Whirlwind

Isn't it called "onomatopoeia" when the word sounds like what it means? I'm not sure "whirlwind" falls into the definition cleanly, but there is something sweeping and all-encompassing about the sound of that word that expresses well our life over the past few weeks. We've been through some tough decisions about Caroline and school for the next year (and year after),

we've had family and friends visit,




we've visited family,


we've had visits to the doctor and hospital (for three out of our little four member family),


we've celebrated a birthday,


we've watched that girl start a new dance class,


we've watched our baby start to crawl, we've held that same baby as she experiences the pain of two more teeth coming in, we've played, laughed and photographed,

and of course we've had the drill of school, work, and home life thrown in too. Don't get me wrong; life is good and all of these things make me so thankful for my family and the blessings God showers on us. It's just busy too.

A couple of stories from the past couple of weeks:
Caroline and I started reading Charlotte's Web a couple of weeks ago. It's a pretty long book for a four year old, but we just decided that each night at bedtime I would read her a couple of chapters. It was great for me because that was one of my all-time favorite books and movies. I hadn't read it since I was a kid though, and I really enjoyed reliving it with Caroline. I remembered it being sad, but I wasn't prepared for how deeply it touched me. I literally sobbed through several pages in the last two chapters. Caroline wasn't quite sure what to make of my emotionalism, but she tried to soothe me (and her sweet little consoling made me cry harder) by telling me that Wilbur would be okay and he would make other friends and Charlotte gets to be with God now! Despite my tears, I enjoyed reading it again; it is a great story about sacrifice and friendship.

So, as I mentioned above, Charlotte is starting to crawl. She's been scooting around on her tummy for a few weeks now, but she has finally figured out how to get up on her knees. She kind of rocks back and forth when she gets up on all fours and occasionally even propels herself forward (or backward) a little bit. I tried multiple times to get a video of her actually crawling, but this is as close as I could get to a a glimpse at her new found skill: