Everyday Life

An update on each of the kids....

Connor is doing well in school and, although it would be his preference to say home, he's enjoying himself in second grade.  He has a good group of friends and especially enjoys math and science.  Recently, he and another boy in his class wrote their own story and got to read it to the Assistant Principle at his school.  He came home on cloud nine.  It is rare for him to disclose much of anything to me, but the day he got to read to the AP, well, that was headline news. 

His parent teacher conference was student led, meaning that Connor told us what he had been doing in class and how he had improved in each subject area.  He has begun writing in cursive, which he's pretty proud of.  He's especially good at the letter "G".  As a part of their conference, each student wrote a letter to their parents.  Connor's teacher told us they were free to write about anything they wanted to.  Here's Connor's note to us:

Dear Mom and Dad,
Thank you for letting us go to Disney World and the Great Wolf Lodge.  Thank you for buying me cloths.  And for fixing me lunch, breakfeast and dinner.  and for taking care of me.  Thank you for giving me my own olowence.  Thanks for buying me stuff like the Wii and my DS.  Thank you for folding my cloths for the week and for letting me go to shcool.  Thank you for letting me play flag football and soccer.  Thank you for planning my birthdays and giving me special privleges.  And thank you for letting me be  your son.
Your Son,
Connor

I was reduced to tears in the middle of the conference after Connor read these precious words to us.  Ms. Groff, Connor's teacher, looked at me and said "I picked you to cry".  It is so rare that we get to really see what our children think of us as parents...and this was a great moment.  The letter will be framed.  On the way home I asked Connor if it embarrassed him that I cried.  In his sweet little voice from the backseat he said "Well, Mom...kind of".

And now we have arrived at Kylee.  She, too, is doing a great job in school, and it is her life's mission to do EVERYTHING she can to please her teacher, Miss Mac.  If Miss Mac says it, it is the gospel truth.  She works so hard to get everything just right, and when she is rewarded for her efforts, she is so proud.  It's the best.  We are so thankful that Miss Mac is such a positive influence in our daughter's world.

She spent the day at home with me yesterday after vomiting early in the morning.  In the late morning, she announced that she was "soooooo hungry".  I offered her some juice and a popsicle.  This was, apparently, not up to par.  She requested a piece of toast.  I fixed her the toast and she ate it.  She then proceeded to lay in our overstuffed chair, repeatedly sighing very loudly.  When I asked her what was wrong she said "I'M SOOOO HUNGRY!".  I explained to her that she was sick, to which she replied "Mom, I'm NOT sick".  So, I let her eat some crackers and drink some milk.  Approximately 3 hours later, I regretted giving in to her as she spewed all over our downstairs bathroom.  It was like something out of a movie...it just kept coming and coming all over the toilet, walls, and floor.  Ugh.  Right after she played the role of the human geyser, she looked at me and said "Mom, I just want to go to school".  I was so aggravated with the whole thing that I picked that moment, surrounded by vomit in my own bathroom, to say "See, this is why I asked you not to eat anything!".  She told Brandon later in the evening that she "thought that staying home all day would be fun, but it just really wasn't".  If you can count on anything, it's Kylee's honesty.

In true Kylee J fashion, in the midst of her sick day, she decided to independently raid my make-up drawer and applied everything...eyeshadow, blush, powder, and lipstick.  She came down all painted, and, after a couple hours said, "Mom, I need to tell you something.  I got into your make-up without asking".  I was actually impressed with the job she had done.  She is feeling better today and tonight, decided to announce to me at dinner, seemingly out of nowhere,  "Mom, I hate to tell you this, and I don't think you're going to like to hear it, but I really wish I didn't look like you.  Everyone says I look like you, but I wish I didn't".  Nice.  I asked her if she'd prefer to look like her Daddy.  She didn't comment.

Hadley.  What can we say?  BUSY.  Our baby is a climber.  She's everywhere and into everything.  Her words have exploded in recent weeks and now she repeats almost everything we say and you can (almost) have a mini-conversation with her.  Her passion is our pantry.  She begins scrounging through the food in there looking for a "nacky" (snack) around 9:00 am every morning.  She goes through Goldfish, Cheeze-Its, Teddy Grahams, whatever she can find.  It's endless.  She asks for her "milky" (sippy), and also has a passion for her binky.  Her other passion in life is shoes.  She absolutely adores them.  She tries on several throughout the course of a day and insists on wearing shoes, even when she's in her pajamas.  We recently splurged and bought her a pair of Sketchers Twinkle Toes that light up.  It has been worth every penny to watch her dance just to see them blink.

She continues to adore her big brother and sister, and works hard to keep up with them.  She has recently discovered her outside voice, and can often be round walking around the house screaming our names until someone pays attention to her.  Once she has your attention, she often just smiles and walks away.  She's just proving who's in charge. 

I can see the age of two on the horizon....Elmo is the new man in our youngest daughter's world.  We have one single Elmo movie that we watch way too many times a day.  She LOVES it.  She has also started to express her opinion about which books we read to her at naptime and bedtime....Moo, Baa, La, La, La, Little Hoot, Little Kitten, and an Elmo book are favorites.  It is so neat to watch her personality emerge.  19 months old this week.  Holy cow.

We have signed both Connor and Kylee up for soccer and that will start here in the next week.  This will be our first "go" at juggling an activity for both kids at the same time.  It will add to the joyful chaos.

There are times that I think my head is going to explode from all the noise in our house...but I've gotten to the place where I can just marvel at it instead of being frustrated by it.  It's great to be here.  Even if my daughter doesn't want to look like me. :)

Winter Montage

To sum up life in a short statement, let's just say: We've had ONE full week of school since before Christmas.

Mother Nature has thrown snow, ice, sleet, and below zero wind-chills our direction almost non-stop.  We've had snow day after snow day over the course of the last few weeks, which is fun for awhile...but on day 3 in week 3, the party is over and it's time to go back to school.  With an early dismissal on Monday, we found ourselves enjoying life on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then on Thursday, it was all hands on deck to try to prevent World War III.  Connor and Kylee were nitpicking at each other, Kylee was fed up with Hadley, and I was fed up with all of it.  We were relieved to hear school was back in session on Friday.

But, to back up a little bit....

In early January, we had the opportunity to participate in a service project that involved packing food for an organization called Numana, who provides sealed bags of rice and beans to families in Haiti.  One bag serves 5 people.  The kids were able to dive in and help in the assembly line, which was really cool.  It was also neat to have such a tangible, measurable example how much even the smallest amount of food means to those who are hungry.  Below are pictures of Connor catching rice in the baggies and Kylee "patting down" the filled bags so that they could be boxed up for delivery.

 
With snow has come some outdoor play.  The kids had a great time sledding down the hill in our back yard with the first major snowfall.  With this most recent snow, Connor and Kylee created a "snow family" in our front yard.  Below is a picture of the whole family, including mom, brother, sister, and the dog, followed by a close-up of brother and sister.  I am told there wasn't enough snow to make dad or a baby.

The kids had one day of school last week and on that day, had the highly-anticipated "100th Day of School" kindergarten celebration.  Kylee's class spent the day focusing on the number 100, and each classmate contributed their own unique collection of 100 items to tell about (Kylee was insistent on bringing popcorn kernels...I was thankful she was opting for something cheap).  Parents were invited to join in the fun.  Below are pics from the celebration, highlighting the 100 Day hats and the 100 Fruit Loops/Cheerios necklaces that the kids each created:

We hear that more snow is headed our way this weekend, but are optimistic that it won't be as much as we've had over the previous few weeks.  In the midst of all of it, we feel blessed to have food in the pantry and warm beds to sleep in at night.  And the kids are especially grateful for the bounty of hot chocolate that has been available in our house. :)