The Joy of Family

With Christmas this weekend, I’m reminded just how intensely fast this year has gone. Again.

It seems like it was only a few weeks ago my brothers and sister were here and we were soaking up each other’s company to the fullest! I find myself missing them a lot more because of that wonderful holiday last year. The differences in my house are further reminders of just how quick the year has been.

Last year, I was pregnant wishing things would go faster. Isabelle was anxious to grow up a little bit more and spend time with friends. This year, we have a nearly 9 month old little guy and presents already under the tree for him! Isabelle got one of her gifts a smidge early, only because we were all excited to give it to her. She got an XBox and it’s fun to watch her play!

Alex has already opened up a couple presents as well from friends who couldn’t be here for Christmas. He’s loving the toys. Watching him play makes me that much more excited to give him the presents Josh and I have picked out for him. He’s a great age. Focused and determined to engage in all things that capture his attention for the few moments he’s interested.

He’s waving these days and it’s hilarious. I’m fairly certain most of it is just learning how to move those limbs with a little more intent. But when he mimics us, it’s just plain fun. He’s still not walking, but he’s getting more and more confident in standing without help. I’ve said for a while, if he’s not walking by Christmas, he’ll be walking soon after that. He continues to validate my prediction every day.

We are currently working on a science project for Isabelle. This year, as she’s explained, she’s a lot more prepared and knows exactly what she wants to do. We start the actual experiment on Thursday and she’s becoming slightly anal about the details. Like a typical girl, she’s more focused on the presentation and artsy part of the project as opposed to the gathering of data and taking notes. Truthfully, she just creates any excuse she can to use my Mac. I’m a little selfish with it.

This past weekend, Josh took the kids to San Diego to visit extended family. It was a great trip for them. I wasn’t able to go, due to prior commitments and lack of room in the car. It was sort of nice to have a house 100% to myself for a couple days. It was weird, but good. They were able to get some great pictures with the grandmas and grandpas. Now we’re coping with getting back into the swing of being home again. It’s incredible how a couple days of unfamiliar territory can completely off-set the routines that took weeks to achieve.

But I digress. He adored being doted on and spoiled for a couple of days. He didn’t have to do an ounce of self entertaining or soothing and that’s really one of the greatest parts of visiting family. The grandkids get spoiled. I love it!

I’m pretty blessed with my little family. Alex is a constant marvel and Isabelle is growing up to be this incredible little lady. It all comes with amazing fun with unpredictable twists and joys.

I’ve been asked a couple times lately when we’re going to have another little person...Right now, things are so perfect, I’m afraid we’d screw it up!

Another greeting by Smilebox

‘Tis The Season

The weekend was very busy, as expected. We ate so much, I am pretty sure we are still full! It was a lot of fun to watch the two babies, Tristan and Alex, play together. We discovered Alex likes cranberry sauce, turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and pretty much anything else that fit in his mouth. Man that kid can eat! We lazed around the rest of the afternoon and collapsed at home late that evening.

Thanksgiving is that holiday that kicks up the speed towards the end of the year. There was madness all around town for Black Friday, and we were safe at home avoiding all of it. With the Super Wal-Mart open for business, there was a special level of chaos around town.

We haven’t put up the Christmas tree yet and I’m not sure when we will. I am having a hard time getting in the mood to do it. Alex has his “stuff” everywhere, so the logistics of putting up decorations is a little daunting. Hopefully I’ll figure it out soon. I can’t believe we are already in December!

Isabelle is getting excited for Christmas and bless her heart, she’s only asked for new clothes! I think we’ll do her one or two better, but I really appreciate her low expectations! It makes surpassing her desires really easy!

We bought a play yard gate for Alex and he’s scaling all around it! If he’s not walking on his own by Christmas, he’ll be doing it very soon after the new year! I can’t believe how strong he is and continues to get every day. Little monkey!

The Funny Vortex of Time

I read some of the entries in Alex’s journal I’ve been keeping for him and laughed out loud. In the beginning entries of the journal I found just how incredibly inpatient I was to get past being pregnant and move into being a new mommy. Then within a few days of him being here the tone of that patience was significantly different. Instead of wishing time would speed up I’m begging for it to slow down!

My girlfriend asked me the other day where time goes. I’ve come to the conclusion it goes to the kids. They suck it up and hide it to their advantage. They speed it all up so they can be bigger, faster, stronger, and grown up. It’s nuts how being a mom and what it does to time.

I am in total shock I’m in my thirties. In fact there’s a whole lot of denial going on in my noggin, but that’s another story. Isabelle is growing up even faster than Alex is. She’s 12 and a half years old and seemingly going on sixteen. Next year she’ll turn 13 and officially enters the age of hating her parents. We’ve been bracing ourselves for quite some time for these approaching days.

She’s in the beginning stages of her science fair project. Last year’s project was an adventure of patience. On her part and on ours. She did the classic seeds in dirt test. While the direction she was given was vague, we were forced to figure out what to do for the test. It’s been years since Josh or myself participated in any such thing, so racking our brains for direction proved nearly pointless. The end of the story was she placed 1st in her grade and 4th in her grade on the state level. Pretty good for flying by the seat of our pants.

This year we are going to make every effort to avoid repeating past mistakes. In fact, Isabelle said to me yesterday that she feels a lot more confidant doing her project this year because she, “Knows what she’s doing.” Thank goodness for that! We have the added bonus of having both a computer and printer at our disposal. We didn’t have such luxuries last year. I was forced to resurrect my creative arts to finish up her project last year. We won’t be doing that again...well not in the physical sense. This year: digital!

To be honest, I’m actually looking forward to doing this project with her. I’ve taken a pretty big part in her school activities and it’s fun for both of us...sort of. I believe that education is the responsibility of the student, teacher, and parents. With all parties actively involved, the gaps are filled and successful learning is achieved. That being said, I wouldn’t know what gaps to fill without taking part in her schooling. I’ve recently learned there are quite a few gaps. Disappointing to know just how broken the education system is in this country. Alas, I am the gap filler (with Josh).

The time isn’t far away when my participation will still be valuable to her. I know I fought tooth and nail against my folks when they had my best interest at heart. Teenagers are so dumb. So, I’m taking full advantage of her open minded acceptance of my opinion while it still holds value. That is a ticking time bomb. At least I get to start all over again with Alexander.

Ingrid Michaelson Brilliance

The storm is coming but I don't mind
People are dying, I close my blinds

All that I know is I'm breathing now

I want to change the world
Instead I sleep
I want to believe in more than you and me

But all that I know is I'm breathing
All I can do is keep breathing
All we can do is keep breathing now

All that I know is I'm breathing
All I can do is keep breathing.
All we can do is keep breathing

All we can do is keep breathing
All we can do is keep breathing
All we can do is keep breathing
All we can do is keep breathing
All we can do is keep breathing now

November 13, 2010

I have thought about doing a "family" blog for a while now, but for whatever reason haven't actually taken the time to put it together. Well, no longer. Here's what our family has been up to for those who are interested!

ISABELLE

The little lady she's growing up to be astounds me every day. She's a little mini-mommy and helps me with Alex all the time. Her selfless attitude towards her little brother is consistent with the personality she's had ever since her personality started developing. In addition to being a great big sister, she's proving to be an exemplary student!

Two years in a row she's stayed focused on understanding the importance of good grades. The interest in science started towards the end of last school year. She entered into the science club and competed in her school with her project. Ultimately she won first place in her grade and was selected to take her project to compete on the state level! She placed 4th out of her grade level competing against all the charter schools (Imagine Charter) in the state. I was tremendously proud of her!

We are about to enter into the new season of science projects and she's so excited she's working ahead of schedule planning what she's going to do. It helps out a lot that she adores her science teacher. I can certainly relate to the spark of showing off when you respect your teacher. At first it was a little weird, but she's maintained an A all year in nearly all of her classes. If that's what happens for her, I'll support it!

She's playing soccer and the season is nearly over. She's really had a lot of fun playing and tries her best to succeed. She's had a little pressure to be good at it because her dad played his entire youth. The impressing of a dad is a curious thing. Regardless, she's done great and is sort of sad the season is almost over. Next sport for her, softball. She can't wait!

ALEX

Saying out loud that Alex is now 7 months and a half months old is followed immediately by a little throw up. It makes me sick he's growing this fast and that time is moving equally as fast. He's got two little teeth on the bottom and he's using them now when he eats. It's hilarious to watch him try to chew. He's crawling all over the place and I'm starting to lose weight keeping up with him. Honestly, I've been really looking forward to this part...the losing of weight!

Almost as soon as he started crawling, he developed the curiosity and tenacity to try to climb on things. He's borderline scaling things. He's already stood up in his crib and he tries to do it again every single day. Despite my best efforts to keep him tiny and helpless, he's winning his side of the battle.

He has some of the cutest sounds in the world and I love hearing them. He's a screamer, which is not cute. In phases he just randomly takes deep breaths, points his toes, and screams as long and as loud as he can. He finds the sound of his voice simply wonderful. I wonder where he gets that from?

He watches Baby Signing Time and the first sign he's shown is the one for milk. It's subtle, but you can see him do it. The first time he did it I nearly cried. I am so excited for him to communicate with me via sign language. It's pretty super. I sign to him and so does Isabelle and Josh. We are all competing with each other for him to sign back and talk to us!

JOSH

He's doing so well with his job and it makes me so proud of him. He's earned a lot of respect from both his peers and superiors. His side jobs are pretty cool and they bring him a lot of satisfaction. Just recently he's started teaching introductory firearm safety classes to new customers at the gun shop where he moonlights here in town. His "calling" is instruction. He is happiest with a classroom of students learning what he has to offer. It's pretty cool to see him shine when he talks about it.

He works a lot and doesn't have a lot he does outside of his jobs. With hunting season in full gear, he's going out as often as possible. Time is a luxury for him, so he's often cutting his sleep short for some extra-curricular activities. He loves taking his bird dog out and showing her skills off to his buddies. Today he went out and got a bunch of ducks and he's pretty happy about it! Who knew I'd marry a hunter? I certainly didn't!

EMMA

Being a stay-at-home mommy is bringing me a level of satisfaction I really didn't anticipate. The simplicity of my day is borderline obnoxious. But I'm not complaining... at all. I have been working slowly towards getting another band together. The process is worth it considering the caliber of musicians I'm getting the chance to work with. I'm guessing a few more rehearsals and we'll be ready to start booking gigs. The way rehearsals make me feel is really hard to put into words. I can't wait to get out there and let folks hear us!

Going back to work is something that crosses my mind, but not frequently. I'm not interested in going to work full time, but I entertain the idea of being back on the radio every once in a while. I miss doing that job and being involved in the community as much as I was. We'll see what happens.

The holidays are coming up very soon and I can't believe we're going to have our first Christmas with Alex. It is going to be so much fun getting ready for Christmas with a new baby! I wish I were able to be closer to family on my side, but the internet will have to suffice for now!