Breakthroughs

I can't believe it has already been a week since I've posted anything. Time is just flying by....I don't know where the first part of November has gone. I feel like I have been just hopping from day to day and it's all kind of a blur. But this past week has been full of a few pretty major type breakthroughs in a lot of areas.

1. Lillie is crawling very well. She is still cautious - which is just fine with me, because it keeps her out of the "whoa, wait, you can't have that" range of motion. I think she has face planted one too many times from her little arms not quite keeping up with those knees that it causes her to take everything pretty slow.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

2. But not only is the girl crawling - she is now trying to stand on her own and she is starting to pull up. Now, ok, I gave in to the crawling and have just gotten used to the bittersweet of it all - proud that she's accomplished this, but so sad that she is growing so fast. I just get used to all of that and then she starts moving on to the next thing...just too much too fast for me thank you. And then Daddy was off for Veteran's Day and spent the morning with the younger kids while I went to work a bit and I come home to hear him say, "Oh and Lillie took a couple of steps while I held her arms this morning." To which I respond, "What?! You're practicing this!"

I don't have a picture of the standing thing she's experimenting with, but she will move from the crawling position to the straight legs, feet on the floor, hands on the ground position....yeah, I'm sure a few more face plants are in her future.

3. Avery has actually had moments of chosen obedience and compliance. That is just huge and quite amazing. I will tell him to do something and he will say "ok, mom" and go do it. The first time this happened I almost fainted. He does it a lot at home, a little out in public, but at places where he is familiar with his surroundings (church, grandparents houses) he still tests me quite often to see if I will follow through with the discipline that comes after a defiant "no momma, I said no!" But I tell you, I will continue to take on the battleground in those areas almost gladly even, if it means that he will surrender his position at home. It is quite a large glimmer of hope...he even has moments where after I have requested something of him, he will look at me, think about it and say, "well....ok."

and he is still our little nut - he found a clothes pin yesterday and decided that the place to put this thing of course was up his nose - don't worry I took it away from him, after I took his picture.

4. Huston had one of the best days he has had in his lifetime yesterday. Not only did he not really whine and pout about anything in particular, but when the friends were over for our church small group and were all forming the crazy mob mentality up in the bedroom, Huston came to me and said, "they are acting kind of crazy up there in our room" to which I responded maybe you should go in the living room and watch a movie - and he actually took my advice and stayed out of the trouble and quietly watched a movie all by himself. While the rest of the kids quickly spiraled down into situation of tears and complaining and trouble....which those traits are practically Huston's middle name, but yesterday he shunned them. Yay!!!

5. Isaiah has started blogging. I think its quite cute. He and Avery received a joint present of a fisher price digital camera for their birthdays. He told me he wanted to take pictures and write about them on the computer like I do. So I set him up with his own blog and he really likes it. We have had a little tiny break here recently though because mom needs to get new batteries for the camera - but he was making an entry almost every day (for like 3-4 days in a row! :o). He tells me what to write and I type it for him for the most part...but it is helping him start to learn how to tell a story a bit, and as he gets older, if he is still into the blogging thing, it will be a great way to get him to learn how to type and proof and edit and all that good stuff. He has already discovered the little spell check red squiggle on misspelled words, so it's already helping him to slow down and think about spelling. We'll see how it goes....at least he enjoys it for now.

6. And finally a project that I've been hoping to get off the ground at work for the past two years has been picked up by the leadership of the church and looks to be taking flight - I really hope the follow through comes along behind it and a year from now we are at a much better place with it all. It's exciting, but will involve a lot of work and I hope I am up to the challenge of it all. Right now I am really tired and unmotivated to do any more, but I also have a cold, and I think that may factor into things a little bit. I hope to snap out of this funk soon.

So anyway, busy times. Guess that's why blogging has kind of slipped out of the radar now and then. But stick with me or Isaiah, cause we'll come back around to entertain you with mundane happenings soon enough.