I meant to include something about her attitude in the post, but I don’t know if I got that far.  Lauren has an attitude!  If she doesn’t get her way, she will DEFINITELY let you know.  She shrieks and squeals and she’s even begun to arch her back and lay on the floor screaming.

Lauren is starting to get the hang of this walking thing  Will was over on Friday – he’s two months older and walking like a pro.  I think he inspired Lauren, because she sat and stared and pointed, and once he went to nap, she was leaving all furniture behind to venture out on her own two feet.  She makes it about 10 steps once or twice a day, and most of the rest of the day is spent in 2 or 3 or 5 step intervals.  I have a video of her walking, pointing, gesturing “where is it?” and expressing her love for her lovable Molly-kitty, but right now youtube isn’t cooperating, so check back tomorrow!  The last few days Lauren has given the wake-up call at 5 or 5:30 am, so I’m SO ready for bed right now!

Lauren is “walking” now!  She can go about 8 or 10 steps before falling down, but she’s learned how to stop and stand still to regain balance before taking a few more steps. 

Both kids have been having some crazy hair days lately – here are a few pics:

Last week Saturday

This morning:

As for me, I’ve been doing lots of spring cleaning.  Am I the only one who makes the house an even bigger disaster before I can get everything picked up and put away (and thrown out and donated?)

We’ve purchased some extra storage for Peyton’s closet and for the front hall closet; Peyton’s room has been very clean since we bought the toy bin from Target! 

We’ve also been very busy with James’ classes.  He started at Moody Bible College in an online program for a Bachelor of Science in Biblical Studies – a BSBS (yes, that’s a lot of BS).  It’s been a bit of a shock to both of us how much work is required, but now that we’re on the second week he’s getting the hang of what’s due and when.  Since it’s an online course, we had to figure out a lot of the guidelines from the syllabus without being able to question a prof face to face. 

And of course there’s Lauren - she’s decided in true anorexic fashion that she looks like a refrigerator even though she only weighs 16.5 lbs.  In other words, she doesn’t want to eat!  She learned how to wave her arms like ninja to protect herself from the evil spoonfuls of baby food.  If I work quickly, I can distract her with pieces of cheese – (one of the few things she will eat).  While she reaches for the cheese, there’s a brief moment when she opens her mouth – if I time it right, I can cram a spoonful in without any argument from Baby Girl.  Not only did she reject her dinner (though she ate the first half of the baby food at lunch time no problem); she also has been very finicky about nursing today.  She’s extremely obstinate and excessively opinionated (and she definitely did NOT in ANY way get that from me).  I’m getting really worn out from stressing about her eating habits, and she’s definitely sick of me sticking spoons in her face.  God help me!

Lauren took a few steps a few days ago; here’s a video that was specially requested by Grandma and Papa At.

Last post I complained about the passage of time.  So much has happened in the past week, which really seems ages ago.  Only a week ago, on Peyton’s birthday, we arrived in CA for my grandpa’s funeral, which was last Friday.  It was a blessed time, especially for Peyton, who shed many tears when it was time to leave Grandma and Papa’s.  We’ve been so busy in the past week that we never quite got around to wrapping Peyton’s miscellaneous birthday gifts.  He received such a big item from Grandma & Papa – a John Deere ride-on tractor, the Gator HPX – and he bought a DS with his Christmas/birthday money, so he hasn’t even thought about what we have for him.  Really it’s just a few small things, anyway – a computer program to work on his reading and math, some Diego phonics books, the Wall-e DVD, and that’s about it.  Nothing huge and exciting, but I supposed I still ought to wrap them.  His birthday party will be on Saturday, so perhaps we’ll let him open our gifts that evening.  In the mean time, he’s busy.  He was so proud to say he’d taken driving lessons with mommy (the reverse was somewhat complicated for him; we also had to talk about what to do when he gets stuck), but he also made sure to get out some driving gloves and a glass of water – can’t let the cup-holder go unused.  He spends the other half of his time begging to play his DS, but he sometimes suffers the consequences of bad choices, as videogames are one of the first things he loses.  Good choices or bad, we keep a tight rein on the game-playing because he gets cranky if he plays too long!

We’ve had a pretty good transition into being home, though it seems everything else is falling apart.  Lauren grabbed Grandma’s hair iron on Saturday and burned the palm and thumb of her right hand, so I took her in to the doctor on Tuesday.  She lost an ounce from a month ago, so now we’re back to getting hysterical about her growth.  She grew half an inch (maybe – sometimes we measure her length only to find that she somehow shrank), but her head stayed the same and her weight went down.  Doctor wants to do a sweat test to see if she has cystic fibrosis; given the other symptoms and the nature of the disease, I’m thinking she doesn’t have it, but doc would like to be able to rule it out.  At this point they’re looking in to where we’d do this; I’ll update you when plans are set.

But she’s so normal!  Today she took her first steps!  She often walks while holding just one hand, but this time Daddy let go of her while she was coming to me, and she took a step before I caught her!  Later in the evening I sat a few feet away from the couch, held her middle, then let go as she took three or four steps to get to Daddy and Peyton on the couch.  She did this repeatedly, though she sometimes seemed to do more falling onto the couch than arriving at it, but we did such cheering and clapping you’d think she’d done backflips to get there.

Time has been going so fast!  Christmas vacation started two days early because of the snow, but it’s gone by so quickly.  We’ve done lots of cleaning and organizing and playing and sleeping and watching movies and reading books…and now we’re close to getting back into the regular schedule again.

Sort of.

School will probably make up the Christmas party on Monday since there was no school the Thursday or Friday before break.  I have two Christmas presents on the table in the entry – for Peyton’s teachers and for the kids’ book exchange. 

Peyton’s birthday is coming up on Wednesday, so we’re preparing for his birthday party, which is supposed to occur on Saturday the 10th.  Grandma and Papa bought him a…something big, and I’ve got to pick that up on Monday or Tuesday and somehow hide it from him until his birthday.  There’s a cake to be ordered and presents to be wrapped and party favors to be purchased and put together.

The most irregular certainty is my Grandpa.  He isn’t doing well at all – the doctors think he’ll be visiting with Jesus within a week, and my mom has watched his health fall at an alarming rate.  We’ll be heading down to California to be with my family when it’s time, which could be any day now, so our other plans and preparations are only half-hearted.  Who knows what tomorrow will bring? 

Yes, time moves so quickly.  Not long ago Grandpa let us hammer nails into random places in extra pieces of wood from his truck.  Then once we’d made a mess, we’d grow tired of that game and pull the rope from his garage to make a swing on the big tree in the front yard.  After we’d given him time to pick up the mess we’d made, and perhaps just enough time that he’d think he could get a moment’s peace, we’d be back at his feet begging him to play baseball with us, and of course he would.  On indoor days we weren’t at a loss – Grandpa had Hungry, Hungry Hippo and Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys.  Of course, our toys at home were bright and beautiful and new so that Grandpa’s toys at first appeared old and boring, but once one overlooked their color it was obvious that the classic toys were full of possibilities.  And how much more fun it is to build log cabins and strange machines in a fort!  Grandpa never seemed to mind when we filled his den with blanket-covered TV trays…perhaps because those were the only moments when we gave him peace. 

And now, though it feels like days, decades later, Grandpa is confined to his bed.  He walked well until West Nile bit him – he never quite recovered from that, though it was a few years ago.  His walker was sufficient at Thanksgiving, though he depended more and more on it.  At Christmas he needed a wheelchair, but days later he couldn’t even do that.  Now he barely has the energy to wake, and he has difficulty even with speaking.  My grandpa is passing away.

If I didn’t know where he was going to, I’d be worried, sad, afraid.  And I think he’d be those things, too.  But because of his life – his faithfulness, his love, his fortitude – he and I both know where he’s going and who’ll be there with him.  And though I don’t know when, time goes by so quickly that I’m sure it won’t be long until I’m there, too.

Time goes so quickly.  So many years ago, he was born, and years later, I was born, and years after that, Peyton came along.  And now Grandpa is going on into true life, while Peyton and I wait for Jesus’ return so we can go there, too.  How long, oh Lord?  Just a moment, because it seems that that’s all time is.