Kid Update

Short (?) blurbs on the five kiddos...

LUCAN
He is now 4 months old--where is the time going?! He is officially the fastest turning baby we've had. He has been rolling from back to belly and belly to back for several weeks now. Charis only rolled over from back to belly for the first time after her 4-month birthday! I suspect we're going to have an early crawler/walker with this one. He seems to be teething as well; either that or he has a nasty cold, which is entirely possible, given the substances coming out his nose, LOL. Also the fact that Ted got hit with something over the weekend as well...

Anyway. Lucan has been sleeping through the night for a few weeks now, waking only the last few nights when he's had his nose/teething/whatever issues. He is going with me to Convention (we leave today!), and I'm thankful that he's overall a happy, cuddly baby. When fussy, he settles right down if one of us is holding him. Probably the only problem we'll have at Convention will be poop blow-outs, since his current MO seems to be saving up for several days, only to blast off several times in one day! (And Debi, that poop update is just for you, since you seem to get such a kick out of our poop stories! All my other mom friends who still have little ones at home think these updates are perfectly normal, LOL!)

KENNA
She is potty training! Woohoo! Oh, the power of a few M&Ms, or, as she calls them, "Mem-a-mems." The older kids get M&Ms or Skittles as well for helping her, and she has done quite well. We just need to get her consistently telling us when she needs to go. She'll willingly sit on the potty anytime we suggest it but only occasionally informs us when she truly needs to go. But we're getting there! At 2 1/2, she's younger than I would have really started putting effort into the training with all the other commotion around here, but it's nice to have older kids able to help her.

She and Charis are sharing a room in this house, which delights her (and Charis most of the time) to no end. She is still in her crib tent, however, and seems resigned to that--after our travels, she got used to being free and was not happy to be zipped up again! We've begun reading Bible stories from a preschool Bible book before her naps and bedtime, and she enjoys that routine. She also enjoys listening to music now as she falls asleep, something all the kids used to do at that age. In fact, all of the kids like the classical music CDs, and with their rooms close to each other upstairs, it's a great way to get in some fine arts at bedtime, LOL.

ARDEN
Our fearless boy is now sporting 6 stitches in his chin after a bike accident. No surprise there--we've always said one day we'll come home and find a couple of kids jumping off the roof onto mattresses, and those kids will be Arden and Kenna! Ted took him to the ER Sunday evening when it happened; thank the Lord it happened when we were all home! Arden was so brave! The doctor (who was in Ted's graduating USAFA class) was impressed with how well he did. This wasn't the first spill off his bike, and I'm sure it won't be the last...a telling thing about his personality is that he was back on his bicycle yesterday, riding all over the neighborhood, stopping only to play Capture the Flag with neighbor boys!

TOBIN
Currently Tobin's ambition for when he turns 20 or 21 (as he said just this morning) is to buy a house with one or two bedrooms and spend every evening eating popcorn and watching movies. It's so nice to know we're raising a couch potato! Hopefully he'll continue to love reading...we often stumble over him and/or his books, and he still loves mazes and other activity books as well. The Legos obsession seems to have abated for a short while, but I'm sure it will be back. We have lots of rainy days here in Ohio!

Tobin is learning to take more responsibility as the big brother. I've noticed him doing and saying things that I never thought he'd take initiative to do! At the same time, he is quick to POINT OUT what great things he is doing, so I guess his next character lesson needs to be humility, LOL. Still, he has matured quite a lot, and it's exciting to see him growing and becoming more sensitive to the Lord.

CHARIS
Many days I just don't know what I would do without Charis! She is so responsible and willing to help that I have to be very careful not to lean on her all the time and shirk giving her brothers responsibilities as well. I try to give her alone time in her craft corner (part of my office in the basement) since she does now share her bedroom and has to put up with Kenna's chattering day and night! One of her newer chores is washing the dishes by hand, so we absolved her of unloading the dishwasher, instead moving Kenna up to help put away silverware and plastic bowls and plates along with her older brothers.

Our neighborhood seems to have lots more boys than girls, and the girls Charis has met so far are either quite a bit older or quite a bit younger. But she hasn't seemed to mind, and I'm sure we'll find more friends her age as we get more involved in church activities.

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Last week was VBS at FairCreek, and it was such a blessing for the kids to be able to jump right in and start meeting people. On Sunday morning when we dropped them off in their classes, it was so wonderful to hear them calling out, "Hi, So-and-So!" and waving to people they had met during the week. Ted and I know quite a few people from the last time we were here, but obviously the kids don't remember anyone.