Oliver continues to change at nearly the speed of light. He is now 8 months old and seems more like a little boy than a baby. He recently learned how to pull himself up to a standing position along the side of his crib, and it is now one of his favorite things to do. Oliver’s other favorite thing is riding in his new stroller (which Mom and Dad bought with some of their Christmas money). His old stroller was his car seat on a stroller base, so he couldn’t really look around very well. His new stroller is a real “big boy” stroller and he loves sitting at the very front, leaning over the edge, and gawking at everything around him! Kay gets lots of compliments on her cute baby wherever she goes.

Oliver hasn’t quite learned to crawl yet, but he can scoot across the floor on his tummy very quickly. He loves to try and grab the VCR and DVD player when he is on the living room floor and the alarm clock when he is on Mom and Dad’s bed. He is very careful and gentle as he explores and pushes all the buttons. He must have inherited his love of electronics from his Grandpas.

Just yesterday Kay put Oliver down on the floor of his room to play with his toys while she went to the bathroom. He was crying when she left; however, the crying seemed to get strangely louder and louder. To her surprise, Kay opened the door and found Oliver there! He had crawled/scooted all the way from his bedroom to the bathroom door. Oliver will do whatever it takes to keep track of Mom!

Kay Lynn was busy throughout the holidays making life fun for Oliver and Jason. She made a beautiful advent calendar with special activities for each day. She also planned some fun Christmas family home evenings like making snow globe Christmas tree ornaments and making donut-hole snowman cupcakes to take to the neighbors.

In between taking care of Oliver and Jason, Kay continues to work hard on her artwork. She recently designed and ordered a postcard mailer to send out to publishers. The mailer looks fabulous—very professional! Kay is hopeful that her mailer will catch the eye of art directors at the publishers she sends it to.

Jason is finally feeling settled in at work. He is working on a paper with a young economist exploring why European banks were so much more exposed to the U.S. sub prime mortgage market than U.S. banks were. Although the project is only in the “working paper” stages, they are hopeful that it will become something that can be published in a major academic journal. Jason also continues to enjoy rubbing shoulders with some very influential economists. He recently was able to attend a Board meeting where Chairman Bernanke and the other governors were briefed on the Fed’s projections for the economy. Although the meeting was classified, (hence he won’t discuss the dreaded ‘r’ word [recession]) Jason did let Kay know that the near-term economic future looks bleak. (So be wary of the stock market for now!)

We love you and miss you all!

The Kotters are finally settled in (at least mostly) to their new home in Arlington, Virginia. It has been a busy couple of months filled with lots of changes!

Oliver has changed the most over the last couple of months. In late September he started teething, which meant that he wanted to put everything that he could get his hands on in his mouth. By mid-October his first two teeth (in the bottom front of his mouth) were clearly showing. Now he has two top teeth starting to poke through his gums. He still loves to chew on everything, but Mom and Dad have to be careful not to let him chew on their fingers too much because he can bite really hard now!

On October 18, after turning five months old the day before, Oliver got to eat his first real meal of rice cereal. Mom and Dad fed him first thing in the morning so that he would be good and hungry. Oliver loves eating! He ate his whole bowl of cereal (and he didn’t even get too much on his face!). Since then, Oliver has had a bowl of rice or oatmeal cereal once or twice a day.

Finally, Oliver has mastered the trick of rolling over from his back onto his tummy. Unfortunately, he doesn’t like to be on his tummy very long and he doesn’t know how to roll back over. As a result, he has started waking up in the middle of the night screaming because he is stuck on his tummy. Most of the time Mom or Dad can roll him over on to his back and he will go back to sleep very quickly. With any luck, Oliver will learn how to roll back over by himself soon!

Kay Lynn has her hands full taking care of Oliver. Most days she wishes that she had a little more time to draw and paint. Still, she has found time to paint a couple of paintings to hang in Oliver’s room. She is doing a great job as a mother and spends lots of time taking Oliver on walks, going to the park to swing, and singing songs with Oliver. She was recently called to serve in the Arlington ward as a visiting teaching district leader.

Jason is learning lots at his job. He still wishes that he could do more academic research, but he appreciates the computer programming skills he is learning including SAS and PERL. He recently attended a retirement party where he was able to stand next to Chairman Bernanke and he saw former Chairman Alan Greenspan. It is fun to be able to rub shoulders with some very impressive people!

All in all, the Kotter family continues to do well. We miss our friends and think about you often.

Please send us an email when you have a chance!

The Kotters have moved from Provo, Utah to Arlington, Virginia! On August 22, we boarded a plane in Salt Lake City headed for Washington, D.C. Oliver did just fine on the plan ride. In fact, as we exited in the plane at the Dulles airport, a couple directly behind us exclaimed, “Wow, you have a little baby! We didn’t even know there was a baby sitting in front of us!”

Our move was a little more adventurous than we had intended. We had agreed to rent a home from an older widow who lived in the Falls Church ward. Unfortunately, on the day after we shipped our belongings she called us up and told us that she had changed her mind and wasn’t comfortable renting her home. That left us in a bit of a bind! We arranged to have our stuff stored at a warehouse in Baltimore while we looked for an apartment.

Luckily, one of our friends called to let us know that there was a vacancy in their apartment complex in Arlington. The price was within our budget, so we went to check it out. The apartments are older, but well maintained and many ward members live here. We liked the apartment and we loved the location, so we signed a contract two days after we flew into Virginia!

Oliver handled the move the best out of all three of us. He seemed to have no trouble adjusting to a new time zone and a new location. He is still sleeping all the way through the night! He gets bigger each day and Mom and Dad love to see what new tricks he learns. Right now, he loves to grab anything within reach and put it in his mouth.

Kay has been a great support to Jason throughout the entire move process. She unpacked all of the boxes and has turned our empty apartment into our new home. Unfortunately, the house that we thought we were going to rent was furnished so we shipped our stuff without any of our furniture (except our bed and crib and Kay’s art desk). We picked up some living room furniture at IKEA, but Kay has done an amazing job at turning some of our packing boxes into bedside tables and dressers. (Which we may have to make do with for a while, because rent is pretty expensive here!)

Jason has started work with the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. He was taking the metro to work (It’s about a 15 minute walk from our house to the Metro Stop which makes for a 40 minute commute door to door) but he recently discovered that he can get to work in about 20 minutes by taking the bus. It has been a little overwhelming to try and get acclimated to a new job. He is the only married research assistant in the International Finance Division (much less the only one with a child); additionally, he is the only one who doesn’t drink so it is a chance to be a good example. One of his weekly duties includes a report that is sent to Chairman Bernanke! (He may never read it, but hey, it still goes to his desk!)

We are settling in to our new home, but we miss our family and friends a lot! Consequently, we would love to get email, regular mail, and phone calls often!

Oliver is now nearly two months old. He is growing very quickly and currently weighs 12 pounds, 9 ounces. He recently learned how to smile and he now keeps his parents entertained by smiling at them often. Mom and Dad love to see what new things Oliver will learn each day. Mom went to the Provo Library and checked out a DVD of Baby Bach by Baby Einstein. Oliver now loves to dance around the living room with Dad while listening to Bach! His favorite song seems to be Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring. Every time we turn the DVD to this song, Oliver calms down quickly—even if he was screaming before that!

On 1 July Oliver received a name and a blessing from his father. It was a wonderful day! Mom borrowed a white baby tuxedo from her sister Sue for Oliver to wear on his special day. Mom and Dad were pretty worried that Oliver would cry through his blessing because he wouldn’t eat anything before church started. (Maybe he just knew it was fast Sunday!) There was no need to worry, however, because Oliver was perfect throughout the entire blessing.

Kay is doing an unbelievable job as a new mother. Oliver was very fussy for the first four weeks of his life, and both Mom and Dad were feeling pretty discouraged. At the suggestion of a nurse, Kay checked out a video from the library called The Happiest Baby on the Block. Kay also borrowed the book Baby Wise from our next-door neighbors. She has diligently followed the suggestions from the movie and the book; as a result, Oliver is a changed baby! He even sleeps 6-7 hours during the night! In addition to taking care of Oliver, Kay has received many compliments on her recently updated web site. If you haven’t seen it, please take a moment and look at kaykotter.com.

Jason has been busy transferring all of his computer files to a new computer. He is finally done and so he can update this web site again! Currently, his most pressing challenge is finding an apartment to live in Washington, D.C. Rent prices are very expensive in that area. He is hoping to find a 2-bedroom apartment for $1200/month; however, this has proved difficult to do! Even with the high rent prices, Jason is very excited to move his family to D.C. and begin his new job at the Federal Reserve.

Overall, the Kotter family is doing superbly! We would love to hear from you, so send us an email and let us know how you are doing.