Lorien has been reading over the whole blog during winter break. It has been so nice to hear her laugh over the funny parts and coo over the cute parts. I love this blog. I love keeping a record for my family and I love it when they love the blog too.
I know I don't keep it up as often as I used to. Moreover, there are many precious stories I leave out because I don't keep it up. So for the 500th post I thought I'd do a write up of life right now--try and capture a few of those stories in a gigantic, generic blog post net. Think of it as all of that boring-braggy stuff I should have put in the yearly holiday card. Now you can decide to skip it.
Colter:
Oh this kid and the trouble he can cause. I finally broke down and started putting him in serious time-outs when he deliberately disobeyed. You know, when I tell him not to throw his food on the floor at lunch time and he looks me directly in the eye, picks up a chicken nugget and tosses it on the floor. That kind of fun stuff. He loves mess-making and gets mad when we have to clean up (legos, train tracks, piles of matchbox cars, etc.). He loves to be n-a-k-e-d. I thought winter temperatures would encourage modesty in this child but no. His baby bits could be blue and falling off and he would refuse clothes. I usually managed to fight him into a warm shirt and pants in the morning. At the first potty break the pants and undies are gone...and he remains bottomless all day. I do bribe him with candy to put his pants and undies on...most of the time he would rather be naked than have a treat. He is talking so much these days and it is adorable. He was "verbally delayed" at his two-year check-up (the pediatricians words, not mine). He could not say 10 words or something...and most of the "words" he did say were animal sounds. Anyway, he seems to be doing just fine verbally these days. He can say a whole slew of vehicle names: dump truck, scraper, tractor, front-end-loader, pick-up truck, flat-bed truck, tow truck, tanker, big rig, excavator (which he says like "EX-ca-bator" and is the cutest thing I've ever heard). He got a strider bike for Christmas and cruises around like he owns the place. He is terrified of bath tub drains and the vaucme cleaner. He misses his siblings when they are at school and tries his hardest to distract Lorien from her homeschool work. Without prompting he will say "Time to get Adell at-a-TK?" usually about 30 minutes after we have dropped her off at TK. He is small...short...little but he is not a baby! He corrects me all the time if I call him "my baby". He is sleeping better, he seems to have conquered all that day-light savings messed up. He loves to play with trucks, watch shows about trucks, point out trucks on the road, and make us draw pictures of trucks. He was refusing to sit in his car seat a couple of months ago. So, I stenciled some simple truck silhouettes on his car seat cover (dump trucks, excavators and fork lifts). Now he fights a little less at buckle up time.
Adell:
She is such a happy school kid. I am so thankful for the California TK program. First of all it is free, so we didn't have to decide between paying for a year of preschool or feeding our family. Second of all she has the greatest teacher. Her TK teacher taught Kindergarten and First grade for years and is now in TK. She is fun and funny and sings all the time. She is great at building self esteem and Adell loves her! Adell also loves all things FROZEN! Adell is prone to leg-aches at night, for her birthday she got a Frozen blanket (with Elsa and Anna on it...not one that was dipped in water and put in the freezer). Adell insists she never gets leg-aches if she has her Frozen blanket in bed. Speaking of bed, she hates bed time. She would like to stay up until the sun comes up. Every night at tuck ins she tells Daddy how much she hates going to bed. Will can sympathize, he does not like going to bed either. Adell is afraid of dogs and riding a bike. She would like to like dogs and likes them from afar, but as soon as a dog gets close she is climbing up by body to escape. Adell worships her older sisters. She and Lorien have been sharing a room for a little over a year now. Adell loves to make Lorien happy by keeping her side of the room clean. Lorien made up a list of "cleaning goals" and Adell made every one...Lorien did not. Adell loves to play dolls with Clare. We live one door down from one of Clare's school friends, Rachel. Rachel and Clare play together every day and are great about including Adell. They build fairy gardens and run out in the green belt (which they call the meadow). They practice made up dance routines, gymnastics and talent show acts out in the garage. They are an adorable trio. Adell has two boyfriends...really. Neither of these boys know they are her boyfriend but still...Wes from church is her first boyfriend and CJ from school is her second boyfriend. She cannot decide who she will marry: Wes, CJ, Wyatt or Colter. Adell loves crafting and cutting up paper. When she asks if she can do a craft I know there are going to be a trillion tiny pieces of paper all over the house if I say "yes"...I almost always say "yes".
Clare:
I mentioned Clare and her friend, Rachel, in Adell's blurb. But I cannot say enough about this little friendship. Clare and Rachel are really sweet together. There is zero girl drama (and we only know about girl drama because there are a couple of other girls in Clare's grade stirring up the worst of it...seriously, parents and principals have been called in). Clare and Rachel both love American Girl dolls. Clare finally got an AG doll for Christmas and has been over the moon about it. Clare loves to come up with dance routines and acts with Rachel in the garage. Clare loves to sew and build things for her American Girl doll or other stuffed animals. She has made a vest for Dogo, a whole dress for her AG doll and countless beds, pillows and blankets for all toys. Clare has been wearing glasses for over a year now. She started complaining that she couldn't see as well. We took her in for a check up and now Clare has a new distance prescription...and bi-focals. Hopefully, her new glasses will help her at school. Clare has figured out rollerblading over the last several weeks. She was outside on rollerblades most days over the winter break. Clare is struggling with math and 3rd grade is the "learn your times-tables" grade. She has a hard time intuiting out math problems: if 2+3 equals 5 what does 3+2 equal? So times tables are tough. If we are working on the 3 times tables and come to 3 times 6 she dissolves..."but I don't know my sixes!" If anyone has a tip or two for this I'd love to hear it. I am at a loss. Clare loves to say "Awesome-sauce" when good things happen and "Donut" when bad things happen. Colter has started saying "Deenit" when bad things happen. Clare loves mustaches. They are just about the coolest thing in the whole wide world right now. She got a mustache match game from Wyatt for Christmas...very cool. Clare loves to read funny books, The BFG and Junie B. Jones are some of her favorites. Clare loves to preform. She was in the school production of Pinocchio in December and KILLED IT! She was a narrator/puppeteer/parent. She is excited to preform in this year's talent show but the girl drama mentioned above is making it tricky. Clare started taking Jazz dance classes and loves them so much. She would wear her jazz shoes everywhere, spinning, kicking and grape-vining all the time if her Mother would allow it.
Wyatt:
Wyatt is Minecraft and video game obsessed. He got a Minecraft book for Christmas from Clare and has been pouring over it for crafting tips everyday. He took a video game programing class last year and loved it. We need to encourage him to work on those skills as much as he works on Minecraft. He also loves to read fantasy books. He likes football and soccer. He got a new bike for his birthday, left it at school over the weekend and it got stolen. Grrrr! We emailed all of his classmates, friends and churchmates to see if anyone had seen it around town. No luck. We also printed up "lost bike" posters. No luck. We all learned a valuable lesson in caring for our valuables. Wyatt does not like his 5th grade teacher--she assigns "too many long term projects" and Wyatt struggles with time management. He has great 5th grade friends. His best friend is his cousin, Evan. Wyatt loves to hide and try to jump out and scare us. Bed time is his favorite time to try and get us to jump. Wyatt wanted a suit coat and real ties (that actually tie--not clip-ons) for Christmas, he got both and has worn neither. He also got a rubix cube for Christmas and has been having fun with Daddy learning the pattern for solving the cube. Wyatt leads the best "fort building parties" in the mornings. Just about every morning over break I have come out to find the couches and beds stripped of cushions and bedding and massive forts built in the middle of the living or family rooms. Wyatt loves being a big brother to Colter. In the morning Colter yells for "Wyatt!" to come and get him out of bed. Maybe bed time is the only time Wyatt does not like being a big brother. Colter yells at Wyatt to bring over some trucks and play when Wyatt knows they are both supposed to stay in bed and go to sleep.
Lorien:
Homeschool is the biggest topic of conversation with Lorien. She is loving it! She passed off all of the 7th grade math standards just before Thanksgiving and has been on to pre-algebra. She does not like pre-algebra. She loves her homeschool peer group. She takes Philosophy, Chemistry, Art and Writing with a group of six other kids. The kids are so much fun. I love hearing them talk and interact with each other. They are supportive and kind and know how to have a good time. They get together to make movies and cupcakes and they stage elaborate photo shoots. Three of the kids in her peer group are also going on to High School (back at public school) next year. I will be so happy for her to have them as solid friends. Lorien desperately wants her own room again. Too bad for her. She is super into non-vocal music. She loves Lindsey Stirling and the Piano Guys. She also likes Anime shows and the music that comes along with that...her mother does not like that music so much. She is less into Dr. Who these days but wants to watch Sherlock (nope). She loves hanging out with her friends and missed them all when they went off on fun family vacations over the winter break. She reads all the time (unless it is a book Mom has assigned for school--then it might as well be dipped in acid for all the willingness she has to pick the book up). Lorien calls her siblings "dingus" when they have displeased her. This happens often enough that Colter has started calling everyone dingus. She has an impressive vocabulary and talks like a character out of a novel. Want help falling asleep? Have Lorien describe an average day. She will use plenty of detail and advanced vocabulary words, you'll be snoozing in no time. (That is all said in jest, I am incredibly proud of her vocabulary and the way she uses it.)
Will:
That guy works all the freakin' time. Kidding! He is busy but he tries to be devoted to us when he is home. He is recovering really well from his shoulder surgery ("shoulder" and "surgery" are two of my least favorite words to type...). He has almost regained a full range of motion in the injured shoulder. He threw a football around over Thanksgiving break, to which his physical therapist said "Good job, don't do that again." Work is demanding but the company is growing so quickly. It is cool to hear about all the bigger and better things they are doing. Will loves football and fantasy football as much as ever. He made it to the Superbowl in both of the fantasy leagues he played in this year (and lost both match-ups). Will and his brother did a crazy day long hike over Mt. Diablo a couple of days ago (I am typing this on January 4th, 2015). It was freezing cold and they hiked nearly 20 miles over three peaks.
Me:
I started taking a ballet class one day a week. I love it so very much. However, it is only available on Monday nights and I have guilt about sacrificing Family Home Evening time for a dance class. We've tried to have FHE on Wednesday nights instead but it isn't working. I stopped taking my antidepressants in September and that has been OK. I still get bouts of anxiety and depression and have had only one super-downer of a day. I think I have been able to manage with the other tools I have. I think. We are thinking about moving. Not out of our town or even our elementary school boundaries but into a slightly bigger house with a better yard. A friend just moved out of her rental and we asked to take over for her. Her landlord is trying to decide if he wants to keep the home as a rental or sell it. So we are waiting to hear back. If he is looking for renters, we are moving. But it is just as likely that he will sell the house so we aren't holding our breath...it is just consuming my every thought right now. For example, I bought a new toilet seat with a built in child's seat...I cannot install it in our bathroom here because the toilets over at the other house are different and if we are moving I need to return this seat for the right size... I am a crazy person.
I think that just about wraps everyone and everything up. Happy New Year!
