Milestones

Nora is officially a walker...well, a waddler is more like it. Have a glimpse!

A few weeks ago, Nathan officiated a friend's wedding in Arkansas while Zuly and Nora visited family in the Bronx. Nora had a great time with her abuelos, Tío Andy and Titi Naty, and the children for whom Zuly's mom cares. Nora rode the NYC subway for the first time and strolled the streets of the Boogie Down and Manhattan.

Nate is quite busy shepherding the flock. He has begun a new sermon series entitled Images of the Church and has begun helping out with the church's teen club, teaching on Wednesday evenings.

Nora and Zuly have joined a couple of play groups. Nora has proven to be quite gregarious with children, most of the time initiating some form of interaction with them. For those of you who might be interested in some of the details of her development, this paragraph is just for you. She has reached a few milestones since turning a year. In addition to learning to walk, she takes her drinks from sippy cups (I never imagined I would consider such a behavior an accomplishment); she imitates human sounds (and non-human, for that matter) more readily (sneezes, screeches, the squeak that results from a shoe rubbing against the floor, the sound of the Swiffer WetJet spraying its cleaning solution, police and ambulence sirens, etc); she kisses and hugs her dolls considerably and even shares her own food and drink with them; she spoon-feeds herself yogurt without making a major disaster...most of the time; she colors with crayons under supervision; and she has four top teeth and two bottom teeth. Her favorite meal for the time being is ground turkey stroganoff, to which she says, "Mmmm..."

Today, we (Zuly, really) turned the heater on for the first time since the end of winter. The leaves are turning swiftly and the cold is moving in. In December we will have been here a year. Until next time...