Boppa Reads with Zoe

Zoe's favorite thing to do at 13 months old is sit on Boppa's lap,
point at animals, listen to Boppa make animal noises, and turn pages!
"I love you Boppa! LET'S READ IT AGAIN!"

Two-Month Update

At Zoe's two month check-up with Dr. Piel (a day after her 2-month birthday), she weighed in at 12 lbs even (a couple ounces heavier than Hannah was at 2 months), 23 inches tall, with a 39 cm head circumference. All of which generally put her in the 75th percentile, except head circ. which was a mere 50th percent. Dr. Piel said that was exactly where we ought to be and gave her a clean bill of health. More warnings about her being a very active and alert baby, so watch out!


We finished off the appt with the dreadful vaccinations -- Polio, Hib, Pneumococcal, DTap and Rotavirus. Fortunately, they combined a few of the doses since Hannah was 2 months, so Zoe only needed two shots in the thighs instead of the previous four, and one oral (Rotavirus). We started with the oral, remembering Hannah's proclivity for getting all hysterical over the shots and usually throwing up. But apparently they don't flavor the RV oral gel, so it's rather nasty, and after administering about half of it, Zoe did actually gag and puke it up. I should have known better than to feed her before the appt! The nurse amazingly managed to get a bit more down after that, and we'll get round two in another two months, so no biggie. The shots were also not enjoyed, but she managed to calm down relatively quickly afterward, which was a big relief. So all in all, Zoe was a real champ and checked out great. Big thanks to Memaw who was there to help me out!

Needless to say, Memaw and Boppa have been having a blast during their month-long visit, and Zoe has given them loads of dimpled and double-chin'd smiles. She definitely has her daddy's dimples.

Your Great Grandfather: E.O.Wollan

Zoe, you share your November 6th birthday with your great grandfather, Boppa's father, Ernest O. ("E.O.") Wollan. So it's great timing that this recognition occurred just recently, around both of your birthdays.

E.O. Wollan was an accomplished nuclear physicist who performed some groundbreaking research at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory back in the 1940s. In 1994, ten years after Ernie had passed away, one of his partners, Clifford Shull, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the work they performed together. Unfortunately they don't award it posthumously, so Ernie was not able to share that distinction. But someone wrote a nice little story about Ernie here (click here to read). The recent news out of Oak Ridge citing Ernie's 1944 letter is below (click on picture to enlarge).

Ernest Wollan (left) and Clifford Shull (standing) working with their neutron diffraction unit at the Oak Ridge Graphite Reactor in 1950.

Here is Grandpa Ernie with Eric & Kristina back in in 1971.

I have not yet made it that far south, but apparently there are some rocks/islands off the coast of Argentina named after my grandfather and his partner -- Wollan Island and Shull Rocks. Talk about cool!

Old Glory, How About That?

Hannah, there is one person I wish you could have met before she traveled on to other worlds: my mom's mom, your great Grandmother, Beatrice H. Brown. Most everyone called her Betty; I always called her Grandmom. She respected everything in the world, and in turn, everything in the world seemed to show her respect. She was born this day in 1917. I think you would absolutely LOVE her, as her favorite thing to say was "Now that's a curious thing," and your favorite thing to say is "How 'bout dat!" Perhaps you see the word like she does. I like to think that you do, or that you will... I do not have many pictures of Grandmom to share with you, but her personality shines throughout the few I do have. Here are a couple pictures taken in 1982, when I was eight years old and Grandmom was sixty-five. They are from a children's book written about my family maple sugaring in Vermont called Sugaring Time. When I read passages from this book and look at the pictures, I feel like she is sitting right next to me, turning the pages:

"One morning, the melting, earthy smell of spring up in the meadow suddenly turns sweet a few hundred feet from the sugar house. Steam rolls out the open ends of the house and smoke rises from the chimney in back. Being inside is like sitting in a maple cloud surrounded by the muffled roar of the fire and the bubbling tumble of boiling sap. Betty Brown and the children are there, their cheeks wet and shiny in the maple mist. This is their first celebration, except birthdays, since Christmas. Boiling time is like a party, a party that celebrates mud and greenness, sweetness and renewed life... Alice (my Mom, your Grandmom) scoops up cups of boiling sap and steeps tea bags in them for sap tea. The children drink it while sitting on logs, using up-side down buckets as tea tables. After they finish, Betty leans on her walking stick listening to the thrum of the fire and the wild din of her grandson Jeremy (your uncle) beating a raucous sugar song on the upturned buckets... [Later] Jeremy, lulled by the bubbling tumble of the boiling sap, is just the right size to fall asleep in his grandma's arms."

Every minute is a celebration to enjoy and ponder to your Great Grandma Betty. I say "is" instead of "was," because your Great Grandma assured us all that she would be embarking on greater adventures upon departing this world. I take her at her word. Perhaps she has been able to stop by San Francisco in between her adventures and catch a glimpse of you growing up. Again, I like to think so. Today, her birthday, is conveniently "Flag Day." It commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States, which happened that day by resolution of the Second Continental Congress in 1777. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day; in August 1949, National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress. Flag Day is not an official federal holiday, though on June 14, 1937, Pennsylvania became the first (and only) U.S. state to celebrate Flag Day as a state holiday. Title 36 of the United States Code, Subtitle I, Part A, CHAPTER 1, 110 is the official statute on Flag Day; however, it is at the President's discretion to proclaim officially the observance. This poster is from the same year Betty was born.

Happy Flag day! Happy birthday Grandmom!
To mud and greenness, sweetness and renewed life...
How 'Bout Dat!!!!

Grandma (Lacey) and Memaw & Boppa (Wollan)