Happy Birthday Levi!

My wonderful husband has had a birthday. Levi and I don't make a big fuss over our birthdays, so I think Levi's favorite part of his birthday was having the day off of work and we had beautiful weather. He also got a new dog. A boxer named Chico. I'm sure many of you are saying didn't you already have a new boxer. We did, but unfortunately she was hit by a car and killed not long after we got her. It was quite an adventure to get Chico. We had to drive about 3 1/2 hours north in order to pick him up. He's only 6 almost 7 months old, but he's very large. It made for an interesting ride home in our car. Levi loves him though and is very excited to have a boxer again. Most of Levi's actual birthday was actually spent getting a fence put up so Chico can have a safe spot to play in outside. Later in the evening we had a BBQ with a bunch of friends.

We're Still Here

I know it has been a long time since I have posted anything new, and I don't even have any fun pictures to put up. I just thought I should at least put up a note to say that we are all doing fine, and while we have been busy, nothing too fun or exciting has been happening.
My little brother was burned fairly badly on our parents wood burning stove in the middle of the month, and that was a little traumatizing for all of us. (For pictures of that you can refer to his facebook page.) He is recovering nicely though, and should soon be back to normal.
A good friend of mine came down for the 1/2 marathon with some of her family and that was a lot of fun.
The boys are growing like crazy and doing new silly things every day. Liam is almost crawling and starting to pull himself up on things. Michael is doing all sorts of new things, mostly he loves to read. He has been reading and learning all about whales lately.

The Difference Between the Truth and a Lie

Have you ever tried to teach a child the difference between the truth and a lie? The very words that you use have absolutely no meaning to a child. They don't know what the word truth means. You can't say to them, " Tell me the truth." This quandary led Michael and I to the following conversation after I walked into a room where he had been playing by himself.

Me: Michael have you been playing with the markers?

Michael: No. (smiling)

Me: Are you sure you're telling me the truth?

Michael: Yes mom.

Me: Michael, the truth is what really happened. Were you playing with the marker?

Michael: No mom. (smiling even more)

I don't think the message is getting through to him. He is starting to understand, but he is still just mostly trying to give us the answer he thinks we want not what really happened.

New Things at the Mallory House

A few new things are happening at our house.

Liam is learning to crawl. He does a pretty good stink bug right now. He crawls around on his knees and elbows with his face in the carpet and his bum in the air. It's pretty cute. Liam is also starting to get some teeth. He has one front tooth on the bottom that has broken through, and the other one is trying to break through too.

We have also been able to decrease the number of times Liam has to see his physical therapist. We had an appointment with our doctor and he helped me to feel a lot better about what was going on. The torticollis is cleared up. The physical therapists continue to come because of the back arching. Something like that is often a sign of neurological problems. Our doctor has said that in this case he doesn't believe it is because Liam has absolutely no other developmental delays or abnormalities. I also have other members of my extended family who did the same thing and grew up to be totally normal. So we are not worrying or stressing out about that. If something shows up in the future we will deal with it then. I am letting the physical therapist continue to see Liam in steadily decreasing frequency until he is a year old as a precautionary measure. At a year though I am going to feel totally free to kick the therapists out.

Michael is also growing so fast. We have to keep boxing up his clothes that are to little. When he asks me why, I tell him it's because he wouldn't stay little like I told him to. We have been working on teaching him how to pray, and this morning he said the prayer all by himself without any help at all from me. I was so proud of him. Michael also loves reading. He is now old enough, and we have read his favorite books to him enough, that he can get them off the shelf and read them to himself. He does a good job at least getting the gist of each page, and he has a couple of them memorized word for word.

Life is chugging along like normal for me. My schedule at work has changed a little bit so I am now working in the afternoons instead of the mornings. This has been great for my housework. I get up in the morning and do housework, and then go to work. When I get home all I have to worry about is doing dinner, and if I don't do anything else, I don't feel guilty about it because I was productive in the morning. For those of you that have heard about the financial trouble our district is having...I do have a job next year; although, I'm not entirely sure what I'll be doing.

Levi is enjoying his job. He is in charge of the Mock DUI for the High School this year. That is happening this Friday. (For those of you who don't know what this is. It is a play basically of a DUI accident that is put on at the High School just before Junior Prom each year. It is geared at discouraging drinking and driving.) After that, it is into Jeep Safari and then life really gets busy.

We are all looking forward to spring and hope to see it come soon. The last couple of days have actually gotten into the 50's and almost all of the snow is melted. Our fingers are crossed that Spring is really on it's way.