Daniel’s first taste of the freedom that wheels can provide, as he rides on his Christmas present from his Great-Grandparents.

In the weeks before this, his legs weren’t quite long enough, so he rode in little spurts of very low velocity.

Even now, his legs are *just* long enough, so 1) his muscles aren’t quite to where they need to be for continuous motion for long, and 2) if a hill comes at just the right time and catches his leg fully extended with no previous momentum from which he can persist, he stalls, and rolls backwards until he can catch the pedal. For these two things, I’m thankful. I kind of like him where he is, instead of being that much more independent from mommy and daddy.

Anyway- here’s the pics for you…

So, the second part of this posting is about how Daniel is allowing his sister to actually touch him. Gasp.. Since Karleigh’s birth, he has been a bit uneasy when close to her. But over the last 2 weeks, something has changed – in both of them. Firstly, Karleigh has gone through a growth spurt and seemingly a maturity growth included in that. She has become a bit more independent, and aware. Those with kids know what I mean by the maturation in awareness. But, her and Daniel seem to communicate well, and now Daniel tries to make her laugh by saying ‘BOO, KarKar’ and peeping out at her from behind doors in the hall and making a crazy little noise that probably only he could make.

It’s definitely helpful to the parental unit when your two children can entertain each other without the parents being center-of-attention 24/7. So, the other day I got the idea of sitting her in his lap. This is the first time since Karleigh was newborn that he has allowed this to happen.  The evidence is submitted below:

Looking real happy in the second photo, huh?

That’s all for now.

.w