Progress

 Little did I know even one month ago how much joy this little one would bring into our family.  The concern of how we were going to care for 5 children weighed heavy on me since the day we found out we were expecting.  The fact that Jacob takes so much of our time and energy made the realization of being a mother of 5 kids a daunting task!!  With so much thankfulness God knew perfectly what our family needed!  It was another child.  The children have been enjoying every day with their new brother.  The girls love being little mothers, and Caleb - well that's a whole other story!  He is super protective over his brother Jacob, and it's looking like that same protectiveness is appearing over his brother Aaron.  He wants his brother to walk soon :)  He asked us on the weekend, 'how many more weeks till Aaron is going to start smiling?' We replied 'hopefully in about three.'  Caleb quickly asked, 'then is he going to start walking?'  I love how his brain ticks :) 

 Jacob has been gone quite a bit since Aaron has been born, but when he's home he still gets plenty of attention!  Thankfully we've seen lots of smiles this past week, which makes everybody's day!  We see it more and more how Jacob loves having his siblings around.  It also seems like he's getting used to Aaron's crying.  At first, he really became agitated with the extra noise, but now he is getting adjusted to the new norm.  Thankfully Aaron is also getting used to his new surroundings and is crying much less :) 

 Jacob's spa day :)  Marije decided to try something new with great success.  He really seems to enjoy the sensory stimulation. 

 Talk about trying something new...  our therapists talked to me several months ago about trying Jacob in a stander.  In their mind, he was up to the challenge.  On Thursday it was brought into our home as a trial.  Little did we know how great he would do in it!!  He loves it.  We have to take it really slow, as his leg muscles have never been worked like this, but so far he's responded extremely positively.  The stander is great for Jacob's muscles, tone, bones, and so much more.  Every time we place him in the stander, we'll add another minute or so, and see how he does.  It seems like we're seeing progress :)

 The walls are now poured for the addition.  This week is stacking up to be a busy week with lots of work being planned on.  We've seen the need for the addition for a while, but with Jacob's new stander, we have to leave it by the main door, as we have no room to store it.  The addition is looking more beneficial all the time.  The extra room is going to be a welcome treat!! 

In South-Western Ontario, rain has been in abundance this summer!  Building the addition with 5 inches of water in 5 days has added plenty of excitement for the kids.  It doesn't matter how much water or mud is in the hole, Sheryl and Caleb will be found helping Paul do whatever needs to be done!  (They are far more eager to help Paul outside than to help clean up all the dirt/mud they bring in the house :)