January Changes

I was looking forward to things slowing down after Christmas, but January is turning into a busy month, with lots of changes. First of all, Harding is no longer attending school because I decided to delay going back to work full-time until next school year. He gets a lot of social interaction with other kids at church and with our friends' children, so I think that he will be fine (although the 3 straight weeks of sub-freezing temperatures we dealt with caused all of us to go stir-crazy inside the house).

Second, I started a part-time tutoring job four mornings a week at a nearby elementary school. This could not be more perfect for me! I am really enjoying working with only 2-3 kids at a time and not having to be away from my own kids all day. Plus, these kids are learning fractions and percentages right now and will start on geometry soon--and that is just good brain exercise. Unlike my husband, the engineer, I am not a math genius. I still count on my fingers when adding, subtracting and mutliplying. It works for me and I'm not ashamed. :)

Since I leave the house early in the morning now, all of us have had to adjust our schedule a little. Trip is waking up earlier to get ready for work so that he can do therapy with Shelby and start Harding on breakfast. We are trying to get Shelby to take a bottle (sometimes she will and sometimes she refuses).

I may be jinxing us by mentioning this, but for the first time since before Thanksgiving, neither of the kids have coughs or runny noses! Also, Shelby has finally gotten used to the Keppra medication and is no longer fussing all evening long.

Shelby has turned into quite the chatter-box. She is constantly saying "ba-ba-ba" or "da-da" or "goo-goo", you get the idea. She seems to like to have conversations and it is almost like she is waiting for us to talk, and then replies with some type of repeating syllable. Tonight, she said the words I have been waiting for, "ma ma", but had no idea what they meant. We have also been feeding Shelby more baby food lately. As you can see below, she LOVES yogurt.

Here is Shelby doing some PT. She is getting pretty good at standing while holding on to furniture.

Here is Uncle Matt telling Harding a story:

And here is Harding pretending to be a pillow when he was supposed to be taking a nap. His imagination has really taken off lately:

Harding is obsessed with monsters. Apparently, all of the stuffed animals on his bed protect him from them. I have no idea where he gets these ideas because he rarely watches television. I think we need to have a talk with Uncle Matt about those stories.