BIG STRIDES

Thane also enjoys the water – a lot!  He can hardly contain his excitement when playing in water, and usually those of us daring enough to stand nearby end much more wet than he.

Unfortunately, Thane got a particularly nasty flu bug toward the end of the summer, and he ended up in the hospital overnight.  Other than the seemingly endless bloodsticks that he endured during our visit, he was a trooper and handled the entire experience much better than his mom did!

By the time his first birthday rolled around a month or so later, Thane was back to his normal, chipper self.  He seemed to enjoy his birthday, except that he kept trying to open the door to leave the house!

Thane also got his first haircut this year.  At 14 months, he was quite a bit younger than Annabel when she had her “hairscut,” but he was definitely due for a trim as you can see from the photos below.

 Before:

After: 

Thane’s biggest triumph this year, by far, is that he learned to walk.  Despite the cautious predictions of his therapist, he seems to be walking perfectly normally and is quite proud of this latest achievement.   I predict that it won’t be long before we wish he were still immobile!

SO MANY EVENTS, SO LITTLE TIME...

Too much has happened over the past 7 (yikes!) months to relay it all, but I’ll try to give you a Reader’s Digest version of our lives since I last updated the blog.

Annabel really enjoyed the summer, especially the few chances she got to go swimming.  Here she is having a picnic on the bank of the Colombia River, which lies about 15 miles or so up the road from us.

 

She had her first haircut in August, which was more traumatic for Jordan and I than it was for her!  Since she was her usual busy 2 ½ year old self, both the hairdresser and I were worried that she would wriggle herself right off the chair!  Luckily we managed to keep her distracted just long enough for her to enjoy the experience.

 

Later that month, Annabel got to show off her new haircut at a lamb roast that one of our neighbors hosted at their place.  It was great fun to take the night off, visit with friends, eat amazing food and change out of our overalls into some party clothes.

Although she didn’t understand all of the fuss about Halloween, Annabel caught on fast once the candy started flowing in!  She was dressed as Raggedy Ann, and she even got to show off her costume at our town’s Halloween parade.  After trick or treating around the neighborhood, we ended up at Jordan’s folks place for a bonfire complete with hotdogs, cornbread, apples with caramel and loads of other tasty treats.  Don't you just love the fall?!?

Lastly, Annabel turned 3 years old in December.  The theme for her party was Toot & Puddle (the cartoon characters by Holly Hobbie), which was inspired by the two pigs that we raised this summer.  Annabel was enamored with our pigs, as she is with all animals.  Here she is eating birthday cake: