It seems as though ages since the last update. So much has happened. Of course our baby daughter has turned one and is far too quickly becoming a baby no longer but a little girl. In fact, in the last six weeks or so she has begun walking and gotten so good that she is on the verge of running. It certainly gets trickier to keep up with her and she is into more now than ever before. Yet, it really is fascinating to see her relish her newfound freedom and curiosity growing. Plus, her personality just keeps evolving more and more, and out kid is definitely a character. Also, she just keeps getting more teeth, as you can see here.

In other news, right after the school year started I hurt my back pretty severely, which laid me up for about six weeks. It was everything I could do just to get to work everyday. It really cramped my soccer coaching this year. Fortunately, I am definitively on the mend, and while not completely healed I am getting close. Unfortunately, I inherited more than my winning looks and personality from my father. I got his back too. So either of us can have a bad spell any time. Yet, we can stave of too many disasters with some good old-fashioned exercise.

On the soccer season, my girls will finish this campaign already guaranteed with a winning season, which is always a goal. I am endlessly interested in just how different the character of each team is from year to year. It is one of those bonuses of coaching or teaching anything. This group has probably the widest disparity in talent and skill of any team I have had recently. Mixing them together provided some interesting play and required more tinkering than usual to ensure strong results. In fact, I would blame most of the non-victories on me, as I tried to find the best way to work everyone into the game while maintaining a certain level of play. This season was more challenging, in that respect, than any other I can remember.

Last month, Keri and Ali took a mini vacation and headed north to Toronto. They took in the sites and the Red Sox over a weekend. That left me and Hadley on our own as Ail got a little r-and-r from mommydom.Their consensus was that Niagra Falls was cooler than the city. Still, I have to say I want to take a trip to Toronto at some point and have a look around for myself. Tragically, they were having some camera issues. So the shots from the trip are limited.

So fall is in full swing and the New England leaf peepers and Red Sox Nation are at the end of their glory. Winter’s chill is already starting to nip the air a bit. Sadly, the Sox did not make a repeat trip to the Fall Classic. Still, autumn is the best part of the year, if you ask me. Fall is festival season, and we have been making the most of it. I imagine it won’t be long before we see some snow here.

That’s all for now. Hopefully you enjoy the pictures from the last month and half.