Fall 2015

I keep hoping that time will slow down and I'll get to savor these days with my kids being small, especially Aurelia's baby-ness, but it's flying by faster than ever. We do our best to weed things out of our schedule, even things that we might REALLY want to do, in an effort to keep life at a manageable pace. Even so, we find ourselves feeling pretty busy most days, which I guess is inevitble with small children.

At the beginning of the school year Malakai tried out soccer for the first time. He liked it a lot, but the jury is out as to whether or not he will want to play again next season. Now he's in basketball and he's really enjoying it. He doesn't have much experience with basketball and it really showed his first few practices, it was pretty cute watching him learn new skills and the rules of the game. His coach is so very patient and really great at teaching him techniques for dribbling, shooting, gaurding, and all those other basketball musts. 

Last month I had the joy of accompanying Malakai on his first pumpkin patch field trip with all the 1st graders at his school. It was such a fun little trip and I loved seeing him interact with the other children and his teacher. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day! We've been trying to get more involved withouot overloading our schedule (as I mentioned before) so we can get to know more families and help Malakai feel a part of the community at his school. I'm chomping at the bit to volunteer on a more regular basis, just waiting on his teacher to need me!

Desmond is getting back into the groove of wanting to do school again. For a stretch he wasn't really into it. He wanted to play superheros all day long and even when he said he wanted to do school he struggled with following directions because he would change his mind or want to rush through to get to something else. Thankfully he's liking it again and is getting into memorizing Bible verses and sounding out letters. We have done just a little name writing practice and he surprised me last week by writing his name at an activity we were attending at Malakai's school. 

Aurelia is fine tuning all sorts of new skills. She's walking all over the place, but still has some sturdiness issues and trips on a regular basis. I love watching her wobbly walk and the look of excitement and pride when she gets going fast for a long stretch. She just stood up from sitting without grabbing something for help for the first time this week.  She is doing a lot of talking, signing and mimicing of noises and behaviours. She said "hi, dada" and waved at him the other day. If she hears Ben come home from work she will toddle down the hallway to greet him, arms up high wanting a hug. She says mama and follows me around all day long. She has been going through a clingy stage, which I think has to do with working on some molars because it's also really messing with her sleep.

Aurelia's newest words are "uh-uh" while shaking her head no, "mm-hm" while nodding yes, "muh" or "num" while signing for more to eat, "hewwo" while putting a toy phone up to her ear and "wook" while pointing for you to look at something. 

Ben + I have not only been busy with the kid's activities but various social events and projects of our own. In the last couple months, with the help of our wonderful families, he has installed a new tub surround (which also required new dry wall, and repainting the bathroom) and added a concrete slab to our side yard. These have been on our to-do list for quite some time so it feels good to have them done and I'm so proud of Ben's hard work as he pressed on to learn new things and get the work done quickly!

In the midst of it all I'm hoping to get back to updating here more. I knew I wouldn't get to or really want to make this space a priority during this past year with so many new things and it felt like a very pivitol year for me as a mother, savoring the baby days of our last child. I'm still savoring the days but also able to find time to do some of my hobbies that I put aside, like blogging, a little more.