Here are the facts . . .

Here it is. A fast run down of what we've been up to. No witty anecdotes. No recaps of meaningful parenting moments. We're in the midst of Family Camp . . . and that allows little time for anything but, well, caring for the 1500 people on the grounds during Family Camp. Every time we see her, Kyle's grandma asks, "Do you wonder what you did with your time before you had kids?" Yes, yes I do.

So, here are the facts . . . starting with the youngest.

BENNETT.


Ben's few steps have multiplied and he's becoming more and more confident on his feet. He still crawls most of the time, but he's getting there. When I went to pick him up for dinner tonight, Kylie put Ben down and as he toddled over to me, I was choking back tears. He'll be 10 months old a week from now. Where did the last 10 months go? How did he get this big?

He is not a fan of the heat and the fact that we're eating outside for every meal this week has been difficult for him. But with the breeze yesterday and today, meal times have been much easier.

He claps a lot, and will give us the sign for "more" but gets the two motions confused. He says "ba ba ba" every time he see his bottle. He opens and closes his hands when we say bu-bye, but only about half of the time. When Kyle got up and left the table today, he started calling "d-da d-da." That was a first. He definitely knows that the word "brother" is referring to Jack, and sometimes will repeat a "bu-ah" sound when we say it. He only says "ma ma" when he cries, but I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with me. Oh well . . .

He's CONSTANTLY dirty but I love watching him crawl through the sand, so I don't care. He crawls on his hands and the soles of his feet and kicks up the sand behind him. So funny. I love that kid.

JACKSON.

Jack is also consistently dirty. I can always tell how much fun my kids had in any given day based on the color of their bath water. Disgusting? Yes. True? Also, yes.

He had his three year check-up and it confirmed that he's healthy and developing normally. He's 38 1/2 pounds and 40 inches. He asked the doctor questions continuously and wanted to know why she did everything. He passed his first vision test, which wasn't really much of a surprise.

He LOVES being a staff kid and the privileges it affords. He typically has 30+ people, including his grandparents and great grandparents to give him attention at any given time. He also has two playgrounds, a lake, a petting farm, and, well, an entire camp at his disposal. He lives a charmed life. And the golf cart rides . . . oh, the golf cart rides. We can pretty much get him to do anything if bribed with a ride on the golf cart.

He'll tell anyone he meets about how he's heading to preschool in the fall, while I stand behind him trying to hold back the tears associated with my oldest child going to school. While he still throws the occasional screaming fit, they're much farther apart. I think about how challenging last summer was with him and I'm so grateful to be on the other side of that.

He still says all kinds of funny things on a daily basis. Yesterday morning, he asked which way his Dr.'s office is. Kyle said, "It's east, the direction that the sun rises." And Jack replied, "Not in my world! All things are possible with God in my world so the sun doesn't rise in the east!" There's just no reasoning with a three year old.

On Tuesday night at bedtime, he told me all about how he's going to work where his mom and dad do telling kids about Jesus. I asked what he would tell them and he said, "That he's their friend and that he loves them and that we'll see God when Jesus comes back one day." A huge thanks to our staff for the time that they invest in my kids. We talk about this stuff all the time with Jack. But when the counselors that he looks up to so much tell him about Jesus, it really sticks.

KYLE.
My dear husband spent all afternoon on Sunday installing a part on our Explorer to stop the shaking. On Monday, I drove it into town, and it died when I was about a mile from camp . . . from something completely unrelated to what Kyle had been fixing. The mechanic says that it's gone . . . totally dead. My father-in-law thinks it's still fixable, so they're going to give it a go. Otherwise, we'll be in the market for a replacement vehicle. But maybe not until the fall . . . I think we can manage with one car until then.

When they went to tow the Explorer back from the mechanic, they got caught in a bad storm and had some issues, which almost resulted in wiping out a row of vehicles at a used car lot. I gave him permission to be cranky for a while after that.

Meanwhile, we're using one car . . . the car with the air conditioning that stopped working a few weeks ago. Awesome. These 90 degree+ days have been super fun.

ME.
I've been walking/running every other morning. I've been using the C25K app for my iphone and have been fairly consistent. I can't say that I look forward to it, but I need the exercise. I've even stayed consistent through the pesky cold I've had over the last week . . . which is something of which I'm proud.

As much as I like to whine about Family Camp, I really do enjoy this week each summer. I was reminded today how fortunate I am to have my job, and how much I really do love it.

My late nights are spent getting ready for The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, and processing oodles and oodles of photos.

Ben's first steps? Check.

Last week, Ben started doing a lot of standing unsupported so all weekend, we've been encouraging Ben to take his first steps. But all he'd do was let go, take one and then lunge toward the person waiting for him.

This evening, Kyle and I were sitting in the living room and he took three steps from me to Kyle. And then Kyle turned him around and he came back to me. And then back to Kyle. He was a little startled by all of the cheering going on, but I think he was loving the big hugs and kisses he got from us at each of his destinations.

And me? I'm so proud. But my heart is breaking at the thought of my baby transitioning to a toddler. He'll be nine months old this week and I can hardly stand it.

Another two inches and we'll have a problem . . .

Is spring here to stay?

I think the forecast for snow this weekend was replaced with a forecast for severe thunderstorms. We're under a tornado watch right now. We went on a walk tonight (which was probably a bad idea since I was coughing and hacking the whole time). It was super windy and I'm praying that we don't lose power.

When we got back to the house, we let Jack explore a little and he toddled up and down our front walkway over and over and over. I could just see the look of wonder in his eyes as he looked at everything that there is to put in his mouth discover.

I didn't have the video camera, but I could have posted all of the pictures so you could have made yourself a little flipbook of him walking back and forth . . . but I'll spare you.

Walk this way

On Sunday, we went to my parents' church. A few people asked if Jack was walking and I said, "Well, he's taken a few steps, but he's not quite walking yet." I kind of feel like Jack must have looked at me at that moment and thought to himself, "Challenge accepted."

All day at my parents, he'd cruise around and then take a few steps to anyone who had their hands out. My sister and brother made a game out of dangling Gerber puffs in front of him and making him walk for them. They referred to the puffs as treats and I had to remind them repeatedly that MY SON IS NOT A DOG.

He will stand on his own without any trouble at all and will even bend down to pick things up while he's standing. Today, he started getting more adventurous and he'll now try and walk to things without anyone there to coax him. He inevitably falls after 5 or 6 steps (max) and crawls the rest of the way, but it's amazing to think that he'll have the hang of it in no time.

We didn't get up with enough time to give jack his basket before we left for church so we just brought it to my parents' house for him to look through. He was actually a lot more interested in it than I thought he would be. And after the gifts were out, he tried to take the shreds of paper out of the basket one at a time.

One small step for Jack . . . and a much bigger deal for his parents

Below you can watch my baby's first few steps. They aren't huge, and there aren't many, but they still sent me into a panic about what kind of food we'll serve at his high school graduation party.




Later, when he was over looking out the window, he walked from the window sill to the chair and then from the chair he took about four steps in a row to Kyle. Our world is about to change . . . again.

Look, mom! No hands!

Moments before I grabbed my camera to snap this picture, Jack was standing at the window . . . with his hands folded. He wasn't holding on to anything. I was stunned for a moment and when I grabbed my camera, I startled him and he fell.

Someone once asked me how we got Jack to start crawling and standing. I told her that we do what the parents of every 9-month old do: Protein shake for breakfast, Power Bar for lunch, calisthenics every night before bed . . . . No? Really? Is that just us? I think the walking/crawling/motor development thing kind of ends up being like your ACT score was when you were in high school. It seemed like a big deal at the time, but no one really cares once you hit two or three years old. Though, I'm sure somewhere there's a 29-year-old out there telling all of his friends (who are simultaneously rolling their eyes) about getting a 34 on his ACT.

Jack had his 9-month check up on Thursday. I assumed that he would be 25 lbs by now because he was 24 lbs, 2 oz at a sick visit in January. And Jack does things like gain several pounds over the course of 1 1/2 months. But, he actually lost 2 ounces. No one seemed that concerned . . . because he's still a whopping 24 pounds! He did grow two inches over the last three months though. She also said that he should stop eating baby food and start eating off of our plates (with the exception of milk, eggs and peanut butter, of course). He can have whatever we're having for a meal. That's a lot of pressure to eat healthy. When the doctor felt around in his mouth she said that his one-year molars were about to come through. He only has TWO TEETH on the bottom and now he's getting molars? That can't be right . . .

No one ever said it would be easy

Jack's Aunt Kristen and Uncle Brett got him a great toy for Christmas and it's becoming a fast favorite. He loves pushing it around the house, but it's not without a few tumbles along the way.


Tumbles from Sara on Vimeo.

*Please disregard the large pile of unfolded laundry sitting on the coach . . . it's just there to cover the wax.