Aiden Turns 7

   

Last Friday Aiden had his seventh birthday. He celebrated by taking some cookies in for his class and then yesterday he had a party with his friends from school. He decided he'd like to have the party at the pottery painting studio and having 10 sugar addled six year olds in a small room with paint and breakable pottery actually went very smoothly. Everyone seemed to have a great time and after a coule years of smaller birthday parties he was excited to have a big to-do.

Watching Aiden mature and grow this past year has been wonderful. He is becoming so independent and turning into a really interesting human being. That sounds strange but sometimes we start talking and he tells me these hilarious and really weird stories about school or his friends or whatever happens to be floating around his head. Other times he doesn't want to talk at all because ugh, mom, whatever.

 He is whip smart and it can make being a parent very difficult. The other week I was saying goodnight to him and I said "I love you and remember that you are so special". He then asked me if everyone was created equal which I answered with yes of course, and he said "If everyone is equal and I'm special then everyone is special....and that's not really special is it?". Okay baby Socrates. Another night he asked me what adoption was and after we talked about it he asked if I'd always be here. I assured him that I would do everything in my power to be here as long as I could which then led to a discussion about things we should do to stay healthy. Nothing like hearing your kid say "Goodnight! Love you! Don't get too tired if you're swimming in deep water!" as you're turning out the light.

 He is no nonsense, our rule follower, and yet he has this creative side. As much as he loves math he also loves drawing. He likes everything to make sense and be as black and white as possible but then he has this fascination with God and the universe and so many gray areas. I don't even know what I think or believe about some of the things he asks me and it leads to some really beautiful conversations and I realize that we sort of work through it together. That has been my experience with Aiden right from the moment he was born. I thought being his mother would be me leading him down a path but it's really been us walking down it side by side, figuring it out as we go.

   

   

Halloween 2014

So since it's mid-November and we're about to start the holiday craziness I thought I'd better get around to finally posting some pictures from Halloween. This year Aiden went as a shark, and he LOVED the costume that we borrowed from Sean's sister, and almost every house he trick-or-treated at commented on how awesome it was. Halloween win. Rory, who is still at the mercy of his parents, went as James Bond. We loved it. He was on the fence about it and mostly distracted by all the other festivities. Audrey was a teddy bear since she's just a wee baby and it was the warmest thing we had.

Dead ringer:

  

Aiden had his school parade which was adorable and then his class acted out a little Halloween story. I took about four thousand pictures and none of them really came out, but here's Aiden at the parade: 

 

 

We all went out to trick or treat together and after about ten houses the babies were ready for bed so I took them home while Aiden and Sean went out for a more serious round. They were extremely successful and I was very satisfied with the variety they brought me. I mean...that's Aiden's candy and I would never touch it. 

This fall has been getting progressively busier. September started and Aiden didn't have a single after school activity and I thought things would be pretty laid back but within three weeks he was signed up for piano lessons, chemistry club and a painting class. There is homework and play dates in between. I have just about lost my mind trying to keep track of his schedule this year.

Audrey, while still a darling, decided overnight a few weeks ago that she's going to start standing and practicing walking. She's a bit of a dare devil right now and requires a lot of attention or she tries to climb the stairs or furniture. 

 

In other news, Rory got an actual serious haircut. He looks way older now and I already miss him. He's talking up a storm and is a such a joker. He stills loves to call me June, which both cute and exasperating. Typical Rory.

 Whew, now that I've put those Halloween pictures up I'm all ready for Thanksgiving!

Back on the Blog Wagon

So I didn't blog alllll summer, mostly because there were three kids around constantly and they all needed food and attention and various other things. Every time I sat down to write something would pop up and then after a while I started to assume everyone had forgotten that this thing ever existed and then a few people asked if I would please for the love of Pete write something or at least just throw up a bunch of pictures of these children so I figured I'd better oblige, especially now that Aiden is back in school and I can't use him as an excuse. I apologize for that run-on sentence.

This summer went by so fast I'm still thinking it's the end of July. After Aiden finished kindergarten I was a little (a lot) worried about how the summer would go with one of me and three of them. To my surprise it was beyond wonderful. We spent most of the summer tackling a laundry list of house projects including a new driveway and retaining wall outside, new floors and paint inside and chopping down about fifteen or so trees (which Sean did by himself, I was quite impressed). The projects just went on and on and on and one would lead to another. Everything looks great now but much of the summer felt like living in a construction zone. 

We were able to tackle so many projects because the kids were just fantastic. Around June, Audrey turned that corner from really erratic newborn sleep into predictable and blessedly long stretches of sleep. Just having some semblance of a schedule and eight hours of sleep at night makes me feel like a superhero. Also,Rory and Aiden still bicker occasionally but this summer they started playing with each other.  Aiden figured out that if he gives Rory a part in his expansive make-believe scenarios, that Rory will happily play instead of just tearing everything apart. Aiden was also so helpful all summer, entertaining Rory when we had to go to the store, holding his hand in parking lots and introducing him to children at the library. It was so wonderful to see them finally becoming friends. Rory for his part has learned more words and made huge leaps in his gross motor development. It's nice to know that he can go up and down stairs and run across a bumpy lawn and not constantly worry that he's going to have a major wipe-out. He still trips and falls like any two year old but for the most part he's finally found his legs.

I was sad to see Aiden head back to school because I felt like we'd finally found such a great, peaceful place this summer after a couple of years filled with huge changes. He was excited to go back however, and it was a smooth transition into first grade. I have enjoyed having more time to spend with Rory and Audrey individually and I still get the afternoon with Aiden once he comes home and the other two are napping.

I'm going to try to be on here more often now that things have settled down. In the meantime here are some pictures from our apple picking adventure and few random shots from the summer: 

Baby Thor turns 2

Rory is two!

These two years have been both exhausting and delightful and getting to know Rory has been so much fun. He is our summer child: bright and sunny one moment then thundering the next and then warm and calm when it's over.

 

He is somehow sweet, cuddly and kind while also being so fierce and fiery. He wants what he wants and he will not be deterred or  distracted. He's whip smart and wants to be as independent as possible. We figure he'll want to move out just as soon as he can reach the pedals in the car.

He is all passion, all heart and it can lead to some pretty rough tantrums. He's slowly learning to stop and think and wait before launching himself headfirst into whatever he's trying to do (or headfirst in the ground occasionally).

 

He's always been very verbal but still needs to be reminded that "Hey, you know how to say 'milk please' instead of just shrieking like your hair is on fire". Physically, he's our little rugby player. He wants to be rough and tumble and tackle things and people in a way we never experienced with Aiden. He's still not too steady on his feet however, and being rather top heavy, he tends to have some spectacular wipeouts. Rory doesn't just trip and fall, he somehow manages to trip, do three summersualts, bounce off the wall and spin around like a top. I don't really understand the physics of it but he usually sits up, shakes his head and is off screaming and running like he's leading Spartan troops to battle.

We've discovered that his one weakness is Audrey. He could be in the middle of a screaming fit and he'll suddenly stop and go give her a kiss and rub her back. This tenderness towards her is so heart meltingly sweet and a relief to witness after a day of tantrums or roughhousing.

 

He may not have slept at all from 0 to 1, but from 1 to 2 he's made up for it. He'll happily sleep in late, play fiercely all morning, consume his entire bodyweight in food for lunch and then slip into a coma all afternoon, wake for dinner and crash again by 7:30. Eat and sleep and briefly tear about the house like a viking warrior. This is his life.

We love to see him growing and learning to channel his boundless passion and drive into accomplishing new things. He may be a lot to handle as a toddler but I can only imagine that he'll be utterly unstoppable when he grows up and finds his path in life, and that makes all the battles and rough days worthwhile.

And in case you've never seen the movie, this right here is why we call him our Thor:

Adios, Kindergarten

Aiden had his last day of kindergarten today, that's just according to the school calender however since they've been watching movies and having "double recess" for the past week or so. He said goodbye to his teacher who was an absolute saint and had a pretty lively group this year. He said goodbye to his art teacher who encouraged his drawing which is his one creative outlet, and his music teacher who gave him top grades no matter how on or off pitch he sings, and his gym teacher who always gave him poor grades because he'd rather pass the ball to the opposite team since they didn't get a chance to score yet and he was just trying to be nice.

He's learned to count by fives and tens, he's learned some new fangled method of addition that he had to teach me because it's the least intuitive thing I've ever seen and he surprised his teacher with his grasp of small multiplication and his fantastic  spatial awareness. None of this came from me. He's beginning reading and slowly becoming more confident although he's lost any interest in fiction and only wants to read nonfiction. I love reading with him but I'd really love to read a story instead of an in-depth explanation of the life cycle of cicadas but I'm just glad he's reading.

His curiosity is at an all time high which is a wonderful and exhausting thing to witness. He'll ask "How do narwhals communicate? Who first classified humans as animals? Is the moon spinning around the earth or is it that the earth is turning and it looks like the moon is? Let's talk about chickens..." and that's all in the first seven minutes he's awake.

His grasp of and willingness to use sarcasm and his penchant for eye-rolling is also at an all time high, especially if I don't immediately know the answer to his questions. 


Sean and I have no idea how it's already the end of June and we've just gotten him acclimated to school and now he's got a new teacher and new class and new standards. Kindergarten was a great chance for Aiden to make new friends and generally learn how school works but academically it wasn't much of a challenge and we feel like he might've even lost a little ground in certain areas. First grade seems to be totally different and much more focused on actual school work which I think Aiden will enjoy but did seem a teeny little bit intimidating when we got the long list of things Aiden needed to have mastered by the first day of first grade.  He also has a whole summer writing journal to fill out along with summer reading requirements and optional math work. We planned on doing these things with him anyway but the minute it becomes "required" I start to hyperventilate (sheer panic at the idea of failure pretty much drove all of my academic achievements from 4th grade through my senior year of college, and for better or worse Aiden has inherited this trait. We like to do things perfectly or get an ulcer trying). In all honesty though, he's ready and he's excited and that's really refreshing to see in him.

We hope to spend the summer reading and visiting the library. We also plan on catching grasshoppers and riding bikes and spraying each other with the hose.

Oh, and eating ice cream. Lots and lots of ice cream.

Four months

 

Audrey is four months old! Okay, she's nearly five months old because it takes me forever to post anything. Anyway, she had her four month check up last week and she is...spectacularly average!  She's not a tall skinny beanpole like Aiden or a defensive linebacker sized baby like Rory, she is her own perfect self, the 40th percentile across the board. That's the way it always seems to be, these kids just HAVE to be completely different from each other.  I won't even being to speculate on who she looks like because once again, TOTALLY UNIQUE. She has a deeper complexion like Aiden, but blue eyes, and no hair so who knows what color that will be. I think she might have my nose? Maybe Sean's eyes? Except they're blue? What's up with that? Yes, she's very much her own little person. Only time will tell. 

 Personality-wise, she is our ray of sunshine. She's is always ready to laugh or smile and she's typically very predictable. I can easily tell when she's hungry or tired or hot or cold. She doesn't randomly wail for no apparent reason. She loves me and wants to be near but she's not clingy or fussy. Generally, not much phases her. I think I have Rory to thank for that. You see, he went through an exceptionally clingy period while I was pregnant. That, on top of Rory just being Rory, meant that he would frequently come up and scream his little lungs out while face planting into my stomach. So Audrey spent a lot of time in utero listening to him freak out. Now, on the outside, she doesn't so much as blink when he screams or the dog barks or whatever noisy thing is happening. She does get a bit wary of him when he tries to kiss and hug her (which, adorably, he does ALL THE TIME) mostly because he's as steady on his feet as an octopus on rollerskates and nearly squashes her. The rest of the time she's calm and happy and ready to check out the great big world. She rolls over like a champ and is trying so hard to crawl (she can't quite get them opposite leg/arm thing and moves the same leg and arm which results in her toppling over, but she is trying). She also loves to "talk". We laugh because people hear her talking or even when she cries, and ask if she's okay because she's SO SHRILL. We're lucky her crying is pretty rare because MAN OH MAN does she sound like a girl. She has the most adorable squeaky voice that makes both of the boys sound like Barry White and anytime she cries it sounds like she's in a complete panic when that's just her usual high pitched voice.  

Overall, she is a delight. We can't wait to see her personality develop more and we're so thankful for how well she handles whatever happens in this crazy family.

Since March...

Checking in because life has been zooming by so quickly lately I haven't been able to keep up with the blog! Audrey is finally slipping into a somewhat predictable schedule so I'm going start making sure I sit down once in a while and post here, but for now, some pictures: