My baby boy turned three this month! Here is his cute little interview, where he squirms around and makes me laugh. :) Enjoy!
June 2017 - Letters to Our Children
Remember to check out the rest of the circle! Click on Evangeline's letter after you finish mine to continue around the circle. When you keep reading and clicking, you'll land back here!
Mason, Rylan, and Elli,
The last month has flown by again. I don't know why it seems like we're always so busy when none of you are even in school or doing activities yet. I can't imagine what it will be like when you actually start doing things out of the house! But speaking of activities, at least you, Mason, are going to do swimming lessons next month- which I'm excited about. Rylan, you might get to do them too, but we have to work out the timing with it.
Last month started with Grand Prix at church. We did simple cars again: baseball scores from the newspaper covered in mod podge. It was nothing fancy, but it was actually easier than the paint. Maybe next year we'll start to be ambitious and plan things ahead of time so that we can do a cooler design. You also got to sit in a Walmart tractor trailer before the start of Grand Prix. You both really liked that.
This month we celebrated Lilli's birthday, took lots of walks together, played with the white cat a lot, picked strawberries, and ate at Sanzones for Mother's Day. It also rained a lot this month. One day it rained so hard that we had giant floods in our yard and parts of our driveway were also flooded. You boys really loved playing outside in the rain in the flooded areas. At this point, it doesn't look like our stream will ever be dry this summer.
Awana ended this month too. I worked for a long time to make the end-of-the-year video for awards night. It was fun to look back at so many things that we have done this year. I feel sad that Rylan, you're already done with Puggle's and Mason, you're done with Cubbies. Elli, you'll be starting Puggle's in only one year, which is also crazy to think about. To end the T&T year, the fifth and sixth grade girls had a sleepover that I went to. I stayed until about 1:30 am, but then I came home to make sure that Elli didn't wake up in the middle of the night. Then I went back in the morning to make donuts with the girls.
The big thing that we did this month was take a little vacation to the same place we went last year in Williamsburg. On the way there we stopped near Richmond at a tractor-trailer museum, and all of the boys in the family loved it. There were tractors, tractor trailers, chainsaws, bikes, and even a cool car or two. After that, we checked in to our condo place in Williamsburg and headed to the pool. Last time, we went in February, so the outside pool wasn't open. We could see how pretty it looked last time, though, so we were excited about using it this time, and we weren't disappointed. We stayed three nights and spent time in colonial Williamsburg, played miniature golf, swam both indoors and outdoors, and made a day trip to Virginia Beach. It was a relaxing trip, and we all had a very nice time.
We did have an appliance break this month, and surprise surprise, it was our washer. Since we've moved to this house we have not had very good luck with washers and dryers. But this was just about the best week for something like that to happen, because Daddy was on vacation, and it was right at the start of Memorial Day sales at Lowes. We ended up getting a new washer at a super discounted price. (Daddy said he was done with Craigslist washers.)
Elli: you are growing just as you should be. You are starting to crawl, even though it looks more like swimming. You've gotten really fast, and the boys have to watch out if they have something on the floor that you want. You started to do this cute little blink thing that looks a little bit like something Mason did when he was a baby. You close your eyes really tight while tilting your head back and smiling really big. You still don't sleep through the night, but most nights aren't too bad anymore. You still have no teeth. You still don't like to sit up, even though you know how to do it. You are extremely attached to me, and you usually cry if somebody else is holding you while you can see me. You will eat most things that come in a pouch as long as there is something to make it sweet. (You didn't like the chicken and peas pouch that I tried to give you the other day.) You also say "bah bah" while waving. 😃 You are sweet and you make us happy.
Rylan: you are as wild, strong, funny, tough, and cute as ever. You seem older than your age, even though you're turning three this month. You and Mason have started fighting what feels like constantly these days, and I'm trying to figure out what to do about that. It's confusing, because sometimes you play really well together and usually one of you doesn't want to play at all without the other one. But then it only takes a minute or two before I hear screaming or crying. On a different note, I'm starting to think that you're going to like art. You've drawn some things this month that amazed me. I wondered if someone else did it or if you are a secret art genius. Unfortunately, they were drawn on erasable board's, so there is no proof of them.
Mason: you are really growing up. You have moments where you show fierceness and anger, but then you also have moments where you ask amazing questions, help us with things we didn't even ask for help with, or show tenderness to one of your siblings. We have discovered recently how competitive you are. You can't stand to hear a complement about Rylan without saying that you are more ______. Like if someone says that Rylan is so strong you immediately say, "but I'm a lot stronger!!" You always want to be the best at things. You had your kindergarten check up this month, and you did a great job. You didn't have to get any shots, because we got them before we went to Zimbabwe, so that was a relief for you. We went on a date together after your appointment. You chose to get a happy meal at McDonald's and take it to the mall to play. While I ate, you played America Ninja Warrior on the play things in the mall. You were very good at it! After that we went to Bath and Body Works to so that I could spend my gift card from my birthday. You had a great time spraying every single scent in the store onto those little pieces of paper. You also used one lotion all over your legs that did not have the "try me" sticker on it....thankfully the employees were very nice about it. Your date with daddy this month was to a model train exhibit in Fishersville. You also got to get a little Frosty afterwards. You had a lot of fun with Daddy, and you talked about it for days afterwards! For a while, just about every day on the monitor you would say, "Mama, want me to sing Saddle Up Your Horses to you??" And when you start the song, you sing, "Started out this mornin, in the uzhunal way...." (Apparently uzhunal sounds like a perfectly normal word to you, because you sing it that way every time.)
Here are some quotes from this month:
(Talking about our vacation to Williamsburg)
Me: Have you ever heard of Pocahontas?
Rylan: No. I want to listen to it!
Me: She was a lady who lived a long time ago...she's dead now.
Mason: How? Is it smoking? I bet it's from smoking.
“When I grow up, I wanna be a Daddy. And you can be a Ry Ry.”
“Mommy, I want to go to the inside pool. (Me: We’re going to the ocean, not the pool.) Ok. I want to go to the inside ocean.”
“Mommy, can I have my blankifier and my pacifier?”
Well, kids, I love you. I'm excited for our summer together!
Love, Mommy
Mason is Five!
I think I might be in denial, but my first baby is five. Five. Years. Old. I did another birthday interview with him, and he was as cute as ever. He is definitely sounding more grown up though!!