WE'RE FINALLY BACK!

After an almost 7 month hiatus (excuse: broken camera, and you only come here for the pictures), the Chicago Stratfords are finally back on the web with new and exciting pictures! I had intended (like my amazing older sister) to take pictures with my new camera (thanks, Mom and Dad) of the kids using/wearing/holding all their Christmas gifts, then print them and send them with the thank-you cards they wrote. But January's more than half over, the thank-you cards are done, but the pictures are only half done. So I'm just going to post some here and then everyone can see them anyway. And I haven't yet taken any of Mary and her Christmas loot (she was at school when I captured Isaac and Linda), so I'll post those as I can.

Here's the newest member of our family (at least until the beginning of June): Chaco the Chewbacca cat who thinks he's a dog. Thanks to Chaco we no longer see any signs of mice in our apartment, but for heaven's sake, does he have to climb on my head in the middle of the night? He also sounds just like a baby crying, which can be incredibly annoying. But he lets the kids do almost anything to him, and I swear he wishes he was human. One evening Ed and I were sitting at the table talking, I looked to my left, and there was Chaco, perched on the stool with his front paws on the table, looking back and forth at Ed and I as if he were following every fascinating word.




If you've seen the Chicago weather report, you know how much snow we've had around here. Linda loves to go outside and play in it, but this was one of the rare days I could get Isaac to go out. It helped that his backyard neighbor and best buddy Mwenda was already outside building trails. Mwenda's in full-day preschool so they only get to play on Saturdays. They are at the same school and right across the hall from each other, but never see each other.