J @ 5.5

Jason celebrated his half-birthday at school on Monday, which in my mind justifies a little update on my 5.5 year old.  (Is it just me, or did those of us with summer birthdays just get jipped back in the day?)

Nicknames:  J, Buddy, Bud, Spud

For a boy who moved very little as a baby and toddler, Jason sure is an active boy now.  Often you will find him running from one place to another in the house.  He likes to chase Katie around the island or race down the hallway to the front door.  He also likes to wrestle with his sisters (and anyone else).  The friend he plays with most often though isn’t much for wrestling so we’ve had many, many talks about being a good friend.

This was one of the rare times Jason and his sisters were participating in a non-contact activity by looking at a big seek and find book together.

Jason’s really good though at channeling his energy during church or school.  We’re often told how well behaved he is and how quiet, calm and polite he acts.  So glad to hear his moments of rambunctiousness are primarily kept at home.

I wrote the following back in October and it never got posted:

Living in a construction zone means we have easy access to outdoor potties.  I know they are disgusting, but Jason thinks they are awesome.  Sometimes I think he uses them just for the fun of it. 

 

that’s Jason’s bike parked outside a nearby "restroom" 

Tuesday as we were heading home from soccer Jason told me he needed to use the bathroom really bad.  I told him we’d be home in a few minutes and that he could wait.  By his whimpering I began to doubt he’d make it.  I threw him an empty shopping bag to sit on and tried to distract him by talking about his day at school, hoping we could at least make to one of the porta-pottys in our neighborhood.  I could tell he was on the brink of a major accident so immediately after I pulled into our neighborhood I pulled over to the side of the road and he jumped out, dropped his pants, and peed in the decorative landscaping adorning the neighborhood entrance.  I stayed in the van praying nobody would turn onto the street and see my son, bare bottomed, peeing right off the main parkway.   Embarrassing, yes, but accident adverted.  Katie pointed out her window and asked if she could go potty there and has pointed out the spot “Day-Day (Jason) potty” a few times since.

Another older picture – I was woken up on a Sunday morning back in November by Jason coming up along side my bed and asking me a question while very nonchalantly wearing a ski mask.  After the initial shock wore off I’m sure I answered him then went back to sleep.  Apparently the ski mask stayed on for a good portion of the morning because I later discovered these pictures on Justin’s phone.  No big deal, just eatin’ breakfast with a facial sweater… funny boy!

Since we learned of Jason’s food allergies I’ve always been concerned that if someone handed him a cookie he would, without question, eat it right up.  This was especially concerning as a toddler when he had such a limited vocabulary.  Jason’s teacher tells me that nearly every day at snack time Jason asks if he can eat what she has passed out to the class, even when it’s something they’ve had before.  To her it makes her second guess herself, but to me it’s a huge comfort that he’s finally aware that he needs to be careful about what he eats.

When given the option to take any treat into class on Monday he chose fruit snacks.

Will often quietly repeat what we say – I’m thinking it may helps him process it.  For example if he asks me how many weeks til Grandma Kesler comes to visit, and I reply 15 weeks, I can hear him quietly whisper to himself “15 weeks”.  I think it’s actually pretty cute.

Is going through a very sensitive stage.  When he gets frustrated or hurt he usually ends up running upstairs to his room crying.  He only needs a minute or two and then he’s back down as if nothing happened, but we are trying to teach him to communicate with words instead of taking off.

Since starting kindergarten in September I’ve noticed this boy can draw.  He’s also writing really well, can sound out basic words, and is doing really well with his addition.

This isn’t his best work of art, but it’s something I found on the office floor yesterday.

If you can’t tell the boy on the left is saying “BOOM” and the boy on the right is saying “AAAAAA”  I entirely blame this on the nerf gun Justin bought Jason for Christmas.

When we went to Hawaii, Jason’s teacher asked him to keep a journal of the things he did on vacation.  Here are a few pages:

I’m not sure if all schools do this, but as the kids are learning to write they are encouraged to write a word how it sounds to them.  I can’t remember exactly what they call this approach – maybe inventive spelling.  It’s really strange for me.  I’ve been in the classroom helping the kids and been specifically told not to help them spell words correctly.  The parent in me struggles a bit with this, but I’m trusting in the process. 

Jason isn’t a huge fan of wearing jeans

Jason is super easy to entertain – he’s really good about finding something to do and enjoys just about anything.  He plays lots of games, likes to look at books and loves being read to, he still enjoys cars, but is just as content playing with the doll house if we have a friend of the female variety over.  He’s also likes to be creative by coloring, drawing, or creating designs out of the melty beads.

Jason and Justin have a new little bedtime routine that in addition to reading a story each night and reading Book of Mormon stories, they playing catch before turning out the lights.  Jason loves that special time with his Dad.

Jason always includes “bless the baby” in his prayers

I think my boy gets off too easy with chores.  I know at this age the girls were already folding and putting away the laundry and helping with the dishes.  I think it’s high time we step things up and give this boy a little more responsibility around the house.

One of Jason’s regular jobs (which he actually enjoys) is cleaning the toilets.  He uses far too many disinfecting wipes for my liking, but it’s worth it.  He also sets the table and helps his sisters put away the silverware.

Jason can be very nurturing and loving to his little sister.  Katie and Jason play so well together every morning before he goes to school.  He’s great about including her when he has friends over to play.  Such a great big brother!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today (Hong Kong time) is my Mom’s birthday – would she be opposed to me posting her age?  Let’s just say it’s a milestone birthday.  We wish we could celebrate with her.  No shocker that I didn’t get a package or card sent to her, but in my defense she is being released from her mission on Thursday and then traveling around the world for several weeks before heading back to the states so I wasn’t sure she’d even get it.  Actually, she doesn’t really care about gifts or cards so I don’t really need to feel guilty at all.  I know she’ll check the blog though and I wanted to let her know how much we love and miss her.

My Mom is the most amazing example to me.  She is the kind of mother I hope to be.  She loves unconditionally, accepting us as we are – flaws and all.  She doesn’t judge and she doesn’t criticize.  I always know she will be there to support, listen, and love.  She’s so much more than a mother she’s a friend and we are so blessed to have her in our lives.

Love you Mom – can’t wait to see you soon!

My “Baby” Girl

If I could have chosen any gender for this pregnancy I would have chosen a boy – it just makes sense.  Evens out the numbers a bit, gives Jason a brother, logical right?  So yes, I was excited.  But then I got home and saw Katie and felt really sad.  I ADORE that girl!  She is so full of personality and love.  I have enjoyed her so, so much. I have always, always, always loved being a mother and I certainly don’t favor one of my children over another or one gender over the other, but I’ve said this before, when Katie was born I had a light bulb moment and I GOT IT.  There was never any rush to get though any stage.  I enjoyed her and found happiness and contentment even during the multiple midnight feedings.  I recently read “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin – interesting book with lots of great take-a-ways.  Anyhow, one thing she said was, “The days are long, but the years are short.”  I don’t necessary think the days are THAT long in fact often they seem to fly by, but I do know that the years are WAY too short.  I’m in no rush to see my kids walk out that door, if I could slow down the time I have with them I would.

I guess none of that is really gender specific nor does it necessarily explain why I felt a bit saddened that I wasn’t going to have another little girl.  Perhaps it was just a reminder that Katie is growing up and that I can’t go back and recapture or relive all those special moments with her.  I’m not making much sense.  But in summary – super excited to experience having another little boy – super bummed that my little girls keep growing up.  (And it’s no secret I’ve been trying to convince Jason for years to stop getting bigger)

Katie has changed so much in these past few months that I feel it’s time for an update on my adorable little girl:

Nicknames include:  Baby, Babe, Love, Sweetie Peetie, K

Katie has become quite expressive.  I’ve had a couple different people comment to me recently that she is talking quite a bit.  I love her little voice and hearing her formulate her thoughts into words.  She can put together full on sentences that can actually be understood by others.  My Mom hasn’t seen Katie since she was eight months old, she’ll be coming to visit when we have the baby in May and I keep wishing I could freeze time so my Mom can experience and share these stages.  Seriously, this girl rocks my world – she is so stinkin’ fun.

After Hawaii I thought we’d have Katie potty trained in no time – she had been using the bathroom several times a day and stayed dry during our entire flight home.  But then she got sick, then I got sick, and potty training just wasn’t something I thought about.  Not sure when that interest (in both of us) will return, but we’re not there.  She sits on the potty almost everyday, but we’re not consistent enough to go down that road.  I’ve always said I’d much rather change diapers that clean up “accidents” so we always wait til it can be an easy transition.

Photo taken back in October

The day after we got home from Hawaii Katie asked to sleep in the “big girl bed” in her room.  She was so excited about it that we decided to give it a shot.  We tucked her in and were surprised when we didn’t hear from her until morning.  She never slept in her crib again.  A few days after making the move she insisted that we take the crib out of her room before turning out the lights for the night.  Neither Justin nor I felt like getting out the tools necessary to take it apart so we tried to tell her we’d do it another time, but she was insistent and her request was granted.  We thought it was funny that the next night she asked for the crib to be put back up (we held firm on this one).  It’s been nearly three months and Katie hasn’t gotten out of bed once.  Even when she wakes up in the morning or after a nap she calls for us to come get her – we don’t necessarily take her out of bed, I think she just wants our OK that she’s ready to wake up.  Talk about easy, peesy!

She still has a binkie when she sleeps – yes, I know it’s time to take that away, but if it jeopardizes whether she’ll still take naps I’m not ready.

Katie still willingly takes long naps nearly every day.  Occasionally there are days she’ll be in bed for an hour or two and I won’t be sure she ever fell asleep, but I think that’s rare.  Either way she’s resting and quiet.  We’re also in a nice stage where if I want to skip a nap for my convenience she’s totally fine with that too.  She may end up a little more sensitive or whiney by bedtime, but it’s not a big deal.  With the start of the new year we now have church from 1-4pm so Sundays are napless days.

We missed so much church in October because of vacations, sickness, etc… that when we got back from Hawaii Katie struggled every time I dropped her off at nursery.  Apparently she’d just cry for a few minutes and then be ok the rest of the time.  Often whichever adult comforted her during that time Katie would stick close to the rest of the class.  One week that particular adult had to pick up a crying child and Katie stood there and scowled at her making clear the betrayal she felt.  The last month we’ve seen a huge change, she’s actually excited to go and when we pick her up at the end of church she’ll proudly exclaim to us, “Me happy in church!”

Katie doesn’t cry much.  Late last night as Justin and I went to bed we heard her crying – like she was having a bad dream – it only lasted a few seconds, but we both noticed that hearing her cry isn’t something we hear every day.  Sure she whines occasionally and will cry if she’s hurt, but she really is a happy little girl.

Has started to develop friendships.  The other day in the car she rattled off to Justin the names of a few of her friends from church.  Every Friday I do a swap with another Mom who has a 4 year old daughter.  Now that Katie is communicating so well I think they are finally starting to actually play together instead of independently.

At least a few times every week since November Katie will ask, “Me back hotel?”  So funny that Katie still has memories of Hawaii and would love to go back.  Actually, we all would!

Katie loves to say prayers – she likes us to help her out and she’ll repeat what we say pretty much word for word.  At the end all she needs is us to say, “In the” and she’ll excitedly complete it with “name Je Chri – AMEN!”

Katie likes to play games.  Abigail got the game Headbanz for Christmas and Katie had lots of fun wearing the cards on her forehead.  We had to be real careful though cause often she’d get so excited about the card she’d see one of wearing that she’d blurt out what the picture was that we were trying to guess.

Katie recently started pretending.  She put a baby doll down for a nap on top of her pillowpet with a blanket at nap or bedtime.  When she woke up she exclaimed, “Baby Happy!”  She’ll have make believe conversations on the “phone” and will tell herself a story as she looks at books.

She has the most squishable, kissable cheeks and an infectious laugh

I’ve recently been reading about the love languages of children and in the book it mentions if you’re trying to figure out your child’s love language then pay attention to how they express love.  For Katie without a doubt, she expresses her love physically.  She is all about giving hugs and kisses and we freely give them right back to her.  It’s possible she may just be limited by her age and capabilities to show love in other ways (service, words of affirmation, etc…) but for now it’s all about snuggles and smooches.

Can count to ten and has the ABC song down pretty well

There is nothing terrible about the twos with this girl.  To be honest I don’t think any of our kids put us thru the “terrible twos” – if anything three was usually a rougher age than two. 

A few weeks ago we had another two year old at the house and she got into everything.  Katie followed her around the house picking up after this friend and trying to keep her out of trouble.  This little girl even tried to help herself out the front door – something I’ve never had to worry about, ever.  I can’t imagine how my friend can even have a few minutes to herself to shower with such a busy little girl.  Not my Katie.  She can certainly make a mess, but she’s not exceptionally curious and doesn’t get herself into much trouble.

Katie likes to go shopping and run errands, but she’s content to stay home too.  She’ll say, “me stay home with you!”

Katie likes to pick out what she wears and has gotten really good at putting on or taking off her pants, though she still struggles with shirts.

She’s not a huge fan of getting her hair done, but that’s probably my fault.  She never complains when we do it, but if I ask her if she’d like a ponytail or a clip most of the time she’ll say no – guess she’s happy with it falling into her face all the time.

Pretty much every day I make a smoothie pack full of spinach, carrots, cucumbers, bananas, oranges, and a little frozen fruit to take the edge off.  The kids have actually learned to really like them, especially Katie.  Yum, Yum!

Katie likes to color and write.  She’ll sit at the desk with me with a paper and pencil and ask how to spell something (usually the names of our family members) as I spell out the letters she’ll jot down some symbol on her paper and wait for me to tell her the next letter.

We read a book at naptime and bedtime.  I’m sure most kids are like this, but she could read the same book for weeks and not tire of it.  Some of her favorite books are the seek & find picture books.  She has an amazing memory and can quickly point out where all the items are hidden on the pages.

Have I made it clear enough how smitten we are?

Love this girl!

Out of the Box

As I was nearing the end of high school and preparing to leave home for college, my Mom and I took a trip up north to visit my sister Brenda who was attending Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho.  I don’t remember much about that trip, but I do remember my sister treated me to a delicious alfredo pasta dinner.  My sisters and I baked desserts a lot growing up, but the cooking was primarily left to my Mom.  I was impressed with Brenda’s culinary skills and planned to prepare similar meals for myself when I was out on my own. 

I’ve always been a frugal person though and instead I ate rice every day of college for four years.  Every day for four years.  I was on academic scholarship, which paid for my tuition, but the majority of my college expenses were paid for with money I’d earned and saved from the time I started babysitting when I was eleven.  I worked hard and I saved.  To be honest the rice was paid for by my parents.  Every time I came home from college I raided our food storage and took back enough to sustain me til my next visit.  My Mom would also stock up on Kraft Macaroni and Cheese for me to take back to school with me.  One year for Christmas she gave me a whole case of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese in the spiral variety – a perfect gift for me which I carefully rationed. 

When I transferred to BYU I had two roommates from Texas that liked to cook.  I mean they could create a meal.  From scratch.   In my scrapbook I have a picture of my failed attempt at making biscuits – the caption reads “My version of “biskits” nothing like TEXAS” – not sure what’s up with my spelling, honestly I was a scholarly student. 

Yesterday the kids were home from school and when we realized at nearly 2pm that they hadn’t eaten lunch, Abigail raided the pantry and found everything needed to make the identical meal my sister turned me on to over 15 years ago.  Funny to think that this was a luxury food item to me.  

The packages had long since expired but the kids enjoyed their lunch and I was grateful to get rid of them.  I can’t bear to eat it myself.  Perhaps they have changed the taste of it over the years, but more than likely I’ve finally acquired a little higher standard when it comes to what I would consider a delicious meal.  (Though I’ll admit I will likely always have a weakness for Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.)

When I married Justin rice everyday wasn’t going to cut it.  Neither would plain spaghetti with spray butter – I had to adjust to spending the extra dollar for spaghetti sauce and add in a few vegetables to accompany the rice.  Gradually I’ve increased what I’m willing to spend on groceries and thanks to great friends who’ve shared their recipes over the years (and wonderful websites) we no longer eat like poor, starving college students.

When we moved to Snoqualmie my goal was to cook one new recipe every week.  It didn’t always happen, but through this process we gathered piles of yummy recipes.  (Justin even has several new recipes under his repertoire.)  This month I finally got our “Fletcher Family Favorites” cookbook updated so we have all of them organized in one binder.  By no means would I consider myself a great cook, our bar is still set pretty low, but I’ve come a long, long way and the contrast between yesterday’s lunch and this delicious new recipe I tried (and tweaked slightly) for dinner proved that to me.   

Eleven!

How in the heck did I become a mother of a 5 foot, 3 inch tall eleven year old???  How did this little girl…

Become this young lady?

This was Abigail’s off year for birthday parties.  Typically we would plan a fun family outing instead of a party, but we had a groupon for roller skating that needed to be used so we told Abigail she could invited two friends and I would take them skating in celebration of her big day.  Friday night I headed to the Auburn Stake Connection with her two friends, the birthday girl, and Carly.  The other skating patrons were a bit dicey – maybe that’s typical of skating rinks, but let’s just say I would never drop off any of my kids for an open skate night.  The girls didn’t seem to mind the questionable environment and I kept close dibs on them from a table next to the rink.

After 3 hours, at 10pm, I finally was able to pry them away by bribing them with dessert at McDonalds on the way home. 

At the end of Saturday, her actual birthday, Abigail had deemed the day as her “lucky day”… a few highlights:

Saturday morning Abigail and I headed into Issaquah for an appointment with a potential piano school, which went very well (more on that later). 

Afterward we ran some errands.  At Fred Meyer she asked if I would get her a box of candy canes on clearance.  50 small candy canes for $0.50 – Sure thing birthday girl!  I’m still stoked how she included that as a highlight of the day. 

She and I enjoyed a quiet lunch at a cute little country-style, homecookin’ restaurant that I heard made delicious potato soup – Abigail doesn’t like potatoes {gasp!} so she ate a ham sandwich (off the adult menu) that she thought was delicious. 

Afterward we used her free cold stone coupon – Love it!

As soon as we got home I got to work in the kitchen and didn’t leave for the next 6 hours.  She wanted to take her basketball team something special for her birthday so we made gigantic chocolate chip cookies with brownies inside.  They are so yummy that they are worth all the effort.

We use our double ovens all the time – on Saturday I was wishing we had a triple oven.  Brownies, 5 pans of cookies, 3 round cakes, cupcakes, banana bread, and dinner.  Justin had to run down to the store cause I’d run out of eggs.  He came home with a package of Mambas for the birthday girl – score!  Double score was that I had picked up a package to surprise her with as well.

Abigail packaged up cookies for each of her team members and coaches and played in her best basketball game of the season yet.  She scored 10 of the 26 points for her team.  I wish I could have been there to share that with her, but I was back home getting her birthday cake and dinner ready with Jason and Carly (while Katie napped).

Abigail had a very clear idea what kind of cake she wanted.  2 chocolate cake layers, one vanilla cake layer and vanilla icing on top.  Then comes the best part – CANDY!  And lots of it!  Carly and Jason helped me put on all the candy (and make sure everything tasted good).

The cake was the first thing she saw when she came home from her game and she said it was better than she’d imagined.  After her shower I asked her to get in a picture with the cake and she jumped up on the counter.

The kids helped me set the table with our “fancy” dishes and goblets for Abigail’s favorite meal – chicken biscuits. 

Grandma Kesler called from Hong Kong as we were finishing up dinner.  Abigail ran into the office to find a quiet place to talk to her, but even from the kitchen I could hear her chatting non-stop about her day.  She was so happy.  As a mother I worry at times whether we do enough for our kids, if the experiences and memories we try to give them will be cherished more than anything we could have purchased, it feels awesome to know that she felt special and that she knew that we love and appreciate her.  (By the way, I’m not saying I’m at all opposed to giving gifts – we usually just try to do something fun instead)

The day concluded with having the Fletcher family over for cake and ice-cream and to open a few gifts from the extended family.  The cherry on top of Abigail’s “lucky day”.

WARNING:  Major bragging ahead, but just being real :)

Abigail is ultra talented.  Honestly, it’s a bit overwhelming.  We want to give our children the opportunity to excel in their abilities and interests, but this girl has no end.  Everything we try she rocks. 

She continues to flourish in the gifted program at school and earned herself a place as one of the four students to represent our school at the district math contest this spring.  She is editor of the school paper and is the librarian’s on-call helper for helping out when the library is exceptionally busy.

Abigail’s current piano teacher told us well over a year ago that Abigail would eventually need to continue lessons in a more challenging environment.  On Saturday morning she met with the program director at the Chopin Academy of Music (who had already met with Abigail’s current teacher privately) and he decided he would create an opening in his schedule to personally work with Abigail if we’d like.  Exciting, yes.. kind of.  We loved the convenience (and cost) of our current teacher and felt Abigail was doing well, but apparently they both feel she’s has greater potential.  We have some hard decisions to make.

Abigail started playing the flute in the fall and is doing really well.  Next year she thinks she might switch to the clarinet though because apparently you can’t play the flute as quickly.  Abigail likes to play fun, upbeat music.  As much as she loves music, without an iPod Abigail’s exposure to music is limited to what I may have in the car or what she hears at school or friends houses.  I’m not ready for that whole pop culture so I’m happy to hold off on that aspect of tween-hood as long as possible.

And sports… goodness.  She’s awesome at soccer, loving the current basketball league she’s playing in, she’s passed all the levels of swim lessons, and was encouraged to join the swim team.  We almost don’t want to introduce any other sport.  She’s an athlete for sure.

Each year I wonder if this will be the year Abigail starts being concerned about wearing the right clothes, having cute hair, make-up, jewelry, or accessories, listening to the cool music, or worrying about her body image.  I hear so many stories from friends about their daughters trying to “fit in” and I’m grateful we’re not there.  I hope she’s always that confident in herself that she doesn’t care about that stuff.  I doubt we’ll always have it this easy, but I’ll enjoy it as long as we do.

Responsible has always been something we hear from teachers, coaches, and friends when they describe Abigail.  I have NEVER had to hound her about homework.  Honestly, I have never had to even sit down with the girl and help her with homework.   I have always been able to count on her to get everything done on her own.

She keeps track of her own schedule.  Which mornings she has early morning band, which days she needs to take her basketball gear for practice after school, she doesn’t forget anything – no homework or lunch left on the counter, no missing assignments, etc…  

She is a good friend.  You can put Abigail with anyone and she will work well with them and get along.  She makes friends easily and is very comfortable in social situations. 

We haven’t gotten a babysitter since August and Justin and I haven’t gone out this often since we had kids.  Abigail takes the role of being in charge very seriously.  She always has Jason and Katie in bed on time (or a bit early).  I worry we might overuse this luxury, but we figure we better take advantage of it before we release her to the neighborhood who will actually compensate her for her services.

As we know, no one can be perfect.  Abigail has gotten a little saucy with us.  No longer can we count on a willing attitude every time we ask her to do something.  She doesn’t keep the cleanest room, nor does she hang up her towel after she showers.  Speaking of which, she doesn’t like to shower and would go days without if we let her.  She also doesn’t like to get her hair done very often. Being such a smarty pants also lends itself to some debating with her parents – something we aren’t too fond of.  But she’s learned from the best :S 

Happy Birthday Miss Abigail – you are AMAZING!