In 1996 Fiona was conceived and I was diagnosed with cancer. She was born 12 days after I finished my last surgery, on February 12th, 1997. At the time we were both quite bald. I told her parents we would have a race to see who got their hair first: by May I had some hair, while she was still pretty much without. As you can see my baby holding technique leaves a great deal to be desired. By September I had grown a respectable amount of hair, while Fiona remained quite lacking. But my ability to hold a baby still had not improved any. However she became quite jolly at a park we visited, which had a pagoda and a coy pond. She loved the fish, and the good humor she acquired watching them continued even when being held by her awkward auntie.

During my Xmas visit in 1998 it actually snowed enough for us to make a snowman. Living in Southern California, as I do, this experience was almost as novel to me as it was to Fiona. The snow did not last long however, much to Fiona's disappointment. She was quite taken with it.

After the snow had all disappeared she came into the family room and said something like "Snow, Daddy!" Her father made some off-hand comment about how she couldn't go in the snow anyway, because she didn't have a snow suit on. She disappeared for awhile into her room, and then reappeared wearing (sort of) her snow suit. She had gotten at least one arm and her legs into the suit, although it was upside down. She was quite confident that now she had the suit on, her Daddy would make the snow appear. I laughed and told my brother that no one would ever have as much faith in his abilities as his daughter did right then. I thought it quite touching and very poignant.

I returned for a visit over Labor Day in 1999, and we visited Mt Rainier. Yes, the sun shone so brightly that we needed sunglasses. Anne has a thing for holiday hats: during Xmas of 1999 she provided everyone, except Sarah Puppy, with Santa hats. Sarah did have a holiday scarf though.