Drew: 12 Months

Drew loves: Everything - the kid just loves everything about life. Which is fitting, because that is one of my prayers for him: that he be joyful, filled of the joy that only the Lord can provide.

Drew hates: Anything. Per usual for a typical toddler, one minute he loves something, the next he hates it. The one thing I think he consistently doesn't like is sitting in his high chair once he is done eating. He'll frantically signal "all done" to us, and if we don't promptly get him down he'll throw his head back and started whining. So I amend my "Drew loves everything" to say that he does not like prolonged high chair time, or just general confinement. We've been working on our response to tantrums, and just recently ironed out our game plan for our response to disobedience. I thought he would listen to me perfectly forever...? Boo. I've finally started reading "Shepherding a Child's Heart" by Ted Tripp. Very helpful so far!

Milestones: He's started mimicking little tasks we done around the house, like closing the dishwasher door. He seems to understand what comes next after putting your shoes on (going outside). So I would say he's mastering cause and effect, as well as sequences. Also, we're finally making oh-so-sweet progress on independent play time in his room. I finally found a system that is working, and he played in his room (crying off and on) for 45 minutes by himself today! Do you know how much cleaning I can get done in 45 minutes when there is no one underfoot? Be prepared to eat off my floors! Just kidding...I actually spent most of that time watching him on the video monitor to see what on earth he was doing in his room by himself. I had started room time with a baby gate in his door frame, but at one point he closed his bedroom door and that is when he finally stopped full-on crying and actually started to play. I think, to him, an open door means "mom is coming...where is she?!" and a closed door means "time to be by myself". So there you have it. We've been working on independent play time for weeksssssss, so I would say our recent success with this is a huge milestone.

My last post covered much of what we've been up to so far this summer, and I'll do another summer post later, so below are just his 12 month pics. I'll do a birthday post in a few weeks, too!

It's fun to watch how busy he is through this series of photos!

I kept saying "hi Drew...Drew, hiiii" to get him to just look at me and smile,
and instead he just started waving "hi" at me!

I'm holding up the remote control to entice him...

I finally let him hold the remote...pure joy!

Giving it grace: On my last post, I failed to include a reflection. That was somewhat intentional, in that somehow our lives have gotten so busy again that I've been cutting things out left and right (I was thisclose to swearing off this blog for good, but I really enjoy doing the blog so you'll get at least a few more posts out of me this year!). At the end of Drew's 11 month update, I was talking about my study of fear of the Lord. I did finish (for now, at least) my study on that topic, and came away with several really neat insights. The theme that stuck out to me the most is how many times God promises blessing and life to the offspring of those who fear the Lord. I think sometimes it's tempting for me to minimize my relationship with the Lord to be just between me and Him - it's my prayer life, my devotional time, my Bible reading. Those are personal things, between me and Jesus. But in reality, my relationship with the Lord directly affects my family: my husband, my children, and my children's children. It is so awesome to think that there may be people on this earth, little children, that (I pray with all my heart) grow to know the Lord because of Kyle and I's legacy left on our children (and their children, and so forth). As I said in my other post, God's grace has certainly carried me to this realization, because I historically have had very little, if any, proper fear of the Lord. Yet He has still graciously given us offspring, and Drew is clearing blessed and a blessing!