Friday night, March 12th....

Leif is officially a walking toddler now, the best is when he holds his hands up in the air while walking, it reminds me of a baby chimapnzee! He had his 12 month check up today (19 lbs, 6oz, 29 inches long, happy healthy, still only 6 teeth) a few immunizations, but he did very well and cried only for a few minutes. Immunizations are always a little scary for me, I worry for a few weeks if my son will suddenly become autistic or die in his sleep, but so far, so good. Grace is doing an excellent job with her reading, I really wish she had more friends to play with, but so far no body seems to want to have a regular play date, at least any of the other little girls her age, maybe it's just me though. Last night I went to a baby shower for Kristina Clark and Annie Packard, both are prego with their 2nd baby. It was fun to be with everyone and hang out. It's interesting growing up, watching everyone start families, take on more responsibilities, watching our parents age, buying homes, it's kind of scary actually. it's a little terrifying being completely responsible for everything, I miss the days when I lived at home and everything was taken care of, I guess this is how we learn and grow though, by doing. I hope I can be a good example to Grace, so that when she's all grown up she'll be able to handle all these responsibilities better than I can, but for now, I'll just fake it! (Fake it till ya make it, right?). Grace misses Camarillo a lot, she misses her cousins so much, it's a huge reason we want to move back home, so Grace and Leif can be around good people, I hope their bonds with their cousins deepen and they will be able to guide each other though the messiness of junoir high and young adulthood, I am terrified they will make my same mistakes, I think I pray and ponder everyday for ways that we can avoid that.

Next week Christian is going to the Dominican Republic for a service mission, I am so happy he gets to do this (and yes, jealous too). I get to fly to my parents on Tuesday, the 16th, with the kids. With any luck, all will go well and during our stay Grace and I will get to fly to Philadelphia and visit Seth and Micah, I haven't seen Seth or his family since Christmas 2008. I miss my brother and niece and nephew terribly, I hate the fact that Grace never sees them, I feel like she is missing my whole side of the family. When we are in Utah we will get to go snow skiing! I can't wait to see Grace on those bunny hills!