Saving It For Later

I finally have the "go to" shot to embarass my sweet children years from now at their open houses when they graduate, get married, have their boyfriend/girlfriend over to look through baby pictures, etc. The bath tub picture!! It's a classic. And I had to throw in one of Lilly and her overflowing cuteness!

10 Months

I've been a little behind with Miss Lillybean's updates!! It's truly hard to believe that this time last year I was feeling very pregnant and full of anticipation to meet our precious daughter. Lilly has proven to be an amazing joy in our lives. Lilly is so fond of her daddy and they've developed quite the bond with Tim being home with her and Grant during the week. What a blessing he has been to our children!!

Lilly has changed so much recently with her newly gained indepence crawling and cruising all over the furniture, our legs, walls, appliances...whatever is upright really. It's SOOO cute! Not that I'm thrilled about it, but she's even traversed the entire flight of stairs a few times with our help. The pediatirican and I are both betting she'll be walking in the next few weeks. She absolutely loves to feed herself just about anything we put in front of her - mostly the usual Cheerios, Goldfish, crackers, toast, and soft fruit. She's even gotten a taste of some grass and mulch while we've been hanging out in the yard - oops!

I could go on and on about her and Grant. Oh, how they make me smile! Praise God for our little family!

"Say Mmmmoooooooore"...

If it was only that easy! A little over a year ago, our pediatrician recommended that Grant be given an evaluation for a developmental delay - specifically his speech. Up to that point he didn't say much other than "uh-oh". Every now and then we'd get a "mama" or "dada", but it was pretty rare. Being our first child, we didn't have any comparison and felt like he was able to communicate what he needed to us, followed directions, etc., so we weren't really that worried. Or, maybe it was a little bit of denial...I mean, who wants anything to be wrong with their child??


Well, we gave in to the pediatrician and called First Steps. It's a program designed for infants and toddlers who have developmental delays and disabilities in central Indiana. After Grant's initial evaluation, which was SO comprehensive, they diagnosed him with delayed speech. Phew...we were relieved knowing that children experience much more severe delays and a speech delay was manageable. Grant has now been in speech therapy for six months with a therapist, Lynne, visiting our home once a week. He seems to really love the time he spends with her and especially enjoys Lynne's huge bag of toys, puzzles, and books.


Grant now uses sign language for several things - his favorites: more, please, thirsty, eat, banana (which is so cute!), open, potty, and apple. He's started to imitate animal noises and has made progress with more consanant sounds, too. Of course, we'd love to have him tell us what he needs rather than scream, but we've come to the conclusion that he is simply going to talk when he wants to. As his parents, we are here to provide opportunities to learn more and more, encourage him, and praise him like crazy. The silver lining in the stressing out we've done over all of this: gratefulness. It's all about perspective. We are unbelievable grateful that our precious son is healthy, happy, and has loads of personality. We really can't ask for mmmoooooooooooooore!

Grant's version of coming home and putting your feet up after a long day of work

Hoppy Easter!

The latest product of my mini-obsession...my favorite of the patterns I've made by far. Who doesn't love cute bunnies!!!???