Aidan's Arrow of Light

Aidan's arrow was found to be worthy at the Boy Scout Arrow of Light ceremony on Friday night. His big brother was part of the OA team that planned and put on the ceremony. It was done along the lake at Camp Strake and the only lighting was the bonfire on Ceremony Island, which is just a short bridge length away from shore. The Cubs enter crossing one bridge and after they receive their arrow, they depart on another- symbolically crossing over to Boy Scouts. It was very nicely done, but no flash photography was allowed and I think non-flash photography wouldn't have caught a thing. I'm including photos of Aidan before and after the ceremony and also with the OA team afterwards. Alex got to experience what celebrities do all the time- lots of flash photography. He had to stand there while individuals and sometimes groups of boys had their pictures taken with them. The groups were harder because then he had a bunch of flashes going off at once and repeatedly. He was a good sport about it, of course.

"I'm a baby, not stupid"

Last night, Alex set Aimee down on my bedroom floor quite a distance from me in the hopes that she'd do some walking practice like she'd done at the library earlier in the day. Instead she sat on her knees, reached for one of the two-way radios plugged in near where she was and started playing with it. Alex called to her to go to Mom, but to no avail. So he took the radio away, moved himself away, and held the radio out like the proverbial carrot. She looked at him, swung her arms around for a moment, then stopped... and reached for the second radio in the charger. For some reason that caught us both completely off guard and we laughed heartily.

While at the library, Aidan and Abigail participated in the Homewood spelling bee. Homewood is the homeschool association we belong to. They didn't win, but they each survived a few rounds, did their best and were very good sports when they finally misspelled a word. It was a good, low-key way for them to be in a competition. I'm proud of them.

Trusting in the Lord this day and every day,
Naomi for the Colliers

Christmas Eve

Singing Christmas carols together
Aimee up close and personal
Kyrie, Kayleigh, and Abigail
Alex & Chihiro
The kids in front of the tree

It's our tradition to open one gift on Christmas Eve. It's usually pjs.
Kayleigh got a reindeer with hers
Abigail seems to like hers

Aidan can hardly wait ... Wii pjs!

The biggest sister (is that a reality show?); Tartan for T. Alex

Christmas Greetings

Make a Smilebox greeting

The Brilliance of Babies

Kyrie just related this story to me:

She was putting together her lunch when Aimee crawled over and pulled on her leg. Kyrie looked down and said, "No, Aimee, I can't pick you up." Aimee frowned and dropped down. Then she crawled over to an oat "o" on the floor, picked it up, and looked impishly at Kyrie. When she knew Kyrie had seen, she took off crawling. Since Kyrie knows I'm trying to discourage Aimee from eating off the floor, she swooped down and picked her up to take it away. Aimee promptly dropped the "o" and happily grabbed onto Kyrie. Kyrie says that Aimee is going to grow up to be like her. Hey, wait a moment, what does that mean??

Thankful for my daughters,
(and my sons!),

Naomi

Deep Thoughts with Alex Collier

By Naomi

I was getting ready to nurse Aimee and she was doing what Alex refers to her as her "maniacal" laugh because Mom had finally gotten a clue and was going to let her eat. Alex was passing by and had a sudden insight. He said, "Shouldn't we be like that every time we have the opportunity to study our Bible and get spiritual nourishment?" I wasn't too sure about that, but then he went on. "Of course, we need more than just spiritual milk.... we need to move on to spiritual pizza." It really went downhill from there.

I can do that!

Aimee is in mimic mode now. I realized just last night that she can clap. It's the first time I've seen her clap more than once at a time. She looked pretty pleased with herself. That evening I was looking in the mirror with her and Tartan came up and started scrunching up his face at her. After a moment, she started doing it, too. They played this game for several minutes. Then he stuck his tongue out. She scrunched up her face and then, with an effort, she managed to stick out her tongue for a moment, too. Kyrie tells me that she stuck out her arms for a hug from Aimee and when she put them down, Aimee came over and put her arms out. When Kyrie patted her back during the hug, Aimee patted her back. This is definitely a fun time.

She's crawling around like a little demon. We have a gate for the bottom of the stairs that I've borrowed from a friend. Our own should be delivered today or tomorrow. There's a bit of a gap that she'll figure out soon so hopefully Tartan will jury-rig something before then. She can pull up to standing, but she's not cruising around things yet. That will come before long though.

The thought just came to me that she is 10 months old today! In just 2 months she'll be a year old!! On Saturday, Abigail will be 8. She's having a 50's style sock hop themed party. I'm still not entirely certain how that's all going to look. She's invited a number of girls and a couple of boys she's friends with- and I have no idea how many are going to show up. Should be interesting.

Ok, next cute trick. Alex came over to get her to do her repertoire. He then stuck his tongue out, but she couldn't quite get it. She reached out to try and grab his tongue. Then, she put her hand up to her mouth until her tongue came out to touch it, then she put her hand down. Ta da! She was sticking out her tongue! She did this a couple of times. Very funny!

All I have time for for now!

In Him,
>Naomi for the Colliers