Where have my kids been? My poor blog has been suffering from a whirlwind of crazy this past year. I hate when I scroll down and all I see are a rushed post of the most recent holidays. I want to remember day to day as well as the big moments….so in an effort to make this happen I am committing to doing at least a monthly Kid Update to report on the happenings big and small of our blossoming children!
Sam: Sam's life seems to rule ours - he is so busy lately, piano, scouts, basketball, patrol, and school take a lot of time from all of us! But he loves being involved so much it is rewarding to have him be this active. Basketball seemed to be going in the right direction this half after winning their first game, but this was followed by two more losses. It is one of those difficult balances as a parent to be patient with allowing your child to learn and grow by themselves, and not trying to over advise and make playing a nightmare for your kids. The biggest plus (and minus at times) for Sam is his aggressiveness! That is one of those things you can't really teach, however, Sam hasn't learned to harness it yet either. He was involved in a jump ball situation and ended up taking the other kid down into a headlock! Yikes! I'm looking around like "Who's kid is that?"…but I love that he has a fire, we just need to get him to channel it into healthier avenues, so Football will be on the calendar in the fall! Then he can tackle until the sun goes down:)
The boys dressed up for Seahawks day the Friday before the Superbowl! Even wore their beast mode socks:)
Jack: Sweet Jack had his first confrontation at school and it ended with him punching his classmate in the nose! Yes, punching in the nose - what I have taught my boys? After talking with his teacher who explained that Jack had just gotten fed up after he had even tried to ask the teacher for help. The teacher's advice was to ignore him…Jack attempted this one more time, but when the other kid threatened to punch him in the glasses Jack took matters into his own hands! Both of the kids were fine, and Jack has learned to remove himself from the situation rather than use his fists to solve problems, but you should have seen his grin when he told me! BOYS are strange creatures and only they can truly appreciate the "victory" in taking care of business. Jack also started to piano lessons, with me as his teacher! NO I am not a good piano teacher, but he really wanted to get started and I wasn't willing to dish out the dough for both boys right now…so baby stepping it for the next few years.
(100 Day of School Shirt - 100 squiggly eyes)
(Jack received an award for Optimism this last month - probably for being such a good sport about the goose egg he received after running into a soccer post during mileage club…Jack was chatting it up with Sam and bam!!! Literally BAM! Poor guy.)
Olyvia: Oh goodness could I get a more girly girl? I submit I can not! She is a makeup wearing, hair doing, fingernail painting, dancing, dress up and tiaras kind of girl. I love it but she is also emotionally sensitive in a way that the boys never were. She loves preschool and is so social, she would have a friend over every minute of every day. She will love kindergarten next year, but I am so so sad to have her go. She is such a big helper to me throughout the day, and I love coloring with her, doing puzzles, cooking, and dancing - it will be a sad day to see her "grow up". She has discovered her ability to choose, which is a sad day as a mother of only 1 girl - she picks out her clothes, which usually match (1 point for Lyv) but she only wants to wear the same 3 outfits all week long!!! Drives me crazy since she has so many cute clothes. It is a battle I have learned to just let her win.
(Lyv and one of her many buddies, Mila)
(Lyv and Max showing off Lyv's new bedroom color! Wowza!)
Max: He is such a fun unique personality in our house. Everyone adores him - and he adores them back. When anyone comes home for school, work, or running errands Max is the first to greet you with a hug! But…he also stands his ground. He is kind of the boss around these parts and as the youngest is spoiled to no end. This usually means we watch Mickey Mouse all day, he lives on a diet of granola bars and apple cider, and he ends up sleeping in our bed at some point during the night. He is such a great player - he reminds me a lot of Sam; constantly building train tracks, lining up cars, constructing a marble track or playing with books and toy animals. Sometimes he will just disappear into his room and play by himself for 30 minutes before I realize he's gone! Kind of bad parenting on my part, but I do appreciate his love for toys. His hair is a mystery to me at this point - it is similar to Jack's but literally sticks straight up everywhere! There is no amount of gel that can tame that beast so he looks like a poor homeless child most of the time, a head wound harry homeless child. He still has a pretty regular scar on his face somewhere from falling or bumping into the something! Poor guy, but he loves nursery at church (thank heavens) and our babysitters, so he makes for a pretty easy going guy. The biggest change for Max has been moving out of the crib to a toddler bed. This was NOT (I repeat, NOT) my choice. Max is the only child of ours to figure out how to crawl out of the crib. One night he did it and to prove his mastery did it another 15 times, to our pure horror! So now he's in a bed, which means he doesn't go to bed until 9:30 or later when his body finally gives out to exhaustion…such a sad sad day:(
This:
Has been the ultimate distraction lately…picking out light fixtures, sinks, faucets, hardware…I'm about ready to go nuts!)
