Hello, strangers!

Well, well, well…

The ladies and I are long overdue for an update. A thousand pardons….

It has been quite the past few months. Here’s a quick and random recap…

· We moved to Worcester, MA for my job at Assumption College. Here is the POD that we unpacked and squeezed into our apartment. It was no easy task but Alison made it happen. It’s a great campus! There’s a duck pond here that we are excited to take Anela to once she can throw bread to the ducks. People here have fallen in love with our little hapa girl…and rightfully so. Everybody wants to hold her despite her constant drool.

· We took Anela to the zoo…but she fell asleep once we got there and stayed asleep. Bummer. There were these little piglets that I thought she would have loved. We will have to do a redo on that one.

· I’ve taken Anela to a football game or two. Sometimes she’s been interested and at other times distracted by the kids running around or more concerned about grabbing/climbing the net that catches the balls after field goals.

· Grandma and Grandpa Ninmann have come out to visit us. It was great to have them here. Anela LOVED spending time with them and it even gave Ali and I a chance to go out to a movie. Grandpa Dale spoiled Anela with long daily walks around campus.

· Ali has converted Anela to cloth diapers. I really didn’t know much about the process but as usual Alison schooled me and taught me all about them. How they work, how much you could potentially save per child by using reusable diapers, and even what brands

· We went to Salem, MA to check it out especially because of all the history relative to the witch trials. The town felt really old which was cool other than the stroller barely fitting down the sidewalks with all the people. We thought that we would go in early October thinking that it wouldn’t be too crowded and we’d avoid all the Halloween crowds…we were wrong. There was a ton of people there. I don’t know if it was just me but there was a “creepy” vibe about the city. It could’ve been me playing the whole witch thing up but there were witch supply stores (not supply stores where one would purchase a witch when you run out, rather, where a witch would go to purchase witching supplies), haunted houses, and people in spooky garb (who were not working at the attractions) everywhere. It didn’t creep me out enough to not have some lunch there. We ate at Salem Beer Works. Awesome food and I had the Witch City Red. Pretty good beer that was similar to a Killians.

· We took Anela to a pumpkin patch to pick up a pumpkin and take a hayride. We did get a pumpkin but the weather had other plans about the hayride. Another redo?

· Wife is also going to a mommys group once a week and making some new friends there. She and her new mommy posse have gone into Boston for some adventuring, gone out to some of the best outlets (in Wrentham) for some shopping, and have gone on some long walks with the little ones for chilling purposes. Ali makes friends no matter where we go so it’s awesome to see her making some connections.

· Alison has made a purchase that she has long wanted…a camera! We are still figuring out how to use it best but Ali is now officially snap happy. Like father, like daughter huh? In any case, look for (hopefully) better pictures in the months to come.

I feel like Anela deserves her own set of bullet points. Here goes…

·This girl is GROWING like a weed! She was born at 6.5 pounds and 19.5 inches long and is now 16 pounds 3 ounces pounds and 27 inches long.

· She has two little teeth on her bottom jaw. She is so very willing to bite your finger if you aren’t paying attention.

· She loves to stand, assisted of course.

· Her favorite big toy is this jump-a-roo thing. She gets almost out-of-breath excited about standing and jumping like a big girl.

· Anela has started eating baby food (which super mom Ali makes for her). So far she has done rice cereal, oatmeal, acorn squash, carrots, bananas and mango. I think she was pretty done with boring rice cereal and oatmeal once she got to try veggies. I think she’s done some pears, peas, and apples more recently. Once I figure out how to post it, I will share a video of Anela doing a good job of feeding herself.

· Anela went on her first airplane ride to visit Grandma and Grandpa Ninmann in Minnesota. Ali says she did pretty well. She will need to be a good traveler considering we have family and friends all over the country to visit eventually.

We went to Wilmington, DE for Thanksgiving. Ali’s cousin Julie and her family are there and graciously hosted us. Ali will have an update on that…really soon. With the holidays in mind, we want to say thanks to our family and friends. We are so blessed to know you and we are the people we are because of you. Thanks so much for being there. Thanks for reading, too.

PEACE,

Tyler