I am forever amazed with how much my little girl has grown up. From her first word "uh-oh" well over a year ago, she has come a long way to today when she told her daddy to "Come here NOW," and yesterday when she told a complete stranger on the street that "Doggy go potty."

Yesterday after she woke up from her nap, she walked around the living room saying, "Daddy, Where are you?" When he didn't appear she said, "Matt, Matt. Where are you? Come here Matt. Open door Matt. Come here NOW!" I have tried to tell her that she can call Daddy, "Daddy," but it is so cute to hear her saying Matt. Of course, we're trying to quickly curb her saying "NOW."

Kinsey has also learned Genesis 1:1 as her first Bible verse and can now repeat to almost anyone we ask her to. It warms my heart every time. I even had her say it to our pastor on Sunday. So cute.

Other than her speech, the other thing that has really grown about Kinsey is the things she's been picking up. She has decided to be my little helper. When changing Gus's diaper, she always offers me "ow cream" (diaper rash cream). Today after picking up dirty clothes, I came back upstairs to find Kinsey picking up other clothes and pretending to do laundry. She helped me carry toilet paper to the bathroom the other day and likes to throw things in the trashcan for me. She has definitely started being a little mother to her dolls and is a great big sister to Gus.

The other day, Gus was getting tired, so I was trying to get him to take a nap on my lap. Kinsey came up and said, "More Gus," because she wanted to keep playing. They play so well together.


Gus reached the 9-month milestone this month. At his appointment this week, he weighed 21 lbs. 6 oz. and is 29 inches long. He is in the 75th percentile for height and weight and in the 95th percentile for head size, which the doctor said wasn't necessarily a sign that he would be super smart, but I of course think he will.

My little buddy has two teeth already and is happy to try any food we will give him. He is definitely not as picky as his sister was at this age. :He is very happily crawling all over the place and pulling up on anything he can. He is getting in to much more than Kinsey was at his age. He actually pulls the toy baskets out of the shelf and looks for toys.

Gus has started making the precursory sounds to talking. Lots of da-da-da, ma-ma-ma, and something that could soon turn into "hi." He waves and claps. I again praise God for giving me healthy children and helping my little man grow from a 4-week-early little baby to a big, roly poly 9-month-old.

A funny story from the doctor's office the other day. We pronounce Augustine "A-gus-tin," while most pronounce it "Au-gus-TINE." Well, in the waiting room, the nurse comes out and finds the oldest man in the room and loudly says "Au-gus-TINE" a couple of times. She thought he was just hard of hearing and that was why he wasn't responding (oh, we go to a family practice doctor. That is why they don't always think to look for a baby). Then I had to call the office the next day with a question and when they called me back they asked for "Justin." When I explained that my child's name was "A-gus-tin," they said that was probably why they couldn't find his record. Yes, that's what we get for picking a different name and pronouncing it differently than most of the world would. But, that's also why his name is Gus. I hope he likes his name when he gets old enough to know better.

Last week, I knew that Gus was close to crawling. He kindof was, but not quite. Now, the boy can crawl. I tried to get it on video. He finally starts going at the end of the video, but Kinsey is singing throughout.

Gus will also stand for long periods at a time. He can't quite pull himself up, but I'm sure it won't be long.


Kinsey is still being extra helpful. She plays well with Gus and even gives him his bottle...even when it is empty.

 Matt was asked to talk about opportunities for youth across the denomination at the Pacific Coast Presbytery Confernce last week, so against my home-body nature, I agreed that the whole family would go. We took Brenda with us so she could be a counselor and help us with the kids. We waited too long to get tickets, so we didn't get to choose our connecting cities for the plane ride. On the way out we ended up flying through JFK to Seattle so had a 5 1/2 hour plane ride. The kids did surprising well. Kinsey was awake until the last few hours of the trip. She needed all lights to be out around her and then she just fell asleep quickly.

Once we got to Seattle, we checked in to a hotel. It was 1 a.m. Seattle time. 4 a.m. Eastern time. The room had one king bed, so we slept four across. Here's a pic of my little ones in a big king bed. They don't look like they minded.

Matt preached at the Seattle church on Sunday and then we did a little sightseeing on our way up to the conference on Monday. We had a great time getting to know people from the presbytery at the conference, but for some reason I didn't take a lot of pictures. Kinsey made lots of new friends and learned to go down (and up) the slide all by herself. She also liked the swing and would ask to go "swimming" which meant swinging. We did manage to take pictures the days we went down to the beach. It was the first time on a beach for both kids and they both enjoyed it.

It was a lot of work chasing Kinsey around the conference. It seems she just didn't want to sit still. Part of it is our fault for not putting her in the nursery, but she had a cold. So,we were probably asking a lot for her to sit still through all of the talks and discussion groups on building the church. She came home with two skinned knees from running (and falling) on pavement. All in all, we had a really good time. The conference facilities were great  and the weather was beautiful. Kinsey loved singing at campfire times, too.

We were going to do some sightseeing on our way back to the airport, but traffic was horrible, so we just drove to the hotel. It was a clear day and we could see Mt. Ranier.

The kids did well on the flights home. Two three hour flights this time. On both flights, Kinsey fell asleep as we were taxiing to take off, so that was nice. She slept the whole time. Gus slept off and on, but was very pleasant. They both are very happy to be home. When we walked in the door at 1:30 a.m., Kinsey went right to her dollhouse and started to play.

I'm glad we went and didn't let my anxieties keep me from flying. It was an opportunity we probably won't get very often.

Tonight we went down to the park to let Kinsey and Gus play, but it started raining, so we didn't stay very long. Both of them got to swing and Kinsey went down the big slide all by herself. She also started climbing up a ladder that we quickly pulled her off of. She's just not big enough for that yet.