire princess, Leo was Fred Flintstone, and Zelly & Craig made a Rubik's Cube costume together. AND OMG LEO LEARNED TO RIDE A BIKE! (It was part of his IEP, there's one goal checked off for sure. :) ).
In November Leo hit the birthday dinner jackpot -- at Zante's Pizza in SF, which serves both cheese pizza and naan. Lucky India & Zelly accompanied Shannon & Craig (and two science writer friends) to the girls' first Radiolab show -- where India heckled comedian Demetri Martin in front of an audience of 2000. Leo was featured in a New York Times article that also covered the apps spreadsheet Shannon maintains with Jordan Sadler and Corina Becker. And Leo had the time of his life when he and India spend their birthdays at Disneyland. TIME OF HIS LIFE, PEOPLE! Many thanks to Shannon's mom Mary Pat and her brother Mike for coming along (Zelly and Craig stayed home for soccer tournaments). Then MP, Mike, and Mike's daughter Ashlyn came north for a faboo Thanksgiving.
December has mostly been about family, Craig's parents, and our SIL Kim and her girls visiting for Christmas, which we've been enjoying. (The cousins, they looooove each other. Except when they don't.) Oh, and Shannon and her amazing teammates Jennifer Byde Myers, Liz Ditz, Emily Willingham, and Carol Greenburg produced the best autism book ever -- Thinking Person's Guide to Autism, which you should buy right now, donate to your public library, and give to all your local pediatricians. And which investigative reporter Steve Silberman declared his Book of the Year! And, of course, there were mushrooms. Which came from our own backyard, which Zelly decided are part of an enormous mycorrhizal complex just off our back deck, and which Craig, his dad, and Michael P. cooked up for us, and we ate for Christmas dinner.
We hope your 2011 was wonderful, too. Please leave a comment and tell us something about your year!
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