Whatever happened to Molly?

Reasonable question. As some readers have guessed, we went out of town for the holidays, to visit the out-of-town grandparents and see Molly’s cousins. And, of course, have a big adventure along the way.

We had an early flight. Mom and I were amused, I believe it’s the first time we’ve woken Molly up in the morning. This blurry shot shows dad’s clever use of the Beco carrier for Molly, and the discovery that her car seat fit nicely over her carry-on.

…Speaking of which, we decided to try to get out of town with just two carry-on pieces of luggage. For the week. With a baby. Actually it worked well, turns out there was a washing machine at the other end, which of course cuts down on what you need. And Molly had a few new outfits waiting for her as well.

Molly had a ton of fun at the airport, and her smiling at the TSA woman probably didn’t hurt our cause, either. At the gate they told us there were cheap upgrades to First Class. Mom and I have never flown First Class, but we’d also never flown with a baby. What the heck, it’s Molly’s first flight, it’s cheap, and we probably need every edge we can get.

So we were right in the front of the plane, two big seats, and a huuuuuge space in front of our feet for Molly to stand/sit/play in. Mom took the magazines out of the little pocket, filling it instead with Molly’s toys. Oh boy!

I can’t begin to express how well the flight went. Molly was in exceptional spirits, and charmed everyone on the plane. From the moment when the flight attendant did his safety briefing right in front of us and Molly grabbed the demo oxygen mask:

…The flight attendants were hooked. They even walked her around a little bit, at one point arguing over which of them Molly liked best.

Molly just enjoyed herself. She slept for maybe 45 minutes of the flight, and played for the rest of it. She even liked the landing, if you can imagine such a thing:

…As it was her first flight, the flight attendant made her a little card with all the information about the plane on it, and the date and things like that, and since he didn’t have any wing pins on board took an Alaska Airlines pin off his coat and gave us that. At the end of the flight, they came over the PA and announced where we were, what time it was, and how much they appreciated our business — and closed with “Bye-bye, Molly!”

It wasn’t just a flight, we had a bit of a drive and a ferry ride, too.

Molly thought the whole thing was a blast.

So we finally made it to out-of-town grandma and grandpa’s house, where Molly saw her first Christmas tree. Actually, there were two, a little one upstairs near the bedroom we were staying in:

…And a bigger one downstairs, which out-of-town grandma had decorated with some ribbon that looked like fun to pull on. Amazingly, Molly didn’t manage to bring the tree down despite a week’s plotting.

This part of the world still had leaves on trees and bushes, which delighted Molly, who clearly had missed the “Do you want to touch the leaves?” walks she and dad used to take before the snow started falling at home.

They had set up this little table they found for Molly to stand up with, very sturdy on the carpet. It has little buttons on the top that make music and what-not, Molly loved it and took about 15 seconds to figure out how to pull herself up with it.

…And she would stand there for hours. Standing went through the roof this week, there was nothing as much fun as standing and especially if Molly got there herself, or with minimal help. The “big hit” toy for the week wasn’t even a present, it had already been enjoyed by her cousins when they were young — these three ducks that quack and waddle along as you pull the string. Good stuff.

Molly’s sitting is such a given at this point I hardly make note of it. But she’s really good at it, and can sit forever.

She’s also willing to do tummy time, especially if there’s someone playing with her at the other end:

…She also enjoyed tummy time on this little mat, which amusingly had a mirror at one end. Molly loves mirrors.

We took a day (and another ferry) to another island to visit Molly’s cousins. Once again Molly found the whole process exciting; we walked on so we could watch grandpa drive his car onto the boat.

The cousins were a big hit; Molly loved them. We all took a walk to visit a little cove on their property, down a steep path — again with the Beco carrier.

At the bottom the big kids sat and watched the waves or played, and Molly took it all in. Peaceful little spot.

It’s hard to account for a week, but a lot happened. Molly had a fun time at the local pizza place:

…She learned to wash her hands, kinda:

She had a little “nature time” while grandpa and dad set up the zip line for the cousins. Sort of a tradition at this point, although it’s funny as they get older they remark on how the zip line seems smaller and smaller. That’s us on the ladder in the background.

Of course I thought it would be fun to include Molly, and spent some time fashioning a harness with skills from long ago:

…But while Molly liked it quite a bit, I couldn’t quite get one together that didn’t need her holding on, and she’s not quite there yet. So she just watched.

Eating took off over the past week, too. We did rice krispies one at a time, and she chewed them in an amazingly cute way. We’re on to a handful of Cheerios here at home now, and she’s almost figured out how to grab them herself, but it’s some delicate work. Here she’s enjoying destroying a piece of pear:

The weather was amazing, we went down to South Beach for a beautiful, if cold, sunset stroll.

We brought a couple of rocks back from the beach, which were a surprise delight the next morning:

And of course, presents. Which were fun to open, after they had been suitably tasted.

…This is one of those cans you turn over and the cow goes “mooo.” Big hit.

Wheee!!

Bath time!

Molly quite enjoyed the normal-sized bathtub. Grandma found a little chair, which helped her stay sitting up so she could play with the water:

And of course we taught her how to drive grandpa’s car.

The flight back was an afternoon/evening affair, and Molly fussed quite a bit before takeoff. But, to her credit, she keeled over as soon as the wheels were up, and spent most of the trip home like this:

…So that was Molly’s Big Adventure. The night we got back home she decided she’d slept enough, and stayed up playing until quite late. But around 1 or 2 she finally gave in, and we’re almost back onto a normal schedule. Which should include blog postings, too.

I have the best boys in the world. Michael is growing up so fast and is doing amazing things every day. We have started to let him roll on his mat in the mornings and in the evenings. Michael has started to lift his bottom up and is trying to get his legs under him. Is this a precursor to crawling? sitting up? running? who knows? I do know one thing is for sure, whatever it is he going to do it with style and it will be good.

the cheerleaders., originally uploaded by jess b clementine.

learning how to crawl. what a daunting task. at least he has us on his side.

  Merry Christmas 

Kaeidyn's Rudolph

Kenzie's Song

Kaeidyn, my 5-year-old girl in Kindergarten, had her Christmas Concert on Thursday. Her class and another Kindergarten class sang “Up On The Rooftop” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”. Leading up to the concert she sang mostly “Up on the Rooftop”, but since Christmas Break has officially begun (and upon watching it on TV), Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is the only song we hear from her.

Kaeidyn Ember

So tonight we recorded it with Audacity, and of course that meant everyone else wanted to record a song. Luckily we got some practice in with the microphone, playing American Idol 2 on the PS3 this morning. Spider-Man is one of my 3-year-old son, Kenzie’s, favourite songs. The only one he ever willingly sings – and performs all too often somedays!

Keirnan, my 2-year-old boy, did record a track too, though his was long, spaced out grunting that was hard to hear, so I decided we’ll wait until a day when he gets up a little bit more courage. He still isn’t comfortable with the whole talking to other people thing. To himself and a book, he speaks his own language while he’s reading, and every once and awhile you’ll hear a word in English. To other people, he grunts, expecting his brother or sister to speak for him (which they normally do)!

Kenzie and Keirnan

Carter, thankfully, was sleeping and recorded nothing. He’s almost two months and is growing up way too fast. While I’m happy that he’s doing so great, I’m sad that my baby (which I feel like I just had!) is not a wittle itty baby anymore.

With Kaeidyn, Kenzie and Keirnan, they were all small. Two of them were premature to some degree. Kenzie was the heaviest one at a whopping (sarcasm) 6 lbs 11 0z. They didn’t gain weight fast. They felt like babies for awhile, they were helpless little babies for awhile.

Keirnan Cahlen

Carter, on the other hand, being born closest to his due date is a “big” boy. Knocking Kenzie out of the heaviest spot, came sweet Carter, 7 lb 14 oz!! Yes, that came out of me!!! Now weighing 12 lbs 2.5 oz and having amazing neck stability, he doesn’t feel like my little baby anymore.

Everyone thinks I’m over-exaggerating, but as a Mom of four, I can say with a pretty good sureity (if that’s even a word…), that my 2-month-old is already preparing to crawl! He gets up on his elbows and pushes himself all over the place with his knees and feet, sloppily almost crawling along. In the last week, we’ve had to upgrade from a small, baby-sized comforter for him to wriggle around on, to a large, adult-sized comforter.

Carter Drayke

Back to the point of the “thankfully”, now that he’s growing up so fast, he’s staying awake for longer and longer periods of time. And while I’m convinced he’s preparing for crawling, I never claimed he liked to do it!! He’s awake, he’s bored, he cries. The only thing that entertains him is being held – and lately his preference seems to be Mommy. I love when my kids want me, but in case I haven’t said it enough, I’m a Mom of four! It’s hard to hold a baby through everything. Don’t think I haven’t thought of a Snugli either, because I own one and it’s useful… to an extent.

Today especially was a rougher day. The Boyfriend, who works graveyards right now, worked last night. Doesn’t work tonight. The plan was that he was going to sleep during the day today, so that we could have the nighttime together. Then we ended up having to do some running around in the middle of the afternoon and he couldn’t sleep.

Carter on the Mind

Right before dinnertime, he started getting really tired and I knew it would be no time at all until he “dozed off” (more like passed out). He falls asleep, Carter starts freaking out. Luckily, the other kids were all down in my room watching Alvin and the Chipmunks so I could make dinner.

So here I am, with Carter in his Snugli, being very careful not to burn his toes on the stove, because it was the only thing that calmed him. It felt like he stayed awake crying for hours. Thankfully, he’s asleep now, and should be for at least another hour – hopefully!

Sadly, The Boyfriend is still sleeping. I don’t think I’m going to be able to wake him up for anything more than going to bed. And we were supposed to watch The Big Bang Theory (which we are huge fans of, and he hasn’t seen since going back to work after his paternity leave ended) and Inglorious Basterds tonight… sadness… It’s hard to stay upset at him for things like that when he’s laying in the chair, smiling in his sleep and looking so cute. Wait, I’m going to crab the camera and show you

Sleeping Beauty

 ***
 I have no new pictures of Kenzie alone because whenever we’re taking pictures, he’s downstairs playing games. So the best I can do is him and Keirnan together

I suppose it is. It’s like Hana woke up this morning and figured out the whole crawling business. She’s been at it all morning and afternoon, before finally tiring herself out enough to take a nap. I think I have about 6 videos taken today, all of her crawling. It seems like her mission in life right now is to crawl everywhere except on the playmat where it’s safe. Sigh.

She can also pull herself up into a kneeling position using the coffee table, dining room chair, or any other upright object within her reach. Including people! Whenever I sit down beside her playmat to read newspapers, she quickly scoots over and grabs any part of me that she can use to pull herself up. Once that’s done, she uses one hand to try snatching the newspaper, while the other grips tightly onto me to steady herself. In her cot, she’s more daring and would pull herself up into a standing position! Could it be she knows that there’s a soft surface to fall on, should she fall? (Which she has, many times.)

M – It seemed to stay November for an extremely long time, December quietly slid in, and it is already the 19th. Whew. It has only been a few weeks (okay, probably a month)  since she started hanging on to stuff in an upright position, and she is already ‘walking’ around our place while holding anything she finds in both her hands (which she then tries to give to anyone nearby.) Just yesterday in fact, I watched her balancing herself on one foot without falling. Of course, when she really needs to move, she still drops to the floor and crawls like a speed demon. She has now reached the next higher shelves – forcing us to push everything up higher. I would like to say the rearrangement created a ’spring cleaning’ effect, but now everything just seems messier and more cramped. The picture is off her trying to yank the headwear off. While it doesn’t relate to the post, it was a difficult to take that picture and so we decided to put it on to justify the efforts.

Are you sure that you're not laughing at me? I look cool.

Daniel is the jealous one. He’s been showing off his jealousy by “tackling” his baby brother, head-butting him, and swatting at him. All of these things have been rather mild and gentle–Daniel is still just testing the waters with what he can get away with.

It’s not just with Reid that he’s testing us. He’s started using some violent language lately that is tough for me to handle. I’ve been doing a pretty good job of it, though–thanks to Playful Parenting by Lawrence Cohen, PhD. For example, today, while sitting in a play car, he announced that he just hit and killed “that guy who does mean things” (an imaginary “friend” who does mean things like knocking Daniel over or hitting him). Instead of reacting with anger and reprimanding him for saying such a thing (what I wanted to do), I took Cohen’s advice and said, “Oh no! That would make his family very sad. Let’s call the ambulance to take him to the hospital. When he gets better, maybe you can teach him not to do mean things any more.” To which he responded that the ambulance was on its way. Phew!

Reid is trying so hard to crawl. He can’t quite figure out what to do once he’s on his hands and knees, but he knows there’s something to it. Sometimes he rocks back and forth, but usually, he just lunges forward and bonks his head on the ground.

No teeth have popped through yet. Reid is definitely teething, and sometimes I think that maybe his gums are a little swollen. But there’ve been no signs of imminent teething–just the standard drool and chomping on everything.

Reid is still screeching and screaming–he’s done it at several restaurants now, which is so stressful for us. We always had such an angel at restaurants with Daniel. We’re just not sure how to deal with a screamer.

Christmas is only a week away and I am so unprepared this year. I haven’t thought about stockings really at all yet. And I haven’t wrapped anything yet, either. I’m feeling so behind. There’s no way I’ll be getting Christmas cards out this year. Next year I will, though. I will, I will, I will.

I’m trying to monitor myself and make sure I’m not dreaming up errands to run with Molly strictly for the attention she brings.

Today of course she was a hit in several places. Partly due, I’m sure, to the skirt.

Pretty darned cute. The legs are of course attached. Good for rolling around on the floor and standing up, which was most of today’s agenda.

I missed it with the camera, but she stood up by grabbing the side of the dog bed.

…You can get the idea. You can also imagine the other picture I missed: shortly after standing up, she toppled face first right over the side. Fortunately a soft, if furry, landing on the other side.

After six months with this gorgeous  boy one would think that I would have been preparing myself for how much work babies are! With the little princess she was my little cocoon most of the time. She hung out with me in the sling, napped in her swing and was content to just “be”.  At 6 months she could roll but was more likely to just wait for us to move her about. So you can see why I was take aback when my sweet boy decided that he could crawl and sit up on his own and now for the real kicker…the boy pulled himself up to standing. So, he weighs more now at six months than the princess did at a year but I am not thrilled about him acting like he is one. I am not complaining though being their mom is the best job ever!

Spent some time on the stairs today, which are good because they’re easy to hold on to.

Mom had an appointment mid-day, so Molly and I planned on another walk in the Beco carrier. But less than a block away she started complaining, so I turned back. Once home she seemed fine, so I kept her on my back while I tidied up the garage a bit and shoveled a little slush off the side patio to the sun could melt the rest.

Molly is teething.

…In fact, mom felt her first little tooth sticking out today! It’s so small that despite heroic efforts we were unable to get it to show up on camera, so you must take our word for it. Molly’s clearly bothered by it all, but really isn’t complaining too much yet. We’ll see how it goes as the rest start to poke through.

• Milestone: First tooth poked out. Barely.

I don’t know what to say. It just seemed like a good place to put her.

Molly and I had a real up-and-down day today. It got a little long by the end, but she was a ton of fun for much of the day.

It was another inside day, so we made the most of it. Last night mom got out the sheepskin rug, and it was a big hit, so we did some more playing on it this morning.

She liked it because, I think, it was not just soft and cuddly, but also a great thing to grab with her hands and pull herself up with. This is why she got up onto her knees from time to time. And when she plopped over, no biggie, soft as the bed upstairs.

I rolled it back up when she moved on, but we rolled it out again tonight. Again, much fun to play on. When she moved on to other pursuits this time, however, there were squatters.

…Hopefully they will have moved by the time I finish this and toddle up to bed.

Molly’s needing a lot of milk lately, and mom’s working hard to keep up. We’re supplementing during the day with as much baby food as she will eat, but it’s still just a bite or two of each thing, then she’s done. I don’t think she’s quite connected that the stuff we give her on spoons might actually fill her tummy one day. Tried the dairy-based formula on her, got the same result as with the soy-based one: no way, José. Not interested, and offended I even offered it.

So by the end of the day she was ready for mom to be home, that’s for sure. It’s a little rough being Molly sometimes. But she’ll make it. She’s got her own guardian angel, after all.

Or devil, whichever he’s in the mood for.

I finished my last few edits of Allison. I am looking forward to watching her grow over the coming months. What a sweetie.

Inexcusable lack of updates the past few days. Perhaps I can blame it on the cold weather; note the windows:

We managed to get out a time or two in the Beco to quickly shovel snow (and, today, to almost fall asleep while dad was still workin’), but mostly it was indoor pursuits for Miss Molly.

Where to begin?

Molly has been reaching for things with an aggressive bend these days. No matter how heavy they might be, such as this escapee from the percussion section.

She’s also been working on crawling, with her usual helper.

And performing the occasional baby push-up. Note the air between her and the floor, the drill sergeants would be proud:

We learned what a sippy cup is, with limited success.

More interesting is, well, all manner of food. Particularly ours:

…Her food intake, especially in the past few days, has gone through the roof. I hesitate to even mention how many mushed-up green beans and harvest veggies she put away today, in addition to her regular supply of milk. Must be a growth spurt. When it’s something she likes, she’s a good eater. Bite after bite after big smiling bite.

Finally, we learned an important life lesson: you can yell all you want at a monkey, but it’s best to not expect them to say anything interesting.

With the holidays upon us I thought I would offer some ideas for gifts for your little ones.  I will be referring to some old posts throughout that may have touched on some toy/gift ideas!

The first two posts are the Motor Smart Toys and Tips.  Both the first and the second one offered great toy ideas and ways to use them to not only have fun with your child but to encourage gross motor skills.  Strategies for Tummy Time and To Crawl or Not to Crawl both offered ideas as well.

Bike Riding offers several ideas for wheeled toys for your children.  Along with the ones mentioned in there I have a few more suggestions.  For kids who need increased support and assistance with bike riding check out Freedom Concepts Tricycles.  For those that need some help and aren’t able to use a typical tricycle at this time but have some trunk control there are the Me Too Trikes.  In addition to the Skuut there are a multitude of other pedal-less bikes out there.  For scooters I like Radio Flyer or Razor (which both come in all different levels).

For fine motor or sensory toys and ideas check out Fun Ideas for Sensory Exploration or 50 Toys in 50 Days also more ideas on Let Kids Play.

Some other ideas of our tried and true favorites have been listed on our website under Helpful Products, as well as other places to go looking for toys.

For iphone or ipod touch owners check out the games at Duck Duck Moose.  Looking for something to keep kids occupied during the holiday meals that are sure to pop up?  Check out Hello Hanna’s great placemats!

I would love to know your child’s favorite toy or toys, or any ideas you have to share with parents, aunts, uncles, friends, etc who are looking to find the perfect gift for the special little ones in their life.  Please post your ideas for all to share!

I think I have mentioned Ku’s soccer obsession before. He plays soccer, watches soccer games all.weekend. long.  plays soccer games on his computer while watching soccer games, talks about soccer with his friends , and cannot wait for the day in which he can take Bresho to a soccer game.

It doesn’t bother me that much, although I wish we didn’t have to plan our weekends around the very important games which he cannot miss. Especially when those very important games happen to be three games in a row on a Saturday morning/afternoon (each game has two 45 minute sections with a 15 minute break in between, plus additional time at the end depending on the game. I am really bad with numbers, but I can tell you that this, multiplied by three, is a LOT of time).

 He supports Liverpool and when I was decorating Bresho’s nursery, he suggested we do a Liverpool-theme. I thought it was a joke. A very funny one, but apparently he was being serious. His vision was something around these lines:

Please note the wall-paper. And the curtains. It took some convincing that this look is just wrong for a baby nursery in SO many levels. We compromised on this:

Since we had Bresho, I have one big reason to support Ku’s obsession: I get to sleep in on Saturdays while he watches his very important games. He watches something called the English Premier League which happens in England (duh) which means that, due to us being in a different time zone, he must be awake and glued to the TV on Saturdays at 7:30am. So our soccer/child-care system consists in him taking care of Bresho while he watches his games and me sleeping upstairs in our room, all by myself. It’s a win-win situation. Ku gets to do what he likes the most and I get to do what I like the most.

The English Premier League is also the reason why I missed my baby’s first time crawling. He crawled on Saturday while Ku was taking care of him. I woke up at 11:33 (every minute counts!) and got upset because I missed it and how could you not have woken me up to witness this very important milestone in our child’s life, especially given all the effort we had put on his crawling and all the failed attempts!!

Apparently he came to wake me up three times, and I was just too passed out to even move. One of the times, I opened my eyes when he announced that Bresho had just crawled and said “good” and turned around. I have no recollection of this, but apparently, I am a bad parent on my sleep.

This precious little girl is the daughter of one of my former co-workers.  I had to laugh when Allison’s mom told me that Allison wasn’t “really photogenic.” Allison is ADORABLE.  She definitely made me work for each and every one of my shots–that challenge, however, is the most creative and fun parts of the job. I wish you all could meet this lovely family and their cute little dog, Gizmo.  I have many shots ahead of me to look at, but there was no way I could let the night sneak by without posting a few of my favorites.

One day I was lying on the bed, reading, when my mother came into the room. She held out a vase – a rather ugly vase. She asked, “Would you like to have this vase?”

I replied quickly, “No, I don’t want it.”

As she turned to walk away, I picked up something that said to me, wait a minute, there is something here. So I asked, ‘”Where did you get it?’”

She said, “Oh, I got it when I filled an order.”

Filled an order? I thought – no communication here. So I asked, “What do you mean, filled an order?’”

“Well,” she said, “when I was a little girl, the Smith Company mailed catalogs to people. I would take the catalog around the neighborhood, and I’d get people to order from it. When I filled an order and sent it in, they gave me a prize. One time, I got a porch swing for my family.”

Now you have to understand that my mother is 81 years old. She is one of six children in a family that her father deserted when she was quite young. Money was real hard to come by. My grandmother managed to keep the family together through the years, although I don’t know how. For my mother to win a luxury like a porch swing was a significant accomplishment. Although she no longer had the swing, she had the vase -a vase full of meaning – which she offered to me.

Instantly I said, “Mom, I want the vase.” Now it sits in a prominent place in my living room.

It symbolizes a precious meaning which my mother and I share. Unless you and I are sensitive to the other person and hear meaning, as well as words, we may miss wonderful opportunities in life.

This morning was pretty much like most mornings.  Porter made his presence known by cooing, babbling and raspberrying in his crib around 7am (which is actually an hour later than usual.)  Aaron got up and changed and dressed the little guy while I got his breakfast ready.  Porter had breakfast with his dad while I fed the cats and got coffee going.  After breakfast, P always has playtime on his playmat.  He rolls around, bats at toys, drools a lot.  You know, the usual baby stuff.

But today was different.

Today while he was laying on his stomach and playing, I looked away for a sec and looked back to see him moved 6-8 inches back from where I just saw him.  It didn’t really register at first.  But it happened again.

Porter has begun skooching himself around.

Moving.

BY HIMSELF.

Rolling around–okay, that’s fine.  He hasn’t been rolling really with any intention of going anywhere; it’s been more like “I don’t want to be on my belly anymore, so I am going to do this.  And now I want to be on my belly, so I am going to do this.”

And even now with the backwards wiggle thing, I know he isn’t really doing it to be mobile.  It is the fact that he is getting closer and closer to CRAWLING.

I’m not ready for that.

The thought of babyproofing the whole house is terrifying!  All the electrical outlets, the cupboards and cabinets, the sharp edges–DANGER.  DANGER  IS EVERYWHERE!

In our living room (the room you enter when you walk through our front door) there is a fireplace with a large brick hearth.  I am convinced that my baby’s head is going to meet this hearth with great force one day.  How do I babyproof that?!

All I keep thinking about is my poor brother, whose forehead met the corner of my nightstand one night (the night before my first day of school in fifth grade) when he was 3 years old.  The blood, the crying–it was awful.  He had 5 stitches and now at 24 years old, he still has the scar.

But I guess things like that happen.  It is all apart of being a kid and growing up.  But as a parent, it breaks my heart to know that he will get bumps and bruises, cuts and scrapes and possibly stitches and casts (heaven forbid.)  It breaks my heart to know that I can’t always protect him.

So I guess I will just sit back and watch him wiggle–while hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.  Even if preparing for the worst means lots of gaff tape and foam rubber padding.

This video was taken about a week ago:

(Yes, she enjoys blowing out her saliva like that. You could probably collect a small bucket of her drool per day.)

Hana’s gotten so used to falling flat on her face, she simply picks herself up and continues as if nothing had happened. It’s quite funny, but if I laugh at her when she has one of her wipe-outs, she’d start crying. So if it’s just a simple fall, I show no reaction and pretend it didn’t happen, and she’d be fine too.

Her favourite position these days is on all fours. It seems that her upper body’s much stronger than her lower body, because she still can’t sit independently, yet wants to pull herself up into a standing position using the bars at the sides of her cot. (Note to self: look for more lower body strengthening activities to do with Hana.) Looks like we’re gonna have to start childproofing the house soon!

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly, that he brought home.

One day a small opening appeared he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours. It struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther.

So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily, but, it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. He continued to watch the butterfly, he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and the body would contract. Neither happened!

In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It was never able to fly.

The man acted with well-intentioned kindness but he didn’t understand the consequences. The restricting cocoon and the struggle required to get through the tiny opening, were nature’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we were to go through life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as we could have been and we could never fly

So the next time you are faced with an obstacle, a challenge, or a problem, remember the butterfly. Struggle a little – then fly!

Journal Entry – Sunday, 29 November 2009

I was telling a church member about my new job as a teacher’s assistant today and shared my plans to teach by September. His statement to me was ”you gotta start somewhere”. He’s right. I started working for myself as a musician at the age of ten, so the world of full-time employment is brand new to me. And I have found that there are certain skills that I need to hone through full-time employment that will take my business acumen to the next level. In essence, I learned how to walk before learning how to crawl.

Watching my daughter attempt to walk helps me understand the saying “you have to crawl before you walk”. She’s five months old and wants to walk so bad. She kicks her feet and even stands up while holding onto something. But her body isn’t developed to the point where she can walk yet. Even though she can go through the motion of picking up and putting down her feet, she doesn’t have balance. More importantly, her legs and feet and not ready to fully support the weight of her body. And here’s the kicker…when she crawls, she moves backwards. She’s trying to walk before she learns to crawl. I wonder where she gets that from…

“You have to work your way up…get your feet wet…crawl before you walk”. I hear these statements all the time. And yes, like my daughter I move too fast at times. Having started my own business, I know what it takes to succeed and what it feels like to fail. Now I’m going back and mastering the skills it takes to have my business support my life. Once I get the experience I need while crawling, I will be able to move forward faster…walking, running and eventually soaring.  

When I really think about it, such is life. We have to crawl before we walk, just like babies do. By finding balance on your knees, it’s easier to find equilibrium on your feet. And if you fall while on your knees, it hurts alot less.

Watching A move around at the moment is amazing. Rather than learning the boundaries of her cot, she still moves around the cot for ages before she settles down for a sleep. When she is tired, I put her down on her back and she instantly rolls onto her stomach and starts the caterpillar crawl up to the top. She can get her tummy and chest off the floor with straight arms and legs, but can’t lift her head too. So, like a caterpillar, she lifts up her body and ‘walks’ her legs up until she is as high as she can get, then sinks down again, pushing her head along the floor. Our hope is that on one of her rests on the journey up the cot, she puts her thumb in her mouth and falls asleep. We have many trips to her room to slide her down to the bottom when it all starts again!

She is also an expert roller now, and gone are the days when we could put her down somewhere while we dashed out of the room. I can’t put her on the bed any more as the other day she rolled 360 degrees and almost off the end. I was in the room, but my back was turned. Scary! If I put her on her play mat, she can very quickly end up on the tiled floor which is not so good when she shoves her head along…

Some people have recommended a mesh cot bumper which would help keep her arms and legs in the cot, but I think I’ve left it too late as that stage is almost gone. And it wouldn’t stop the caterpillar crawling and getting stuck in the corners.

Sometimes I just put her down and watch her trying to move around – she gets so angry and frustrated, I can’t help but laugh! She reaches for what she wants (including the dog) and thinks hard about how best to get her body there.

Life is about to get even more complicated!