Now that the holidays are past, we’ve slowed down a bit on the updates. Life hasn’t slowed down much, just the time to write about it 
Fiona is finding her voice, talking up a storm with coos and hoots and giggles. She’s very talkative when she’s happy, just laying there chatting up a storm. Autumn has taken some video footage of her talking, we’ll try to get that online soon. She continues to be a very happy and charming kid, and seemingly on the verge of sitting up already (very strong). She’s also teething like crazy, gnawing on our fingers and on toys within reach. She’s apparently on about the same teething schedule as Ella, who got her first teeth breaking through at about 3 months.
Ella is 32 months old today! She has been painting a lot with the easel that John got her for christmas - pictures of her work are here: http://fidean.net/ellaart/. She has been a big fan of the Lord of the Rings movies that we got on DVD. We skip over the scary parts for her, but she likes Gollum - i think partly because he’s similar to Dobby in the Harry Potter movies that she also likes. She gets ever more sophisticated in her english skills; a favorite recent phrase is “i’m prepared to…”, as in “I’m prepared to paint now”. We’ve also signed her up for dance classes, starting next month. She’s very interested in dance, and I think she’ll like the structure of learning new movements.
We’re working through another round of winter colds this week, complete with sore throat. I’ve been super busy at work since the holidays but relatively healthy. Christmas cards are starting to trickle out, but we’re hopelessly behind with them. We’re thrilled to have a new Bueschel baby arrive: Rianna Grace, born in December to Christie and cute as can be.
Update: Actually posting this in the morning - we just had a 45-minute power outage right before I posted this, not sure why. The whole neighborhood was dark, and one of the coldest nights of the year (-10 on the backyard thermometer this morning). We had a fun time with candles around, reading a bit with camping headlamps on. It was a almost disappointing when the lights came on again, but nice when the furnace cranked up.
