Growing

The word of the day is "no." Write a sentence using the word of the day: "I sed do not tuch the cokes no no no." Perhaps Nicole has had some experience with cookies and the word no in her life...

Diana found Nicole's homework and got a good bite before we stopped her. Nicole was traumatized and it was so hard not to laugh at Diana's dissappointed face when we took her paper meal away.

The bigger they get, the more they have fun together. They can be like two lion cubs wrestling on the floor or two detectives exploring the outdoors for clues. Michael is really growing and I can tell he's going to be big. He is just a shoe size behind Nicole, and her feet are pretty big for her age!

We are mixing this parenting strategy with lots of love and fun together with the kids. We weren't having any big problems, but I was finding myself nagging, cajoling, punishing, and being exhasted from disciplining, not to mention the tough time getting Nicole to school on time... anyways, this has worked remarkably well for my state of mind and for the kiddos behavior.

Little D is 8 months old and does the army crawl to get around. She holds her fists together and power scoots to any exciting place. So we're in round four of the "keep anything small off the floor" stage and it is a lot harder with three older kids.

Diana is a sweet, loving, curious baby. She adores Jim and will start making all sorts of noises when she hears his voice as he gets home from work. She sleeps 7pm-7am, although sometimes her siblings wake her up or daddy getting up early to teach seminary (4:30) wakes her up, but she just plays in bed without crying. She loves Cheerios, is not so keen on pureed food, and doesn't have any teeth yet.