8 Months Old

Tomorrow Christopher will be 8 months old and I can hardly believe it! The time has flown by. He's got 4 teeth (2 top and 2 bottom), he hasn't met a food he doesn't like, and has the personality to light up a room. He's wearing 12-month clothes, for the most part, and weighs at least 24 pounds and is at least 29 inches long. He's a BIG guy and therefore not very mobile yet. Tummy time is getting better, but it's not his favorite thing to do - he'd rather sit or stand anyday. Life is a bit hectic, but he just goes with the flow. He's a wonderful kid, who sometimes gets the short end of the stick (like they say, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and he's usually not very squeaky), but such is the life a third child, I think. It's shaping him as a person already. I'm really looking forward to the next few months as he experiences the holidays for the first time (my girls were much younger during their first holiday season, so he will be much more aware his first time).

I'm a Soccer Mom!

Well, I'm officially a soccer mom! After an invitation from a friend (who's dad coaches the team), Katherine went to try it out and had a great time, so we signed her up for soccer. She plays with the Twin Oaks Christian School soccer program - they have 6 teams for 4-5 year olds, if you can believe that! She's on the blue team. She goes every Sat morning at 8:00 which is pretty early to get 3 kids out the door, but we are getting used to it and I did it this past Sat by myself since John was out of town - and I wasn't late! Anyway, we probably won't all go all the time, but it was quite fun to hang out and watch her run around.

Here she's standing to the left of the coach (in yellow)

Here she's sitting down after her ball got kicked out of the area - they were playing a game where they had to kick other people's balls out of the area and keep their own from getting kicked out. They spend the first 20 min or so doing games and skill building like that and then break out into their teams to play "games", which really equates to a mass of kids running after a ball. Actually, in her game last weekend there were a few goals scored, so that was great!

A fun activity for her to be involved in!

The Race is On...

Today we had a fun little outing. We disovered that a professional bike race (Tour of Missouri - http://tourofmissouri.com/) was going right past our house, practically! So, when the younger ones got up from their naps this afternoon, we loaded up everyone in the stroller and walked a few blocks to the entrance to our subdivision. We only had to wait a short time before this long line of police cars, etc drove by and then LOTS of bikes! It was kind of exciting and was just like it looks if you ever watch bike racing on tv. Anyway, the girls thought it was kind of neat and Christopher could have cared less, but it was kind of a fun, unique, thing to do for a short time this afternoon. Here's a few pictures

September 11

Last night it occured to me that today was September 11. I saw something on the TV that triggered that realization and I thought to myself - if I hadn't seen that on TV, I don't think I would have even remembered. Unfortunately, life has taken over and it's amazing to think how my life has changed since that day. On one hand, I've become a stay-at-home mom to 3 kids since that fateful day 6 years ago. In fact, on September 13, 2001, we found out we were pregnant with Katherine. While so much has changed in my life, I still remember pretty vividly my feelings on that day. I remember walking into the office and within a few minutes they guy sitting in the cubicle next to me said "a plane hit the World Trade Center ". He was listening to the radio, as I had been in my car, and I thought it was odd that I hadn't heard anything - it turns out that it happened while I was walking from my car to the office. Events unfolded during the morning, as you all I'm sure remember, and people in my ofice periodically stopped working and came over to the TV (that was near my cubicle) to watch what was going on and to stand in horror and disbelief in front of that fuzzy little TV. I remember it like it was yesterday. At one point in the morning, after the Pentagon was hit, I remembered that my mom was in Washington DC. She traveled there frequently on business and I racked my brain to remember if she had told me where she was going that day - was she at the Pentagon? I couldn't remember. To make a long story (and a very agonizing morning) short, she was not at the Pentagon, but she was close by. She was one of those that week that had a hard time getting home because of the airport shut-downs and ended up having to rent a car (another LONG story!). She was definitely too close for comfort to the horrible events of the day, but I'm glad to say that I did not know anyone hurt or killed that day. It's still just amazing to me, when I think about it, how vividly I remember the events and emotions of that day and the days to follow, giving how much had gone on in my life since. Today I'm remembering those moments and praying for those who were personally touched by the events that day. I remember hearing about babies that were born in the several months following that would never know their daddies. Having found out that I was pregnant with Katherine just 2 days after 9/11, I put myself in the places of those women who would be giving birth and raising those babies without their husbands and fathers and I remember the tears that I shed for those women. Now those kids are in Kindergarten just like Katherine. Anyway, I've gone on way to long. I hope you have a good day and remember those that are still grieving their loved ones.

Cute pics

Christopher is now 7 months old and at a doctor's appt last week for croup (he's much better now, by the way) he weighed a little over 23 lbs - no wonder my back is killing me! Seems that he's the size of a 1-year old (hence the 12-month clothing he's wearing), so when is he going to start walking??? Got these cute pictures of him tonight. Got this cute one of John and the girls (Elizabeth refused to smile) while we were just hanging out playing Candyland on a Friday night.

Today was Rams Day at school for Katherine, so I had to go to the store last night and get her a Rams t-shirt, since we didn't have one. Glad I found one - in the boys department at Target!