Abby-
Abby just finished up her soccer season (U9) and had a lot of fun. She learned a lot this year and met some great girls too.
She just started her very first season of basketball on Saturday. Her practices are 2 hours on Saturdays. I took her to her first practice last week and she did so great! She had a smile on her face all the time and she was learning quickly. After the practice was over, I went to speak with the coach and he immediately says to me, "Abby's going to be really good! Has she played before?" I replied, no. Then he said, "Wow, she's picking it up really quickly." That was really nice to hear, especially since Abby looked happy playing too.
Abby's had a reoccurring challenge with a friend at school, and Abby has been great at talking to us about it. I love that she trusts us enough to keep telling us what's going on in her life, even though she often doesn't like the suggestions we give her to resolve her conflicts. I'm very proud of Abby and the kind hearted person she is. We hope, however, that she won't let her need to please over ride the need to protect herself too though. This has been an opportunity to teach Abby what the promptings of the Holy Ghost feel like and how we need to heed those promptings.
Abby performed her first ensemble recital a couple weeks ago and did excellent. Again, I was a very proud mother! I'm so happy for her- to see her excel at something too. My dad (poppy) was able to come visit a few weeks ago and he brought with him, his french horn. The two of them played a duet at home and it was so fun to see and listen to. This ensemble piano stuff has sparked an interest in the extended family to start working on duets. I'm excited about it. My mom has been performing a lot at Temple Hill (playing the violin) and I've been able to take the kids to see her. It's been fun to see her as a family and the kids have really enjoyed it too.
Eli-
When we went to the last performance that my mom was in at Temple Hill, Eli was so excited by it. It was an LDS lady who played the violin with the orchestra behind her. The theme was Disney songs and Eli especially loved it. He was moving to the music, leaning over to me to say things like, "I know this one. It's from ... , or did you hear the drums on that one? " He was very interested. Although it was a long performance and right before the end, he climbed up on my lap and fell asleep. It was heaven! Eli never falls asleep on me.
Eli finished his first season of flag football. He and his friend, Colton, were the youngest on the team; the only kindergartners too. They won 2nd place in the championship game. They didn't get much play time, but had a lot of fun. I've gotten to know Colton's mom really well and it's been great getting to know her. They came with us to the Primary Trunk-or-treat and then they took Eli with them to the school's Halloween carnival. Anyway, Eli did great and I love what a great sport Eli always is!
People have been reporting about what a great sport Eli is too. For example, he lets Hudson win at board games so he won't be sad. He does that with Caleb at home too. I think that's a very mature thing to do for a kid is age and he's been like this for as long as I can remember.
We had a first parent/teacher conference in October and Eli's teacher had great things to say about Eli (of course). She kept commenting on how smart he is. I volunteer in Eli's class on Monday mornings and I get to see the teacher pull kids aside in groups to see how they are reading, etc. I also get to have the kids read to me and Eli and 3 other kids in his "morning cubs" group are the best readers. I LOVE going into his class each week. The first month of me volunteering, Eli would cry when I left, even though he wouldn't cry when I would drop him off at school in the morning. I think he just really likes having me in the class with him. He started asking me to tell him 5 minutes before I left, that I was going to leave, so he could say goodbye when no one was looking, so he wouldn't be seen seen crying. And it wasn't CRYING so much as it was getting teary eyed with maybe a tiny cry sometimes. Anyway... it's a very sweet and endearing thing about him.
Eli has been very clingy lately. He doesn't want me to leave. Even if we spent the whole day doing stuff together, it isn't enough if I say I'm not going to snuggle him before bed. Hudson came over and Eli didn't want to go play with him, he wanted to be with me. Eli is totally my little man. I love that he wants to be with me. Yes, it gets in the way sometimes of his own happiness during the day, and is sometimes frustrating too (because I can't reason with him when he's in his mood), but I love that he loves me. I LOVE him too!
Caleb -
He's being a little pill with Ayla. Now that he's not the youngest, I guess that means it's his turn to pick on someone younger than him. He teases her and just annoys her a lot. When he gets caught, he will try to hide this slightly evil grin on his face. A minute later, he'll come back to me and with a very sincere face and attitude, he'll say to me that he won't do that to Ayla anymore- that he'll be a good big brother and take care of her. This lasts a day and then we start over again. Luckily, Ayla still loves him- just not while she's being picked on. One story- we were at Michael's (the store) and Ayla and Caleb were sitting in the cart. Caleb kept picking on Ayla and I had to KEEP getting after him about it. In a moment when Caleb was NOT attacking Ayla, she turned around and bit his arm hard. You'd think that would've taught Caleb a lesson and maybe it did for the rest of the trip to the store, but it quickly is forgotten once he gets his impulses to tease again.
Caleb has quite the imagination and really, always has. He is just full of stories. He makes things up all the time. Sometimes I don't challenge them, but when I do, I'll ask- do you think that really happened? Or, do you think that was in a dream? He'll then own up to it. He'll keep going as if it's real though, unless you call him on it.
He made up the game of "MOTORCYCLE". It's like slug-bug, with VW bugs, but with motorcycles. Anytime you see one, you call out motorcycle. He decides the additional the rules to the game too.
He makes up games all the time or at least rules for things all the time.
He makes up hand signals for things and says things like, "mom, when I do this (and he makes some hand signal), that means, I'm hungry, or I'm angry, or I want milk, or I want to color", or etc. etc. And the list of things he comes up with is really long. It's very cute and very much unique to Caleb.
Caleb didn't like preschool at first, but now when I pick him up, he tells me "I had fun today at preschool!". It makes me happy to hear it.
Caleb loves to color and he's really good at it too. He will spend a LOT of time coloring these days. I've almost run out of coloring pages in all our coloring books.
Ayla can't quite say Caleb's name yet, but calls him Cadid.
Ayla-
"I nun noo!" In other words, I love you! "I nun noo too!" Can she never stop saying this please? When she wants me to hold her, she doesn't say, "up". She says, "hug!!, hug!" She does say up, if I'm sitting at the computer and she wants up on my lap, or in other similar situations, but for a general hold, she calls it a hug. I love it.
What a little talker!!! She has so much to say and can say so much! I want to remember every little cute thing she says, but I know I can't. It makes me sad that I will forget her sweet little voice and her amazing smile and hugs. The way she snuggles into me, the way she says ma ma lately.... Bye, bye daddy, see you soon! She still parrots everything the kids say. It doesn't annoy her at all. She speaks 3 & 4 word sentences a lot. A couple weeks ago, we were at grandma and grandpa Farr's house and she said to Susan, "I want chocolate milk." We were all shocked by that one. I'm really amazed at Ayla's language ability. She totally understands what I say. Sometimes, I will be doing something like cleaning up a pile of shoes and she'll walk up to me and say, "what you doing, mommy?" . I'll respond by saying, "cleaning up the shoes". And she'll say with a cute tone, "oh! cleaning the shoes".
We went to my mom's house last week and while we were there, she kept calling my mom, "Kay" instead of Grandma Kay, like my other kids do.
She loves her bottle....yikes. I really need to ween her of it. I'm just not ready to deal with the crying for it. It's almost like tackling potty training or bed training. They might be ready for it, but I'm not.
Ayla loves to color with Caleb. It's cute to see her coloring right along side him. She'll spend a good amount of time doing it too.
She loves taking baths. She would take one every day if I let her. She lays her head down in the water and doesn't fuss. When we went to my mom's last week, the kids got in the hot tub. Ayla did NOT want me to touch her while she was in there. She wanted to walk freely. She also was not afraid of the water. She would sink down into the water until the water was over her mouth and sometimes, over her nose before she decided to get her face out. I was really surprised to see this.
She loves Dora and gets soo excited at the idea of watching it. When the theme song starts, she'll be so giddy, kicks her legs, stands up and dances in her jumping type dance (in a circle), and sits back down in her little chair for the show with a huge grin on her face.
She is very polite! She remembers to say thank you and your welcome all the time. She says it appropriately too. What's even more fun to see is her saying excuse me to people when we go places or if she just wants to get past someone at home. She will say good mornin' to people as we pass them, even if it's evening time. People get a kick out of that.
She loves swings and swinging HIGH. You can trick her into not swinging so high, as long as you give her a good sized push and say, "under dog!".
MOM- ME!
I just have to say I am happier than I have ever been- at least the happiest I've been in a long time. I think I've always felt happy (aside from the hard times), but for some reason, I feel like my cup has been over flowing and over flowing these last few weeks. I can't describe how happy I am with my life. I love my husband and kids soo soo soo much. I look at them and just feel overwhelmingly blessed. Yes, I get frustrate with the fighting or the whining, etc., but it's nothing it the whole scheme of things. This is exactly the life I wanted. Sure I have goals for more things to come, but I am happy with today.
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