May 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!

My little guys+girl,

Last month held birthdays for 2 of the 5 in our family. Mommy's birthday was at the beginning, and then Mason's was halfway through the month. Grandma stopped by for a couple hours two different days during the month, and one of them was on Mommy's birthday. She took us to El Puerto, where we were all very surprised when the waiters smeared whipped cream all over Mommy's face after they sang a happy birthday song. Yeah. We went to Nonni and Poppy's for Mommy's birthday dinner that Saturday. Mommy and Daddy also got a much needed date day before the meal, while the three of you hung out with Nonni and Poppy. For Mason's birthday, we had a family date day the Saturday before, where we went to "the jumping place" in Charlottesville, got some yummy pizza (and a milkshake for the birthday boy), and Mason got to pick out 5 things at the dollar store for turning 5. On your real birthday, Daddy ended up being in feeders, so he was home for the whole morning to celebrate with us. We went to the park to play for a while that morning too. Then we had Mason's family birthday party this past Saturday. Aunt Courtney and Callista came too, so you had almost all of your cousins in one place!

We had a family Easter celebration on the Saturday before Easter at Aunt Michele's house, since Aunt Michele was working on Easter day. Most of the family was able to come, so that was really fun. We had lots of good food, you boys colored eggs with Aunt Heidi's kids, and you had an Easter egg hunt too. At the end of the night we had s'mores at the fire pits. On Easter day, we went to Nonni's house, where you searched for your Easter baskets and then played together.

We spent one morning with Gabey at our house early in the month, while Aunt Heidi, Uncle Ian, Mikayah, and Lilli went to the doctor to see how their baby was doing. Grandma hung out with us for a lot of that time too.

Random things from the month: We went up on the mountain for lifegroup one Sunday before Easter this month. It wasn't for a very long time, but it was fun. Spring has been trying to kill me with pollen lately, but none of you seem too affected by it- not yet, at least. I also spent about half of the month finishing up the photography class that I was taking. We started using our first life-changing shopping thing this month (well maybe it was March, but i don't remember talking about it in last month's letter): Walmart Grocery Pick-Up. Amazing. Wonderful. Sanity-saver. The end. This past weekend, Daddy, Poppy, and Uncle Ian ran the Park to Park race, and Daddy came in 2nd in his age group and 8th overall!

We went to PA one weekend near the end of the month. Daddy went to the Carlisle car thing with Pap and Uncle Levi, so he was very happy about that. On Saturday we went to a camp jubilee thing with Grandma, Callista, Aunt Hilary, and Carson. It was rainy all day, so that was disappointing for some of us, but I don't think y'all even noticed. You still got to play indoor games, and Mason you had your face painted for the first time; you chose a spiderweb/spider. We also switched the rooms that you sleep in at Grandma's house. Mason, you slept with us, and Rylan, you got your own room. Someday you'll be able to sleep together, but I don't see it happening soon, unless everyone is ready for major destruction.

Elli- You're seeming more like a big girl and less like an itty baby all the time. You eat food (usually from those squeezy pouches). You really like yogurt. Anything with texture makes you gag a little, though. You like to roll all over and scoot around the room. Your funniest way to move is when you're laying on your back, your feet are flat on the floor, and you push your bottom up in a bridge motion. I think it's probably a good ab workout, because you do it a lot- over and over. You have sat up on your own, but you don't like to do it and don't do it often. Your brothers like to pull you around the room by your feet....I think you're getting tough already. You say "dada" and "nah-nah" a lot. You've also said "ba-ba" a couple times too. You have said "mama" twice (yesterday), but I haven't heard it repeated yet. You're getting to that stage where you're super needy and usually only want Mommy- especially when you get to that super tired point. Rylan was the first one to make you laugh out loud (he calls you his "Cake" and pretends to eat you). Mason can get you to smile and laugh easily too.

Rylan (My Cuteness)- You are a wild, crazy, cute monkey. You can be sweet and you can also be mean. You don't like to be told no, and you usually ignore all instruction/directions if you don't feel like obeying. You get scared sometimes, and you cuddle with us when that happens. You still prefer to cuddle with your paci and blankie. If you are really disappointed or sad, you collapse, put your head down, and sometimes cry...and it's very sad. You convince people to do anything for you just by asking them while being cute (which is how you end up drinking 6 juice boxes when we go to big gatherings- you ask 6 different people who all give them to you, thinking they're the only one!) You have FINALLY started calling colors by the right names this month! We are so proud of you!! You like to play with Mason, play with the white kitty that hangs out at our house, and make Elli smile. You climb on anything if you need to get higher/closer to something you want. You're good at kicking soccer balls and throwing frisbees. At bedtime, you like for me to sing the "peace song" or "I love you, Rylan" lately. You have superhero hearing when I come up to get you in the morning or after naps- somehow you can hear me coming no matter how quietly I come up the steps! And I think you watch my shadow on the wall too, because when I'm holding Elli, you say, "Is that my Cake??" before we even get to the door.

Instead of saying "another," you say "a dother." You went through a phase of being super picky about things and would always have a reason you didn't like something, like, "I don't whike what fwavor (or color or smell, etc.) it is" while sporting a very pouty face. You pronounce "favorite" like "frave-rit." You get Uncle Ian and Uncle Tony continuously confused. When Mason tries to scare you and act like a monster, you timidly look at him and say, "Is that just you, Mason?" When you get confused about something, or I ask you whether or not you did something, you talk about being tricked. Like "I tricked myself!" or "You tricked me!" (when there was no trickery involved.) One time, when I was singing to Elli that she was the cutest girl in the whole wide world, you interrupted me and said "No." I said, "She's not? Who is?" You said, "Poppy." I laughed, and then you said, "Yeah. He's a good guy." You are also still very complimentary. You regularly tell me that you think I'm cute or that my hair/shirt is cute (and you even tell other people that sometimes too).

Here are some more Rylan quotes for the past two months:

“Will we fly on a UPS airplane?
-I don’t think they’ll let us-
We will ask UPS in a nice way if we can fly in a UPS airplane!!”

“Mommy, I love God. He’s my favorite guy.”

“I don’t like worms super de duper de much.”

“I’m getting a hug cause I’m your cuteness. That’s why.”

“I’m too boring to drink this.”

“Mommy, if I got swallowed by a whale, you might say, ‘Where is my Rylan??’”

“I’m good at eating REAL cookies in the REAL dark.”

“The kitty told me that she had sweet dreams about baseball!”

“I want a peanut-jelly sandwich. Not honey. Cause honey might make me choke, and it’s so ‘spensive!”

I love all three of my Cutenesses! XOXO

Love, Mommy

April 2017 - Letters to Our Children

Remember to check out the rest of the circle! Click on Kaylon's letter after you finish mine to continue around the circle. When you keep reading and clicking, you'll land back here!

My Sweet Mason,

First things first. Your birthday is speeding towards us....you will be five in a little over two weeks. FIVE! I don't know about you, but that makes me feel sad, old, and like I want to hug you super tight and not let go. Hopefully I'll get a birthday post up for you later in April, but in case I don't, at least you'll know that it was my intention to do it. :)

At the beginning of the month, we met Grandma in Winchester at Chuck-E-Cheese. It was almost a halfway point between the two of us so it was a pretty easy drive to spend half a day together. You and Rylan had a lot of fun eating pizza and playing games. You liked the one a lot where you run on a hamster wheel type thing. You also liked the giant cookie that we got at the end of the day. :) You chose a whistle, stickers, and a ring pop for your prizes.

We also had a fun day with Nonni later in the month, where we went to the mall, McDonalds, the park, and an art show. You had a little trouble listening by the end of the afternoon (aka trying to touch some art pieces), but you did well overall. You loved the crazy swing at the park that almost has like a roller coaster feeling....the one that's on a pole and swings around super fast. You also liked the tire swing and the big slides; I don't think you're afraid of any of those things anymore!

The month of March held your first participation in an Awana event. You and 2 other Cubbies were called up to the big leagues of Sparks to do Sparks-a-Rama with them. Let's just say.....you were all very cute. And I laughed more than I have probably ever laughed at an event like that. You Cubbies have not been around Awana games very much, and you didn't really know what you were doing. In fact, on the way to Richmond I asked you about the rules to running around the circle. You happily told me that there aren't any rules. The pressure of the crowd may have also added confusion during the actual event. Some of you ran around the circle the wrong direction, you often ran inside the pins instead of outside, etc..... But you seemed oblivious to the fact that your team was not doing well. You told me you had fun, and you asked me at the end if you won. (Your team got third out of three teams.) Anyway, you were precious. And you did an amazing job of staying where you were supposed to on the line and listening to your coaches. We stayed and watched the T&T kids do their games later, and they did great. By "we watched" what I really mean is that Daddy (who had only slept about 2 hours, since he was in feeders the night before) took you and Rylan outside to run around and play while Mommy held Elli and watched. We got to go to P.F. Changs afterwards with Nonni and Poppy, though, so that delicious food made us all happy. (At least the adults.)

We took all 3 of you to Michaela's wedding in the middle of the month. Rylan was the first to have an explosion of noise/screaming right during the vows (or some other important time. All I remember is whisper-yelling at Daddy to cover Rylan's mouth.) Elli was great until the very end when she started crying. You stayed relatively quiet the whole time, so that was really impressive. At the reception you really enjoyed the food, but you especially loved the s'mores!

Speaking of good food, we also had the yearly free pretzel day at Miller's Bake Shop, which was wonderfully delicious!

You had one sick day in the middle of the month where you woke up from your nap and seemed lethargic, but then you started playing. After an hour or so, though, you were dragging again, and you laid on the couch for a few hours without really moving. You had a fever and your tonsils were swollen, so we went to the doctor the next day to check for strep, and the test came back positive. I was thankful we caught it so soon, though; you barely seemed to feel sick after that first night.

Our biggest news of the month is that Aunt Heidi's family came home last week to start their furlough! They are staying with Nonni and Poppy for now, until their house renovation is done. It's a crowded but fun time when we're all over there. You and Rylan have been having so much fun playing with your cousins. The 5 of you big kids are so wild and crazy together. You copy each other all the time and make up crazy sounds and songs while running around and doing somersaults.

As for you, we have been trying to figure out your sleeping stuff for the past couple months. You started getting "super scared" at night again; it got to the point where you were waking up 4-5 times at night and crying on the monitor or yelling out of the bottom of your door. It was bringing out the worst in all of us, and we knew we had to come up with another solution. So now we have a "deal" where you can ask on the monitor, in the middle of the night, if you can come down if you're very scared. We put a sleeping bag and pillow on the floor beside our bed, and you can come sleep down there in the middle of the night. Daddy takes you up to your bed in the morning. We've been doing it for two weeks, and I think it's safe to say that we've solved the problem. I think you were just really really scared before. But now that we've gone to our new deal, you sleep so well; it's hard to describe how much different it's been. You sleep the instant you come to our room, and you go right back to sleep when Daddy puts you back in your bed later. It's been so nice for all of us.

You have been practicing your letters a little more, but you still say you don't want to go to kindergarten next year (more like 4 months....ah!!) You are becoming a really great helper. Daddy says that you help him a lot with outside jobs. You're able to put your own clothes away and are good at helping me clean up too. Sometimes you have trouble being nice and making good choices when you're in Cubbies or your class in church; like when you chased someone with a pair of scissors a few weeks ago. But other times you do great! We're still working on it. You and Rylan have been working on your "path" outside by the swingset for a while now. You use shovels and a wheelbarrow....I'm not sure exactly what it's supposed to be, but you work on it a lot.

You (and Rylan) have an obsession with Steven Curtis Chapman, which Daddy and I really love. You spend many rest times in your room singing "Saddle up your horses...." over and over and over. Today you told me that you sound just like Steven Curtis Chapman, and then you gave me a demonstration. We've also been listening to some old Adventures in Odyssey episodes this month. For some reason you have decided that you hate the interstate. You say it so much that you've convinced Rylan that he should hate the interstate too. Although I need to mention that you're never totally sure when we're actually on the interstate....you have to ask first, and if I say yes we are, then you groan really loudly and remind me that you hate it. There is a pretty white kitty that has been hanging out at our house lately, and you love it. You know how to be sweet, mean, funny, helpful, and silly. I love it when you decide to skip the mean one. :)

Here are a couple quotes from you this month:

“Mommy, I would like to be a concert singer when I grow up.”

— Mason

“‘Superbreeze’ is how Rylan says ‘stupid’ in a scrap way.”

— Mason, explaining something about Rylan's strange word choice

I love you a lot, kid. "I love you more than you love me." (One of your favorite contests to play with us).

Love, Mommy

March 2017 - Letters to Our Children

Don't forget the rest of the circle! Click on Kaylon's letter after you finish mine to continue around the circle. When you keep reading and clicking, you'll land back here!

Ry Ry,

It's your turn for a letter this month! Mostly because I have a big handful of quotes that you've been saying lately. :)

Last month was shorter (obviously.....February), but we still packed some things in. Here are the highlights in no particular order: super nice weather a few times during the month, stomach sickness that hit all of us except Elli (although she still had an ear infection for a while this month), a visit from Nana, a visit to PA and a Sollenberger get-together, getting the long part of our driveway sort of paved (asphalt millings), the Superbowl, Daddy in delivery in Linville, Journey Bible quizzing, playing at the library playground, and Valentine's Day.

Rylan, you are strong- both in will and physical strength. You are sweet. You've been giving out compliments left and right lately. You also take compliments well. Everyone loves to be around you (except Mason when you're biting/hitting him, or Elli when you're stepping on her head). You play hard and cry loud when you're mad. You talk in a sweet, high-pitched voice when you are hurt or want to cuddle...or when you are trying to ask something "nicely." (You also squint your eyes, tilt your head, and smile when you do that.) You have a good memory. You're tough. You love people, and you like to cuddle with people that you love. You say funny things and make us laugh a lot.

Here are our favorite Ry Ry quotes from February:

“Elli has bright eyes. She can light the way with her eyes. See!”

“Nonni, why it not MISS Holli?”

— (confused when Nonni called me "Holli")

“Did my baby come out of the cabj?”

— (asked after remembering that one time I said Elli grew out of a cabbage patch)

“I’m eating a smiley donut. Like Mommy. She’s a smiley mommy. You’re cute Mommy. You’re cute.”

“(whispering in his face while Poppy was praying in lifegroup) Poppy. Poppy. Poppy. Poppy. Poppy. Poppy. Poppy. Poppy. (when he finished....) Why you have a wreck?”