Highs and a Low

There have been some great moments in the last few weeks...

Timothy began walking. He took his first steps before Troy left on a 10 day mission trip, and actually walked across the room in the evening after we dropped Troy off at the airport. (But Timmy did walk to greet him upon his return!)

Troy spent 10 days in Honduras with a group from our church. It was a good trip...hot, but a good time for reflection and growing.

With Troy gone, Timothy and I fled to my parents house for a good dose of spoiling. Timothy liked all the stairs, looking out the window, feeding his grandpa cereal, and finding his grandma's nose! I like having in-house babysitters!

I celebrated my birthday with my parents and brothers. Troy was able to send me a birthday email and picture from Honduras thanks to a group member's international cell phone. (A fun surprise!)

Timothy turned 15 months. He had a growth spurt in the last three months. That was good news since it meant he has not fallen off the curve for growth. He is now 30 inches and 24 pounds...and as healthy as can be!

The low of the last weeks is the weather. Yesterday we woke up to 8 inches of snow--wet, heavy snow. And it continues to snow today. Normally snow in spring would only be a small annoyance, but due to the possibility of flooding in North Dakota right now, snow is not good. Grand Forks has a dike up to 60 feet, and the river crest is predicted at 53 feet, so we should be okay. ( We might have all three bridges to East Grand Forks closed, however.) Fargo is fighting hard to meet a 42 foot crest and lots of other towns are doing lots of sandbagging. It is a very intense week in the Red River Valley. The crest is predicted to happen by early next week.

First Steps

Timothy has officially taken his first steps. And quite fittingly, his first three solo steps were motivated by food. (I was tempting him with banana puffs! Timothy is not one to pass up food). He has since taken some steps with out any bribes. Today he even walked without any coaxing.

He should be ready to go solo soon, as we practice for what seems like endless hours. He insists that he needs to hold my finger and sometimes two, but I think he could do it alone if he tried.

Along with this developing skill, Timothy has discovered he can 'walk' on the stairs. (Of course this requires a death grip on my fingers as I prevent him from flying head first down the stairs.) So when we aren't walking in circles around the kitchen table, we are walking down the stairs. Timothy's legs are too short to walk up the stairs, but he won't crawl either. Rather, he insists I hold his hands while he more or less does a modified crawl up the stairs. Apparently this is much better than crawling like a baby! (It is only my back that doesn't enjoy this!)

Vacation

We just returned from a week long vacation at a resort in Minnesota. Although winter is usually not resort season, we did not lack for things to do--Timothy especially. There was no shortage of attention from grandparents, an aunt and uncle and 3 cousins. But best of all there was snow, water and balls.

Timothy had a blast being pulled on the sled by mommy and even going down a tiny hill.

Swimming in the big pool with daddy!

Timothy's favorite toy...the ball popper...provided endless fun for him and his cousins all week.