Cirrus's Baptism, Hiking, Thanksgiving, Cadel's First Lost Tooth

November began with Cirrus's Baptism.  It was a beautiful fall day and all our family joined us at Lee Church (the same church where we were married and the service was led by the same pastor that presided at our wedding).  Auntie Annalisa (Justin's sister) and her husband Uncle Joel are Cirrus's godparents. Cirrus cheerfully accepted water being poured over his head while being held by Auntie Annalisa and then smiled as he was carried around by Pastor Gail to be introduced to the congregation.  We had a wonderful time after the baptism celebrating and enjoying the day with our families.  We would have loved to have Lau Ga Ga (Great Grandma Jennivieve) be with us on this joyous day and knew she was surely smiling down on us and that her spirit surrounded us and will always be with Cirrus.  We feel very blessed that Cirrus had many moments to spend with his Lau Ga Ga before her passing last month.

Fall Hikes
We got out on a few hikes this month up Pack Monadnock.  We've gone up two different trails but have yet to reach the summit.

Cadel and Senja contemplate going further, but then Cadel confidently declares that we have reached the top. We agree and start heading down.

Cadel and Senja enjoy finding rocks to climb as we hike about..

Here are Cadel and Senja climbing on rocks two years ago, in October 2011 in Oregon.  Cadel is three (same age as Senja in the current photo above!) and Senja is one.  How fun it would be to have three year old Cadel be able to spend a day with three year old Senja!  And, yes, just a day...not sure we would survive more than that with two three-year-olds.

Thanksgiving
On a very cold Thanksgiving morning, we headed to Keene for the Wobble Gobble road race.  It was the first race that all five of us did.  We started out optimistic, each of us with a jogging stroller.  Two and half miles into the four mile race we had three crying children.  Oh dear.  After a few reconfigurations of children in the strollers, we sent Justin zooming off with a crying Cadel in one stroller to go retrieve the car and left Stacey with a crying Senja and Cirrus on the side of the course. Perhaps we should have picked a warmer day for our first attempt at this!

Everyone recovered and we enjoyed a warm afternoon happily eating and playing with Oma and Gimpa Luoma, Auntie Kerry and the Fuellhart cousins.

The cousins line up to compare heights.  It will be interesting to see how the line-up goes 20 years from now!

Meanwhile, Cirrus (not in the line-up since standing was a pre-requisite) does the final inspection of the turkey prior to carving.

The Story of Cadel's First Lost Tooth
On Saturday, Nov 30th, Cadel lost his first tooth.  He'd been saying his tooth was loose, but he'd been saying this for the past year, so we didn't think anything of it.  On Thanksgiving Day he told Gimpa Luoma it was loose, but again, we didn't think anything of it.  Well, on Saturday, as Stacey was driving home from Tuckaway (Justin's family farm) with all three kids, they were quiet and Cadel and Senja were happily munching on apples.  Cadel commented that his tooth hurt.  Stacey kindly acknowledged his concern, but drove on.  About one minute, and a few bites of apple, later Cadel said, "I think my tooth just dropped out."  Stacey was completely surprised.  In reality she had no idea it was even loose!  (We do pay close attention to our children, but Cadel has a very vivid imagination so he often believes many things to be true that are true only in his world).  The tooth was never to be found (it's possible a tooth goes down just like a crunchy bite of apple, or perhaps it dropped somewhere in the car but a small tooth is likely well hidden).  Cadel's imagination jumped right in and he was convinced that he did find his tooth and put it under his pillow.  After two nights, we thought, if he believes it's there, then the tooth fairy may also believe it's there, and she made a visit, turning his tooth into a shiny Canadian Quarter.