Favorite Things Friday (on a late Saturday)

Sheesh.

I cannot even get it together to do a Favorite Things Friday post on time.

Or maybe this was totally planned and my Favorite Things Friday is making its grand entrance, fashionably late, but oh so worth it.

We'll see.

I feel like this happened this week.

No, not the Pepsi Next.

(I'm a Sprite Zero and Diet Dr. Pepper kinda gal!)

Or the parents totes oblivious to their little stud rocking out in the background.

How cute is he?

Almost, but not nearly as cute as that Baker Bell kid.

I digress.

The baby. Doing it all. Moving and grooving.

That's been Baker this week.

In the past seven days, he's begun pulling up, clapping, waving, and becoming increasingly more mobile.

It all started in the kitchen. With the sink. And it was the doing of Baker Bell.

Guilty as charged.

He is now pulling up on the faucet, on the bouncer, on his mommy and his daddy.

He doesn't stay up very long unless our hands are on him for balance, but my kiddo cannot get enough of standing.

We are using the sign for "sit down" much more frequently.

And Baby Boy no likey.

My most favorite moment, well one of them, of the week happened on Wednesday.

(A close second happened on Thursday)

When I walked into his classroom, his back was to the door so he didn't see me immediately. I walked around him and he spotted my leopard print flats, and his eyes followed all the way up my body until they reached my face. When they did, the biggest grin overtook his. He said "Mama, Mama" and started clapping and cheering. Y'all I almost walked out just so he would do it again!

It's the sweetest thing!

It's neither here nor there that he also claps for sweet peas, Simba, and stackable cups.

Also at school, they have been working with him on waving. 

And now, he just does it.

Like it's nothing. Like he's been doing it all along. 

We wave goodbye to everyone.

He just parades that chunky little hand around the air and in the cutest sing-song voice, "Bye, Bye, Bye, Bye, Bye." 

Five times. Not four. Not six. Five.

Have I mentioned I love his school?

They are every bit of the word Fab-u-lous!

When I say mobile, I don't want you to imagine a baby inching across the floor going this a-way and that a-way.

I want you to imagine that the last slice of a large piece of freshly baked caramel cake is sitting on the counter, and you and your sister eye it simultaneously.

There's no word uttered, but there may as well be a starter at a race calling, "on your mark, get set, go," and sounding the gun.

For you and your sister rear back and race with all your might to that lonesome piece of delectable goodness.

That's Baker.

No, there's no running.

And right now, there's not a whole lot of crawling, except for a mighty cute little backwards motion.

But there is rolling and a movement that looks very much like a very bad breakdance with pivoting and spinning and neck craning and body bending.

But golly gee, it gets that boy where he wants to go.

And you had better not turn around or he would be gone!

Hypothetically speaking only, how would I one keep Baker a baby from wriggling under the couch?

It's been a good week.

A good, good week.

I want to leave you with a thought.

I went to a training Friday, last minute professional development that was wildly inconvenient, but surprisingly relevant and beneficial.

The presenter encouraged us to dream big and to counter naysayers (even when it's ourselves) with a response akin to one Tiger Woods used in an interview with Good Morning America.

When the interviewer asked him why he practiced 10 hours a day, after he had won everything in golf, his response, "I want to shoot a perfect game. Eighteen holes in one."

The interviewer said, "that's impossible."

He countered, "It may or may not be possible, but trying to reach the goal will make me a better golfer."

This struck a chord with me.

It applies to me.

It applies to my husband.

It applies to Baker.

No he may not have crawled at nine months, he may not walk at twelve months, or do this or that on a given timeline, but practicing and trying will make him a stronger little boy with more advantages and opportunities than he would have if we weren't working diligently to achieve these goals.

This may have struck a chord with you also.

What is an impossibility that you could now approach with this mentality?

It may or may not be possible, but practicing/working towards/setting goals/

 will make me a better ___________________.

In this precious life, I have learned nothing is impossible.

Jesus looked at them and said,

"With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Matthew 19:26

With my Jesus, all things are possible.

Even a little boy with Down Syndrome pulling up, and talking,

and rolling about, and clapping, and stealing this mama's heart.

With my Jesus, all things are possible.