Colin took his parents to the museum and ran around like a wild man. He probably wonders why he is not allowed down to touch and play with everything all the time. He loved the grocery exhibit and the Krisy Kreme play factory. Kripy Kreme is from Winston-Salem, but we never even got around to getting a donut from their birth place. What were we thinking?

We did love eating at the Tavern in Old Salem. And the cafe where the photo of the Art-o-Mat (from the previous post) was cute. The Art-o-mat is a way they use old cigarette machine to dispense art instead of lung cancer. There are over 90 of these all over the world now.

Some photos from Old Salem, the first Art-O-Mat, etc, etc.

The month has been a whirl-wind. Brian was only home until March 1 when he had to hurry to Winston-Salem, NC to begin Cosi Fan Tutti with the Piedmont Opera. The night before he left he had some friends come over for my birthday, who left me with a rainbow of peeps. He was very sweet to invite people over without my knowledge because I would have told him we did not have time to have people over. I like to think the Peeps gave me special energy to pack, but I do not really think so. I was not very good at packing with my little one-year-old helper. He likes to be right in where I am, which can be very helpful. Sadly, Colin got very sick, I think from when I took him to our pediatrician's office for a well-child visit. We had a very sad 10 days as Colin has never been very sick. Lucky for me, my good friend Mandy came from Utah to help pack things up. She was very, very helpful and I do not know what I would have done without her. Also, a great group from our Bloomington Singles Branch came to help move boxes into our storage unit. In the middle of some many things going wrong, a few things have gone right with the help of some great people.

We received the horrible news that my niece Kirsten was killed while at Trolley Square in SLC, Utah this past Monday. Her Mother was also seriously injured. We are all in shock and terribly devastated by this great loss. My brothers, sisters and I are scrambling from across the country to get to Utah. We have received many great kindnesses from many people during this tragedy, and we are very grateful.

The following is the statement from our family:

The Families of Kirsten Hinckley and Carolyn Tuft are, with all of our community saddened and shocked at the events of the previous evening. We are especially saddened by the loss of our sweet Kirsten, and the critical injury that occurred to Carolyn, but our hearts go out to all of the people hurt by this Tragedy. We would like to thank the entire law enforcement and medical communities for excellent handling of this whole ordeal. We appreciate the many thoughts and prayers that have gone out on behalf of both Kirsten and Carolyn, and join with our community in wishing well to all those who have suffered at this time. We ask the media and people for privacy.

Sincerely The Hinckley and Tuft Family

I have a slight affinity to making photo collages these days. Like many parents, I like looking back at photos of my baby. I still look at Colin and at times cannot believe he is my child (and that I am someone's mother). Many times I still cannot believe I married Brian Stucki but yes, we are very married. Brian is a very sweet father and Colin has been very "Dada" focused recently. However, he still follows me around and has become very demanding for breast feedings.

Colin turned a whole one year old! We cannot believe how quickly a year has gone by. We are currently in Brooklyn in a sublet while Brian works on a production with Dicapo Opera in Manhattan. The sublet is lovely, which is nice because it is too cold to be outside for long periods of time. We had wanted to take Colin to a toy store today for something fun for his birthday. Since it is so cold, we just made a quick trip to a cup cake bakery. Colin had more sugar today than he has had in his whole little life and he loved it.

This morning Colin was in the bathroom with me and grabbed the soap. Before I could get it away from him he had taken a good bite. I expected the first bite to deter him, but he continued to take at least two more bites without wincing. I included a photo of my soap. Hmm. . . I think one of my nieces used to eat soap.

I have been a bit nostalgic for our home because it will not be ours for too much longer. After seven months on the market, our condo is under-contract and set to close the end of March. We love our condo, but seeing we have only been there for 2 months since April 2006, it will be a good thing. We thought we would have a whole month to organize and pack, but Brian has an offer to sing in North Carolina for March. Hmm. . . it is a good opportunity but a bit crazy. My parents are coming to help in early March. We are also preparing to leave the country for more than 2 months as Brian has a job in Israel and then we plan to stop over in Europe. It is all a little insane, but when did we ever live life as normal people? I have been looking back at photos of home that I wanted to share.

It is a rare moment when Colin allows both a hat and scarf to be on his body. We took him out on a quick errand today since he did not want to go to down for an early nap. Although it has hardly been cold this Winter, we are ready for Spring.

I suppose I do not have to refer to Colin as the baby since he is nearly a one year old and he has proven to be bi-pedal. His toddling around is very sweet, and he is quite proud of himself. He still reverts to his speed crawl when we wants to get something quickly that we do not want him to get.

We are again away so Brian can be close to NYC for his current opera. Colin and I are staying in CT with family until the sublet we have arranged opens up at the month's end. Colin is having a great time with his cousins. He will be so lonely to find himself an only child again soon. We took some photos of he and Evan, but Colin was not in the most photo-friendly mood.

This week Colin took his first steps, got his fifth tooth, and claps his hands anytime we say "yay!" (It is very cute because he will stop whatever he is doing to clap.) Sadly, he has also had a cold which then turned into a family cold. We have barely left the house. We are curious to see where 2007 will take us.

I have enjoyed seeing where Colin's Cheerios end up on his body and everywhere else. He cried one Cheerio tear.

Colin had a fun Christmas morning and really only required gift tags and wrapping paper. We had a wonderful holiday. We wish happy holidays for all our friends and family.

Soon after we arrived home we were off to get a tree. We got a nice tree that is being protected from a very curious baby by our dinning room chairs.

Sometimes Colin dresses Daddy up in matching outfits.

On our way home, we stopped in Hot Springs, AR. It not only is where President Clinton when to High School, but it also has amazing old bath houses from the turn of the of last century. We toured the one that is now a museum and it was beautiful. The culture of the bath houses sounds very relaxing. People would take three weeks to come and take the cure- a long hot mineral bath, steaming, hot compresses, and swedish massage every day for three weeks. We don't know how to slow down that much anymore. There is still one bath house in operation. If we had had a baby-sitter and about $100 to burn, we would have loved to have taken even better advantage of being in Hot Springs.

Colin shows off his very large mouth. Everything is very delicious.

Also, Brian as Count Almaviva in the Barber of Seville with Dallas Opera. Stage make-up can be very scary up-close, particularly as Brian's make-up artist for the show learned his skills as a mortician. He wasn't use to people talking back.

Colin has recently been able to meet some of my old college roommates and their children. We saw Superstar Megan and Gretchen and her girls in Virginia on the way to Dallas, and we visited Kristy and her boys in Houston. I did a fun photo shoot of Levi and Isaac. We also saw Emily and her baby, and a very pregnant Bethany in DC. As a special bonus we saw Dana Lee in North Carolina but sadly left the camera in the car.