Although we missed the last New Years' Eve celebrations by making the mistake of flying the wrong way around the world last December 31^st, 1999 certainly turned into a year to remember. The biggest news of the year for us was the birth of our son, David Abraham Smith. He surprised us by appearing two months early and subjecting his parents to 48 hours of labor. Veronica's water broke on the drive home after work on Friday, August 13^th and David eventually showed up on Sunday evening, August 15^th. He arrived so early that his parents had not attended their "birthing" class, toured the hospital or even read that far ahead in the "What to expect when you're expecting" book. Once he's older he will be grounded for putting us through that. However, his parents were able to fall back on natural instincts (and a bunch of nurses and doctors) and get through it. He was healthy but a bit too early (two months), a tad too skinny (4 lbs. 7 oz.) and had to spend a few weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). But eventually he came home to a completely unprepared house still full of unpacked boxes, no baby furniture and a very confused dog. As you can see by his picture, he’s fattened up a bit (now 12+ pounds) and is looking forward to his first Christmas.

David arrived just a month after we returned to the U.S. from our year or so of living in Singapore. We really enjoyed Asia but felt more comfortable having our first baby near our families. Our last few months in Singapore continued to be interesting and fun. In addition to working, we were able to slip in some vacation travel, including trips to: Northern Thailand, New Zealand, Bali and Tokyo. Greg would suggest that people considering similar travel may want to avoid travelling with a newly pregnant woman. While Veronica was a very good sport, and is always a great travelling companion, "morning sickness" can be something of a distraction. Especially in cases where it hits in the afternoon and extends through to bed-time. But even so, the trips were great and we appreciated the opportunity to see so many new and wonderful things. Since we've been back, we've been going through withdrawal, missing the wide range of great food in Singapore. We've tried 2 or 3 restaurants offering Singaporean/Malaysian/Indonesian food and while they have a few good dishes, nothing tastes exactly right. One of the goals for the coming year will be to experiment with the recipes in the many cookbooks we brought back with us.

Come the new year, David will start day-care and Veronica will start working again. We know our new year will be full of fun (and dirty diapers) and wish you and your families much joy in the coming year!