Updates!

Playing with her learning table.

Here she is "snorting". One of her favorite activities. She has recently added making this goat sounding noise to that list.

Luke and Leta (7mo)

My, what big EYES you have! The better to see you with, my dear.

After having been mobile for 2 months, here she is officially crawling at 7 months

A very "twisty" Leta.

It's been quite a while since I've posted much of anything it seems, so here's an "updates" post on the fam.

Kyle: Got another website up and running. Just type in www dot TimeshareClassifiedAds dot com and check it out. He also has a couple potential buyers for two of his other websites, but those are far from done deals. However, a company did fly him out to Atlanta for an overnight business trip. Kyle has been busy lately. He spent a long weekend in Houston visiting Jeremy, 2 weekends at his Dad's and tomorrow is going to the lake to get one last boating trip in and get the boat and house ready for the winter. Football season has also started so Kyle is in heaven again and his "locks of the week" challenge with his friends has started back up so I am always hearing about everyone "points" etc.

Me: Nothing new going on with me really. Our new Body and Soul session is up and running and I finally have all my songs learned so no more practicing in the car (which Kyle enjoys!).

Everyone: Our family is also part of a church plant called the Church of Christ at Oakdale. We have around 21 committed families to go and start a new church in an area of the metro where there currently isn't one. There are many young families with lots of babies so Luke and Leta will have many new friends at this church. On October 10th we will begin meeting at the Oakdale Elementary school. The general plan is to meet there for around 2 years while our church building is being built. This past Sunday was the first Sunday that our new preacher, Darrel Sears preached. It's nice to feel "official". There has been lots of preparation for getting a new church up and running. My current role in that is to be on a team with 2 other women and plan out the curriculum for our 5-8th graders.

Luke: Luke is almost three and seems to me, to be very naughty these days. We are in a challenging phase with him. He has been much more difficult really since Leta was born. We did have a nice little break in there from him being so "trying". I have heard from many that they found the "3's" to be more difficult than the so called Terrible Two's. I think we are going to find that this is the case here. We are working on "whining" (a constant struggle) and "obeying the first time asked". Luke is still very much into trains, Thomas the Train and the Polar Express. He has also begun to be scared of different things. He doesn't like thunder, loud sounds, smoke detectors, when the electricity goes out, and flashing lights. He is still much too rough with Leta and we are constantly working on being gentle and careful. With that said, just recently they have begun to "play" together. Peek-a-boo is a favorite game Just this morning before naps they were in the living room laughing like loons together. One of the sweetest sounds I've ever heard. I will have to remember that moment because it was one of those where you sit back and say, Oh yes. This is TOTALLY worth it. Luke has started to call me "Mark" sometimes and thinks this is quite funny. He is VERY talkative and there is rarely a quiet moment with him.

Leta: Is still super sweet and 8 months old (this past Monday). She has become quite the little crawler, which is bitter sweet. It's fun watching her learn new things and gain new skills, but with mobility comes the need to teach her "no" and what items in the house are "do not touch". She loves cords, the artificial trees, and outlets and especially the toilet. She cries whenever I move her away from it. She has already played in toilet water once. Yesterday. She now has 3 teeth. She just got her upper left today and the upper right appears to be coming right along as well. She is quite giggly and tickle-ish. She can clap and especially enjoys to clap in her high chair while eating. Luke is the biggest thing in her world right now. While she is awake during Luke's afternoon naps she will often crawl all over the house looking for him. The first place she usually checks is "Time Out" and then she heads for the stairs, although she can't climb them yet. She gets really excited to go and get Luke out of bed in the mornings. She squeals and kicks her legs as we approach his door. Luke is always disappointed if Leta does not come to wake him up, so that is a morning chore Leta and I do together. Leta is on okay eater. She is pickier than Luke was (but he wasn't picky at all...) but not too bad. She does NOT like Israel melon and isn't a big fan of the same thing too many times in a row. She is a slow eater and NOT an eager one, so she doesn't open her mouth well and feeding her takes a long time. Sometimes an hour, which I think is a bit ridiculous, so we'll be talking to her pediatrician about that at her 9 month check up. She takes three 45 minute naps per day, but quite often the last nap is more like 20-30 minutes. She takes FOREVER to fall asleep. If she falls asleep in under 15 minutes it's of miracle proportions and here lately 30 minutes to an hour is more likely. Another topic of conversation for the doctor. Leta can also pull up on anything and everything and there is some unintentional cruising going on. Luke could cruise, but never did. He just crawled and then walked, so we'll see what she does. Her favorite toys are her learning table and a plastic ear of corn.