Crawling soon and schoolwork

Hannah is now 8 months old! Wow, already 8 months old, time really does go quickly. She is really good at getting into things quickly, but not quite crawling yet. She still gets one leg stuck perpendicular to her body and ends up flat on her belly. But she's getting proficient at pulling with her arms and pushing with her toes to scoot on her tummy to reach the toy or the forbidden thing she desires. When she sits near the coffee table she tries to pull up to stand too. However, she is not getting her legs right yet for that either. But when she's sitting on a seat and can pull on something she can stand up. Hannah really enjoys playing and eating. She'll eat anything we're eating--including cajun chicken and rice that her brother deemed "too tasty" (too spicy) to eat.

Nathanael has enjoyed doing some random workbook pages Laura got at a dollar store and some learning card games. So now Laura has decided to go ahead and do some rough planning so that when the time comes to homeschool him he will be accustomed to doing organized/structured learning. Monday we do a Bible lesson, Tuesday and Thursday a language related activity, and Wednesday and Friday a math related activity. He loves doing "schoolwork" so much that he hates for it to end and asks for it all day if we don't get to do it in the morning. He loves playing Hi-Ho-Cherry-Oh and is pretty good at it. He has become quite the song-bird around the house too. It has taken him quite a while but now he'll sing along with music or even just with Mom or Dad. He would previously just take turns singing a song. His repetoir includes preschool favorites such as "Hey Diddle Diddle", to Bible songs like "Ask, Seek, and Knock", to popular radio songs like the "Can't get away" by Rush of Fools. However, if he is not in the mood for a duet he'll loudly protest "No, Dad (or Mom), you don't sing that". It is hilarious to hear him try to talk like Donald Duck--mostly in a tickling motion toward his sister or dad since that's when Forest uses the voice with him.

Make sure to check out our link here or to the left for our photo page at flickr for some recent photos of these adorable little ones.

Oh, and Forest and Laura have stuff hapening too. Forest is enjoying his new job. He has good conversations with his students on occasion and is glad they just hired a second construction trianer. Soon he will be mainly teaching in a shop setting rather than on the jobsite. Laura has been encouraged by Nathanael's early morning interest in structured learning. She's also starting to "show" in her new pregnancy and is enjoying the "relaxing" of her morning sickness to not all day every day feeling sick. Both are looking forward to their fall classes. Forest has even begun taking guitar lessons from a friend from church and school that gives lessons.