Kathy: Keep On Keepin' On

There isn't much new to report with the Walden family. Our main focus these days is to just make progress with Leah May. She continues to do pretty well and seems to be a little more relaxed and happy each day. We are continuing to try to correct some bad behaviors, and we feel much more time pressure to do so than we did when Rene first came home since Leah May is set to start school in less than a month (ridiculously early!).

A new behavior that Leah May seems to have started is pouting when she's corrected. We're not sure if she's picking up the lovely pouting from Rene or if that's just the way she is, but she tries to resist mightly to be moved or helped in any way when she's pouting. This has been tough when she's hanging out on the stairs or standing near the road, but fortunately we've been real- and pretend-wrestling with Rene for the last three years. Leah May will have to be a lot bigger and stronger before she can outwrestle us!

She and Rene have been getting along a lot better for the past few days, though we'll see what happens when David is at work later in the week since they seem to be much better behaved when both of us are around. At any rate, Rene seems to still be questioning the wisdom of expanding our family. He used to pester us constantly with proposals for and declarations of his ideal family size: "I wish we had 5 kids." "Why can't we have 8 kids like the Smiths?" "When I grow up I'm going to have 10 kids." But just yesterday I asked him how many children he wants to have when he grows up. The answer? A terse, "Just one."