David is walking all over the place. It is now his preferred mode of transportation. If he falls down or decides to sit down or whatever, he'll get up onto his feet and walk to move to somewhere else. He's doing really well walking, and we'll even let him walk in a store or restaurant some when he gets antsy in his highchair. He'll walk from the car into places holding our hands, it's pretty fun.

Adam started classes on Monday the 8th. He's ready to be done, haha. He's got lots of books to read and stays up pretty late most evenings to get the reading done. One week down, nine to go until fall break and vacation!

We're going to use my vacation days for this year during his first week of fall break, the week before Thanksgiving (November 18-23). We got two 1-day passes to Silver Dollar City at Our Redeemer's trivia night back in February. We're going to go there on November 19th during their Christmas festival, which is always so pretty. Then we're going to go to Kansas to visit Aaron, Amy and Ella, and we'll leave from there on Ella's third birthday.

Work is still going well. We're very busy, as our department needs two more people, and so I worked some overtime the past two weeks, and probably will again this week. I like the work and most of the people there, so it's been good.

David is walking now. He started taking a few steps at a time about a week ago. At this point, he'll take up to 10 to 20 steps at a time. He finally figured out that it's something he can do when he wants, and it's not just something that everybody was trying to make him do.

He loves to climb on things, grab things from low tables to throw on the floor after he puts them in his mouth, and he loves to dig in the small trashcans. He also likes his refridgerator magnet barn and animals that he got from Grandma & Grandpa Wesche for his birthday. There's a new video of him dancing along to the music from the link on the homepage.

Work is going well for Becky, she is still enjoying her job after 3 weeks of being there. Adam still has 2 weeks before his Fall Quarter starts at Concordia Seminary, so he's still working full-time hours, as well. We spent some time hanging pictures/framed art yesterday, so we're pretty settled now.

We're pretty much all settled in to the Argyle house. We've got a few finishing touches and straightening up of things to do yet, but we should be able to get the pictures hung this weekend. Aaron, Amy and Ella visited last week, and we had a lot of fun with them.

This week Becky started her new job, which she likes a lot. This is a good thing, because cutting down from all day with David to only 3 hours Mon-Fri would be miserable otherwise. It's at a law firm that works as a collections agency. She's working in the financial department keeping very busy! Adam is working in the IT department at Concordia Seminary again.

David seems to have done well with his transition to "Grandma daycare". Just as long as Grandma can keep from going insane when she's got all her grandkids over!

David got his first haircut today. He did a great job of sitting still for the most part, but close to the end he was getting very antsy. Bill Ebers, the church secretary's husband, cut David's hair. David also got to see their three goats, and he had a good time looking at them. Adam and I got to soak in their hottub for a little while before David got his haircut.

David is officially paid off. We no longer lease him, but own him, lol. We'd been waiting for Illinois Medicaid (the only insurance we could get David this past year) to pay off David's big hospital bill at St. John's Mercy. I thought to check the balance on that bill today, and IL Medicaid had paid it off in June.

David was rejected by private insurance again this year. His kidneys are still slightly abnormal, so the doctors can't completely clear him of any condition, so private insurance doesn't want him. The insurance offered through Concordia Seminary is way too expensive, so we hope to never have to go on it again. I can get on the small group at my new job, so they'd probably pick up David, but that would be like half my paycheck once a month, and we just wouldn't be able to afford that either. I applied on Missouri's website to get David Medicaid through them. I even called to make sure we won't be making too much money, and we're about in the middle of the range of income they allow, so we may have to pay a small premium on it. We'll have to see once the information comes in the mail. I haven't heard anything from them yet.

Just thought I'd let you all know the good news that we no longer have $2,000 looming over our heads!

David stands up everywhere now. He still has to hold on to something, but I'm sure he'll be getting his balance fairly soon. He stood up at the fridge earlier today and was able to reach some of the pictures we have on it. Looks like we'll need to get him some of those alphabet magnets soon.

We need to be working on packing. We're moving in two weeks! We have so much to pack, and still a lot of painting to do at the Our Redeemer house we'll be living in (we decided it needed a new indoor paint job). The clock is ticking!!

David is cruising everywhere he can and pulling up on everything. He found the staircase yesterday and I let him climb up the first flight of stairs. I was worried he'd go for the DVD and CD towers and make a gigantic mess, but he wanted to keep climbing. I tried to teach him to go down the stairs but he didn't quite catch on.

He got into the trashcan by the toilet today while I was in the shower. He left tissues and toilet paper rolls all over the floor.

The video of David giving his Grandma Filipek a kiss is now on the video link!