Happy Spring

I should have lots to say for lack of a recent blog posts, however I'm feeling at the end of the rope. Hmmm...... Eli is 9 months old next week.....nuts! He's going to be the opposite of his slow-to-move sister. He's already pulling up on everything to his knees to play (little kitchen, laundry baskets, his crib) He's stretching so far for toys he should take off crawling once he figures out how to get his knees under him! I don't want to jinx myself, but he's been sleeping through the night the whole week!! WAHOO (I'm literally doing a little dance here)! He's started to be more vocal. Suddenly we'll just hear him belting out "da-da-da-da-da" from his carseat or highchair! He's so cute. Addie is expressing parts of the "terrible two's" before she's two. She's my "handful" lately. I hesitate to call her moody, but she's usually one extreme or the other. It's a difficult phase with discipline, but it too shall pass. Derrick and I reflect back on Kai at this age and recall having to strap him in the highchair for timeout. She, on the other hand, stays on the timeout step on her own. She's also talking more. She has mimicked words for quite some time, but just recently has begun to pull vocabulary out to form her own thoughts/agenda. She frequently states WHO and then ends with a VERB. The middle of the sentence is mostly jibberish sounds. "Kai...ksdlfsaglsdfohisdgbkle.....work." It's cute, she's getting there. Kai is in a fun phase now. His imaginary play is always entertaining. He's starting to use different household items or toys as props. He likes to do "work projects," "packing for adventures," or things associated with racing (due to Lightning McQueen being his favorite these days)! He's able to ride his Strider bike with me all the way to the park and back from our house while I tote the other kids in the bike trailer. It makes me excited for summer outings (although we've been practicing already since it's been almost 70 degrees for 2 wks around here)! He's going through a guns and killing the bad guy phase, which I could do without. We're just trying to stress you don't point guns at people and redirect the other negative play. Where do kids get this stuff at age 3???? Everywhere. I know, I know. Derrick is getting busier with ministry due to amazing growth and partly due to the beautiful weather. Relationships with the guys are becoming stronger and deeper. He hangs at the skateparks with the guys pretty frequent when he can! We have had such generous donations of food for skate church, and new partnerships recently that have been a HUGE blessing. I am pondering on some serious spring cleaning lately. It's always need to keep toys out of every crack and crevis of our house! I'll keep you posted if it honestly happens....pondering and performing are two totally different concepts for me! Happy Spring! Due to the time change, my kids slept until 7:30am or later this whole week! Ah, love it. It has been a good sleep week.