Feel the love

Here are some things we love:

The kids. How they love each other. When they snuggle and hug. The zoo. 

Rachel barefoot in skits. Doing balance beam climbing on every curb and ledge we can find. Church playground. Bright colors of summer. 

Goodbye hugs for daddy before he leaves for work. Giving him hug after hug after hug and then furiously waving bye bye. 

Date night. Conversation and laughter. 10 year anniversary next month. Bardo on 21st. 

Cass: co-worker, babysitter, friend and playmate for the kids. She gave us freshly-picked asparagus while JB was in India (I gobbled that right up), homemade cookies and fresh strawberry jam. She loves my kids and is such a good friend. 

Pony tails. Pig tails. Blonde hair blowing in the wind. 

Alexis. We were so sad when liz moved but Alexis is awesome and the kids love her. Rachel adores hugging her and J even gave her a hug last week too, which is HUGE! 

Being outside, Soccer. Long shorts and tall socks. Friends from school. Running. Being outside. Farmer tans. Birds. Breezes. 

Deep squat. Pig tails. Blonde hair, Head Tilt. 

Best friends. School. Ms Becca. Holiday crafts. Icing. 

Siblings. Buddies. Smiles. Laughter. Kindness. Protective big brother. Adoring little sister. 

This girl. Into everything, none of it being toys. 

Family days. Skinny Dip fro yo. Zoo afternoons. Time together.

Daddy. Porch swing. Cool afternoons. Sunshine. These two together. 

4 1/2 year old Jackson

Jackson, you are a delight. You are almost 4.5 years old and are a nice, charming, handsome boy. You are growing taller and more agile. Your sparkling blue eyes shine with your curiosity, humor and mischievous personality. Your brown hair looks good short, leaving us at the barber every 4-6 weeks or you look scraggly. You play hard, with dirty calloused feet, skinned knees and elbows and dirt under your fingernails. Like your mother, you hate wearing sock and shoes and prefer to wear comfy pants. You would live in flip flops, a baggy tshirt and athletic shorts if we let you. You can dress yourself completely (even buttons!), although you usually plead for help from me each morning because you like the attention. 

As we have said before, you are silent J no more. Your loud, high voice echoes throughout the neighborhood as you call out for Luke and Katie or yell as you zoom along on your scooter. 

Things you say: 

Mo-veels: It's some combination between motorcycle and vehicle that you came up with years ago and still use

You say "th" now! As in THREE. We worked on it for a few days and you were very agreeable to learning that correct part of speech. 

"Won!"Whenever you win at a game, let's say UNO since you seem to beat us most of the time, you play your last card and simply say, "Won". 

Mom, this cornbread tastes like skin. Real skin. (Note: my child has never tasted skin).

Likes:

Counting, math, board games, flashlight tag, scooter, running, playing, make-believe, action figures, baths with Rachel, chicken nuggets, flavored water, sprinkler, collecting rocks, TV, organizing items, trucks, I Spy, phonics, fruit, gummy vitamins, friends, zoo, park, flossing, preschool, giving money to church, wrestling with Rachel, Kashi, toys

Dislikes: 

Veggies, art/drawing/painting/coloring, naps, baths, getting your nails trimmed, time out, sitting still

Dinner with Blair, JB's college roommate

You have finally started to understand phonics and recognize most of your letters. This is a fascinating process to witness and I love watching you grow and develop more language. Your teacher, Becca, has really been a gift for you and we are so thankful for how you have responded to her methods of teaching. Whenever you talk, you either find words with the same sound like Ball and Blueberry or you find rhyming words. "There's a car. Rhymes with far and star!" You can recognize more letters and numbers when we are out driving and ear learning that we read left to right, which we practice with speed limit signs since you are much more confident in quickly recognizing numbers. The other day at the library, you colored a picture (!!) and wanted to give it to dad, so I encouraged you to write a D on it for daddy. You told me, No mom, that would be confusing. I'll write a J on it for Jonathan. (Again, note, that we do not let our kids call us Heather and Jonathan). However, Jackson wrote a legible "J" for the first time without tracing and I wept in the library I was so proud of him! Right now I'm trying to reign myself in with my excitement at his language growth and find subtle ways to work on it while keeping it fun, most of all. 

J beating us in UNO

You think that Rachel is pretty great most of the time. In the morning, you want to be the first one into her room, at which time you jump into her crib and hug her tightly. You two eat breakfast together (she only wants to eat your food). You have trouble sharing your toys but every so often will be generous and it usually sounds like this. "Here Rachel, I don't like this toy anymore. I want to give it to you". You will push her in the wagon and like to go down the slide with her. Your favorite time of day is the bath and bedtime routine. You two splash in the bath and giggle a lot. Then, once you are in PJs you two wrestle! Our favorite book is still "Tickle Time" by Sandra Boynton. Rachel picks it out and comes to me saying, 'tickle tickle' and then you jump in the action and we have a tickle fest! Rachel then starts to hug and body slam you around her room. when it's time for her to go to bed, you crouch down, reach out to gently hug her and give her a tender kiss on the cheek, saying, "Goodnight baby. I love you. You are so sweet". It is the perfect end to every day.

Cousins Riley and Piper

Here's your typical day:

You stay asleep/in your room until your green light goes on at 6:30am (what a HUGE success!). You find me, either reading my Bible or still sleeping sometimes and we cuddle for a few minutes while you still wake up. Breakfast typically consists of a bagel thin with cream cheese, fruit, yogurt and milk. We play or watch some TV before school, which is 9-12. You adore Ms Becca and your friends at school. After school we play outside until nap time and attempt to rest/nap from 1pm until at least 2. Some days you are very tired and you sleep the whole time. Other days you play (loudly...) in your room and protest the nap time. In the afternoon we play, outside, at the park, the zoo, the library, wherever! You love having Luke and Katie next door and hang with them most of the time. You play hard, stopping briefly for a snack and water break. You protest coming in for dinner but eventually comply. Dinner takes anywhere from 20 minutes to 1 hour depending on what veggie you have to eat that night and how long it takes you to eat it. You clean up your dishes, and get ready for bath. When Rachel goes to sleep, we play games or occasionally have a movie night before reading 2 books and tucking you into bed. We pray for you, rub your back and give you "kisses and tight hugs". You still sleep with a night light and a dim overhead light on and are protesting your sound machine right now. 

Fun with Fine Motor!

You are organized, type A, have a vivid imagination, play well by yourself and with others. You are a leader. You like structure and routine but you don't like to be told what to do. You are helpful to dad, Rachel and me. You love to have a few, close friends. You are still shy and prefer not to talk to new adults but you are very outgoing with people you already know. You love face timing or being with your grandparents and easily transition to weekends away with them. Every so often, you come up to dad or me and give us a huge bear hug, gently saying, "I love you SOO much." You want multiple kisses and hugs from me before you go to school or I go to work. 

Best friend, Aurelia

As I tell you often recently, God gave you to dad and me to be our son. We love you dearly. But, if we got to choose our children, we would still pick you and Rachel to be ours. You are perfect for us and we are so blessed to be your parents. We love watching you grow and learn and are so excited to continue to see who you are becoming. 

Fun with co-worker and friend, Cass

Rachel and Grandad

Final days of summer and into the fall

September and early October have been a whirlwind, to put it lightly. We had the start of 5 day/week school for Jackson, the start of church events, my Women's Bible Study talk, PT meetings, a church course for JB, Rachel's 1st birthday and still trying to maintain the basic activities and responsibilities of daily life. We knew that September would be slammed so it was one of those, "take a deep breath and enjoy everything that is going on but know there will be a big rest when it's all over" kind of months. 

I've enjoyed getting my camera out more to practice. Some shots are actually turning out really well and it's been great to have pictures of both of the kids. I actually may have completely reversed the typical stereotype for a second child to have virtually no photos. Up until now, Rachel has sat still better than Jackson and she has tons and tons of photos! Here is what we've been up to: 

Jackson started Little Strikers soccer league. The first weeks were rough with lots of complaining on his part and coaxing on his. But then he really got into it and was enjoying it! And then the nor'easter and hurricane weather hit and we've been off for many weeks. He plays for a few minutes and then when they take water breaks he also expects to have several grapes waiting for him each time :) 

 Rach loves to flirt and make sweet faces for our neighbors. 

 I love the heads-down focus of the three boys during one of our ODU tailgates. This was great fun and then we had even more fun when it suddenly started to POUR and the kids splashed away.

 J and R just adore Grandad! 

 We had a spontaneous compound crab boil to close out summer. It was my first time eating crabs and it proved to be so much fun, and delicious, to sit around picking crabs and drinking beer with friends. 

 JB and I had a date afternoon/night planned in early September. This was part of my motivation for weaning Rachel at the end of August. That went well and we arranged for the kids to stay with Beth and Matt for the afternoon and bedtime. We got to Water Country around 2 and rode all the tube rides (none of that water-slide-that-goes-straight-down business for us!). We dried off and made it to Busch Gardens around 3:15, rode a ride and then it started to rain. We grabbed some beer from the fest house, people watched and then jogged to our cars before it really started to pour. We hit the outlets for an hour and headed back to BG when the rain stopped. Several more rides later and too nauseous to go on, we left and went to dinner in Newport News. Although I was nauseated for the next few days (one of the downsides of getting older), it was a great, spontaneous date day! 

 I ran the Rock N Roll again this year, making it my 8th RNR with Team Hoyt. It was an incredibly hard race for me, but great to be out there pushing my athlete rider and running with a neighbor of ours. Plus, Rachel was waiting for me in this cute onesie: "Someday I'll run with mommy". 

 We had one final beach day with the McNabbs, Lyons and Kelly. Sweet summer coming to a close. 

 And one of the perks of J not starting school until Thursday following Labor Day was that we had the whole beach to ourselves to take Lincoln and have a family morning. 

Virginia Aquarium. 

We're in the 'independent eating' phase where she doesn't know how to use a spoon yet but she sure doesn't want to be fed by one. So, everything goes in via her hands. Oatmeal, casseroles. Also turns out that she was mildly anemic at her 1 year old check up (whoops, couldn't remember if the doc said vitamins WITH or WITHOUT iron so I erred on the side of caution and got without). So, we've made valiant attempt to get spinach into things and we have found the 1 food she does not like. I don't blame you baby...I mean, liquidly canned spinach. Gross. I welcome all ideas of how to get large doses of green leafy veggies into foods that a girl with only 8 teeth can eat. 

By from our happy girl who loves peek-a-boo, laughing and is a great hide-and-seek seeker!

Gratefulness in late February

February brought many things to be grateful for:

Seeing family many times this year, including Hana and Libby's cheerleading competition at the TED. The "Sparkle Girls" as J called them, did so well and we enjoyed watching them perform in a sport that means so much to them. 

Aunt Janis, Hana

Aunt Janis, Grandpa and Libby

 Our little girl is eating solid food! She was cautious at first and then really began to enjoy it. Since this picture was taken, I realized that clothes during mealtime are not an option. Naked baby makes for easier clean up! 

 J sustained a pretty large injury that left a scar but thankfully his eye was ok. He slipped on a book on the floor of his room and gashed the corner of his eye on something (or at least that is the story he tells us....that week he had been playing around on his chair/bookshelf/window ledge, which we quickly shut down. However, I have a feeling there was a brief moment of disobedience that led to this scar).  The next morning he woke with his first black eye. I proudly exclaimed, "J you have a black eye. Check it out in the mirror!" and he cried and cried. Poor guy. 

 Jonathan has been super dad with both kids even though parenting in the early months is not his favorite age. Rachel adores him, as you can see below.  They are snuggle buddies.  J loves to be dad's helper with the grill, the yard and anything that involves tools.  They also still love their skateboard/scooter adventures with Lincoln around ODU. It's a spectacle that turns heads of all the college kids!  JB has also given me a little time to sneak away for coffee, sunshine, reading my Bible and blogging. Grateful :) 

 We enjoyed a great visit from Grandmom and Pop Pop! J's favorite article of clothing is PJs and if given the chance he would stay in them all day. He also likes to wear 'comfortable pants', however we only own two pairs of sweatpants and one is filthy and the other is too short. So, jeans it is my friend. He knows how to undress fully and can dress himself 3/4 of the way. Although, he is 'stubborn like his mom' as Jonathan likes to say and pretends like he can't dress/undress most of the time.  I'm really excited for when he can do a zipper and buttons (we're SO close to both of them!) and then my morning routine will get MUCH easier.  The hardest thing about parenting recently is that both kids are still very needy in many ways. I'm trying to find joy in being needed because it won't last forever, but really, it's hard. Very.Hard.

 Rach loves bathtime! Evening is the most difficult time of the day, as most of you know. Our routine recently consists of playing outside (Sunshine and friends!), eating dinner at 5pm, bathing both kids, feeding R and putting her to bed and then story time/bedtime for J. She's asleep by 6 and he's not far behind, at 6:30/45. Then, momma gets a glass of wine while I clean up from the day's adventures!

 I'm reading this book which is really interesting (and kinda nuts at times): The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. It's about going through your home in a very systematic way over the course of 6 months or so. You take out every.single.item. You hold it and ask if it brings you joy. If so, keep it and if not, discard it. Then, you can put your home back in order and maintain the minimalist standard. I'm already very neat, but this has given me new words and ideas to describe what I have been feeling in our house. We have plenty of space in our home but we have accumulated so many things (some of it is the phase of having a preschooler and a baby, but still...most of it was here before the kids!). I don't use a large majority of things. I keep things that that I did love but don't love now. So, over the next few months this is my project. We're getting rid of things that no longer bring us joy or use. And then, with less things there is less to step on, put away each night, fix when it breaks, etc. My mom is probably chuckling right now.  My sweet husband thinks I'm crazy and that I'll get rid of all of his things. I'll let you know how it goes :) 

The Ergo (baby wrap seen below): Useful for taking walks, getting your kid to nap, cooking dinner, going grocery shopping, enjoying snuggles, keeping your littlest close to you as long as possible, cleaning the house, etc.

 Our final snow for the season! We love having these kids next door and we also love having Spring here again. 

 #bjorntobewild #bjornfree #bjornintheUSA #CoolDadsRockTheBjorn

 Our dog used to weigh 72#. Now he weighs 86#. Hmmmm....I think that having an infant in the house could present a problem to his newly-instated weight loss program.  

That's all for now!