I can feel the winter fog lifting! Life is starting to pick up and we are starting to see blue skies and remember what color our roof is under the melting snow.
The girls are starting to show off their fall and winter work in some performances. At school they get to have dance. But this isn't any dance, they dance to learn the core curriculum better. Makaela danced answers to multiplication & division, how to read maps, Native American dances, and a black lights moon dance. She was as graceful and rhythmic as ever.
Thea danced to Dr. Seuss books and performed a fabulous dance to a book the class had recorded reading with music: Mr.
McElligot's Pool. Each child would just glow when they heard their voice reading their line from the book. What a fun idea! I did indeed get teary (you know how I
love watching my kids glow as they share their hard work and talents),
and the triplets got to go to Thea's performance (big outing!). Also the reason she doesn't have as many pictures. But she was so busy she hardly held still long enough for a picture, she was even cartwheeling across the floor at times!
Now let me back up to Valentine's Day. We don't usually make a huge deal on this holiday. Mark & I keep it simple (since our anniversary is just a couple weeks prior too). On Valentine's we have started a tradition of having a nice dinner by mood-lighting with the kids. This year it was really fancy... Heart shaped pizza (haha!). But it was fun none-the-less and we also had treats and hearts we wrote on to each family member. This year will always be memorable though because when Mark & I opened our cards to each other we were completely surprised (and shocked) to realize that we had bought each other the same card! I had shopped at the grocery store at the end of January, and Mark bought his at Hallmark just a few days prior. So funny!
In the aftermath of Valentine's we had lot's of chocolates laying around, and on the weekend I worked I woke to hear that at 4pm the girls were hungry because dad had forgotten lunch (they had gone out for a walk!). I told them we would eat an early dinner so go ahead and eat a couple Valentine candies to hold them over. While taking care of the boys I caught a glimpse of Ella on the couch with this pile. I told her she didn't need all of those, just two was fine, but snapped a picture and went back to the boys. A few seconds later Mark comes in with a handful of 10 wrappers! "Did you mean she could have 2 more in addition to these?" She had already consumed at least 8-10 and this pile was not her taking, but what was left! Oh my sweet toothed Ella. She can out eat us all when it comes to sugar.
The other fun Ella at home moment is the new Disney Channel show "Sofia: the first." It's a new cartoon about a little girl who suddenly finds her mom married to a king so she must learn to become a princess. It is really an adorable cartoon full of music and good things. So every Friday since January there is a new episode and we record it, and after the boys go down for a nap we sit down and watch it together. Well, Ella won a Super Bowl contest at my parents party, so she took her money and bought herself a Sofia dress, amulet, and little toy figurine. What a fun day this was to go down to the Disney Store and let her shop! We tried on every shoe and a couple dresses in the fancy mirrors before she decided. Oh how I love my little girls. What a gift and blessing they are.
The boys. They continue to grow bigger every day. We are currently working on 3 very important, life changing skills. I think this is part of the reason time goes 3x faster with multiples. I am enjoying the moments I have, they go so quickly! But I also look forward to new skills that will change the simplest things in day to day life. Long days & fast months continue.
1. Sitting up.
We practice in a variety of places, this is how we eat solids. I can't wait until they have another way to play and view the world. And once they can sit up well enough I will also be anxious to start using my wagons to transport them on outings! (also waiting for RSV and the flu to disappear a little more)
Weston, Paxton, Creighton
2. Holding bottles
They are not very good yet, these pictures were caught by Mark during practice. They cannot hold them with more then 1-3 oz, and still lose their grips, but there is hope. And we practice this sometimes too.
Creighton, Paxton (top), Weston
3. Finger foods
I will soon be buying a new knife for all the finger food cutting I will be doing. And someday I will be very tired of chopping up food into "finger nail" sized bites, but these boys are ready to start heading there. So we are practicing holding foods and getting them into the mouth. For now we have 2 very perfect crackers to practice with. And they get better every time.
Paxton
It seems like from 6 months until 2 years of age you cannot keep up with all the new things your kids do every day. I can already see how quickly these next few years will go with 3 of them overwhelming me with their progress every day. What a blessing to have such healthy, growing boys. I feel more humbled every day to get to have a front row seat to all this. And I am still in denial that I get to be their mom forever. Wow.
Another big event was we took the boys out to dinner! It was my dad's birthday dinner, and it was at a fancier restaurant, so I must admit I was having some anxiety about the boys behaving (and their 6:30p bedtime also contributed to my anxious state going to a 5:45p dinner). But when we arrived my dad had told them about the boys and they had gotten us our own little area, like an alcove, away from most every one. It was perfect! My anxiety was gone and we enjoyed a most delightful 3 hour meal! The night felt so normal. I had to double check that it wasn't my birthday! Maybe I can go somewhere, even a nice somewhere, with 6 kids... as long as there are 6 adults.
Thea, Makaela, Ella, Paxton, Creighton, Weston
