Merry Christmas 2008!

It’s been a big year for the Santa Rosa Starks! In case you’ve not heard, we’ve gone ahead and reproduced! That’s right! There’s a new little Stark in town – Baby Benjamin. Benjamin Raymond joined us on June 1, at 7:44am after a relatively smooth labor starting around 4pm the previous day. Jen did a fabulous job on the delivery, and has been getting on-the-job Mommy training ever since.

Ben is now six months old, and his parents are now starting to get more sleep, and are also settling into something of a routine around work, play, and naps. Ben is a great kid! He is very curious, and seems to have a long attention span when it comes to grasping at toys or books, or trying to “scoot” after them. His favorite activity at present is to stand while grasping your fingers for balance. He’s just starting on solid food, and is still looking forward to getting some teeth and some more hair! He’s going to really be a challenge when he starts crawling and walking!

Ben is already an accomplished blogger. If you want to see what he’s been up to in more detail, please visit his blog at http://www.starkfamily.net/bensblog. The blog is heavy on pictures, which hopefully makes it a quick and fun read.

Jen, of course, had made the jump to motherhood. Jen is staying at home to take care of Ben, though she does plan to return to work next year. Jen is doing a great job of keeping up with all of Ben’s needs, including scheduling doctor’s appointments, reading child care magazines, feeding him, making sure he gets his naps, keeping him entertained, researching baby item buying decisions, etc., etc. Raising a kid is a lot of work – and Jen is doing pretty much most of it!

Jen continues to pursue gardening and cooking – two of her favorite activities – in between looking after Ben. She’s also been doing a lot of sewing lately and has made some wonderful baby blankets. She’s continuing to keep in touch with Agilent colleagues in anticipation of her return to work next year.

Atlas the cat is adjusting fairly well to our new family member. He generally avoids small children (including Ben), but has on several occasions submitted to supervised petting by Ben. We’ll see what happens there when Ben becomes more mobile!

Wil continues to work at Agilent Technologies on challenging software problems in the RF test equipment business. This year, Wil and his team at work completed and shipped a new handheld combination RF Network Analyzer / Spectrum Analyzer instrument, branded ‘FieldFox’. You can see it here: http://www.agilent.com/find/fieldfox

Wil spends many of his non-working hours trying to be a good father to Ben. As the official photographer for Ben’s blog, he’s been trying to improve his photography so that Ben’s readers might not be disappointed. Wil has recently opted to take advantage of California’s Paid Family Medical Leave act that allows new parents 6 weeks of time to bond with a new child. Wil’s Tuesdays for the next few months will be spent putting more hours in the ‘Dad’ column and fewer in the ‘work’ column. So far, he’s been enjoying the extra time he gets to spend with Ben. Boy do kids grow up fast!

Here at the Stark household, we’re wishing you a Happy and Prosperous New Year!