November 19th.  That is the day this year when we first woke up to snowflakes falling from the sky.  “Mom, wake me up if it starts snowing!”

I’m surprised sometimes, that even after almost 11 years, life is still full of firsts.  This blog is like a giant Never-Ending Baby Book.

In that case, I’m a little behind, but here are some other Firsts from the past few months.

First Day of Fifth Grade

First Candy Corn.  6 pounds of it.

First Candy Corn Muffins

First Leash

First DJake.

First huge cotton candy, eaten all by yourself.

First homemade peanut butter.

First Burger King.

First Appendicitis

First Austrian Hospital Breakfast

First Halloween Breakfast (That would be Mike)

First Cow Parade

First time making a pumpkin pie.  Really, this was the first time.

First Giant Bubble Man

First Hot Stroopwaffle

First Globe Museum

First Leather Jacket

First Viennese Oktoberfest

First time on Austrian News

First Medieval Fair

First Pumpkin Beer

First time walking into a beehive and getting stung 9 times.

And yet we are still not too old to ride the swings,

Or watch squirrels playing tag,

Or carve pumpkins,

Or paint sun-catchers at the kitchen table on a sunny afternoon.

No, we are not yet too old for Firsts, or old enough for Lasts.  I think I don’t believe in Lasts anymore.  Life is just a series of Firsts, re-created with each new decade, that never stops.  Or gets easy.  Or is any harder or easier than it was before.  It is just life, a thread of knots on a string, that gives you a grip once in a while as you just keep moving along.