Lily has been asking MANY questions lately about Santa--does he have a mother, who is his wife, where are the reindeer (while we were at the mall), among many others...as a person who strives for utmost integrity, I still struggle with the whole Santa-thing. I have made it a point to not lie to Lily or Ty and somehow talking about Santa and what "happens" in our culture on Christmas has been eating away at me. I really want my kids to focus on Jesus and His birthday as they celebrate Christmas, but I know that I am fighting a culture that preaches otherwise. I also know--on the flipside--that my kids spend LOTS of time in little fantasy worlds and the whole Santa-thing plays right into that, so when they are developmentally ready to move on, the the true story can be revealed without much heartache. I don't think I'm scarred from believing in Santa and learning he wasn't real--I'm not even bitter about it...teehee...Anyway, the babies are growing like crazy! Their nine-month well-baby doctor visit is tomorrow and I am always curious and excited to see how much they've grown. They are both rolling quite efficiently and they like to get up on all fours...crawling won't be long now. Both of them have one tooth on the bottom left--within a day of one another! Isabella is trying to clap and she also waves if someone waves to her--very social. They are also aware of my presence or absence and DO NOT like when I am not around. I love this age. Ty has been blossoming lately, too. He has grown an inch since August and he has been so much fun--on Mondays we drop off Lily at school and then we go to the "Bagewy Bakewy" for a muffin--he looks forward to this and starts talking about it on Sunday night each week. I cherish that time with him, too. He's also been very good at being two lately...but that's another post for another day...cheers
