It's been a while...

Who knew how fast the months would go by... I was aware that I hadn't been doing very well at keeping this blog updated, but I had no idea that it had been a year since my last post. No time for feeling bad though or I won't have time to get this post completed!!

First, a couple of stories from tonight...

Denise works a little late on Monday nights, so it was just the 3 of us at the dinner table. I had all of our plates dished up and I thought I had Grant's plate just out of his reach. But as soon as I sat down, he reached over an started digging in. It had already been a long day, so I just let him go. At least he was eating, right? I then said to Ella, "lets say grace" and as soon as she started with her usual prayer, Grant looked up, put his food down and folded his hands and let out a little babble. It was great! You really can't understand how big of an accomplishment this was. We've been trying to get him to wait to eat and "say grace" with us for a long time and once in a while (with a lot of coaxing) we might get some folded hands for a few seconds. But we usually just get his "Are you serious?" look. So tonight, without any prompting at all, to see him do it perfectly, was a real delight. Ella said the whole grace with raised eyebrows and a proud big sister smile on her face. She's great at encouraging him to "make good choices" and is just as proud as we are when he does.

Part way through dinner as Grant was eating everything in sight, Ella said, “It sure seems like Grant eats better on Monday's when M-o-m isn't here because he's not so concerned about getting her m-i-l-k. It took me a few seconds to realize what she was doing. It cracked me up that the just turned 6 year old was spelling key words out so as to not trigger her little brothers cravings for momma’s milk. Such a good big sister…

Denise called after dinner and reminded me that Ella needed to practice a certain part of her violin lesson. Grant “talked” with her on the phone in our bedroom for a bit until we said goodbye. Then Grant and I met Ella as we were heading down the hallway and I told her, “Mom said you need to practice lesson 12 in your violin book”. Grant took off toward Ella’s room and I didn’t think much of it because he always wants to get into her room. Ella and I continued down the hallway to her room where we met Grant coming out of her room holding her violin book out to her and bobbing his head (like he does when she's playing it). Once again Ella just look on with raised eyebrows (as did I). I think he turned a corner tonight. It’s been fun watching this little guy grown up. Tomorrow will surely be more typical.

So, what else to post? I did get a really nice Father’s Day video a couple weeks back. Let’s start with that for now and I'll see what else I can get posted soon (Ella's birthday party pictures or her playing the violin, or maybe Grant going through the list of words he can say now). Check back again soon!!