Progress

We've made a lot of progress around our house the last few days. O has been talking back since we got home from Michigan. Slowly, we seem to be making SOME improvement. Yesterday was awesome! She did a wonderful job at the dentist, even showed an older child how to sit and get her teeth cleaned. She helped with baby S (my new job) a lot. She helped me get diapers, wipes, etc. She and I took a walk with her babies in the double doll stroller and we chatted. It was a good day for her and I. Very little talking back. Progress.

I've been invited to a lot of baby showers in the past 21 months. I haven't gone to a single one. Until last week. A dear friend, who had her own struggle with secondary infertility, had a little impromptu baby shower at Macaroni grill (which, by the way, turned out to be a horrible, horrible experience! Service stunk!) The momma-to-be didn't know it was a baby shower until towards the end of the meal (it was a surprise). So we didn't fully dwell on the baby and all that jazz. There were no "measure the belly" games or "guess what baby food this is" games. There was SOME baby talk, but it certainly didn't center around pregnancy as much as a normal baby shower does. I actually enjoyed myself. Progress.

We've made significant headway on our play set (I say "we" like I've had something to do with it besides encouraging the workers and keeping the children away from the saw). E decided to go ahead and find plans for a play set online, buy the raw lumber, find the parts from various places, and build it from scratch. I have to say, I was hesitant at first. It seemed like a really big undertaking. Seeing as E and ceiling fans have a reputation (another post...another time) I was sure that this building thing would end in swearing and cursing. But, so far so good. Progress.

Wood pile

to this: as of Sunday afternoon (and, it actually looks way different now, even...)

Progress is an amazing thing. It seems like the journey of life, (or the building of a play set) is always so slow. Almost so slow that you can't see if anything is happening for the better. You can't remove yourself and see that things ARE changing. Things are progressing.

Eventually, the kids will be able to play on the play set. Eventually, I'll be able to GO to a REAL baby shower. Eventually, O will learn about the correct way to talk to adults all of the time(we hope!). For now, we rejoice in the journey- the progress of good things in our lives!