Free at Last!

Nolan is free at last. Well, he has been for almost a week. That's how it goes. But he loves it. He's like a little tornado now with two working arms. Okay, he was like that with only one, but this is a bigger tornado. He's soooo close to walking. He can stand up by himself and he's taken a few steps, but he freaks out when he realizes nothing was holding him up and he plops down on his squishy little butt.

We took him to the doctor's for his nine month appointment last Wednesday and he's still growing. He was 64percentile in weight and 84 in height. He had the flu shot and he just sat there the whole time giving me fives. Didn't even care. Pretty impressive for a nine month old, I think.

Even more impressive though was Clara. I remember going to get my kindergarten shots when I was five. If I recall correctly, five was the magic number that day because that's how many nurses it took to pin down my wriggling, probably 40 pound body.

I told her, prior to going into the office, that she would probably be getting a flu shot like Nolan. She was very prepared for it, and strangely, wouldn't stop talking about it. I'm starting to see that she's very much like her father. Anyway, she was all psyched up for the needle but the nurse informed her that she was now old enough to get the flu mist. She was a little disappointed but it smelled like strawberries so it was all good.

Her hopes were brought back up when we decided to get a celiac sprue blood test on her. Not one moment's hesitation. She walked back to the lab with Josh and let them draw her blood. No tears, no whining. She did say she said "ouch" and "mom! they took ALOT of blood!" That's all she talked about all day. Cute.

Last Thursday or Friday or Wednesday or something, we went for a hike. The weather is FANTASTIC right now. I wish it could be like this all the time. The air is cool, it smells nice, I'm not sweating (not sweating just like a pig, because pigs don't sweat), its beautiful, I feel cozy, I could go on and on. I do realize if it were to stay like this, the world would have to stop spinning, therefore resulting in the loss of all humankind, but I can dream, right?

This is Clara's silly dance. I wish I had it on video for all to see, but you'll just have to imagine how she got into this pose.

My poor girl fell down and then she threw a fit because she didn't want me to take her picture.

This is about a minute later. She forgets quickly.

These are Nolan's awesome socks and shoes. He's not wearing shorts, those are pants that are, apparently, ridden up.

Clara climbing precariously on a cliff. No worries, we all made it up alive.

Nolan on a rock, I'm holding onto his foot, just so you know.