Falling off the wagon...

I know I said I would change the focus of my blog; however, this article in the Washington Post was too important to pass up (especially considering that most of my readers are in Utah.)

I hope to have a family update in the next few days.

God, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.

Brad

Murphy's Law...

My daughter has only fallen off of our bed twice. The first time was several weeks ago - that's when we realized we had to "barricade" her in during her naps. The second time was today - the day she is supposed to go to JCPenny's for pictures. She's fine, but I hope the bump on her forehead isn't too bad!

Plus it is pouring rain,
Brad

She's growing up too fast...

My 7-month old daughter can now crawl up the stairs! This morning she crawled over to the bottom of our staircase and pulled herself up to standing position. She's been doing this for about 2 weeks, but she has never attempted to climb up the stairs. Her first efforts came up about an inch or two short - she was trying to get her foot onto the step. This is how she crawls most of the time - on her hands and feet, not her knees. Once she figured out that she could put her knee on the step and pull the rest of her body up, she was on her way. The boys were totally excited and cheered her on all the way up. Mommy was playing the "safety" role while I recorded it with our video camera. It's both exciting and sad to see her achieve these developmental milestones.

I guess I had better put up some child safety gates!
Brad

A moment to brag...

Monday night, or rather, early Tuesday morning our daughter woke up and would not go back to sleep. Normally my wife can nurse her back to sleep. If that doesn't work I will rock her, either in the glider or walking around the house, until she falls back asleep. Well, after 30 minutes of walking/rocking she was not going back to sleep. Just as I was headed back to our room with her, she shuddered twice. This is one of her signals that she needs to go potty. So that's where we went and that's what she did.

Initially, I was somewhat annoyed that she had kept us awake at such an early hour just so she could go potty in the toilet. However, she kept us awake because she did not want to go potty in her diaper - she wanted to go in the toilet. That's amazing! I'd say I'm proud of her, but I overheard our primary president giving someone a lecture last Sunday on how there is no such thing as righteous pride - it is all evil. Even Heavenly Father says "in whom I am well pleased", not "in whom I am proud."

We just finished going through our boys' clothes and switching out the smaller sizes for the next sizes up. They are growing so freakin' fast! Fortunately, the need for more clothes was not too overwhelming. The need for shoes was, however. My older boy only has a pair of crocs that fit him. His brother has a pair of Sunday shoes, a pair of leather sandals, and a pair of crocs. Fortunately it is summer, and the younger one never wears running shoes if he has sandals.

Our organizing of the boys' clothes is part of our new Summer Schedule. Since I no longer have a class schedule around which to organize my day - and after spending a week haphazardly taking on the "to-do-list" with minimal success - we decided to schedule out our day on an hourly basis using our Google Calender. It has given us a new sense of purpose and given me a little extra boost of energy to get things done. I just need to work on getting up at 6am to exercise.

I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful.
I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful.
I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful.

-Brad

Home internet issues...

Our cable internet has been spotty and slow since Tuesday - so we are a little out-of-touch with everyone. I did manage to put a dominos pizza icon on facebook right after I ordered by birthday pizzas yesterday.

My little girl is crawling everywhere! She tries to "walk" on her right leg and two hands - the left leg is just there for balance. I say she crawls everywhere, but that's not really true. She normally yells at us to pick her up before too long, or she is expertly (and enthusiastically) intercepted by one of her older brothers. I am pretty certain she'll be walking before 10 months (that's when both her brothers took off.)

The boys are awesome! We bought them (and me) baseball gloves for their 1/2 birthdays. I so look forward to a summer of throwing the ball in the back yard! They both love Mythbusters. We watched two episodes last night while we ate pizza. Now that the weather is getting a little more "summer-like" I hope we get more opportunities to head to the beach.

I am officially finished as Program Coordinator of Social Sciences! My job ended as of 1 July (happy birthday present!) but I just finished sending the assessment reports for Spring 2009 (my last responsibility!) I am now simply Professor Young, Instructor of Political Science.

Well that's all for now. Hopefully the home internet will last until Tuesday when the tech comes by. If anyone has any useful input on what kind of computer we should get to replace our old desktop (we are considering a Mac) please let me know.

Daddy's headed home!
Brad