Wow I cannot believe it's been so long since I made a journal entry! Truly, noting extraordinary has happened, so I guess it never felt driven to make a new entry. I finally realized I have several photos from the last few weeks that I should get online and share with everyone.
For those of you worried about Anna drowning in the bathtub, let me assure you that she was not actually sleeping. She was honestly just resting her eyes, I promise! Once Pavan caught her looking so sleepy, she got right out of the tub and headed to bed.
As you can see, Amaya is becoming more "girly" by the minute. She now insists on pretty painted nails along with her pretty dress, tights, shoes, and hair. She is something else, and when I describe her she sounds like a spoiled brat. But I assure you she is nothing of the sort. She is such an amazing little girl. So smart, and funny, and cuddly. But she does love to look pretty! Her newest obsession is the bottom of her shoes. I've been buying her several new dresses and new shoes in preparation for summer, and our trip to the beach (only 3 more weeks!). Every time I show a dress or shoes to her, she gets so excited and says OH WOOOOW! After I get her dressed, and get her shoes on, the first thing she does is look at the bottom of her shoe. Then she makes sure everyone in the house admires the bottom of her shoe. And then she protects the bottom of her shoe by refusing to walk outside. She will walk to the door leading into our garage, takes one look at the garage floor, and then says, Mommy will you carry me? Same thing when we stop the car, she takes one look at the ground and says Mommy will you carry me? And if she does have to walk and the bottom of her shoe gets dirty, she will come home and insist on washing them first thing! She is something else!
Another funny funny thing that she's been doing lately has to do with washing her face and mouth. Now, after hearing about her insistence on keeping her shoes clean, you'd think she'd appreciate a clean face. But no....it has to be HER idea to clean her face. One day she was eating cinnamon toast, and when she was finished I washed her face and hands with a baby wipe. She got so mad, and as soon as I walked away, she grabbed that piece of toast and smeared the butter all over her hands and face again! Same thing with a candy cane she was eating at the coffee shop one day. Pavan wiped off her hands and face, and she grabbed that candy cane and wiped it all over her face and hands again! Like I said, she is something else! She keeps us laughing though!
Noah is doing well. A couple of weeks ago I enrolled him in the 4K program at Nativity Catholic for next year. He will be going 4 full days, we are going to take Monday's off. He will start Kindergarten the next year, and at that time Amaya will start preschool. We plan to keep Amaya Noah and Anna at the Catholic school, we just love the atmosphere and learning environment there. I have actually been taking Amaya to Mass at Anna's school on Thursday mornings. Anna loves that I come, and the service is actually enjoyable to watch. Like I've said before, it's much different than any service I'm used to attending....but it's so symbolic and meaningful, and is giving me a completely different understanding of Catholicism. In Protestant churches, you hear so much about Catholicism...much of it from ex-Catholics who bad mouth the church. It's nice to learn about it on my own, and come to my own conclusions. I've also been reading the book Catholicism for Dummies, to get a better understanding of the words and ceremonies I keep hearing about.
Noah is really enjoying himself in dance class. I can't wait to see how he reacts to recital! You never know how any child that age will do when they get thrown onto a big stage with all those lights and all those people watching! He is also taking swim classes on Saturday mornings, and indoor soccer on Thursday evenings.
Anna has started taking private gymnastics lessons on Friday evenings in Weston, WI. She absolutely loves it! Her coach is named Kris, and we go to lesson from 5-6PM. Then they have an open gym time from 6-730PM where the kids work on the equipment and play some games, all supervised by several coaches who are available to help them out. Of course the week after she started her private lessons, we learned that Rhinelander is finally starting their gymnastics lessons again. Looks like Anna will be going on Monday evenings for general training, and Thursday evenings to work on a routine for competitions. But for now I think we'll keep taking her to Weston for her private lessons. She enjoys them, she's learning a lot, and we love getting to Wausau once a week! Last weekend we stayed overnight in Wausau after her lesson. We got a room in a hotel with a great heated pool and water slide...spent the evening in the pool, and then spent the next day doing some shopping. It was a great time.
Anna keeps busy with dance classes on Tuesday nights (Anna and Kindra and Noah all have dance on Tuesday nights), school choir on Wednesdays right after school, swim class on Thursday evenings, gymnastics on Friday evenings, and swimming on Saturday mornings. The good thing is that this session at the YMCA ends the same week gymnastics in Rhinelander starts, so we will drop her swimming classes for now to make time for gymnastics. It sounds like a lot, but Anna is the type of kid who loves to stay busy and active. We make school work a priority, she has chores to complete at home, and we make sure she gets plenty of sleep at night!
Kindra stays pretty busy too! I don't know what I'd do without her help, and she has quickly learned that she earns time with her friends (at the movies, sleepovers, YMCA) when she helps out without complaining! On Mondays she babysits the other three kids while I attend a step class at the YMCA. (By the way, I thought I was going to die after that first week of class, I literally could barely move for 4 days!! But every week it's gotten easier, and I can tell a huge difference in my energy level) On Tuesdays we have dance, on Wednesdays she has youth group at church, on Thursdays she goes to the YMCA after school with a bunch of friends and then helps out with Amaya while I take another class at the YMCA (women on weights) if Pavan isn't able to get there on time. Fridays we all go to Wausau, and then Saturdays Kindra usually does something with her friends. Sometimes they go to a movie, sometimes she has a friend come over to stay the night, last weekend they had a lock in at the highschool sponsored by FACT, an anti drug group and the Oneida County Health Department. There were games, dancing, food, swimming....they had a great time.
The weather has been getting better up here, Spring is slowly making it's way to the northwoods. It's one step forward and two steps back though. We had a few really nice days near 70, and then two feet of snow the next week. Then we had some nice days around 50, and this morning woke up to a few inches of snow. Personally, I'm ok with the cold weather and snowy days....it will make our trip to the beach that much more enjoyable! But once we get home, watch out! I'll be ready for spring!
I'd better get going. Monday is my day to catch up on laundry, and that ought to take the rest of the day! My washing machine is acting up, and I hate to call anyone to take a look at it. It's one of those computerized kinds, so I'm afraid it will cost a fortune to have it repaired. Note to self...buy one of the old fashioned kind of washing machines, with the knobs, next time!
One last thing....I would like to ask you all to keep my friend Romney in your prayers. A couple of weeks ago she suffered her 5th miscarriage. Only this time it was so much more traumatic than the previous 4 times, because she had made it halfway through her pregnancy. She had felt the baby moving, and had thought they'd made it past the critical time when she had miscarried the other four babies. She is understandably going through a really hard time, grieving their loss, while still trying to make it through every day with their two daughters, Kate (4) and Sadie (7 months....remember they adopted her in August?). So, she and her husband Todd could use all of your thoughts and prayers.
More later...
Rebecca
No comments:
Post a Comment