...than hearing the excited little voices upstairs, drifting down the stairs, chattering a mile a minute, telling their Daddy about their day? They're in the bath. Esch got home a few minutes ago (about an hour earlier than he had been expecting, with a Carlisle Theatre board meeting after work) and JUST in time for the bath and bed routine. I'm taking this five minutes while Esch and my dinner is baking to sit down.
Today was a great day. We've had some really, really, REALLY trying ones lately, so I feel like I need to commemorate this. William has been acting up at school recently (kicking? really? you're five!), talking back at home, and we've been clashing. A lot. He gets in trouble on purpose. He's influencing Gwen, who, at two, is using some not-so-nice words ("I HATE you!") and our days can be very, very long. But today was good, and I feel like I should mark the occasion.
Wednesday is the only day of the week that William doesn't have preschool. He is going to two different ones - the church preschool that he's been attending for three years now, for two days. Another, that's new to us this year, is called the Creative Pre-K and is in a former public kindergarten teacher's home. They do all kinds of great hands-on things and she's very outdoorsy. She takes them on 2-hour nature hikes (even in winter!), they get nice and messy - he loves it.
So today, on our "Mommy day" I took them to a new place to burn off some energy. It was a reward for W for having a good week so far. It was a huge indoor trampoline center. Not even sure how to explain it. It was enormous. They loved it. They bounced and ran, played with the other kids there, and the instructors (William immediately found the prettiest girl working there and followed her around the whole time - ha!).
It was 25 minutes or so each way, and both kids couldn't have been more pleasant. We sang along to the Disney movie "Hercules" soundtrack over and over, at the top of our lungs. William asks me to sing along with him. Gwennie quite literally yells and calls it singing. They were sweet and cute.
We had a battle-free lunch, they went down for nap (Gwen naps at 1:00 and I still put William in his room for "quiet time" - he hasn't actually napped in months, and then only when sick, but he does usually play with his Legos or read books for a good hour or so). When W snuck down the stairs, we cuddled up on the couch and I read him "The Three Little Pigs" (which is a shocking choice for him; he is so into robots, Star Wars, and lately, prehistoric animals). Then we worked on his writing for a bit. He's definitely behind in his fine motor skills. He completely detests coloring and writing. Poor guy. He avoids it and it frustrates him. So we worked on his name, which he has been able to spell for a good two years now, but his handwriting is pretty rough. We moved on to the word CAT, which he can now read, and he got very stuck on the round letter "C". After a full page of practice Cs, he was starting to improve, and wrote the full word a few times. I know that someday we'll look back on this and none of it will matter. The kid will learn how to write. But right now it's a big concern that worries us a lot - we don't want him to be behind when he starts Kindergarten in the fall.
Tomorrow is his snack day at school, so I packed a snack for 16 kids before making dinner for my own two. I usually feed them at 5, and then make something separate for Esch and I later, since he gets home at their bedtime or even past it. Tonight the kids had spaghetti with chicken Parmesan. And carrots. They are pretty darn good about their carrots. Other veggie standbys right now, that they both eat, are peas, lima beans, and broccoli.
This all seems so mundane, but having just printed our 2009-2013 blog book, I've seen how priceless it is so look back at the little details as well as the big milestones, vacations, and celebrations. I showed William the book when it arrived on our doorstep yesterday and he asked me to read him some of the "stories." I choked my way through tears when reading him the entry about leaving our first family house, where we'd found out we were pregnant, brought him home from the hospital, and seen his first smiles. Time really flies.
He's currently upstairs begging for a few minutes to play video games on Esch's phone. When I took Gwen's warm milk up a second ago, which she hasbefore bed each night, Esch was trying not to laugh as she was yelling,"PENIS!" and giggling uncontrollably. Maybe it's time to stop their joint bath time. Again... the lovely things William teaches her and tells her to say. Oh dear.
Off to finish our dinner, do a quick picking up of the living room before Esch comes back down to eat, and settling in to watch a show together. I miss those little faces as soon as they're asleep (and we sneak in to look at them every night before we go to bed) but I certainly do love the instant quiet at 7:15 p.m. or so!
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Sunday, January 25, 2015
It's 2015.
Look at that. I blinked, and more than a year has passed since I last updated our little blog. There was a year that I wrote 78 entries. And now, in the little list of posts by year, there's a whole year missing. 2014 didn't even happen if you would judge by what's recorded here. But really, so much did. Esch graduated from law school and started working. William and Gwennie are best friends and they played together every day. We went on trips, celebrated birthdays and holidays and kissed boo-boos.
It doesn't only feel like I blinked and a year passed. It feels more like I blinked and 6 years have passed. I began the blog in May of 2009, when we were about to share the news that we were expecting our first baby with our families over Mother's Day weekend.
Then, none of our parents or grandparents were on Facebook, and now they are. I think that may be partly why the blog has fallen by the wayside. We had a better way to stay up to date - rather than weekly (or monthly, as time went by, especially after Gwennie arrived), I now share pictures of and little tidbits about the kids on Facebook and everyone can see them. It's a great way to share. But I know that someday it won't exist anymore. I am pretty good about printing photo books, so I don't worry that the kids will never have photographic evidence of their childhoods to page through. However, I do really regret how the lack of blogging has meant that a lot of little things have been lost. Little memories (and big, really ones, too... reading back over the past 6 years of adventures both life-changing and small daily moments in our family's life) easily fade away. Pictures will always be valuable to me, but there is something about a written account, recording our days, both important and usual, that photos just don't provide.
Last week I ordered a printed book of this blog up through the last post (which was Thanksgiving of 2013 - shame on me). It was around $50 for a pretty low-quality, black and white version. But it will be something we can hold in our hands, and give the kids someday. And the way I felt re-reading those old entries will of course only be more special as more years pass us by.
Even though my little photography business has grown every year, and our family is growing (as I write this I can feel #3's small movements), and life is crazy, I don't want the memories of these years to be lost (or diminished, of course I will remember so many things...) but by taking some time every week or so to write about what we are doing, what two-year-old Gwennie is saying, what William is drawing and what knock-knock jokes make him laugh, I hope we'll add to the story of what we were all like when our children were small.
Just think what the cheaply printed little black and white softcover book might hold 6 years from now. Our new baby will be the age that William is as I write this. Maybe Esch will be about to be made a Partner. We will almost definitely be in a new home, with a new dog. It all goes by so fast. We watched some family videos the other day, showing William and Gwennie themselves as babies and it was amazing how we'd already forgotten how tiny they were (Oh, I remember that outfit!) (Do you remember that day at the park?), what their little voices sounded like at __blank__ age, etc.
Making a little vow to myself to be sure to keep the blog going, both for myself and for William, Gwen, and ??? (right now we are thinking either Johnny or Annie) someday.
Right now, at this minute, it is 4:30 p.m. on a Sunday. Esch and the kids are running around the downstairs in circles, through the living room, dining room, and kitchen, playing some indecipherable game that involves screaming "aloha!", throwing a balloon, and hiding in a cardboard house. The dog is chasing and barking. I am tired from staying up late last night at Esch's first law firm party with McNees, Wallace, and Nurick at the Hotel Hershey. It was black tie - we dressed up, spent the night, and Jeff and Barb stayed at our house with the kids. It's January, and we had snow 2 days ago, with 4-6 inches expected tonight. When I close the laptop, I'll go scan the fridge and pantry for dinner ideas that please all of us. It's a rare afternoon with absolutely nothing to do but be together.
It doesn't only feel like I blinked and a year passed. It feels more like I blinked and 6 years have passed. I began the blog in May of 2009, when we were about to share the news that we were expecting our first baby with our families over Mother's Day weekend.
Then, none of our parents or grandparents were on Facebook, and now they are. I think that may be partly why the blog has fallen by the wayside. We had a better way to stay up to date - rather than weekly (or monthly, as time went by, especially after Gwennie arrived), I now share pictures of and little tidbits about the kids on Facebook and everyone can see them. It's a great way to share. But I know that someday it won't exist anymore. I am pretty good about printing photo books, so I don't worry that the kids will never have photographic evidence of their childhoods to page through. However, I do really regret how the lack of blogging has meant that a lot of little things have been lost. Little memories (and big, really ones, too... reading back over the past 6 years of adventures both life-changing and small daily moments in our family's life) easily fade away. Pictures will always be valuable to me, but there is something about a written account, recording our days, both important and usual, that photos just don't provide.
Last week I ordered a printed book of this blog up through the last post (which was Thanksgiving of 2013 - shame on me). It was around $50 for a pretty low-quality, black and white version. But it will be something we can hold in our hands, and give the kids someday. And the way I felt re-reading those old entries will of course only be more special as more years pass us by.
Even though my little photography business has grown every year, and our family is growing (as I write this I can feel #3's small movements), and life is crazy, I don't want the memories of these years to be lost (or diminished, of course I will remember so many things...) but by taking some time every week or so to write about what we are doing, what two-year-old Gwennie is saying, what William is drawing and what knock-knock jokes make him laugh, I hope we'll add to the story of what we were all like when our children were small.
Just think what the cheaply printed little black and white softcover book might hold 6 years from now. Our new baby will be the age that William is as I write this. Maybe Esch will be about to be made a Partner. We will almost definitely be in a new home, with a new dog. It all goes by so fast. We watched some family videos the other day, showing William and Gwennie themselves as babies and it was amazing how we'd already forgotten how tiny they were (Oh, I remember that outfit!) (Do you remember that day at the park?), what their little voices sounded like at __blank__ age, etc.
Making a little vow to myself to be sure to keep the blog going, both for myself and for William, Gwen, and ??? (right now we are thinking either Johnny or Annie) someday.
Right now, at this minute, it is 4:30 p.m. on a Sunday. Esch and the kids are running around the downstairs in circles, through the living room, dining room, and kitchen, playing some indecipherable game that involves screaming "aloha!", throwing a balloon, and hiding in a cardboard house. The dog is chasing and barking. I am tired from staying up late last night at Esch's first law firm party with McNees, Wallace, and Nurick at the Hotel Hershey. It was black tie - we dressed up, spent the night, and Jeff and Barb stayed at our house with the kids. It's January, and we had snow 2 days ago, with 4-6 inches expected tonight. When I close the laptop, I'll go scan the fridge and pantry for dinner ideas that please all of us. It's a rare afternoon with absolutely nothing to do but be together.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)