Happy Independence Day!

Stairsteps...

Nope, I'm not talking about exercise.  Nor am I talking about the age differences in my children.  What I am talking about is...  Pixie Girl!

Pixie Girl went in for her monthly weight check yesterday.  She gained weight this month!  After cheering, the pediatrician said "Come over here to the computer.  I want to show you something.".  She pulled up Pixie's growth chart, from the time she was born, that included every check-up, weight check, and any other time that our shadows darkened her door.

Pixie Girl's first 4 months show a nice little curve of growth.  Something we already knew about.  But then, she had the whole weird growth thing.  We hadn't noticed a pattern...  But there IS a pattern!  We just didn't notice it until yesterday!

After her 4 month check-up, Pixie Girl stopped growing.  For 2 months, there was no change.  Then on the 3rd month, she jumped a pound and a half!  Then for the next 2 months, she didn't gain a thing.  Then on the 3rd month, she jumped another pound and a half!  Then again, nothing for 2 months.  Can you guess how much she gained this month?  Yep!  A pound and a half! 

She's now a whopping 15 pounds, 9 ounces, at 13 months!  According to the nurse, babies are "supposed to" (according to whom, might I ask?), triple their birth weight, by their first birthday.  So she "should be" around 21 pounds now. 

So we decided that as long as she kept stair-stepping, we'd be happy   She has another weight check in 2 months, to see if the pattern continues.  We're prepared for smaller jumps though, because "normally" babies 16 months-2 years slow down, and only gain 2-3 pounds in that 8 month time frame.  I'm sure part of that is because they start walking, and therefore trimming down, around then.  Pixie Girl is determined to walk soon too!

In the meantime, we remain hopeful that she will be out of the rear-facing carseat by the time she's 3

Please pray

For little baby Joe

Remember those pictures I posted?  Did you see Dani's as well? 

Well forget them!  That was not smokey!

It got much worse today.  We don't have shadows outside, and everything has a weird orangey-red cast to it.

I went out around 6 this evening, and visibility was so bad, that everyone had their headlights on!  3 blocks is about as far as you can see, before it all disappears into a smokey haze. 

Usually around now, kids are out playing, people are out doing yard work, or washing cars, etc.  Our little jaunt out, revealed 5 people who dared to be outside.  4 were people bicycling home from work, and the 5th was walking her dog. 

I don't know how people with breathing issues are managing!  I'm sure the hospitals are full of people needing breathing treatments!

Okay, I'm done whining.  For now. 

1 thing leads to 2...

Mrs. Friedrich posted a link to this blog post today.  In response to the comment:

"It’s good that Christians homeschool. We need citizens to clean our toilets and mow our lawns. Perhaps some homeschooled Christians will be able to fill these types of jobs. The rest will be unemployable retards like their parents."

I'd encourage homeschool parents, and graduates, to post a comment there.

While leaving my comment, I realized that I forgot to pass on some exciting news! 

The company Rob works for is an international company, with several plants in our state alone.  He's worked there, as a systems administrator for one plant, for over 8 years.

He's just been promoted to systems administrator for all of the plants in our half of the state! 

We're still waiting for his annual review, to see what kind of pay he'll be receiving now.  His review is overdue, but he didn't say anything, because he figured that this might happen, and that they were waiting, before deciding on what to pay him.  The new position requires a lot of driving as well, which is getting more and more expensive.

It's hard to know what his increase might be, because while he has taken on more work, the company he works for is very closely tied to the housing market, which of course, is pretty beaten down at the moment.  We're hoping it'll be enough to start getting debt paid down faster.