My man RULES....and other anecdotes about my boys

James truly continues to astound me with his abilities to be handy around the house. To the best of my knowledge, he has not had vast experience (if any) remodeling a bathroom in the past and yet he has redone both of ours in the past year. Not to mention various other household issues he has figured out during our five years here. With that said, I know I can speak for both of us by saying once again how much we are NOT fans of house projects: the time, the expense, the chaos - all of these doubled or tripled by the time you are done. Anyway, the bathroom is complete, as evidenced here:

Ben had his 9 month checkup last Wednesday, and is weighing in at 20lbs. and is measuring 28 3/4 inches long. He took his shots like a champ, as always, but both Jeran and I still aren't fans of watching it happen. Here you can see Daddy helping Ben update his resume:

Benjamin P. Louwerse

Executive in charge of drool production

Proficient in rolling over, sitting up, and giggling

Some experience with solid foods including Cheerios, bananas, and bread products

He's cute as ever and SO BUSY! I realize lately how long it's been since I've had an older baby to entertain. It's always on to the next thing for him, so I'm constantly scrambling to find new toys (or other household objects, i.e. - spoons) to keep him occupied and happily exploring. Lately he'll assume the crawling position, but can't quite coordinate all his body parts to get him places.

Jeran started Little Lambs today, which is a preschool-type program held at a church some of my friends attend. Judging by the amount of nerves I had this morning, you would have thought he was ACTUALLY starting school today. Or entering the military. I'm always anxious about how he'll behave for others, especially when social protocol is required (such as sharing and sitting in one spot for more than 30 seconds). He absolutely loved it and was able to tell me all about the stories he heard, the songs he sang (which he's been going around the house singing bits and pieces of all afternoon), the trains he played with, and the ladybugs he saw that got out of the bucket, apparently. I was also nervous about the whole potty thing since that is a requirement for him to go, and we've still been nailing it down. He admitted to me that he did not, in fact, use the potty during the allotted time, but he was still dry when I came to get him which is a great sign. There were also no other accidents of the OTHER type to speak of, which I was more concerned about. I feel really good about having him in this setting. My personality (which I think is rubbing off on him) is to ease into things, so this seems like a next step toward actual school.

And as for me these days? Still working on a part-time job, ideally in the realm of tutoring, and enjoying taking care of my kids and reading books rather than planning lessons and grading papers. Truly a blessing.