The dangers of pacifism

We were playing in the backyard, and I heard Zander say, "All done! All done, itsy bitsy spider! ALL DONE ITSY BITSY SPIDER!!!" I looked over and he was yelling at a mosquito biting his arm. It's great that he was using his words to express his needs, but I guess I have to teach him that there are certain situations where violence may be the best solution. What a sweet kiddo.

Zander's Little Secret

Last Thursday I discovered that Zander has been keeping a secret from us: he can walk. For those of you who haven't seen us lately, Zander has been dragging out his "learning to walk" phase for ages. He went from crawling to walking on his knees (which he still does a lot) to walking with assistance. He can walk fine if holding on to a wall, hand, stroller, etc, but refuses to walk alone.

Then on Thursday I came around the corner to see him walking across the living room. I cheered and congratulated him. He responded by getting upset, saying "no!" and dropping down to his knees.

Hmmmm....

I decided to drop the subject and for the past few days we have just been pretending not to notice as he walks around the house.

 So what does this mean?

My hunch is that his perfectionist streak is making him self-conscious. It feels like he wants to get it "right" before he shows us he can walk. At one point when he thought I couldn't see him, I watched him walk across the room, then smile and applaud for himself.

There is also the possibility that he likes having to hold a hand when walking. It is kinda sweet, though he can be pretty demanding about it!

And maybe we have been putting too much pressure on him, trying to get him to walk. He's a pretty sensitive kid, so he probably senses that I've been getting anxious about him being a "late walker" (whatever that means).

I think we will just drop the whole subject and see how this plays out over the next few days....

Zander gets his driver's permit

They start driving young in Michigan!

Check the rear-view mirror...

Hands at 10 and 2 ...

Keep your eyes on the road!

Woah, it even has a backseat!

Zander calls this his "cool car".

Spring Cleaning

I've recently discovered that, in addition to having a wonderfully sweet little boy, I also have a child who loves to help with housework. Crazy. He certainly doesn't get this trait from me!

Washing the dishes:

Eating the suds:

Mopping the kitchen floor:

Hanging out the diapers:

Mowing the lawn:

Taking a break to hide in the kitchen cupboard:

And here he is looking super cute in his friend's bunny ears:

Kate's Confirmation

We had a great trip to New York, visiting with family and celebrating my niece's confirmation.

Here is the lovely Kate. Congratulations!

The ceremony was quite nice and the bishop actually took time to speak with each confirmation-ee (? I'm not sure what they are called) individually. Here are Kate and my dad speaking with the bishop.

Zander did pretty well for the first 20 minutes of the mass, then he starting trying to tell the priest that he was "all done." Jason took him out for a walk. Aww, the little guy passed out in the middle of having a snack.

I forgot to take pictures of the rest of the trip, a testament to how much I was relaxing and enjoying myself. It was a great weekend with fantastic food and family time. I hope we can do it again sometime soon.