And here we go....

It seems as though we have found our independence these days. But only in some things. We constantly have to be within eye sight, let alone within arms reach, so dropping off at various classes and friends houses have been interesting. The biggest, most fun new thing (heavy sarcasm) is the new idea of "I do it myself" even though we can't even say those words yet! 

And it wouldn't be so bad if the things we're doing on our own are allowed, but it seems that due to our newly found independence we think it's alright to do things that are known to be against better judgement. I think we're definitely being tested. 

We decided a while back that we would talk about the need for stronger discipline thinking we would know when that time came. Well, it came. It seems like all we've been doing this week is saying "NO!," disciplining, and then dealing with a brokenhearted little boy who then breaks our hearts when he immediately runs to us for a hug when he gets in trouble.

It's been a learning week for us too though.  First in that this is truly a daily, sometimes minute by minute process that we hope ultimately produces a strong, God loving man.  In seeing the sin in such a little person, we are reminded of how much sin we have and God has had to see in us from the beginning. Second is that in parenting and disciplining our child and feeling the hurt and pain in our hearts from having to do that, we are able to understand a tiny little piece of what that must feel like for God our Father. How much he must love us to continue to seek us when we're at our worst! It's also fun to understand all the ways that God continues to speak to us, this time through our one year old!

And just to show that we have actually had some fun time this week...