So many changes

Well, we're finally done moving out of our old house into our new home closer to church and school. Notice I didn't say we're finally moved in, just done making trips across town. Nathanael and Hannah share a room and so far no one has woken the other up. We've also moved to using their room to play in more than the living room so our house hopefully won't seem so cluttered. We have already enjoyed a couple storytimes at the library up the street and even walked to church once! The park around the corner is perfect for Nathanael too, he loves to slide and run around. Hannah even enjoys the swing, but the battery in the camera was dead when we got there so no first-swing pictures. There will be more opportunities though.

Nathanael is getting better at climbing, he can climb the chain-link cargo net to get to the slide and he can even ride the big boy swing instead of the infant seat. He loves going for a walk and has met two new friends from the neighborhood already. We've started doing "schoolwork" together where he uses cards or books to practice basic skills and he thinks he's just playing. Meanwhile Laura's testing to see if homeschooling would work with him.

Hannah is growing like crazy and eating a ton too! She's got those two teeth and is ready for solid food! So far she's had banana and rice cereal mixed with milk. Pretty soon she'll get to try some sweet potato. She's not rolling over yet, but she can do her mini push-ups pretty well. She loves her brother and being outside with him. She may not be rough but she enjoys a good bouncing once in a while. She's grown so much lately that her clothes are pretty tight and we've had to get the next size for her--she's now wearing a 12month size! Not bad for being a nursing baby!

Forest started a new job working with inner-city youth between the ages of 18 to 24 who are trying to get out of the drug culture and lower-class life. It's a non-profit organization called YouthBuild that helps these guys (and a few girls) get their GED and/or H.S. diploma and do vocational skills training. Forest is the Construction Trainer for these guys. Basically teaching them the most basic construction skills as they do various community projects and remodels for other non-profit inner-city organizations. The job is a bit more complex than that (like developing character and helping them personally as they strive to leave their previous lives behind) and he's in the process of helping to better organize the instruction of the construction component to better work with the other classroom instruction.

Mostly Laura's just been up to taking care of the young ones and unpacking and trying to maintain enough order to live in the new home while moving in. We can hardly wait to see family this summer with Forest's new job giving him paid days off (that just seems so foreign to write, never have had that before). By then who knows what these kids will be up to.