(Nearly) 7 months

It's fascinating the way babies will grow, whether you help them or not. It's dawned on me that he's 7 months old and he's not learning to drink from a sippy cup, doesn't know any Baby Einstein Flashcards, and can't sign one word. I always thought I'd be the type of person to over-estimate what a baby can do; but my baby still seems to be the newborn in August. Aaron reminds me he's not.

This doesn't mean, though, that I have to be doing those things. Because I'm not. I do other things, like hold him, talk to him, show him our baby chickens, read to him, explain to him covenantal theology and perseverance of the saints - you know, your normal, everyday, reformed baby things.

Despite my own busyness, and my ignorance of certain things, he seems to be doing well. He crawled today! Really crawled. I'm talking up on his hands and knees, scooting said knees alternately forward toward an object. He maxed out at three knee moves. I'm so proud.

He also has two new consonant sounds that he discovered just since Sunday: "d" and "n". This makes Aaron particularly happy - especially the "d" one. ;)

I have a love/hate relationship with the Holidays and, now, Sundays as well. They're wonderful for the Church, but bad for babies. I'm seriously considering whether it's worth it or not to go to a church just because the service time is 3 pm. And with the traveling and strange schedules of the Holidays, Joseph has missed quite a bit of church, and nearly all of his training time. This past Sunday he was pretty rotten had a rough time. I need to get back on track here. So, today, around 11:20, I announced "listening time". Joseph didn't seem to understand. He lasted 5 minutes. Friends, that is 5 minutes! And most of that he was whiny. We have serious work to do. I'm glad God provides grace for change in all things.

If you notice in the first picture above, Joseph's discovered that he can hold and play with two things at once. He's discovered he can shake or bang one item to make "music". I'm looking for those alphabet wood blocks. I would love to see him discover stacking soon. I don't know why, but this fascinates me the most.

Joseph's diet is still looking like Mama, for the most part. Which is fine with me. He'll eat yogurt and avocado occasionally, and we're gaining more courage to let him taste new (stranger) things. He's teething (I think). But still no teeth. We pray for teeth around here.

We're doing Lent. We gave up red meat and treats (except Sundays). As a first-timer, though, I completely forgot and had a beef taco (twice), two peanut butter cookies (and brought some home for Aaron), and ordered him a steak Chalupa (since I know he loves steak!) - all on the first day. After that I told Aaron that I needed some daily focus. :)

The Payne clan is doing well. We're busy busy with our new baby chicks and the garden! Top that with a furniture-making class two evenings a week for Aaron and starting a new part-time job from home for me, and we're learning how little discipline we have but how much we need. Grace, grace, God's grace! We trust He is more than sufficient for all our needs. :)