Construction

I'm so enjoying all the wonderful tidbits that being 2 brings! I have always told Jamie, this was my favorite "age of discovery" for Darby and Shane! The last few days have really brought out such a boyish side of Cade!

Shane typically drives the Buick to school in the mornings and back home. We've all been juggling taking him and picking him up as the car has been in the shop all week. There is some serious road construction going on all along our route to school! Lots of bulldozers, dump trucks, even a huge crane where they're building a new bridge. (County Line Rd).  Needless to say, little Cade has been in heaven! The first morning I started pointing them out to him as we passed. After dropping Shane off, we came to a place where morning rush hour traffic backs up badly and it takes a bit to get through. I rolled Cade's tinted window down in the Sienna and told him to look. There was a huge bulldozer/ skid steer thingy right next to us using its large bucket to pick up dirt, swing it around, and dump it in a waiting dump truck. When Cade saw it, he started saying, "oh oh oh" and shaking his arms and legs. He was about to come out of his skin! The best part was when the operator spotted him, he smiled and kept going about his job! (with great pride) I'm sure he realized he had made a little guy's day! I bet he felt really important! That was early in the week, so every day it has been the same thing..in the afternoon, football holds Shane late, so I don't hit trafiic and Cade feels robbed, ha ha! He says, "more more" Annabelle has gotte into it too now!  I'm sure the road crew looks for that little boy each day! ha ha! He really plays with his bulldozer and trucks when he gets home. It's the cutest thing!

Speaking of football, I had a conference for Shane this week and a baseball coach was sitting in on it and voiced that he had hoped Shane would come out for baseball, but heard how the football coaches were fighting over him. I had no idea, but several of them were trying to grab him for different positions. This fellow explained to me he's one of the strongest kids in the school and runs like a deer. He only played football in 7th grade and hasn't since. They are all excited that he's come out. Before it just seemed like there were so many kids on the team that he figured he might not get to play a lot, but I guess that was before he was 6'2" and 225. Should be a fun ride! He's such a great guy! Such wonderful things were said by all the teachers. It was really great to see him doing so well and being so in charge of his own future! I'm so proud of him. He's juggling alot with his schedule and yet his grades are better than ever! Think that young man has been maturing and growing up before my eyes! So glad he has never lost his amazing heart! He'll be a strong man with a soft heart! He's beyond wonderful with the babies, even little Abigail!

Miss Annabelle is definitely keeping us all straight! I was loading up all the babies in the van to run errands and made sure they had their sippy cups of water ( they like to take them in the car). I even packed a tumbler of ice water myself and sat it on a nearby surface in the garage so I could lift Abigail's carrier up. I started to back out of the garage and headed down the drive. Annabelle started frantically saying, "wa wa, wa wa"! I told her she had wa wa and not to fuss. She was tenacious! By the time I got to the end of our street, it hit me! She was telling me I had left my water in the garage! really? She's 24mths old! I didn't say anything, but drove back and raised the garage door and got my water. As soon as I brought it into the car, she smiled and happily said, "wa wa"! The world was right! Oh my!!! Too bad she wasn't around when I left my coffee in there on my way to Shane's 7:30am conference! pooh, I really needed it! She is reminding me so much of Darby lately. She is constantly talking and asking things. She practices repeating everything I say! I heard her say "outside mommy" several times yesterday, and i expected to look and see a little brown haired, green eyed toddler because it sounded just like Darby! oh wow! Pulled hard at my heart strings..missing those days with Darby and so glad I get them again with Annabelle!

Cade has been blossoming too! He received this really great car puzzle that has a small magnetic circle in the center of each piece (car piece). Then there is a ltow truck piece attached to a long string with a magnet tied to the end. The idea is to place it on top of each piece and lift the piece out of the puzzle. (or "tow" the car) It's quite hard and he struggled when we first brought it out.  Think its a 3 and up age. My dad showed him how to start up high and come down on top of the piece. It is hard for him as he has to hold the string up high above his head and straighten his arm out completely to do it. But he persistently tries and lets it stop swinging and eventually it goes where he wants it, but it requires focus and a lot of patience! He does it over and over! He's so proud when he finishes! He finds it humorous that Annabelle can't do it! I have to smirk a bit too as she can do anything or figures it out!!! They do have their own different strengths!

I am praying over Cade even more as we have just learned yesterday at his 2 yr check up that he is anemic. We had to go to the lab immediately and have bloodwork done. Hopefully it will be something that can be corrected easily. I hate for him to have to go through things. He is so loving and strong!

Little Miss Abigail continues to surprise her therapist and us! Melissa came today and thought there was a good chance again we could be facing a battle to get Abigail into the correct position on hands and knees to get ready to learn to crawl! Apparently this usually brings a lot of resistance! Our goal is to get her to tolerate this postion, on her own, for 30 seconds. We were braced that it could take quite some time to work up to this! We put her on her tummy and Abigail was already pulling her knees up under her and rocking to make something happen. Melissa stimulated her stomach muscles to help support her body and then she let her go. She stayed there, not being supported, for 14 seconds!!! Whoo hoo! We were so excited and shocked. No extending or trying to straighten out! yay! So happy for her! Melissa will be gone on vacation next week so we get 2 weeks to practice. Then we'll try to get her to try to lift a hand to get a toy without toppling over. (since that will be required for crawling) God is so good! This baby has a strong drive! She will teach us all in many ways! Go Abigail!

I did get to skype with Darby briefly this afternoon!! It's wonderful, but hard to not be able to hug her! The sunset from her window is just gorgeous! I'm so jealous of the 90+ degree weather she's having in Argentina. (At least we're going to have a warm weekend here so we won't be looking a gray icky skies)! Her smile just warms my heart! I'm so happy she is able to have this experience! She has midterms tomorrow! I know she's going to do well!  It's hard to believe she was just toddling around behind me the other day! Her world is so big now! She and I love old fashioned snail mail, so I sent her with a bundle of letters (one for every week she's gone) and a Valentine's Card, Birthday card, and an Easter card, all tied with ribbon! She left a long message for me in a journal we have shared through her college experience. We have taken turns possessing it and writing letters to eachother as a memoir of the changes and emotions of this season in her life. It started with the first one I wrote and left on her college dorm bed! I hope we have enough room left in it to conclude over graduation. Oh, how I love that little girl.


Ah, well! It is late ( 11:25) and I must sleep! ha ha! Love to all!
Rebecca