Yesterday was Zaya's birthday. I was gone most of the day second shooting a wedding with my friend, Stephanie Lowe, but Rob "held up the fort" at home and made sure that Zaya had an awesome birthday. We started off the day by making sprinkle pancakes. Once I left, Rob took the kids to Chuck E Cheese and the dollar store and then he came home and set up the slip and slide for them to play on. He made sure that she had her requested dinner made at night (eggs and sausage).
Dear Zaya,
5 YEARS OLD??!!! Are you kidding me?!!? Time is moving super fast and you are becoming more and more mature each day; sometimes, I just wish that life would slow down.
You are our social butterfly. You love your friends and you make friends so easily with people you meet. You are good at including everyone when you play and even though you have many, many girlfriends, the boys just love to play with you (you love them too). Almost every time I picked you up from preschool, there you were surrounded by all boys, just running around and having the time of your life! Although I am sad to see you leave me every day and enter kindergarten, I know you are ready and I don't worry about how you will do at all.
You love your Barbies and your American Girl dolls. The sky is the limit for your little imagination. You love to play family with friends and go on intricate adventures. Our dress-up clothes bin is also a favorite of yours.
Your favorite shows are Shimmer and Shine, Paw Patrol, Peppa the Pig, and Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse. You love the Barbie movies and you were excited to get another for your birthday.
You love your gymnastics class with Coach Michelle. She is so good to you and you are lucky that you have some of your best buddies in your class with you. You also played t-ball this year with your friend, Ronin. You can hit the ball hard, but when you are out in the field, you prefer to play with the dirt! You are a tiny little thing, but you pack a hard punch. You can wrestle and run with the boys and you always "hold your own." On our way to gymnastics this week, you asked me if gymnastics was a sport. I told you that of course, it was. You responded: "I KNEW Ronin was wrong! I told him that gymnastics was a sport!" Once we got to class, I told your Coach what your little friend had said and she said, "You tell him that gymnastics is the HARDEST sport there is. You should challenge him to an arm wrestle and show him how strong you are." That evening, on our way to Hurley's baseball game, you told me that you were going to tell Ronin that he was wrong. When we got there, you marched right up to him and said, "Ronin, my mom and my coach told me that gymnastics IS a sport." Then, not knowing what an ARM wrestle is, you completely tackled him!
You don't really have a favorite food. You love cereal and pancakes for breakfast. You like peanut butter and jam sandwiches at lunchtime and dinner tends to be a pretty small meal for you. You are a bit of a picky eater, but you always try everything and you mostly tend to not be very hungry at dinnertime. You requested a blueberry cake for your birthday and we found one on Pinterest that you loved. We made it together today and it was DELICIOUS!
You are a wonderful little helper around the house. You are a little mother to Kaiton. You always put his needs before your own and no matter where we are, you are concerned about him and making sure that he is happy. You are such a happy, positive little girl. You are generally so laid back and you are usually always happy to help with chores. One of our favorite things to do together is to cook. For the past couple of years, you have been my sous chef.
Zaya, I love you more than words could ever express. It is bittersweet watching you grow up. I am so proud of the wonderful girl you are becoming, but it is hard to watch you become more and more independent. I am so grateful that you are part of our family.
Love,
Mom
Sunday, May 29, 2016
Sunday, May 22, 2016
Weeks 19 and 20
Another 2 weeks flew by and I am finally sitting down to record some of the events. Since I can't remember all of the details, I think I will highlight a few of the significant things that happened in everyone's lives.
Brooklen: Hockey is over. Baseball is still going; he is having a good season of baseball and he is always excited to get out there and play. I think we've decided that we are going to minimize the amount of activities Brooklen does in the summer; he likes to just be outside playing and doing his own thing. He is very anxious for school to be over and to have more free time to be outside. This past weekend he ran the 5k in the Dow Run with me! I am sooo excited for him and really, really proud of him. Even though he hadn't really trained and his feet hurt quite a bit, he kept on running the entire way. His official time was 30:33. He is proud of himself and I think he will be excited to run it again next year. In other news, Brooklen has also been working to complete a pull-up chart that I made for him. He does some exercises every day to help him learn to do a pull-up.
Hurley: Hurley found out last week that she is moving up to level 3 in gymnastics. This means that she will skip levels 1 and 2. She is super excited and Rob and I are both so proud of her. She is such a hard worker. She participated in the Mighty Muscles pull-up program at school this week and she did 6 pull-ups. She was excited about the prizes that she won. At school, she continues to excel. She has over 75 AR points; she is a crazy reader!!! For the Dow Run, she rand the mile. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the run, someone pushed her over. She caused her to run slower than normal because she was hurt. She did finish the race and did it without crying from the pain. Last night, she performed at my piano recital. She is really talented; she performed Lightly Row and performed so well. On Friday night, I took Hurley, Zaya, and Hurley's friend, Lily to open gym in Freeland. Hurley is so committed. She asked coaches to help her and she spent most of the time working on skills.
Zaya: Zaya graduated from preschool! She had a Kindergarten mini-session this week and she loved it. She is so excited about going to Kindergarten. She ran the mile run yesterday and although she cried the entire time, she finished and ran the whole way! We had a couple of fun park days this week. On Wednesday, I put Zaya and Kaiton in the trailer and we took a picnic to Cook Elementary. On Friday, I watched Alta's kids all day and we met some other friends from church at Larkin Park.
Kaiton: Kaiton is currently addicted to his two Paw Patrol toys. He brings them everywhere. He is such a happy guy and he is loving the nice weather!
This has been a pretty emotional couple of weeks for me. I've dealt with some difficult situations with my photography business. One of the downsides to not being trained or going to formal trainings is learning the hard way: by making mistakes. I'm really trying to push forward and keep going despite the challenges, but I'm still not really sure if weddings are for me. For now, I'm going to keep trying to make it work out for me; I'll have to reassess at the end of this year.
Brooklen: Hockey is over. Baseball is still going; he is having a good season of baseball and he is always excited to get out there and play. I think we've decided that we are going to minimize the amount of activities Brooklen does in the summer; he likes to just be outside playing and doing his own thing. He is very anxious for school to be over and to have more free time to be outside. This past weekend he ran the 5k in the Dow Run with me! I am sooo excited for him and really, really proud of him. Even though he hadn't really trained and his feet hurt quite a bit, he kept on running the entire way. His official time was 30:33. He is proud of himself and I think he will be excited to run it again next year. In other news, Brooklen has also been working to complete a pull-up chart that I made for him. He does some exercises every day to help him learn to do a pull-up.
Hurley: Hurley found out last week that she is moving up to level 3 in gymnastics. This means that she will skip levels 1 and 2. She is super excited and Rob and I are both so proud of her. She is such a hard worker. She participated in the Mighty Muscles pull-up program at school this week and she did 6 pull-ups. She was excited about the prizes that she won. At school, she continues to excel. She has over 75 AR points; she is a crazy reader!!! For the Dow Run, she rand the mile. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the run, someone pushed her over. She caused her to run slower than normal because she was hurt. She did finish the race and did it without crying from the pain. Last night, she performed at my piano recital. She is really talented; she performed Lightly Row and performed so well. On Friday night, I took Hurley, Zaya, and Hurley's friend, Lily to open gym in Freeland. Hurley is so committed. She asked coaches to help her and she spent most of the time working on skills.
Zaya: Zaya graduated from preschool! She had a Kindergarten mini-session this week and she loved it. She is so excited about going to Kindergarten. She ran the mile run yesterday and although she cried the entire time, she finished and ran the whole way! We had a couple of fun park days this week. On Wednesday, I put Zaya and Kaiton in the trailer and we took a picnic to Cook Elementary. On Friday, I watched Alta's kids all day and we met some other friends from church at Larkin Park.
Kaiton: Kaiton is currently addicted to his two Paw Patrol toys. He brings them everywhere. He is such a happy guy and he is loving the nice weather!
This has been a pretty emotional couple of weeks for me. I've dealt with some difficult situations with my photography business. One of the downsides to not being trained or going to formal trainings is learning the hard way: by making mistakes. I'm really trying to push forward and keep going despite the challenges, but I'm still not really sure if weddings are for me. For now, I'm going to keep trying to make it work out for me; I'll have to reassess at the end of this year.
Sunday, May 8, 2016
Weeks 17 and 18
Week 17 was a rough one for me. I still was not feeling very well, and the stress of illness caught up to me and I think my anxiety made it worse. I finally was able to get in to see a family doctor and had a long talk with the obgyn. They both agreed that I need to see a urologist and that I should try removing my iud. So after several tests to rule out some other conditions and after many frustrations, I have decided to try removing the iud next week. The urologist can't get me in until November, so I need to call and get on a cancellation list to see if I can get in to her sooner.
While dealing with my own health issues, Rob and I decided that Brooklen needed to see a podiatrist for orthopedic inserts. Our pediatrician had mentioned that he is flat-footed last year, but we had never really pursued looking in to the problem. Just last week I took Brooklen running and he complained that his feet were really hurting. That prompted me to take him to Jill's house (she is a physical therapist) and have her look at his feet. She said that his feet were really flat and that he would definitely benefit from an orthotic. So, this week I was able to get Brooklen in to the doctor. He commented that Brooklen's feet were extremely pronated and quickly set to making the mold for the orthotic. Brooklen is a little bummed about having to wear the inserts, but I'm hoping that the benefits will be obvious and that he will really like them. I feel really bad that Brooklen has had to deal with so many medical issues; he is such a sweet boy and it makes me sad that he has so much to deal with; I hope these inserts really help him.
Baseball season is in full swing. Brooklen is having so much fun. It is so fun to watch him be vocal with his team and be really proud of how well he is doing this season. Both Zaya and Hurley are having a good time. It is hard to tell how much they love it, yet, but they are both doing quite well, considering they have never played before. We have at least one baseball game every night, so the Spring has been quite busy for us. I have found it very difficult to make nice dinners for our family. We are eating a lot of sandwiches and tacos!
Kaiton finally went to nursery today. He has not gone the last few weeks because he suddenly became scared of the class and cries everytime we take him. Yesterday, I bought a small Paw Patrol toy and gave it to him right before nursery. He cried for a couple of minutes, but he was fine after that. At dinnertime tonight, he said the prayer and repeated everything I asked him to. Then, at bedtime, he said the prayer all by himself. He is growing up way too fast! I mentioned to Rob last night that we need to start taking more videos of him so we can remember this time in his life. He is very attached to Zaya. When I tell him that he is going to a friends house, the first thing he asks is, "is Zay-Zay coming?" If I say, "no," he cries a lot and if I say, "yes," he starts to cheer! He is very attached to his older siblings, but especially Zaya. Every night, he goes to bed with one of the kids. Before we go to bed, Rob or I move him to his bed, but he almost always gets up in the middle of the night and comes to sleep with us or one of the kids.
I also wanted to record a sweet moment with about Hurley. I was cleaning under her bed this week and I found a piece of paper with this written on it: "You can do anything as long as you try." I love her sweet personal affirmation. The best part is that she really CAN do anything; she amazes me every day.
On Friday, I got to go to Zaya's Mother's Day Tea. We both dressed up in pretty dresses and sang songs and listened to a story. She and her classmates made the moms a snack, a gift, a card, and a paper flower to wear. I just love Zaya. She is so sweet and such a joy to be around.
Today was Mother's Day. Rob and the kids made me my favorite avocado toasts and eggs benedict (fancy). They gave me a new hose for the backyard (I asked for it) and a coupon to buy a new baseball hat for the summer. Each of the kids made me a sweet gift at school; I also loved getting their homemade cards. I am so lucky to have the opportunity to be a mother to my four kids. They are all such special souls and I see so much goodness in each of them. They all are going to do so many great things. I am also so lucky to have Rob by my side. He is a good complement to me and is such a fabulous father.
While dealing with my own health issues, Rob and I decided that Brooklen needed to see a podiatrist for orthopedic inserts. Our pediatrician had mentioned that he is flat-footed last year, but we had never really pursued looking in to the problem. Just last week I took Brooklen running and he complained that his feet were really hurting. That prompted me to take him to Jill's house (she is a physical therapist) and have her look at his feet. She said that his feet were really flat and that he would definitely benefit from an orthotic. So, this week I was able to get Brooklen in to the doctor. He commented that Brooklen's feet were extremely pronated and quickly set to making the mold for the orthotic. Brooklen is a little bummed about having to wear the inserts, but I'm hoping that the benefits will be obvious and that he will really like them. I feel really bad that Brooklen has had to deal with so many medical issues; he is such a sweet boy and it makes me sad that he has so much to deal with; I hope these inserts really help him.
Baseball season is in full swing. Brooklen is having so much fun. It is so fun to watch him be vocal with his team and be really proud of how well he is doing this season. Both Zaya and Hurley are having a good time. It is hard to tell how much they love it, yet, but they are both doing quite well, considering they have never played before. We have at least one baseball game every night, so the Spring has been quite busy for us. I have found it very difficult to make nice dinners for our family. We are eating a lot of sandwiches and tacos!
Kaiton finally went to nursery today. He has not gone the last few weeks because he suddenly became scared of the class and cries everytime we take him. Yesterday, I bought a small Paw Patrol toy and gave it to him right before nursery. He cried for a couple of minutes, but he was fine after that. At dinnertime tonight, he said the prayer and repeated everything I asked him to. Then, at bedtime, he said the prayer all by himself. He is growing up way too fast! I mentioned to Rob last night that we need to start taking more videos of him so we can remember this time in his life. He is very attached to Zaya. When I tell him that he is going to a friends house, the first thing he asks is, "is Zay-Zay coming?" If I say, "no," he cries a lot and if I say, "yes," he starts to cheer! He is very attached to his older siblings, but especially Zaya. Every night, he goes to bed with one of the kids. Before we go to bed, Rob or I move him to his bed, but he almost always gets up in the middle of the night and comes to sleep with us or one of the kids.
I also wanted to record a sweet moment with about Hurley. I was cleaning under her bed this week and I found a piece of paper with this written on it: "You can do anything as long as you try." I love her sweet personal affirmation. The best part is that she really CAN do anything; she amazes me every day.
On Friday, I got to go to Zaya's Mother's Day Tea. We both dressed up in pretty dresses and sang songs and listened to a story. She and her classmates made the moms a snack, a gift, a card, and a paper flower to wear. I just love Zaya. She is so sweet and such a joy to be around.
Today was Mother's Day. Rob and the kids made me my favorite avocado toasts and eggs benedict (fancy). They gave me a new hose for the backyard (I asked for it) and a coupon to buy a new baseball hat for the summer. Each of the kids made me a sweet gift at school; I also loved getting their homemade cards. I am so lucky to have the opportunity to be a mother to my four kids. They are all such special souls and I see so much goodness in each of them. They all are going to do so many great things. I am also so lucky to have Rob by my side. He is a good complement to me and is such a fabulous father.
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