Long overdue update

Bad blogger, I know. It's been over a month. So much has happened. Unfortunately, my Grandmother (Malachi's G.G. , my Dad's mom) passed away the week before Christmas. She had been in the hospital since the week before Thanksgiving, so it had been a long, stressful month for the family. We will miss Grandma very much.

On Mother's Day last year, she was the one who finally got Malachi motivated to use a walker.

Although I already suspected as much, talking with Grandma's friends and extended family members at the visitation and funeral confirmed that she never missed an opportunity to share pictures of her great-grandbabies. She was so proud of them all.

This was our first Christmas with Malachi, and we were lucky to share it with my parents (Malachi's Grammie and Papa), my Nana and Pa, and my brother Mike and his wife Courtney and son Nate. Uncle Mike and I helped the boys make a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas Eve day. You won't believe this (thus the picture for evidence is included), but I unknowningly bought a Devil's Food cake mix for the occasion! The boys sprinkled reindeer dust on the lawn on Christmas Eve. Cute!

The boys did really well together, in large part because of Nate's high tolerance! We had fun each day with a tricycle parade, singing "Jingle Bells." Nate would run over to Malachi and start pulling him toward the bikes saying, "Parade Cousin! Parade!" It was adorable!

Christmas morning, Malachi slept in. Figures...the one morning I WANT to get up early! He wasn't interested in unwrapping presents; he was totally content playing with the toys we brought from home. Guess we could have all saved some money on gifts!

Before leaving for Kevin's parent's (Malachi's Grandma and Grandpa), the boys made reindeer cookies with Grammie. Malachi didn't quite understand why we weren't eating the dough.

We had fun at Grandma and Grandpa's. We played at the gym and went to a science center. The science center was a blast with a fun activity area for little ones on one floor that resulted in Malachi getting soaked-he just loves water!

Lucky Malachi got Mama and Grandma all to himself one day while the rest of the family went skiing and tubing. He did a good job helping Grandma with laundry (sorry, I don't have a picture of that!). He loved Grandma and Grandpa's refrigerator covered in pictures of all his family members; we looked at those pictures OVER and OVER and OVER again. Those of you who know Malachi know that he never tires of pictures.

Malachi is doing really well. His tubes fell out (I actually caught one before it hit the floor--They're wider than you would think, and green in case you were wondering.). He is signing really well know and trying to talk more. His signs include: more, drink, eat, and me (as in "I want that. Please give it to me"). "Me" is a dangerous one. Now any time he wants something he signs me (e.g., toy, Mama's hand, Mama's dinner fork, Mama's dinner). Next lesson...just because you sign that you want something doesn't mean you always get it! :)

I attribute this new development growth spurt to a "Grandma miracle." Every time we visit the Grandma's and he gets all that extra special lovin' and attention, he starts doing lots of new stuff. I love it! Aren't Grandma's great?

At any rate, we're getting some more language from him, slowly but surely. He's said "kitty" a few times and "uhhh" for up. He even said "dance, dance, dance," a little phrase often said in our household. He dances (very River Dance like) quite often. His teachers have nicknames him "Happy Feet."

We're well into the discipline now. The main issues are throwing and hitting. The throwing gets toys taken away. Hopefully the reality of losing the toy will do the trick. The other issue is that he gets excited (like when we're greeting people) and bats at my face--lovely, right? My glasses have seen better days to say the least. We're trying timeout. No miracles yet, but stay tuned. I'm optimistic! We're welcoming other input for consideration (we just can't promise we'll listen!).