Milestones

Well, we've hit a few milestones in our house these last two weeks, and if I don't blog them now, they may not make it into the Hurst Family archives someday. As much as I love scrapbooking, and am so blessed to have all my stuff out all the time in the "craft" room (aka the spare bedroom, catch-all room, PS2 room...you get the picture), I don't always have time to conciously work on the kids' books. I just started Natalie's in July-and the sweetie will be one next month. Not exactly caught up in my mind. ANYWAY, I digress. Here's what I intended to blog about...last Sunday, the 19, Natalie took two small steps towards Derrick. She's been getting the grasp of standing unassisted-and will even play with a toy or look around and not lose her balance-for a short amount of time, but she actually took two steps. Secondly, Lucas learned to tie his shoes. Of this, I am SO proud...mainly because he picked it up pretty much on his own. Being right-handed, neither Derrick nor myself could effectively model shoe tying to my little lefty. Those were the two most exciting things happening in our house these last two weeks.

I have to brag on the boys a bit. They've started back up with karate in September. We were going to the Y, but it was on Wednesday nights and I don't like taking all three of them to karate, since Derrick has church. He was missing out on watching them, it's a hassle now with the stroller and a moving 11 month old, and I'm missing out on going to Bible study. So, our sensei has his own studio about 20 mins west of Marysville. So, instead of driving 5 minutes to the Y, hauling out the stroller, and keeping Natalie entertained, I decided to give the Bellefontaine dojo a try. It's AWESOME! And, the boys do SO much better! Sensei converted an old country church into a dojo (for those of you unaware of that term, that means karate studio). He has lots of equipment there, as opposed to the Y that is just a big open gym. Also, Matthew and Lucas are in a class of varying talents and skills, so they are being watched by the younger ones and can follow the model of the older ones. Since sensei has mats, and other equipment, sparring is a regular way to spend their time. This is basically one on one grappling/wrestling. Two weeks ago, Matthew was matched up with another boy about his size, and the same skill level. He just went after the kid! Matthew isn't usually so brave, and in fact has cried or been intimidated in other sparring rounds before, so I wasn't sure how he would handle it. He did awesome! Every time the boy would pin Matthew, he would wriggle and kick his way free and pin the other boy down. Eventually after doing this a few times, Sensei tapped them out with Matthew as the winner. So proud! Then Lucas gets against another little boy. He actually took the boy by his shoulders and "threw" him down so the little boy's head landed pretty hard on the mat. They went round and round awhile, and their match ended in a draw. The boys wrestle with Derrick every once in awhile, and not very much with each other-it's usuallyl hitting or kicking and not an intentional wrestling time. But, to get paired up with another kid and "hurt" them is a different story. I'm so proud of them!

Natalie...well, she's too cute and fun. We broke out the OSU cheerleader outfit the last two weekends on game day and she looks so stinkin' cute! I think it's going to be one of her one year picture outfits in a few weeks at Target. She says "mama" so distinctly, and gets so excited with going to Grandma Patty's to see the kitties. It's too cute. She is cruising right along as far as walking along the furniture. And she's finally enjoying a lot of her toys that play music and sing.