Happy New Year!

Welcome to a new year. I decided to do a year in review instead of a typical Christmas letter to all. I do hope that everyone enjoyed family and friends over the holidays - we certainly did!

The update:

Little man - He still doesn't walk - but he does have really good balance and can be tricked into walking on occasion. He tries to talk and has favorite words like dog, drink, milk, truck and bath. He learned "deer" over Christmas at his great grandparents house. He loves playing outside, climbing all over everything, pulling things out of cabinets, opening and closing doors (he can reach the door knobs but not turn it yet), turning pages in books and playing the piano. So, he is a growing boy. He eats his spinach and oatmeal every morning - please don't tell him that most normal people don't eat that. He had a great first birthday. It grew out of control fast (we had 12 kids under 5 years of age) but we had a great time celebrating with pancakes and curious george. We are looking forward to a great year - he will walk eventually (at least that's what people tell me) and I am sure he will have a language explosion - he really wants to talk. Actually most people think he will be RUNNING within days after walks - I tend to agree.

Hubby (daddy) - He is still employed by the public library system here in SA. Overall he enjoys it. He has been given more administrative responsibilities and he really enjoys that. His boss likes his work and continues to recommend him for position openings - however in a city system it's all about your number of years. He plans to stay with the system for a LONG time coming so his turn will come. He gets frustrated with the computer illiteracy of the general public but enjoys helping patrons who are actually doing research. He has also been busy with a guys group about once a week - they do geeky guy things. He continues to read like crazy and continues to watch all kinds of movies. On occasion he picks a few good books on tape and movies that are interesting to the rest of us. So far we have learned about the history of pirates, the race to the north pole, Harry Potter, and similar fare.

The little wife (mommy) - I am still adjusting to being a full time stay at home mom. I actually spent the summer working full time plus for a summer camp. It was fun but very tiring. In the spring I read "Genius Denied" about gifted and talented education. I also realized that my money towards education from VISTA was about to expire. So I have been taking Internet courses on gifted education over the summer and fall. I have learned a lot - even though I don't have a teaching certificate. After this summer I realized that I WILL NEVER run a child care center (one of my former dreams). So instead my friends and I started a montessori preschool co-op. We had about 12 -1 4 kids between 8 months and 4 years twice a week. It has been fun and I think helpful to the moms/ dads and kids. We will have two "semesters" this spring. We've learned a lot and look forward to what is to come.
I have also found a hobby. I learned how to make quilts this fall and made quite a few for family and friends for Christmas. I have also taking up crocheting after a friend introduced it to me. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree as I realize most of my family has taught at one point and many of them are pretty skilled with needle and thread.
We continue to stay busy at church. Our pastor recently left to accept an exciting opportunity in North Carolina - but it's been awesome to see our church community come together in new ways. We also are busy with a home group. We now meet at our house so once a week we have over 12 adults and 7 children under age 4 in our house. We are still trying to figure out how to meet everyone's needs - but it is fun to do life together. Missy is part of a women's group that has been studying Cloud and Townsend books about spiritual growth and community. Peter is part of a geeky guys group and enjoys hanging out with them. He used to be the only married guy but now the ratio is changing (two were married this year!).
So these are the high points of our year. We are excited about the year to come, looking forward to lots of new life (many of our family and friends are expecting) and new adventure. When I remember I try to post happenings here and we'd love for you to keep in touch.

Yeah Cloth Diapers

Well today a little miracle happened at our house. My 15 month old left our family room and crawled (because he still refuses to walk) to his room. This was fairly strange behavior because he was playing just fine. When he got to his room he went straight to his changing pad (which is on the floor), sat on it and looked at me. He was wet and wanted to be changed!!! He wasn't even poopy. So we'll see what this means and if he does it again. I tried to praise him profusely.

He continues to try and "clean" things around the house. He has also started feeding himself with a spoon pretty well. He can do it well with his left hand. His right hand is another matter. He sort of tries to catapult it into his mouth. Sometimes it works for him depending on how "sticky" the food is.

He has also started getting on to his little tricycle more. He is very cute as he rides it around. He gets off of it by inching himself off the back end. It works.

So this has sort of been a string of posts about what little man is doing. I guess that is the main thing going on in my life. Everything else is a Christmas surprise for people. Congrats to our friends who have recently given birth or announced that they are pregnant. I think I know about 7 people expecting between May and July of next year. So much life - it's very fun.

My son - the cleaner

Well I have been enjoying time on the Internet while my son slowly explores all the "safe" areas of the kitchen. He's been at it for about 45 minutes now. It is messy but he is having a good time. My favorite part is when he takes the dishrags and wipes things down. He's been doing this often recently and it is just TOO cute. He isn't really cleaning - but he's trying. Actually Montessori does have a way to teach cleaning so I guess I should pull out that information and teach him how to do it - he would love it.

He still refuses to walk. He is still a little unsteady but he really could probably do it if he tried. He "accidentally" takes a few steps every once in while between chairs or other close objects. He is also getting better at signing. Although I think he thinks the sign for "more" means "food". I get the point. He certainly knows the signs for bath and milk - two of life's greatest pleasures in his estimation. It is almost bed time so we will need to wrap up this playing session. He sure has had a good time though!

Wrappin' it up!

Well this week marked the end of our trial period for our co-op. The review meeting went really well and we are all looking forward to beginning again in the spring. I have a few things to learn before then because we will start teaching more langauge and math concepts. I also finished my grad school course. My final project ended up being much bigger than it needed to be (over 30 pages plus a website)- but I was having a good time. You can see the webpage if you'd like. It was fun and I am glad that it's done.

There is a chance that little man may be a climber. After figuring out how to get up onto the dining room chairs he has realized that the same principles can be used to climb on top of the table and the piano keys. He is not allowed to do these things - but he tries.

He might be paying more attention to the signs then I give him credit for. Yesterday he went into the bathroom in the middle of the afternoon and made the sign for bath. We didn't take one at that point. Later that night he heard my husband and I talking about it - came by on his way to the bathroom and made the sign. He also LOVES making the sign for milk (now he drinks lactaid or soy milk).

So now its on to new projects - I have a couple I have set aside that I will pick back up now.