Crazy!

My sweet Savannah is now walking home from school every day. All year I have gone to school to get her. It was just part of our routine. Then her friend starting walking home and Savannah wanted to, too, of course.

I thought about it for several days. I have a hard time with my baby out there in the world on her own where I can't see her. But, eventually, I decided, I have to let go. This was a good time to release my hold a little. We talked about the rules of walking home, that it is a privilege, she has to walk home with her friend, look out for cars, obey the crossing guards and no talking to strangers.

Monday was the first day and it was weird to stay at home and not go get her. I watched the clock just a little bit. Of course she made it home safely and was so pleased with herself.

Now I'm not so anxious when the time for her to walk home comes around. Now I realize how pleasant it is to not have to stop what I am doing, not have to get Dakotah moving, not have to rush home to teach piano lessons, and not have to wake Colby from his nap.

So in only three days I have gone from "Augghh!! My baby is walking home from school!!" to "Yes! Savannah is walking home from school!"

Crazy!

My Dakotah

Sunday when we went to the cemetery it was nice weather so we sat on the grass by Austin's grave and relaxed for a while. Dakotah flitted around looking for pretty leaves to give to Austin. After a few minutes I looked up to see what she was doing. Austin is buried in a section that is just for babies. Most of the graves have all different kinds of paraphernalia on them. The last couple of days had been very windy and most of the items had blown over. Dakotah was moving among the graves, righting things that had blown over. I watched her carefully pick up stuffed animals and sit them upright. She picked up pots of plants and fixed flowers. She looked over her work to make sure she had fixed everything.

I was impressed with her little five year old compassion. She knows that babies are buried there and they are special like our Austin. As I watched her lovingly care for their gifts I thought about what my girls have learned in the last two years. They know that we go to the cemetery every Sunday. They know the "rules" of the cemetery. They know that special babies are buried there and we don't touch their gifts. They know that when someone else is there they need to be quiet so as not to disturb them.

They know more about the plan of Salvation than I did at their age. They know that Austin is in Heaven with Heavenly Father and that he will be with us after the Resurrection.



Sad little side story:
The cemetery has a pond with two swans in it. The day of Austin's funeral it was a good distraction for the girls. They named the swans Andrea and Austin. We often drive by and say hello to them. Well, a couple weeks ago there was only one swan. We figured something had happened to the other one and the girls said that Austin had died. It was really sad, their brother Austin died and now the swan Austin died. We found out later that a raccoon had got it and they will be replacing it. Maybe they'll name that swan Colby?

Colby is eleven months

This little guy of ours is something else. We love him, love him, love him!! And while I wish that he would stop growing up so fast, it is so fun to watch him learn to do new things.

He can stand up against things, which means that nothing on the tables are safe anymore.

His main goal every day is to get in the dog dish. He has succeeded a few times!

He loves to eat!! But not just anything. Baby food isn't good enough anymore. He wants the real stuff. Yesterday he ate an entire piece of pizza. Sometimes he eats more than his sisters.

He will be shortly weaned from nursing because he knows how to use his four teeth. Good thing he likes food so much.

He is a fast crawler. One day I couldn't find him. I found him in my closet on the other side of the house.

He loves playing with his sisters and friends. At the end of this video he does a face plant but don't worry! He wasn't hurt!




He loves balls!! He loves to play catch with his daddy. The other day as Clay threw him the ball I realized that he was actually catching it. Watch!

We Are Boring

I'm sure nobody has noticed that my posts have become few and far between. That's because there is nothing going on that I deem to be blog worthy. The Hayes family is just going along with the flow and we haven't had any sensational stories or even half boring stories to share. So, I am still here, I will post when I feel like it, and in the meantime I will get other stuff done. So check back sometimes; for us, boring is good.

In a small attempt to liven up this post, here are some pics of my kids this morning.

Colby keeping watch for the girls' ride.

Cuddles keeping watch for the girls' ride.

Dakotah trying to finishing practicing before her ride comes.

Savannah looking out for their ride. (Amazingly they were ready on time this morning!)

Yesterday Colby found a new hiding spot behind the couch.

Back To It

Spring break last week was wonderful. The kids played nice (most of the time), we were able to just relax at home and not be rushing here and there. Dakotah had two weeks off from school with parent/teacher conferences one week and spring break the next. I got so used to having her with me and Colby that when I took the girls to school this morning I had a hard time letting her go. We had so much fun playing games and being together.

Now the house is quiet.

Too quiet.