Movin' and Shakin'

Yesterday, we stopped at a coffee shop on our way to hang out at my mom's house for a while, and Eleanor started playing peekaboo with another lady in line. She's always loved playing peekaboo, but that was the first time I know of that she's initiated it on her own - she had the lady totally wrapped around her little finger by the time we left.

And then yesterday evening, we were all playing in my parents' living room, and Steven and Eleanor were standing at their big ottoman (a great height for them to hang on to and stand), and Eleanor started playing peekaboo with me - she'd crouch down to hide behind it, then jump up. We were all having fun and clapping and saying "Yay!" - that's when it happened... she crouched down, then popped back up with her hands in the air over her head! She's stood on her own a couple of times before, but generally not when she's actually trying to - when she notices she's doing it, she grabs for whatever it was she was holding on to before. Last night was the first time she did it by herself, and she was so excited!

I'm loving watching them become more independent and mobile. Steven is actually pretty mobile now, but doesn't really seem to realize it. When he tries to crawl, he only goes backwards, so he gets frustrated, but he's actually really good at scooting around in a sort of half-sit, half-crawl position to get where he needs to be. I still think he's going to skip crawling and go straight to walking - he did a hilarious little thing the other day where he got his legs straight, and his butt straight up in the air, and his arms straight, in a sort of downward-facing dog... then started walking his hands back toward his feet. Really, if he'd just straightened up right then, he'd have been standing, but he just sort of looked at me when he got there like, "How did I get into this position, and how do I get out?"

He's really good at standing supported, though, and is getting really confident with pulling himself up and moving from sitting to laying and back again.

We had a fun shakeup at church last week - the power was out in the whole area, so someone found a generator for the sound system and we moved the whole service outside into the driveway. I think all the kids enjoyed being able to take part in the whole service (I usually bring them in for communion on those weeks, but otherwise they're in the nursery), and it was sort of a fun, slightly rowdy atmosphere.

It was a little chilly, but everyone distributed whatever blankets they had in their cars, and we found hats for the kids, and it ended up being really neat.