January

So, January has come and gone… I am astonished at how swiftly time seems to be passing these days. Let’s see, since Christmas, we’ve had all sorts of adventures…. Hank attended his first baptism (aside from his own, that is). His cousin, James, was baptized in the same church where Hank was baptized (and where Tyler and I were married, and Ben and Nancy, and Laura and Jon, and Amos was confirmed there, lots of family history at that church). James’ baptism was a family only event with most of the cousins attending. It was fun! While Ben and Nancy were in town, some of my family went to the symphony together. We saw the Duke Ellington Orchestra, it was lovely! The very next day, I had my wisdom teeth out, not so lovely, but it had to be done. I was blessed with a great recovery and am much better now.  Hank also had a surgery in January. All went well there and he is just dandy now. In fact, within hours of  being home from the surgeon’s, Hank was playing as though nothing had even happened. Such resilience! We are truly blessed.

The weather has been odd for January in Texas, very cold. We’ve had several freezes so not a lot of time playing outdoors this month.  There were some beautiful days and we took advantage of them, setting up Hank’s new playscape (a Christmas present) and beginning work in the yard. We have big plans for our backyard this year. We’ll keep you posted there… Hank also received a little “bike” for Christmas and has enjoyed riding his bike outside with the neighborhood children. They are fascinated with Hank and love showing him their skateboards and kites and bikes. When the weather was nice, we sat on our lawn and watched a fun game of baseball in our cul de sac (only 4 children were playing, that made it more fun). Hank really seems to enjoy observing the older children. We’ve begun going to a new story time at the library. Hank is a little older so even though its still called “Baby Time” its for children over age 1, but under age 2. Its fun to see all the other children who have been coming regularly grow and develop too.

Our friends, Gene and Tracy, had a little girl, Halley, last October. Halley and Hank had their first play date a few weeks ago. They seemed to have a good time and Hank seemed keen to show Halley how to use all the toys. I took out some of the things he used to play with when he was younger for Halley to play with and Hank was all about them!  Hank and I have also been having Turkish breakfast recently with some of our  friends. Its so fun watching Hank try new things. Things I haven’t thought to let him try. At Ayse’s house, I learned he likes red and black pepper on his boiled eggs, at Beyza’s I learned he likes Turkish cheese and Turkish delight (he ate his, and then he ate mine!), at Suzan’s I learned he likes black olives (he just kept saying “more? more?” and spinach cigar borek… I am to host next, I’m not certain when that will be as we’ll be heading out of town next week, but I’m sure I’ll learn some more things Hank enjoys from other people’s delicious cooking!

Anyway, you’re all caught up now (for the most part). Here are some photos from the past month in no particular order. Enjoy!