First off, the birthday celebrations. Arie turned 2!!!! He had lots of fun at the first early birthday party at his aunt and uncle's house. Several presents, a good lunch, and even birthday cake!
Arie and Aunt Connie
Arie and Daddy
Presents!
Birthday Cake
Then we had a friend birthday party with pumpkin carving, cider, and s'mores. It seemed like all the little boys had a grand time playing and getting dirty. I found it humorous that the old lawn mower (featured in a previous post) was the star toy of the night---Farmer Colson and sidekick Ridley pushed it around for hours.
Arie and I took advantage of the last few golden days of fall and visited Grandma Karil and the alpacas. Arie wasn't so sure about the animals at first, but the babies were so soft and gentle, he was letting them give him 'kisses' in no time!
Next, Arie and I left for North Carolina for a week to see his uncle, aunt and cousins. The airplane trips went smoothly and Arie was so easy, but the luggage was the hard part. NW airlines now charge for checked luggage, so we had two carry-ons, a lunch box, a diaper bag, the stroller and a carseat to get on the planes. I think we looked something like a traveling circus! We had a wonderful time visiting and getting to know the newest addition in their family. Arie enjoyed playing dinosaurs, bugs and trucks with John and they both love being read to, so we got lots of that in.
Me and Matthias
Matthias
I also wanted to post the pictures of the quilt I made Matthias. It's by far the most traditional I've made, but I really liked how it turned out. I have a hard time getting all the points just right on triangles, so this quilt took me a while. You can't see the quilting from the front, but on the back you can see that I followed the zig-zag pattern of the triangles.
Last of all, I'd like to point out how far Arie has come in the last two years. A friend was saying just the other day that compared with other two year olds, Arie's progress can seem nil, but for him, he is doing amazing. Several of you probably didn't know that a few days before Arie was discharged from the hospital the doctors were surprised to find problems with Arie's eyes and brain. They told me that my son would be more or less blind and would probably have severely debilitating cerebral palsy. Two years later we see God's goodness and power being lived out in our son. He can see everything around him, he crawls, and he's now a little chatterbox. We thank God for another wonderful year with our son!
November 2006
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November 2008
