Big Doins'

Ella-kathryn has been desperate to ride her bike without training wheels, and well, I just haven't had the time to help her, what with Will under my feet 24/7 and all. Sat. morning Jeff got the kids up early to take them fishing (just Jack & EK) and then when they got home she again asked if daddy could help her. Jeff took off the training wheels from her little bike (not the new barbie one) so that she could practice getting her balance - the bike is so little she can put her feet down flat to help stop herself etc. After a couple of practice runs with Jeff behind her, she just got it! They packed up and headed over to the parking lot by one of the local lakes to practice some more on a flatter surface (our driveway is sloped enough to make me catch my breath as the kids come tearing down into the garage!). When they returned home an hour or so later, Jeff announced that she was a pro! I'm so proud of her - she is typically so fearless and this is no exception - she just decides she wants to do something and that's that! I will say though that when I went back out with her later she rode around to the front sidewalk and then I hear this "AAH, Mommy!" I go running, well as much as I can run at this point in my whaleness pregnancy, only to find her half way down the grassy hill in front of the house, sprawled out beside her bike! She was fine, a bit shaken, but fine, and decided to take a break for the day:)
On another note, I have been fighting the insurance company all morning in an effort to get them to drop a certain charge from the bill from when Jack was in the hospital. UGH! It's a full-time job just keeping up with medical claims - a job I don't have time for. But, if it saves me literally 1,000's of dollars then I will fight the good fight. anyway, so I'm drafting this letter to send to the insurance co. and Jack starts talking to me, which I of course only partly hear, and since being severely convicted in church yesterday about how I have been parenting (let's just say yikes) I finish the sentence I was typing and then ask Jack to please repeat what he said, since I didn't really hear him. "So you were saying one time..." and he answers, "No, not one time, not even once upon a time!" That's my boy!
More to post on the parenting thing later....