My mind lately has reminded me of my music collection…eclectic and cluttered. When I realized I was paying more attention to the Target toy ad than the happenings in Pakistan, I knew that I needed to check myself. It’s so easy to get so lost. Thoreau said it best, “simplify simplify”… I need to find my Walden Pond.

We have a date, a very tentative one, November 29th if the stars so align (or the specialists agree)…we did not get the news back on his last blood test that we had hoped, so it leaves us in a bit of a holding pattern. I feel like whispering this, as to not jinx it, but Gavin is the best that he ever has been. He is strong, and eating(only a little, but we’ll take it) and the vomiting has stopped. Gavs is attempting to stand on his own and walk about four steps at a time to me. He gets so puffy proud of himself, like the Packer fans did last Sunday. He finds himself particularly funny and throws his head back to laugh at himself, I guess we will have two hams this Thanksgiving!

Lauren let me know that she is starting to “get into inappropriate things” (i.e. bathroom humor is a big hit). The other day she said “dang it” and I said that we should come up with a different word, “how about bubble guts instead,” I said and she looked at me and told me that it was a “very inappropriate” thing to say that. I told her that if that’s the case she should love it—-hence I hear “bubble guts” about thirty times a day! She is coming off of her sugar high from Halloween trick or treat and is wondering when Thanksgiving will squeak by so that we can get to Christmas already. She is obsessed with Johnny Cash’s “Burning Ring of Fire” and we are putting an obscene amount of holds on his CD’s from the library.

Jay and I had an over over coaching moment (again) last weekend when we took the kids to the church community day with a rock climbing wall…we strapped Lauren in so she could get her climb on, and proceeded to try to “coach” her through it, she turned around to hear our words of wisdom and fell off. You’d think that we would have learned our lesson with the big wheel race…but finally it hit me today…some things as a parent are left better unsaid, and some things they have to do on their own. That’s just tough to do, let them do their own things, make their own mistakes, and climb their own mountains.

Jill