Dr. Dan

Last week my brother, Martin, his wife Mari, and son Ryan came for a week long visit. We all had a great time and it was really fun to watch Addi and Ryan interact. Ryan is about 2 months older and has a very different personality than Adelaide. He's content to "chill" on the couch a little while, whereas Addi has to be moving ALL the time. We also found she is slightly aggressive. She'd walk up to Ryan and pound a toy on his head. He would just look at her like, "what are you doing?" He never got upset though.

Last Saturday was Tristan and Alicia's one year adoption anniversary. So we celebrated by going to Chuck-E-Cheese. Ryan and Alelaide really enjoyed the rides and Tristan and Alicia went to town with their 20 tokens. We were all ready to go well before Tristan and Alicia had even spent 1/2 of their tokens. It's amazing to think it has been a year since their adoption....time has past so quickley and they have both come so far. They've both grown a lot...physically and emotionally. Alicia got on her bike yesterday and Daniel and I couldn't believe that she needed the seat raised....again. It seems like we are always raising that seat for her!

Last Sunday Daniel got to play doctor on our dog, Zoie. Martin had been throwing the ball for the dogs and Zoie just stopped and started licking her leg. Martin went to check it out and she had a huge "L" shaped gash on her thigh. Daniel was tickled pink to finally put his emergency suture kit to use. Unfortunately the sutures he had weren't strong enough to with hold all of Zoie's licking (despite the cone), do Martin and Daniel had to go up to Vanderbilt to get some thicker and stronger suture. Martin and I got really good at holding down a 70 pound dog so Daniel could stitch her up. Zoie was actually a great patient. She seems to have a high pain tolerance, and she is healing up nicely. It's good to know all of that schooling and training Daniel has had isn't going to waste!!! We must have saved a bundle of money not having to go to the vet!This week we look forward to Adelaide's birthday and phase 1 of Christmas. We head off to KC on Thursday and just don't have enough room for all of our gifts, 2 dogs, 3 kids, and 2 adults, so we will be opening all the gifts under the tree on Wednesday. I figured this is the only year I will be able to mix Christmas with Addi's birthday, so we'll do birthday cake and Christmas gifts. I don't think she'll know the difference, so I don't think she will mind!!!