Thursday, February 15, 2007

He's mobile...

Benjamin (at not quite 6 months old) has been really working on crawling over the past couple of weeks. He has the commando crawl pretty much down now, and is already causing trouble with his newfound mobility. He is also up on hands and knees throughout the day, although he hasn't figured out how to coordinate the arm and leg movements, yet. It won't be long, though. I imagine we'll have a full-fledged crawler by the time he's six months. I hope he's not too precocious, though. His Grandpa R. was reportedly walking by eight months of age -- I don't know if my brain could handle that.

From time to time (well, okay, daily) we put Ben in his walker, and he is now quite the accomplished walker-walker. Here are a couple of pics -- he started out two rooms away and got all the way to here, and BOY is he happy with himself!!



*Edited to add:* Sometimes it takes a photo to really highlight the chubbiness of my babies. This guy is still 100% breastfed, and I just gotta say it: I must be doing a GREAT job!! Click on the photos to get a closer look at that squishy little guy!! :D

Monday, February 05, 2007

The awesome foursome

I am pretty sure there should be some grandparents needing a fix of baby pics by now... so here are just a couple! Sorry it's been a while. Larry and I have been busy again, with the beginning of the new semester and also with preaching engagements.

The kids are doing very well. All healthy, happy and full of energy, just like they should be. Boy oh boy, I can't wait to have another one! (Did I say that out loud??!) It won't be for a while, though, so nobody panic. ;)

As you can see, Benjamin is growing. And growing. And growing. He is starting to really move around, too. I call it a pre-commando crawl. He's still not sitting up too well by himself yet, but he's a big boy. It must be hard to manage a head of that size. :o) Oh, and you should see the boy eat. He's not eating solids yet, but if we do happen to give him a taste of something, he knows exactly what's going on. He's the first baby of mine that doesn't spit out at least half of what you spoon into his mouth. Nope, down the hatch!!

The others are doing well, too. Jonathan is reading now -- very basic words still, but he understands how to sound words out and he can spell lots of words by thinking about the sounds. Jonathan looooves school -- we tried to have a couple weeks off over the holidays, but he kept asking for it! :o) He's already got some basic math concepts down and he has an impressive list of memory verses under his belt.

Mae is going to be starting Pre-K this year -- she'll be joining in with Jonathan, with a few simplifications to the curriculum. She's only three, after all. Jonathan will wrap up his Pre-K curriculum about mid-year (we started at an odd time, I think) and then I'll go over it again with Mae. I don't think she'll notice if we repeat a few.

Grace is still nursing about four or five times a day. It seems to agree with her. We have eliminated gluten from Grace's diet, due to some digestive issues. We have seen a great improvement since doing so, and now are trying her with rye bread and other non-wheat breads and such, to see whether her sensitivity is to gluten, or just to wheat.

We can't wait to see Grandma and Grandpa T.!!! We've been trying not to talk about it TOO much with the kids, because then it will be "When are Grandma and Grandpa going to be here??" all day, every day, for the next few months!! But Jonathan, especially, remembers last time they were here, so he is one very excited little boy. :o)

These little monkeys, oh how we love them!