Reading Ryan

Ryan has been learning how to read over the past year, learning simple words and phrases. He just started kindergarten, and loves his teacher, classmates and learning - a major blessing! His teacher is not only a kindergarten teacher but a reading specialist as well. She has tested the kids and put them into reading groups. On her website is an online library that has books for each reading group. Ryan LOVES this - computer (his favorite) and reading all together! Over the past two weeks, he has taken off with his reading, starting to put it all together (sounding out, contextual clues and memory of words). It is so exciting to see him become a reader AND be so excited about it. As I watch him, he seems so surprised that he can do it and then becomes so proud of himself. He's still an active five year old boy, so I wouldn't call him a bookworm, but he is really starting to enjoy reading!

Kate's New Look

Kate recently lost her two front teeth, one on a Friday right before school and one on the following Monday, right before school. She was SO excited to go to school each of these days to show her friends. Then she decided to get her hair cut short as well (short for her). After all this, she looked in the mirror and smiled. She asked me if she looked different. I said "Yes, of course, much different!". Her smile grew bigger. Kate loves change, just like her Daddy!

A baby or a toddler?

All of a sudden, I feel like Kara is no longer a baby, and yet she is only 10 1/2 months old. She walks confidently with good balance now, plays games like peek a boo, chase, hiding around the corner from someone and reappearing while laughing, etc., is imitating many things (trying to draw on paper with a pen, pointing the remote at the t.v., scrubbing floors with a towel), loves blowing kisses, especially when saying bye bye to someone, claps when she is proud of herself, is saying a few words: mama, da (for daddy), yea, dah (for dog) and gonga for "thank you" when someone gives her something, and she LOVES her baby doll, giving it kisses, pushing it around in a stroller, patting its back.

She is also becoming more like a toddler with expecting to get what she wants. She is quite vocal when we are not paying attention to her or when she is not getting what she wants. We are already saying "no" to her quite a bit, not just with things she is getting into but with her whiny cry when she is upset that she did not get something she wanted. Kara also thinks it's a great time to cut back to just one nap! She is sleeping longer at night (about 12 hours, 8pm-8am) and then only taking one nap late morning. I'm still hoping this one nap thing is a strange phase and she will return to two naps soon!

This evening, we were outside walking around as Kate and Ryan were riding their bikes. Kara would see them and then they would disappear for a few minutes around the corner in the back, and Kara would put her hands up with a look of "where did they go?". Then they'd reappear and she would start laughing with delight! Kara is so much fun...oh how I love her giggles and all her expressions!

John 15

I've been having a lot of real conversations with teens lately.  Not that I spend most of my time in fake conversations, but lately I've noticed them bringing more and more up questions that are just real and raw and have a general sense of wanting to do what is right.

Many of these questions start with, "How do I handle this..." and are very gray and often no direct answer Biblically to the question.  I keep finding myself hanging my hat on John 15.

How do I know if this or that is right? Well, I stay connected to the vine and trust that the Holy Spirit will lead, seek wisdom and knowledge from others who are ahead of me on this path, and pray the begeebers out of the situation.

I'm really glad Chuck Rose made me memorize that in college.

Crossfit

I've never been much of a health fanatic.  I enjoy running, and enjoy the time with the Lord that it offers me, but have not been able to run since I had surgery on my leg in February, which has made me restless in many ways.

I've noticed myself getting softer around the middle and tried a few diet plans, with very little success, so I decided that the next logical step was to build muscle mass to help burn kcals since I can't run yet (the reason being I don't think I've followed enough PT on it).

Today I started Crossfit at Let's Crossfit, a local guy that lives just around the corner from me.  If you don't know crossfit, it's pretty intense, but I've seen some results in a couple of my co-workers and like the timed/competitive parts of it and the fact that I'm not pushing metal the whole time.

I got a great deal going with Vince, the trainer and even avoided meeting "Pukey the Clown" today.  I'm planning on sticking with this for some time, using this to get me back into a shape besides round and able to run decently again.  Maybe the teens will even stop teasing me about my weight.

Plus, Vince can't be too bad of a guy, he wears Vibrams.