Seven Months Old

This month has gone by much too quickly. My sweet, sweet Samuel is growing too fast! I really can't stand it. He is now scooting all over the apartment at top speed, still mostly army crawling. The day he turned seven months he succeeded in pulling himself into a standing position without any help form Cameron or me! Now he can shuffle sideways in a standing position and gets super excited about it!

He loves to laugh. At least once a week he finds something new that makes him so happy that he has to giggle. Some new discoveries include turning a light switch on and off, the "rawr" sound mommy makes when we're playing with his lion rattle, burying his face in the soft back cushions of our new couches, flicking rain drops off of leaves.

He's done remarkably well dealing with coming to school twice a day with me, though I've discovered that I need to get a rainproof cover for the stroller. We're swapping babysitting with two other couples and Samuel loves his little friends (both just a few months older than him!) He's become much more vocal since meeting his friend K. and even though L. doesn't talk back to him much he loves to blabber to both of them. His favorite words these days are "blah" and "hi" (though I don't think he knows what they mean. He is starting to respond to his name though! That's super exciting :)

Today we started sleep training, and it is not going nearly as smoothly as all the other blogger mommies make it sound. I'm praying it starts going more smoothly soon. We're not even doing the cry-it-out method, but its still been a pretty teary experience for him, but he's asleep now! I think he's finally figuring out that I'll come back in when he's not crying and that its ok to fall asleep without eating at the same time. Here's hoping he magically sleeps through the night! And that he get's to nap tomorrow.

He is such a little angel and I am so grateful that he came to our home. I am so grateful to be his mommy, to see his sweet smiles every day, to be able to make him happy, and to be able to take care of him! It is such a blessing, and I am so grateful! 

Where Were You?

Thirteen years ago today I was nine years old. I was homeschooled at the time, so my siblings and I were all working on our respective assignments when the phone rang. I don't remember who called but I remember my mothers face turning white. She flew to the black tube TV and turned it on. On the screen were the images of two burning sky scrapers and the planes that had crashed into them. It looked like a science fiction movie to me, but my mother's crying scared me. I tried to console her.

"Mommy, it's just a movie. It isn't real."

I don't recall her exact response but I slowly started to realize that this was real, that it had happened on purpose. I was so frightened. 

As I think back on that day, and the anniversary every year since then, the question that always seems to be asked is "where were you?" But after thirteen years I think we have a more important question to ask ourselves: "Where are we now?" How far have we come? What have we learned? If it happened again today, would we react differently? Would we still come together in unity as a country and reach out in love and compassion to our neighbors? Would the words "God Bless America" still be emblazoned on so many memorials? Would we still be Americans?

Or would the race or religious group of the person that committed the crime be threatened and hated? Would we be quick to anger and slow to understand? Would we look for revenge?

I hope that as we remember today those who lost their lives on that day that we ask ourselves, "are we better today than we were then?" And if we find that the answer is "no," I pray that we take the necessary steps to become so.

God Bless America!