Fall Adventures

We've been busy enjoying Fall lately. A couple weeks ago, we took advantage of a free museum day and toured the Woodrow Wilson House in DC. The President lived there after he finished his terms and it was kind of cool to learn more about the WWI era, his presidency, and admire the 12 foot-high ceilings and all the knick-knacks collected over the course of his travels.

This last weekend, we wanted to get out in nature to look at all the beautiful Fall colors. This is my favorite time of year, especially out here where there are so many trees. There have been many times driving along the highway where I am paying more attention to the changing colors of the leaves than I am to the cars around me. So we took a hike around Patapsco State Park, a nice area less than half an hour away from us. Here's a pretty waterfall and the stream that we hiked along.

The big story was Karina and her growing independence. She insisted she needed to hold Snoopy's leash. Snoopy wound up taking her for a walk.

Pound for pound, Snoopy is probably stronger than any of us, so if he decided he wanted to sniff something, eat french fries that someone else had thrown in the parking lot, or whatever, he would have pulled Karina until she let go or fell down. Also, Karina had trouble hiking around the rocks, tree roots, and other things. She spent most of the outing when she wasn't holding Snoopy's leash screaming her head off and throwing a temper tantrum. Yet another young child learning at an early age to despise nature... Here she is at an otherwise scenic bridge upset because of all the ways her parents mistreat her. Poor Snoopy was such a good boy and eager to get all the new sniffs, but he didn't like it when she was screaming.

After she settled down a little, she and Snoopy had fun playing on the railroad tracks. There were no trains - we're not that negligent!

Here are a couple other pictures of her in her cute outfit on Sunday. She experienced Nursery for the first time in church a day before she turned 18 months. She was not particularly impressed. I think part of the problem was another kid that was screaming his head off thereby frightening her. Tanja or I had to be with her the entire time. I think once she gets used to it and realizes there are other kids there and new toys to play with, she will love it. Fortunately, she was in a much better mood when we got home, as you can see.

Yesterday was her 18-month birthday. We went to Coldstone to celebrate and she loved sharing our ice cream creations. Little did she realize that ice cream was just a prelude to the horrors of today - going to the doctor for her next round of shots! She was vaccinated against Hepatitis A and got a flu shot. Poor girl doesn't like doctor's offices, and I can't say I blame her. The good news is apparently she is done with vaccinations until she turns 4. Her measurements are now:

Head circumference - 49 cm (just above the 95th percentile)
Height - 32.5 inches (75th percentile)
Weight - 24 lb, 13 oz (50th percentile)

As it so happens, Snoopy had a vet visit earlier in the week and weighed in at 26.3 lbs - a healthy weight for beagles who left to their own devices become quite obese. Karina is not too far off from weighing more than Snoopy!