Uppy-Datey (or I could boringly call it Update)

Time for an update, I suppose. Let's see, I guess I'll start with the youngest and go from there.

Audrey is now standing a lot. She can get to standing from anywhere, she doesn't have to be holding onto furniture anymore. She has ventured to take a couple steps here and there, but ends up falling after one or two steps. Still, it's very cute and exciting for us to watch. Zaylee loves to announce, "The baby is standing!" every time she sees Audrey stand up. She also has a voracious appetite, and especially loves bananas, bread, cups of water, and she loves to be able to eat what everyone else is eating.

Thomas likes to say that he is a big boy. He doesn't refer to himself by pointing to his chest - he points to his cheek instead. It's so cute to see him point at his little cheek and proudly say, "I big boy!" We haven't really started him potty training; we're still focusing more on just being able to communicate with him. But I have made him a couple pairs of underwear that he likes to wear on occasion. He's very sweet and loves to give kisses.

Zaylee has been going through a growing up phase - alternating between being helpful and being defiant. Personally I like the helping better! If I get ready to start cooking or baking something, she'll run and grab an apron for me and one for herself. She helps with stirring, counting, measuring, scooping, and whatever else she can. She also helps unload the dishwasher, wipe the table, pick up toys and books, throw away trash. It's really nice. But when she's being defiant, that's a different story. She does like to pick on Thomas, and on the cat, and time-outs are becoming fairly frequent. Hopefully it'll sink in eventually that it's not okay to pull the cat's tail and hit Thomas with books. Sigh.

Jeff just started his week off. We both really like his work schedule, halfway. He works ten hours a day for seven days, then has the next seven days off. His work week gets really tiring and by the end of it we're all ready for a week of vacation! But his week off is usually really nice, so we're looking forward to having him home for the next seven days.

As for me, I've been having more fun with Google SketchUp, and have designed a table, a whatnot (Victorian stacking shelves), and a little bookcase. I wish I could build these things as fast as I design them, but so far I haven't built any of it. Waiting for the weather to thaw, I guess. I've also been reading the Little House books, which I got for Christmas. I just finished reading The Long Winter, and it makes me feel so thankful for our warm house and plentiful food. And for the fact that we don't have fiercely huge blizzards lasting 3-4 days each with only a day or two in between for the entire winter.