Sunday, December 28, 2014

Her first snowshoes!

Wynn got her first pair of snowshoes for Christmas ... but we had no snow on the ground then! Finally, yesterday overnight we got a nice 4" coating - enough to give the shoes a try.  Shadow wanted to help:
Having clear skies ought to be good for playing outside, but when sunset is at 4:30 pm, there's little time to romp around.
 



She got the hang of walking really quickly, and Shadow was overjoyed to have someone to chase.
 

Let's have a video of the two of them playing!

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Christmas light show at the U of M

The Tesla Works club at the University of Minnesota College of Science & Engineering puts on a holiday light and music show for a couple weekends between Thanksgiving and Winter Break. They do a 25-minute show where the lights are synchronized to music, and get a nice-sized crowd. The pleasant weather is a bonus - barely any snow left on the ground now; I could walk around campus with an unzipped jacket here on December 13th!
 


We walked around the East Bank for a while afterwards - plenty of students and families looking around and enjoying the weather. Pity the restaurants at Coffman aren't open late on a Saturday night.
The U has changed so much since Ann and I went there, buildings and walkways are in beautiful shape now - interesting and accessible. There's a train! There are so many more international students! The food is so much better! Whether Wynn attends the U or not, we're glad we can show her around campus and instill a respect and desire for higher education.


Friday, December 5, 2014

Braces!

We had the 6-month followup for Wynn's upper-jaw graft today, and everything there looks ideal. For her teeth, we took the next step today and started braces on her two front teeth. These braces work with the tension from her retainer and will re-orient those teeth into their correct angles.
She was helpful and interested through the whole procedure (our dentistry friends at Gillette Children's in St. Paul are a great team)
Followup is in early February 2015. The plan is to get the front pair straight, and then expand to the next two, and the next...

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Inspired by the Math & Science fair at the U of M last week, Wynn decided the theme for this year's tree would be TETRAHEDRONS.

We picked up a couple bags of straws at IKEA, and I cut them down (the bendy part doesn't work well when making these). All three of us ran string through the straws and tied them together to make these triangles.
I put the lights up tonight - we'll trim the rest later...

And here's how the tree turned out when complete: