Random updates

My angel who makes sure I do not just point the camera at his younger brother. . . which I don't, but Ammon gets mad if he sees the camera going that direction ever.

School boys just before going to meet the bus.

Micah's very first attempts at sitting up. I was sure he wasn't close to being able to, and thought it was weird that he crawled but couldn't sit up. So Trav practiced with him a bit and it didn't take him long to sit pretty well. This very first time looks so uncomfortable, squishing that big belly. Even now, he feels like he is stuck when we sit him up and can't go anywhere (yeah), so after awhile he gets mad and sometimes still topples gracefully over.

Mobility

To be honest, I was kind of hoping Micah would wait until we got settled in Virginia before becoming very mobile. But here he goes--he is everywhere and finding all of the wires and little papers and stickers to eat, and even pulling up on some of the lower things (like people who are sitting down, etc). It's so fun to see him learn and do new things, but also seems to come with a bit of an ornery side. He just wants to do so much and be so many places at once. . .

Many moods of Ammon--and criminal behavior

First signs of true criminal behavior. Ammon is still at the point that he could use a daytime nap. So he does fall asleep during rest time some days, but on those days he takes a long time to fall asleep at night. We put the kids down at 7:00 because they have school so early in the morning. So Kaden will try to fall to sleep while Ammon taunts, pokes, throws toys at, etc. Last night was such a night—about 45 minutes after we had put all the kids down, we heard a bang and then a scream from Kaden and he came out of the bedroom crying with blood dripping down his forehead. He said Ammon kept threatening to hit him with a sword (one of those
light sabers), and finally up and wacked him in the head with it.
So I was feeling horrified that he would do that to his brother, and
made Trav bring Ammon into the bathroom to see Kaden’s head.
My only comfort was that he did seem a little mystified and then
horrified when I told him that he had done that and hurt Kaden.
And he needed extra hugs before he went back to sleep. I guess
it’s not a sure road to crime and heartless behavior—yet.











And here is Micah's crawl position. . .

This is Micah's early crawl, but he still seems to think the elbows are easier than up on his hands. It's not the best, but I am really just experimenting to see if this will even work.

Crawling!

These pictures were a few days ago when Micah was still spinning in circles, so it was very exciting and cute, yet still contained. He rapidly progressed to rocking on his hands and knees to doing a cute little army crawl on his elbows with his bum in the air. That lasted for about 2 days, and last night he was doing the real deal. I would put better pictures on, but Travis has the camera. I need to figure out how to do video on this thing. . .

Oh, Teething woes: Micah has been a little more fussy than usual, all with good reasons of course. He got his first 2 teeth a week or two ago, and it looks like the top 2 could make their appearance any time now. And I think he’s having a hard time deciding if he should go to 2 naps a day or stick with the 3—he’s hovering in between and doesn’t know how to handle the transition. Not to mention that he’s getting old enough to realize he really enjoys the attention he gets from people and would like to demand a little more of it once in awhile. Who can blame
the kid for any of these things?

House Hunting

So we thought we had decided to buy a house when we get to Virginia, and both Trav and I were getting excited about it. Every single person we new who had moved to VA had bought a house, so it seemed like it must be the right thing to do. So we have spent hours pouring over all the different choices and trying to find out the best areas and schools in half way affordable areas. Then this financial crisis hit, and we started to wonder if it would be the smart thing after all. Yet anyone we ask seems to still say it’s a good time to buy—but really can anyone tell you it’s a bad time to buy, especially when people need to buy houses to stimulate the economy and frankly, for them to have a job and do well at it? Travis is actually in Virginia right this moment looking at houses with Chuck, our realtor, and looking into rental options and checking out the base housing (we haven't heard much good about it, but sometimes we are pleasantly surprised). I am really hoping he will get a strong impression of what the right thing for us to do is. We are waiting for the really smart people in our lives to tell us what the smart thing to do really is. . . could that be any of you?. . . It will be such a relief when we have decided once and for all.

Deep quotes and thoughts from Passey boys

Noah: “Can you tell me some thing the Barrack Obama has done? How will I know who to vote for if I don’t know what he’s done?” (This is one of many typically questions and statements from my one hundred year old 6-year-old)

Kaden: “Mom, if you look at the table and I am not there, I am just going potty—Don’t forget that, Mom.” (I always threaten to take away there food if they get down from the table during meals, and Kaden values his food).

Ammon: “Mommy, my owwie is almost all gone!”

Me: (trying to turn the moment into a teaching moment) “Wow, Heavenly Father must love you a lot to give a body that gets better all by itself”

Ammon: “Yeah, Jesus gave me a bandaid—He had one in his pocket”

. . . . . . . .

Ammon: at 6 o’clock every morning from his bed “I need to go POTTY!”
Trav or I from our bed: “Go ahead Ammon”

Once or twice a day from the bathroom “Mommy, can I go stinky?” Me: “Yes, Ammon, you don’t need to ask, you know”

Me: "Ammon, please get your underwear off of your head and put it on your bottom!"
Micah: "Look at my two new little teeth"