Lawson at 7 Months

I intended to write a bit about Lawson last month when he met his 6 month half-birthday, but in the excitement of Christmas I missed the opportunity. He's at an amazing stage right now, though, and I didn't want to miss a chance to share it.

Lawson is doing all of the usual 6-month tricks: rolling both ways at will, sitting up fairly steadily, scooting himself around on his belly a bit, and eating some solid foods. He's a smiley guy, but it takes some work to get him to laugh out loud. Dillon seems to have the knack, though, and takes great pride in getting Lawson to chuckle. This week we noticed the best trick so far: he's been dancing whenever he hears music. He does a side-to-side and torso bob that is hilarious. He's lucky he's sweet,though, because he's still a bit of a challenging sleeper, and he gets incredibly whiny when he doesn't nap well.

Even with the occasional grumpiness, he is a pleasure. The boys compete to make Lawson happy, and we all daydream about the fun things he will soon be able to do.

Our New Daughter

Some of you might remember that year before last we hosted an exchange student from the Netherlands, Anita. Having Anita as part of our family was a very rewarding experience for all of us, and we all agreed that "someday" we would like to host another student. I never would have imagined that "someday" would be this year, as we have already had such an eventful time of it; but when the Youth for Understanding rep contacted me asking if I knew anyone willing to host, I got a little tug in my heart. Kirk & I decided that there was no time like the present, and contacted YFU to update our host family application. 

Within a couple of weeks, we got word that our new "daughter," Pim, would join us the first week of January. Pim is from a suburb of Bankok, Thailand, and lived with another host family in Sacramento for the first part of the school year. She will live with us until June, attending our local high school and coming along on all of our wild adventures. The boys already love their big sister, and she is definitely taking their rascally ways in stride. We hope you'll have a chance to meet her!