Ah, nine months old. That magical time of drool, improved mobility and selective hearing. Needless to say, Eli is now in to everything.We had professional photos of the kids taken by a lady with a studio in Barnesville, MN last weekend. We're using the sitting as a combination 9 month / 4 year photo shoot. Overall the kids did pretty well. After the photos, we headed home, took care of some routine appointments and went to Bismarck for the weekend.
When we returned, we were met with a wall of snow and slush at Casselton that slowed traffic considerably. There were a few cars in the ditch, but not too bad overall. Just gotta love April.
This weekend was much better - we stayed in town and it was reasonably warm. The wind was miserable on Friday night, but I went out for a run anyway. I was able to go 3.9 miles, which is both the longest I've ever run, and just about the extent of the roads in Horace. Okay, maybe "run" isn't the right word - I'm not exactly going to be setting any speed records.
Today was gorgeous - about fifty degrees and no wind. After church, Alison wanted to ride her bike. She was perched at the top of the driveway, waiting to go. Daisy went running across the yard after the neighbor, so I told Alison to stay put. I turned to call back Daisy and saw motion from the corner of my eye. Sure enough, Alison was under way. She accelerated pretty quickly about halfway down the driveway until she decided to turn. Wipeout #1 of the year. Luckily, there were no bruises and no scrapes. Once we got straightened out and settled down, we went to the level street to try again. Alison did very well getting back on the bike and pedaling away. She pedaled through the neighborhood but would stop every time I took my hand off her back. Alison was biking in the same direction that our neighbor was walking, so I had a nice conversation with the neighbor about kids. They have a little girl almost the same age as Eli. It's funny - people live less than 100 yards away from you, and yet you never see them for 5 months out of the year because of the cold and dark.
