Women are like lionesses at the gate of the home. . . . She guards that gate, and things matter to that family if they matter to her. . . . Sisters, you are each like the lioness at the gate. This means that there has to be some prioritizing. I was taught years ago that when our priorities are out of order, we lose power. If we need power and influence to carry out our mission, then our priorities have to be straight.

Saturday, July 7, 2007

On the move!

Shaelyn has started to crawl! It is still a slow moving process for her – she usually only moves her knees 5-6 times before sitting to take a break. That’s ok by me. We don’t quite yet have to chase her or worry about her getting into everything since we can generally stop her before she gets to anything dangerous. But it has started us baby-proofing the house. And babies can get into EVERYTHING! Just yesterday, Shaelyn started crawling toward the bottom drawer of the armoire in our room. I let her have free reign to see what would happen, and sure enough, she pulled it open and then peered over the top to see what was inside. As my parents say, she is busy, busy, busy!!

Here is her first real "crawling". Unfortunately the batteries in the camera died right as I was taking the video, so it cut off too early, but you can still see her moving her knees!


And because crawling looks like so much fun, Daddy decided to crawl along with her. We feel like she's a cat right now, with us dragging a toy in front of her and her crawling along to get it. Hey, sometimes the girl just needs a little motivation...

Of course, the best motivation is her beautiful face in the mirror. She's so vain! She loves looking at her reflection, and now that she can get close to the mirror on her own, it's even better:

Crawling does have it's rewards, like finding new things around the house to play with. Too cute! (Watch out mom and dad!)

Even since putting this blog together, she has already become so much better at crawling. Today she actually did follow me into the kitchen. And now she's onto a new feat -- trying to stand. She's been pulling up on things for a while, but today she started the new thing of trying to stand in the middle of the room. She gets on her hands and knees, then up on her feet and straightens her legs all the way. She just can't take her arms off the floor. It's amazing to watch. Michael says she's going to ask for the keys to the car tomorrow. She's growing up too fast!!!

And now, just for your enjoyment, the final video. Since she's been eating solid foods, one of her new favorite things to do is "chew". It makes her look like she's trying to talk. We love it!

Cleverly written by shelley