The Family O' Blevins

Wow! After our good intentions and goal-setting of updating out blog weekly, we've let it slide again! It's been over a month!

Things are going well with our cozy island life. It's been a beautiful summer and we're trying to enjoy the last beams of sunlight before the pillow-like grey clouds take up winter residence over the Seattle area. I would say it's too bad they don't travel south for the winter too, but we both love the fall and appreciate a wet winter. But, if you come back in March and see what we have to say about the rain, we might be singing a different tune.

Ethan's still working hard at the Buck Law Group. He's really enjoying his job and is excited about the experience. Besides work, he's up to his elbows in law school applications, LSAT practicing, and diapers. He's forcing himself to get enough sleep this week so he'll be ready to take the LSAT again today. Of course, any prayers and good thoughts sent his way are appreciated!

Katrina's enjoying her time at home with Chloe and is gearing up to start working next week in the afternoons doing some childcare, etc. Last night she went to "Wicked" with two of her sisters, and was reminded of how much she loves live musicals when they're really good. And this was.

Of course we'll tell you Chloe is getting cuter and cuter every day. She cut her first tooth a few weeks ago and we think she's cutting another one because she's so grumpy. She has adjusted to two naps and sleeps through the night much better. We're working on sounds like "mama" (she's got the "dadada" thing down pat), and on crawling and standing.

I would post pictures, but for some reason blogspot isn't letting me. So, pictures to come!

Chloe's physical therapist sent us this video about a dance team in Florida called Company D, a dance team of youth with Down syndrome. It's a touching story of achievement and human triumph. Check it out here.

In order to preserve the social order of our dusty corner of the blogosphere, conscience and Katrina have constrained me to update the blog. Consistency enslaves its own creators, so now our past faithfulness has resulted in an eternal obligation to post on our blog or else suffer ignominy at the hands of family and friends.

We've been back from China for 6 weeks now and have settled in to Vashon life again. Chloe has been meeting with the Birth to Three program here on the Island. She's recently been working on sitting up and can now successfully sit for a few seconds at a time. Very exciting!

Katrina spends her days taking care of Chloe, cooking, reading, and spending time with family. Ethan is still hitting the cyberspace pavement, and has been networking like crazy, but nothing promising has surfaced yet. We are both looking forward to the day when something will, but until then we are enjoying evenings of beautiful weather the Northwest is experiencing and know it will all work out.


Ethan and Katrina happy to be back and no longer sleeping in the livingroom in China. Chris and Marilyn have been so generous in letting us stay with them. Everyone has been so supportive and understanding. Thank you!


Chloe getting loves from her buddy and cousin, Maggie. Even though Chloe is the first in the Blevins Family, she's number 21 in the line up of cousins on her mom's side. She has a wide variety of personalities and examples for her. She's a lucky baby to have so many little people that love her.
When we got back from China, we decided to start Chloe on foods. After her first bite of a new type of food she squishes up her face and gives a little shutter, but has been very open to new tastes. Her favorite is full-fat vanilla yogurt, but she can't quite get excited about applesauce.

In this picture, it looks like she's sporting either the vegetable turkey dinner, carrots, or sweet potatoes. And yes, she did get some of it in ther mouth! It's a little mysterious that they all taste similar....
Happy girl! This was maybe a week after we got back from Beijing. She loved spending time in this chair, and was really excited to have someone play with her.

Her smiles and laughs come much more often now, although it seems like she saves most of her smiles for her nana. That's ok. We're just the parents.

Although we were wondering if we'd be able to make it before we left China, we finally visited The Great Wall as one of our last hoorahs! Ethan planned the trip out with Kaho, an IBJ employee who was incredibly helpful choosing the site we would visit, the subway and bus connections, and what we should bring with us. So April 24th was our Great Wall day and after we took the subway to the designated location, we ran into some confusion with the buses and ended up taking the wrong number, which got us closer to the wall, but not close enough. From there we took a black taxi the rest of the way.

We chose to take the cable car up to the wall so we could save our energy for the wall itself. Built on a line of mountain peaks, the wall is a constant string of stairs, either up or down, inturrupted by towers. There is a beautiful view in every direction, and we visited on the perfect day. It was overwhelming to see such an expansive and ancient structure and although Ethan had been there about 10 years ago, we both were so glad we had made it important enough to go.

There are also a few pictures in the slideshow of Ethan's cousin Fred with Chloe on our last visit to Joan's in Beijing. The Engst's were so wonderful to us and we are so grateful for their help. We're glad we had the opportunity to get to know them better and hope we're able to see them again soon!

Ethan has begun the job hunt in the Seattle area.