Look at that smile! Grammy and I held him down for a short haircut but he forgave us and was off playing happily a little while later. He looks all grown up with all that shaggy blond hair gone. Especially now that he finally started walking! 16 1/2 months is a long time to wait when you have such a chunky guy to lug around. He is doing so well, he’ll be running with the big kids by summer. I can’t wait to watch him and all the summer adventures this year. There is something so wonderful about this stage, between starting to walk and before being able to talk, it can be a frustrating time but it’s amazing to watch how much he can get accomplished with no “words” just grunts, gestures, and whines. Katie and Foster are really enjoying him walking but it’s funny because even though he’s been doing it for a couple of weeks now, they wake up each day and the first time they see him walk that day they’ll exclaim excitedly “Theodore’s walking!” or “Look, Mommy, Theodore just walked all the way across the room!” As siblings they really have genuine joy for each other’s accomplishments, even if they squabble through the day, if someone accomplishes something new they each will cheer and encourage each other. Katie loves to encourage and build up her brothers. I hear her in the background “Good job Foster!” even if it’s nothing new or exciting for him, she acknowledges that he is doing something worthwhile. The kids and I have been down at mom’s this week helping her recover from surgery and I have been reading the best book I checked out from mom’s library. The name of it is 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum by Cathy Duffy. It has been extremely helpful to me as I am trying to sort out what I will teach Foster for his Kindergarten year. Now I just have to come up with a budget and hopefully have the curriculum bought and organized by June or July. Since baby #4 is due July 25 I would really like to have all that planned out so that in August we can just start along with our lesson plans. This, of course, is just the plan because I am a planner and organizer and I enjoy that. However, I can hear all the chuckles out there from those of you who have had new babies and siblings close in age and tried to just survive and keep your house running and keep everyone alive from day to day, believe me I know we will have many days when that will be the case, but having a plan and a schedule make me feel as if I am still in some sort of control over the chaos! If you want to check out Cathy Duffy’s website it is www.CathyDuffyReviews.com It seems to be an abundant source of homeschool information.