Little Busy Boy

Just thought I'd share a couple of pictures of crawling Brady. He's moving fast the past few days. He started playing football by himself - he gets a little football, giggles, tosses it in the air, giggles and squeals, crawls to wherever it landed, picks it up, begins the process again. It's a very fun game to watch! He's also learning the meaning of the word "No" - like when he pulls the fireplace guard off, when he tries to pull my plant off the fireplace, or when he eats books. Oh, the lessons of life that have to be learned!!

Just call me Aunt K

I get to share some very exciting news that most who look at this blog already know, but I want to share it anyway . . .MY SISTER IS GOING TO HAVE A BABY!!!!

There - I got to share it! I feel much better now. She came to my house the Friday before Christmas - actually, she called that morning and said she would come over soon to spend some time with us, then finally showed up about 1:00 or so. When I gave her a hard time about it, she said she had been working on a Christmas present. When I pressed her for more information, she said it was a special present for me - she was making me an AUNT! I was standing up at the time, folding sheets if I remember right. Next thing I knew, I was in the floor. Not sure how I got there, but there I stayed for quite some time. She (and Aric) were very surprised by the results they got from a little pregnancy test that morning (right after she had talked with me on the phone . .), and had needed some time to digest and process through this "development"! Wow!!! I am just beside myself excited, and dream about having a cute little niece (or nephew, but I'm betting on a girl) all the time.

Monica is doing well . . .a little green around the gills, but she's a trooper. I'm having fun just talking "baby" things with her, talking pregnancy things, just thinking about how much fun I'm going to have being an aunt to my sister's child.

Here's a couple of pictures from our family's Christmas where she gave my Dad a poem that she wrote that sweetly told them that she was pregnant. Dad had said that all he wanted for Christmas was twin granddaughters - did he get his wish??? We will see!!! he! Looks for now like just one, which is a very good amount of baby to have at one time, in my opinion. I loved Mom's response too - and all the Hawkins family members can just hear the sounds that accompanied the look on her face! ha!

Merry Christmas to us!!!

On the move

Brady is mostly officially on the move now. He's been a little slow with most of his gross motor milestones (which Mommy has been VERY ok with!! he!), but he is able to pull up to tall kneeling now, and has been crawling a little bit. He's got such an incredible reach, and can roll around and get to almost anything he's trying to reach. Everything goes in the mouth, too. His favorites to "munch" on are cardboard, paper, and any other little remnant of "stuff" he can find on the floor. Oh dear. I'm really not ready for this one to start being completely mobile . . .he scares me just a bit with his "passion" for life, his loudness, and his ferocious (but precious!) little spirit!! He's a fun chunk of cuteness, that's for sure. Newest tricks are to yip like a puppy dog (imitates the one Nana and Papa gave him for Christmas), and make kissing sounds when you tell him to give you a kiss, and sign / say "all done" at mealtimes (instead of yelling at us!!). We sure do love our little Boo!!

Surprise Snow

About 5 minutes after I woke up Tyler to get ready for school this morning, Donny came out of our room saying, "Did you know they cancelled school??" We were both very surprised about the coating of ice and pretty snow outside our window . .when we watched the weather last night, the nice weatherman was assuring kids that they WOULD have to go to school the rest of this week because it might snow a little, but other than being very cold, it would be fine. Tyler was not sad to have to stay home, and he and Colby hurried to find some snow playin' clothes and Donny took them outside for a little play time! Thankfully, Donny was able to work from home so no one had to go battle icey roads today. We have had a fun wintry day complete with "warm cocoa" (Colby doesn't like HOT cocoa, he says) and even some school time to make us feel like we're being good about carryover of skills in the home environment . . .

I love the cold weather, and the snow is beautiful, but I probably won't be quite as big a fan tomorrow when I have to walk around in it going to and from work. I'm a little wimpy when it comes to feeling cold versus looking at cold through your nice cozy window sipping coffee!

Quick update

I felt I should update /document my "praise report" on my health. I have been on the "improving" side of this journey, which is such a better place to be than the "it gets worse before it gets better" side!! Praise God! My vision is better every day, and the other extreme sensory flares that I have been experiencing have subsided a lot. The past few days, I have felt like a "normal person" (no snide comments here, please!!) if that makes any sense. I think I have come to really have a better appreciation for people who live with a constant disability that doesn't go away with a few weeks of treatment. What an amazingly complex body we live in, and how amazing that all the pieces of it can work together perfectly by God's grace and perfect design. I'm still undergoing treatment, and will return to Austin to see the Dr. in late February after getting results from some lab work that will be done in a couple of weeks. The "treating the symptoms" phase is finally going good, and now we move to focus more on discovering the cause(s). Keep the prayers comin'!!

Christmas lives on

At the Vaughn house, we are still celebrating Christmas. Actually, we are just still dressing up as Santa Clause and pretending to deliver toys to all the good girls and boys. Daily, Tyler comes in dressed in some version of a Santa suit - whether it be his red fleece pullover or his red t-shirt or even a red race car driver dress up costume from the play clothes tub - complete with black belt from Mom's closet, Dad's black socks (for boots you know) and his ever faithful and quickly deteriorating Santa hat. I love it! Sweet Tyler is the biggest Santa fan I've ever known. He gets excited when he hears a loud sound, and exclaims, "Oh my, Mommy, I think I heard a clatter!!". He checks his face for signs of beard growth, and makes sleighs, reindeer harnesses and toy bags out of the most interesting things in our house. Lately, the harness has been a cheetah spotted blanket draped over the edge of the couch and the toy bag has been a red bean bag. Colby loves to pretend to be Santa as well, and has come up with some great costumes from his closet. I think he's mostly just imitating his big brother (as any little brother would do!), and I've loved watching them play "Santa" together! Tyler has been a HUGE Christmas-spirit kiddo for the past 3 years, and I really think his passion for all the traditions of this time of year has increased every year. I love my boys, and I'm still enjoying "Santa" play as well. I have to wonder what will help us to transition to other things? Will it be all the birthday parties in late February and early March? Will it be some random movie that grabs their attention? I don't remember in years past what has helped us "transition" out of the Christmas season, but for now, I'm still loving it!