Dear Mateo,
Buddy, I last wrote you when you turned six. Now that you are almost seven, it seems time for an update.
You are a big first grader now! You started school a few weeks ago and have already gotten comfortable with your new teachers, new building, and new expectations. You generally love school and learning, although you are pretty exhausted by the transition from our lazy summer!
Some of your favorite parts of school: language time, music, woodshop, PE, art, math, and really just about everything. Your teachers say that you are good at paying attention and focusing. You got a chance to learn some Mandarin Chinese at the beginning of the year and were very proud to get to write some characters. You don't always share what your day was like right away, but we are always amazed by all the things you have done when the details start to come out.
Socially, the year started off a bit rockily for you. Your best friend from kindergarten moved away for a few years and then you were put in a class with a bunch of kids you didn't know well. You didn't know who to play with at recess and felt lonely and sad. Luckily, with some support from your teachers, your naturally social personality has come through again and things are starting to go better. You have been involved in a couple of incidents in which you have been accidentally hurt by rough housing kids on the playground, which is probably just part of the process of growing up, but has been tough for you and us.
One new joy in your life is swimming. Early on in the summer, you decided you were ready to put your head underwater and hold your breath. Since then, you have turned into a little fish! You took lessons during the summer and loved them so much that we have continued them this fall. You have swimming twice a week after school and you love it. You have come a long way in a short time, and now you are working on arm strokes and side breathing. As a family, we have been going to a nearby rec center on the weekend and playing in the family pool there. It is pretty cool to watch you confidently motoring around underwater!
Mateo, the highlight of your life continues to be the same thing. Can you guess what it is? Reading! You love books more than anything and will instantly say so if someone asks you what you like to do. You read more books than we can count this summer, from picture books to graphics novels to chapter books to books for much older kids. Some of your favorites have been the first Percy Jackson and the Olympians book, any TinTin book, and any zany graphic novel about a detective or superhero that you can find. You still love to be read to, and you get some Spanish reading time with Mommy every night, too.
You also love reading non-fiction and particularly history books. Grandpa has given you a few books on various topics out of a series he read as a child and you have devoured them. Your favorite and most-talked-about of those was the one on the Wright brothers and the beginning of airplane flight. You have read so much and absorbed so many facts that you come out with unexpected facts all the time. Not too long ago, you spontaneously volunteered that the London Bridge goes over the river Thames. You randomly, and correctly, used the word "pilloried" in a sentence. You seem to have a natural affinity for spelling and love to try kid crossword puzzles. We are excited to see where all this learning will take you someday!
Mateo, you are one snuggly kid and prefer to spend much of each night cuddled up with your moms. You still let me give you a hug and kiss when I leave you at school. You hold hands with us frequently. And when you are upset, you calm down best when we lie down with you for a few minutes.
That being said, you had a tough summer with a lot of temper flare-ups. You had a really short fuse and kept blowing up without much warning. You really gave us a run for our money at our family reunion at the end of the summer. We finally figured out that you kept blowing up when you hadn't eaten enough. Maybe you were growing? We started paying a lot more attention to feeding you frequently! And, luckily, with the start of school and the return of more structure, you have settled down a lot. You have had explosive periods throughout your life and we are working on navigating them when they happen.
In terms of food, you would prefer breakfast for every meal. Your favorite food right now is the raspberry pancakes I make you nearly every morning. You also like toast, bagels, waffles, French toast, and fruit. Basically, if it can be eaten for breakfast, you will go for it. However, you also like veggies pretty well. Your favorite are carrots, bell peppers, and cucumbers. I have started sending bento boxes filled with little bits of various finger foods for your lunches (grated cheese, sliced fruit, nuts, crackers, veggies, etc) and you like that pretty well.
Outside, you love to ride your bike and play on the swings! You became quite a little monkey last year and mastered the monkey bars, which impressed your parents. You also really enjoyed playing under the sprinkler this summer. We have some hilarious photos of you and your siblings standing under the water drops in 80 degree weather with your umbrellas out! We think that means you really are Oregon natives!
Mateo, you are our most favorite boy in the entire world. We are just bursting with pride that you are our son. We love you just exactly the way you are, now and always.
We love you!
Mama and Mommy
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Letter to Natalia
Dear Natalia,
You have just started full time school and it seems like a good time to write you a letter! You have changed and grown a lot, lot, lot since the last time I wrote you.
You turned five this past summer. Five! Five was a big deal for both you and your parents! For you, it was a huge and much-anticipated milestone. You and your preschool friends had been pretending to be five all year and you were unbelievably excited to be "real five," as you called it.
For your moms, it seemed almost impossible to believe that our tiny baby had grown so big! I admit to getting teary thinking of when you were newly born and how I held your little foot as the doctors worked on you. They were getting you all healthy so you could go and meet Mommy, who was waiting to snuggle you. I held your tiny toes so that you would know we were there with you in that moment and always. Now that you are five, I look back on that time and am just in awe of getting to meet you for the first time. You are such a special girl and Mommy and I are the luckiest parents ever to have gotten you as our daughter!
Natalia, when I think of you, I think about your sweet cuddles and your musical laugh. You love being close to your moms more than just about anything. You love to be held, to hold hands, and to be right next to us. Sometimes this isn't the most convenient, such as when we are rushing to get somewhere and you are yanking on my pants, but most of the time it is the sweetest thing in the world.
As well, your laugh is just magical. It is like a wind chime or part of a symphony. I am serious. We could record it and play it for sad people and they would feel better. You find humor in a lot of things, especially your siblings' and friends' antics, and you just bubble over with giggles.
In fact, you love to be silly a whole lot. You make up silly words, you give yourself silly nicknames, you answer questions in made up gibberish. You LOVE knock knock jokes and making up your own. You are a gloriously silly kid and we love you for it. You help all of us take ourselves a bit less seriously.
On a more serious note, though, we so admire your bravery. You find situations involving new people or lots of people to be pretty overwhelming. It takes a lot of time and energy for you to "warm up" in a new situation. You don't always want to do things that are uncomfortable, but you almost never complain. You are such a brave girl and such a good sport about constantly expanding your comfort zone.
A year ago, you were still very nervous about school and often hardly said a word in your little preschool. However, as the year went on, you began to try coming out of your shell. By the end of the year, you had debuted the wacky, silly, loud Natalia in public for the first time. You were in your element at your tiny, outdoor-focused school. We were so happy for you as we watched you grow and engage with your friends and teachers.
This year, you started at a new school, where your brother also goes. We decided to give you one more year of pre-K before you started kindergarten, but you are in a nearly full time program at a school that will take you all the way through high school. You have been loving it so far. You already know kids in the class who are younger siblings of your brother's classmates, so that has helped with the transition. You have informed us emphatically that your friends are "only girls!" This is true, but we think you must be buddies with every girl in your class by now. You are a girl-centric kid, but you love your brother to pieces, too.
You have been listening intently to your teachers and learning a lot about being a good friend. This has already started to counteract your tendency to get very close to one friend and want to exclude others...only to get close to someone else the next day and exclude that original friend. This was an issue with a lot of girls at your other preschool, but seems much better in your new class. You have delighted in informing Mommy and me that "no secrets are allowed at my school!" if we ever whisper something to each other!
Natalia, you have learned a lot since I last wrote to you! You can read all kinds of stuff now, including signs, parts of books, and even some words in Spanish. You have mastered a lot of simple addition and are a counting pro. You can write all of your letters and even some numbers. Your fine motor control has always been impressive and it continues to be so. You love to cut paper into tiny pieces and topretend to knit. It won't be long before you are doing it for real!
Other favorites include riding your bike (a real two-wheeler!) and jumping on our new trampoline outside. You also love to play with your siblings. You and Mateo are in a good spot recently. Especially on weekends, you have been know to make up your own games and giggle hysterically at your own antics. You and Rosie have a special connection and you just light up when she rushes into your classroom at the end of the day. You heave her off the ground (she's pretty close to your size!) and beam as you spin her around and the collapse on the ground together.
Of course, like any siblings, you three have your conflicts during the day. However, at the end of the day, you literally end up in the same place! You and Mateo have chosen to share a room and both seem to take great comfort in having the other just a couple of feet away.
You still love your red blankie and sleep with it every night. It gives you comfort and security and helps you feel better when you are sad or tired.
Finally, you have quite a mutual admiration society (as your great-grandma would have said) going on with our new kitty, Iris. You love her and she loves you. She lets you hold her like a baby and fawn over her and you love to nurture her. You are going to be an amazing mom someday, but for right now you give a lot of love to Iris!
Natalia, you are a wonderful girl. We love you more than a CAT (as you once told Mommy!). We love you so much that it makes our hearts grow. We love you just exactly the way you are now, and we will always be there to hold your hand and cheer you on as you grow.
We love you!
Mama and Mommy
You have just started full time school and it seems like a good time to write you a letter! You have changed and grown a lot, lot, lot since the last time I wrote you.
You turned five this past summer. Five! Five was a big deal for both you and your parents! For you, it was a huge and much-anticipated milestone. You and your preschool friends had been pretending to be five all year and you were unbelievably excited to be "real five," as you called it.
For your moms, it seemed almost impossible to believe that our tiny baby had grown so big! I admit to getting teary thinking of when you were newly born and how I held your little foot as the doctors worked on you. They were getting you all healthy so you could go and meet Mommy, who was waiting to snuggle you. I held your tiny toes so that you would know we were there with you in that moment and always. Now that you are five, I look back on that time and am just in awe of getting to meet you for the first time. You are such a special girl and Mommy and I are the luckiest parents ever to have gotten you as our daughter!
Natalia, when I think of you, I think about your sweet cuddles and your musical laugh. You love being close to your moms more than just about anything. You love to be held, to hold hands, and to be right next to us. Sometimes this isn't the most convenient, such as when we are rushing to get somewhere and you are yanking on my pants, but most of the time it is the sweetest thing in the world.
As well, your laugh is just magical. It is like a wind chime or part of a symphony. I am serious. We could record it and play it for sad people and they would feel better. You find humor in a lot of things, especially your siblings' and friends' antics, and you just bubble over with giggles.
In fact, you love to be silly a whole lot. You make up silly words, you give yourself silly nicknames, you answer questions in made up gibberish. You LOVE knock knock jokes and making up your own. You are a gloriously silly kid and we love you for it. You help all of us take ourselves a bit less seriously.
On a more serious note, though, we so admire your bravery. You find situations involving new people or lots of people to be pretty overwhelming. It takes a lot of time and energy for you to "warm up" in a new situation. You don't always want to do things that are uncomfortable, but you almost never complain. You are such a brave girl and such a good sport about constantly expanding your comfort zone.
A year ago, you were still very nervous about school and often hardly said a word in your little preschool. However, as the year went on, you began to try coming out of your shell. By the end of the year, you had debuted the wacky, silly, loud Natalia in public for the first time. You were in your element at your tiny, outdoor-focused school. We were so happy for you as we watched you grow and engage with your friends and teachers.
This year, you started at a new school, where your brother also goes. We decided to give you one more year of pre-K before you started kindergarten, but you are in a nearly full time program at a school that will take you all the way through high school. You have been loving it so far. You already know kids in the class who are younger siblings of your brother's classmates, so that has helped with the transition. You have informed us emphatically that your friends are "only girls!" This is true, but we think you must be buddies with every girl in your class by now. You are a girl-centric kid, but you love your brother to pieces, too.
You have been listening intently to your teachers and learning a lot about being a good friend. This has already started to counteract your tendency to get very close to one friend and want to exclude others...only to get close to someone else the next day and exclude that original friend. This was an issue with a lot of girls at your other preschool, but seems much better in your new class. You have delighted in informing Mommy and me that "no secrets are allowed at my school!" if we ever whisper something to each other!
Natalia, you have learned a lot since I last wrote to you! You can read all kinds of stuff now, including signs, parts of books, and even some words in Spanish. You have mastered a lot of simple addition and are a counting pro. You can write all of your letters and even some numbers. Your fine motor control has always been impressive and it continues to be so. You love to cut paper into tiny pieces and topretend to knit. It won't be long before you are doing it for real!
Other favorites include riding your bike (a real two-wheeler!) and jumping on our new trampoline outside. You also love to play with your siblings. You and Mateo are in a good spot recently. Especially on weekends, you have been know to make up your own games and giggle hysterically at your own antics. You and Rosie have a special connection and you just light up when she rushes into your classroom at the end of the day. You heave her off the ground (she's pretty close to your size!) and beam as you spin her around and the collapse on the ground together.
Of course, like any siblings, you three have your conflicts during the day. However, at the end of the day, you literally end up in the same place! You and Mateo have chosen to share a room and both seem to take great comfort in having the other just a couple of feet away.
You still love your red blankie and sleep with it every night. It gives you comfort and security and helps you feel better when you are sad or tired.
Finally, you have quite a mutual admiration society (as your great-grandma would have said) going on with our new kitty, Iris. You love her and she loves you. She lets you hold her like a baby and fawn over her and you love to nurture her. You are going to be an amazing mom someday, but for right now you give a lot of love to Iris!
Natalia, you are a wonderful girl. We love you more than a CAT (as you once told Mommy!). We love you so much that it makes our hearts grow. We love you just exactly the way you are now, and we will always be there to hold your hand and cheer you on as you grow.
We love you!
Mama and Mommy
Letter to Rosie
Dear Rosie,
It has been a long time since I wrote you a letter. Sorry about that! You just turned two and a half and it seems like a good time to write about what you are up to.
You are an independent, energetic kid now, but you still like to know exactly where your people are. This past summer, you loved having Mommy, Mateo, and Natalia around all the time. Since school has started again, you have been doing a lot of wondering out loud about where they are during the day. "Where Mommy?", you will ask, out of the blue. "Where Te Te? Where Tali?" You are happiest when our whole family is together and accounted for.
One of your highest recent priorities has been doing things "BY SELF." You want to go potty by self, try to dress yourself, climb into your car seat, run out in front or dawdle behind the rest of us, and so on. You have always had strong opinions on things!
Speaking of that, you have a lot to say and are getting better and better at telling us what's on your mind. You like to chat with us at all hours of the day and night. When you wake up at night, you call out "Mama, where are you?" When you are hungry, you can tell us that you want food and specify what you want. In addition to basic requests, you are an incredible mimic. You repeat what your parents and siblings say and then make those phrases your own. For example, you learned to repeat "ahhh, coffee!" after me when we get something at the drive-through coffee place. Then, you started saying "ahhh, chocolate! Rosie drink hot chocolate! Ahhh, chocolate!"
Many things you say, especially with your adorable little voice, are just too cute to describe!
You have developed a love of dresses since this past summer. Mommy and I misunderstood you the first time you asked for a fancy dress and thought you were saying "dancey dress," which is what we now call your dresses. You wear a dancey dress nearly every day. If we forget and put you in something else, you remind us that you need a dancey dress ASAP. You are the very image of cuteness as you run around the world in your dancey dresses.
That said, you continue to be our most rough and tumble kid. You go full bore at most things and love to climb, slide, run, jump, and explore. Your expression of the summer was "Mama, I need to RUN!" You went through a phase of sprinting around the side of the house and into our court without warning, which you have now mercifully learned not to do anymore!
You love going to the park and swinging and are equally happy in a baby swing or a big kid swing. We have tried the balance bike with you and you're not quite ready, but we know you will be soon. You are going to be a force of nature once you learn to ride a bike!
In the past few months, you have started to adore books and you love to be read to. You especially love it when your siblings read to you. You just absolutely idolize them and they return your affections (except when you have just destroyed one of their prized creations!).
We all had a really fun summer together and you had a particularly fun time at the family camp we always go to. You were adopted by a pair of pre-teen girls and we hardly saw you that week. You LOVED your friends and kept asking where they were when they would leave you with us for meals and such.
One thing we love about you is how perceptive and compassionate you are. If one of your siblings gets hurt, you will come up and ask "Why Te Te or Tali crying?" and then you will give them a pat or a hug and even ask if they need ice. You are a snuggly little bug with them and with your moms. We love your caring heart and your cuddly little body.
Sadly, you haven't quite absorbed the idea that pets need caring concern, too! You love our new kitty, Iris, with a burning passion that causes you to SHRIEK in delight when you see her, which then causes her to flee, with you in hot pursuit. You have been found pulling the cat's tail and dragging her around by her hind leg. Thank goodness she has a lot of patience with you. We think she may need to get better at hiding, though!
Quick update on eating and sleeping:
You sleep on a big kid twin mattress in your own room now. However, you really don't like sleeping alone and much prefer to have a mom sleep with you after the first time you wake up. For now, we are happy to oblige. You are just so sweet and snuggly (and insistent!) that we can't resist you. And, we are very aware that you are our last baby and we need to soak up this phase of your life before it speeds past us.
You love to eat and will try some new things, but you have established preferences by now. Fruit, milk, yogurt, cheese, pancakes, bagels, pizza, salmon, chicken, and many other things will make you happy. You love to help make things in the kitchen and will remind me that it is "ROSIE TURN" to put in various ingredients. In fact, as our third child, you know about taking turns incredibly well and seem tounderstand about sharing most of the time, even if you don't always want to do it!
You still usually nap, especially now that school has started and the house is quiet during the day. You and I have been enjoying our mornings together, doing both errands and fun stuff for you, and then coming home for quiet time before school pick-ups start.
For now, Mama prefers to call you by your nickname, Rosie, and Mommy and your siblings like to call you Rosa. Luckily, you answer toeither, although you mostly call yourself Rosie. You have several other nicknames, all of which stem from "Roo," which we started calling you as a baby.
Rosie, you are an incredibly beloved part of our family. You make us laugh with your cute antics and you bestow cherished snuggles on all of us. You keep us on our toes with your energy and astound us with your smarts and gorgeous deep brown eyes. We love you with our whole hearts and even more than that!
Till next time,
Mama and Mommy
It has been a long time since I wrote you a letter. Sorry about that! You just turned two and a half and it seems like a good time to write about what you are up to.
You are an independent, energetic kid now, but you still like to know exactly where your people are. This past summer, you loved having Mommy, Mateo, and Natalia around all the time. Since school has started again, you have been doing a lot of wondering out loud about where they are during the day. "Where Mommy?", you will ask, out of the blue. "Where Te Te? Where Tali?" You are happiest when our whole family is together and accounted for.
One of your highest recent priorities has been doing things "BY SELF." You want to go potty by self, try to dress yourself, climb into your car seat, run out in front or dawdle behind the rest of us, and so on. You have always had strong opinions on things!
Speaking of that, you have a lot to say and are getting better and better at telling us what's on your mind. You like to chat with us at all hours of the day and night. When you wake up at night, you call out "Mama, where are you?" When you are hungry, you can tell us that you want food and specify what you want. In addition to basic requests, you are an incredible mimic. You repeat what your parents and siblings say and then make those phrases your own. For example, you learned to repeat "ahhh, coffee!" after me when we get something at the drive-through coffee place. Then, you started saying "ahhh, chocolate! Rosie drink hot chocolate! Ahhh, chocolate!"
Many things you say, especially with your adorable little voice, are just too cute to describe!
You have developed a love of dresses since this past summer. Mommy and I misunderstood you the first time you asked for a fancy dress and thought you were saying "dancey dress," which is what we now call your dresses. You wear a dancey dress nearly every day. If we forget and put you in something else, you remind us that you need a dancey dress ASAP. You are the very image of cuteness as you run around the world in your dancey dresses.
That said, you continue to be our most rough and tumble kid. You go full bore at most things and love to climb, slide, run, jump, and explore. Your expression of the summer was "Mama, I need to RUN!" You went through a phase of sprinting around the side of the house and into our court without warning, which you have now mercifully learned not to do anymore!
You love going to the park and swinging and are equally happy in a baby swing or a big kid swing. We have tried the balance bike with you and you're not quite ready, but we know you will be soon. You are going to be a force of nature once you learn to ride a bike!
In the past few months, you have started to adore books and you love to be read to. You especially love it when your siblings read to you. You just absolutely idolize them and they return your affections (except when you have just destroyed one of their prized creations!).
We all had a really fun summer together and you had a particularly fun time at the family camp we always go to. You were adopted by a pair of pre-teen girls and we hardly saw you that week. You LOVED your friends and kept asking where they were when they would leave you with us for meals and such.
One thing we love about you is how perceptive and compassionate you are. If one of your siblings gets hurt, you will come up and ask "Why Te Te or Tali crying?" and then you will give them a pat or a hug and even ask if they need ice. You are a snuggly little bug with them and with your moms. We love your caring heart and your cuddly little body.
Sadly, you haven't quite absorbed the idea that pets need caring concern, too! You love our new kitty, Iris, with a burning passion that causes you to SHRIEK in delight when you see her, which then causes her to flee, with you in hot pursuit. You have been found pulling the cat's tail and dragging her around by her hind leg. Thank goodness she has a lot of patience with you. We think she may need to get better at hiding, though!
Quick update on eating and sleeping:
You sleep on a big kid twin mattress in your own room now. However, you really don't like sleeping alone and much prefer to have a mom sleep with you after the first time you wake up. For now, we are happy to oblige. You are just so sweet and snuggly (and insistent!) that we can't resist you. And, we are very aware that you are our last baby and we need to soak up this phase of your life before it speeds past us.
You love to eat and will try some new things, but you have established preferences by now. Fruit, milk, yogurt, cheese, pancakes, bagels, pizza, salmon, chicken, and many other things will make you happy. You love to help make things in the kitchen and will remind me that it is "ROSIE TURN" to put in various ingredients. In fact, as our third child, you know about taking turns incredibly well and seem tounderstand about sharing most of the time, even if you don't always want to do it!
You still usually nap, especially now that school has started and the house is quiet during the day. You and I have been enjoying our mornings together, doing both errands and fun stuff for you, and then coming home for quiet time before school pick-ups start.
For now, Mama prefers to call you by your nickname, Rosie, and Mommy and your siblings like to call you Rosa. Luckily, you answer toeither, although you mostly call yourself Rosie. You have several other nicknames, all of which stem from "Roo," which we started calling you as a baby.
Rosie, you are an incredibly beloved part of our family. You make us laugh with your cute antics and you bestow cherished snuggles on all of us. You keep us on our toes with your energy and astound us with your smarts and gorgeous deep brown eyes. We love you with our whole hearts and even more than that!
Till next time,
Mama and Mommy
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Growing up
People of all stripes have been saying this since we were first expecting Mateo, but it is true - they really do grow up so fast! It seems that all three of our kids are growing at once. They are eating like crazy, one of them is cranky and defiant as can be, and their little clothes are looking, well, littler. Mateo grew out of his new school shoes in less than four months. And, even harder to believe: Rosie is closing in on turning two. I am the first to admit that I wonder on a daily basis if I will make it through her toddlerhood with my sanity intact, but then I look back and it has already been almost two years? Impossible.
Especially now that it seems that we are done (done! done! done!) with diapers, it feels as if we are turning some kind of corner. Of course, with all the excitement that comes with coming to the end of babyhood for the last time, there is also plenty of nostalgia. We have some good friends who have some good friends who just had a baby this past weekend, and it caused me to remember the times right after all three of our kids were born. It's hard to appreciate at the time, because all the magic and euphoria is mixed right in with exhaustion and being overwhelmed, but it is a very special time that you don't get back and you don't get to do again. I am sure that I am well on the way to becoming one of those people that go up to new parents in the grocery store and implore them to "ENJOY THIS TIME!" even as they are about to collapse from sleep deprivation :)
Anyway, I am trying to remind myself to enjoy this time right now. One of the things that helps me do that is this video. It's of Rosie on Christmas Eve, just after she received her Christmas gift from her great-grandmother. This may have been the best moment of her life and I am not even joking. You have never seen a more excited 21-month-old. She just absolutely went wild. Best gift ever! The shrieking you hear on the video is just a small part of the celebration she staged over this horse. She even insisted on opening her stocking while sitting on it the next morning. I hope you enjoy this as much as I have!
Especially now that it seems that we are done (done! done! done!) with diapers, it feels as if we are turning some kind of corner. Of course, with all the excitement that comes with coming to the end of babyhood for the last time, there is also plenty of nostalgia. We have some good friends who have some good friends who just had a baby this past weekend, and it caused me to remember the times right after all three of our kids were born. It's hard to appreciate at the time, because all the magic and euphoria is mixed right in with exhaustion and being overwhelmed, but it is a very special time that you don't get back and you don't get to do again. I am sure that I am well on the way to becoming one of those people that go up to new parents in the grocery store and implore them to "ENJOY THIS TIME!" even as they are about to collapse from sleep deprivation :)
Anyway, I am trying to remind myself to enjoy this time right now. One of the things that helps me do that is this video. It's of Rosie on Christmas Eve, just after she received her Christmas gift from her great-grandmother. This may have been the best moment of her life and I am not even joking. You have never seen a more excited 21-month-old. She just absolutely went wild. Best gift ever! The shrieking you hear on the video is just a small part of the celebration she staged over this horse. She even insisted on opening her stocking while sitting on it the next morning. I hope you enjoy this as much as I have!
Saturday, January 5, 2013
The great outdoors
We expected that Tali's new preschool would impact her quite a bit in terms of getting outside. Either she would love being outside a lot or she wouldn't. Luckily, it has turned out that she comes down on the side of loving it, which has been great for her.
What we didn't expect was the impact it would have on our family. We have always been relatively adventurous with the kids, in terms of getting out and doing things, but have been limited in the winter by the weather, or so we thought. What we didn't fully get before this year was that all you need to have fun outside is the right gear. Up until this year, we had scraped by with the minimum of jackets and such that we could get away with, and just didn't go outside much when it was raining and freezing, which is most of the time in the winter!
This year, however, we have been inspired to step up. We had fair warning from Natalia's preschool that she would need some specific things in order to be warm and comfortable outside in the woods. With a list in hand, it was easy (at least physically, if not on the checkbook!) to get her what she needed. The main two things were Bogs boots and industrial strength rain pants from Polarn O. Pyret, a Swedish company that now sells in the USA. The Bogs are rain boots that also keep little feet warm down to 30 degrees below zero. They are serious boots, but they are also cute and easy for kids to pull on. Tali's school has a relationship with the company and they actually donated a pair for every kid this year.
Then, the Polarn O. Pyret pants cover most of the wearer's torso, including shoulder straps, and come complete with an elastic strap at the bottom of the legs. Tali's school has a way to set them up so that the elastic strap is pulled over the bottom of the outside of the boot, which pulls the pants down and holds them there, making a nearly impenetrable barrier for water. I have seen kids at her school doing all kinds of stuff in puddles and in pouring down rain, but when they come inside, they strip off their jackets and the combined boots/pants arrangement and they are warm and dry underneath.
Once we saw the freedom Tali had outside with her new gear, it became clear that Mateo needed the same outfitting to keep up! He very patiently waited until Christmas to unwrap his new rain pants and his new pair of Bogs.
On top of that, I have made a concerted effort to make sure that all the kids have mittens and hats that are easily grabbable, so that we can go outside without too much of a production. Rosie is too small for her older siblings' gear arrangement still, but we have a good little outfit that keeps her reasonably dry, if only she would keep her mittens on!
The end result has been a previously unheard-of outdoor freedom all throughout the fall and start of the winter. We have, in short, cultivated a fabulous relationship with mud, rain, and generally being outside regardless of the weather.
On Christmas Day, one of the most fun parts of the day was taking the kids out into the front yard in the afternoon, as the rain was coming down, and letting them have at a muddy patch in front of our house. By the end, they were covered in mud and had created quite a little lake. It was awesome. And, when they came in, they just took off their outer layer and were ready to play immediately.
A couple of other notable outdoor adventures have included a New Year's Day hike in nearly freezing temps and a memorable outing this fall in the pouring rain, in which the kids were swinging on the swing set and shouting a favorite song, "Ducks Like Rain," at the tops of their lungs...as Rosie was having the time of her life splashing in our wading pool in the downpour.
We have always been fans of kids getting dirty like nature intended, but now we know how to do it so that we can stay out for a long time without someone getting cold and wet and needing to go in. Fun stuff!
Here are some photos of the kids having fun outside recently. The first one isn't muddy, but I couldn't resist that face!
Tali is knee deep in muddy glop in this one!
Splashing at the local duck pond:
New Year's hike:
Playing at preschool:
This is from before her new Bogs boots arrived, but you can see the arrangement with the elastic on her regular rain boots...
What we didn't expect was the impact it would have on our family. We have always been relatively adventurous with the kids, in terms of getting out and doing things, but have been limited in the winter by the weather, or so we thought. What we didn't fully get before this year was that all you need to have fun outside is the right gear. Up until this year, we had scraped by with the minimum of jackets and such that we could get away with, and just didn't go outside much when it was raining and freezing, which is most of the time in the winter!
This year, however, we have been inspired to step up. We had fair warning from Natalia's preschool that she would need some specific things in order to be warm and comfortable outside in the woods. With a list in hand, it was easy (at least physically, if not on the checkbook!) to get her what she needed. The main two things were Bogs boots and industrial strength rain pants from Polarn O. Pyret, a Swedish company that now sells in the USA. The Bogs are rain boots that also keep little feet warm down to 30 degrees below zero. They are serious boots, but they are also cute and easy for kids to pull on. Tali's school has a relationship with the company and they actually donated a pair for every kid this year.
Then, the Polarn O. Pyret pants cover most of the wearer's torso, including shoulder straps, and come complete with an elastic strap at the bottom of the legs. Tali's school has a way to set them up so that the elastic strap is pulled over the bottom of the outside of the boot, which pulls the pants down and holds them there, making a nearly impenetrable barrier for water. I have seen kids at her school doing all kinds of stuff in puddles and in pouring down rain, but when they come inside, they strip off their jackets and the combined boots/pants arrangement and they are warm and dry underneath.
Once we saw the freedom Tali had outside with her new gear, it became clear that Mateo needed the same outfitting to keep up! He very patiently waited until Christmas to unwrap his new rain pants and his new pair of Bogs.
On top of that, I have made a concerted effort to make sure that all the kids have mittens and hats that are easily grabbable, so that we can go outside without too much of a production. Rosie is too small for her older siblings' gear arrangement still, but we have a good little outfit that keeps her reasonably dry, if only she would keep her mittens on!
The end result has been a previously unheard-of outdoor freedom all throughout the fall and start of the winter. We have, in short, cultivated a fabulous relationship with mud, rain, and generally being outside regardless of the weather.
On Christmas Day, one of the most fun parts of the day was taking the kids out into the front yard in the afternoon, as the rain was coming down, and letting them have at a muddy patch in front of our house. By the end, they were covered in mud and had created quite a little lake. It was awesome. And, when they came in, they just took off their outer layer and were ready to play immediately.
A couple of other notable outdoor adventures have included a New Year's Day hike in nearly freezing temps and a memorable outing this fall in the pouring rain, in which the kids were swinging on the swing set and shouting a favorite song, "Ducks Like Rain," at the tops of their lungs...as Rosie was having the time of her life splashing in our wading pool in the downpour.
We have always been fans of kids getting dirty like nature intended, but now we know how to do it so that we can stay out for a long time without someone getting cold and wet and needing to go in. Fun stuff!
Here are some photos of the kids having fun outside recently. The first one isn't muddy, but I couldn't resist that face!
Tali is knee deep in muddy glop in this one!
Splashing at the local duck pond:
New Year's hike:
Playing at preschool:
This is from before her new Bogs boots arrived, but you can see the arrangement with the elastic on her regular rain boots...
Friday, January 4, 2013
Diapers
In preparation for lending them out again, we just got our stash of cloth diapers back from the most recent new parents we had loaned them to. I went through all of them this evening, fending off excited children who just wanted to throw them everywhere, and got more than a little nostalgic in the process!
We started cloth diapering Mateo in perhaps not the most usual way. For some reason, despite the fact that we live in what must be the cloth diapering capital of the world, I was completely against doing it. It just seemed like a huge hassle. I was so sure we would never do it that I hadn't even given it a second thought...or a first one! So, when Sacha came to the opposite conclusion (ie, cloth diapering? YES!) when Mateo was about a week old, I nearly blew a gasket. I am not normally so excitable, but we were both incredibly overwhelmed, sleep deprived, and all that, and I just couldn't handle it.
Of course, as with almost every decision we've made in the 12 (!!) years we've been together, Sacha was right on target. Once I calmed down and we agreed to try out this cloth diapering thing and just see how it went, I liked it more and more. It was just one of those things that took getting used to, and once we had a routine, it was easy to keep up with. We cloth diapered both Mateo and Natalia full-time during the day until they were potty-trained, which happened at about 18 months for both of them.
Using cloth helped us feel good about throwing away fewer disposables (which we still used at night), but it also dovetailed nicely with the exposure to the potty that we started essentially from birth. The kids never got used to feeling dry in their diapers, at least during the day, and so they always knew when they had used them. Of course, we changed them frequently, so it's not like they were sitting in anything, but they were certainly aware of it when they were wet.
Of course, there were some hiccups along the way, including the first few days, when we didn't realize that you can't put most diaper creams on cloth, because many of them contain some kind of cod liver oil and that stinks to high heaven when you try to wash them. Not only that, but the smell just gets worse and worse and more and more fishy the more times you put them through the wash, plus turning the rest of the load fishy as well. Happy times!
Overall, though, the whole experience has been very positive. We eschewed a diaper service and just washed them ourselves, which was much easier than I expected. Yes, there was a fair amount of pre-rinsing involved and getting them ready for washing wasn't always the most appealing task, but it all went very smoothly with the actual washing...and, as proof of that, I offer up our huge supply of cloth diapers of all types, which are only minimally stained after three years of us using them full-time and then several other families using them between then and now.
When we had Rosie, as I may have mentioned in the past, all of what I just said went right out the window! It really wasn't a big deal to cloth diaper the older two kids, but somehow it was the straw that broke the camel's back with #3. I take the blame for this, because I just couldn't handle it. I don't remember fully what we did when she was a newborn, but I'm pretty sure we gave it a good try. It was when Sacha went back to work that I just gave up.
One of the reasons we started Mateo on cloth in the first place was that his skin was VERY sensitive and he was getting lots of rashes from regular disposables. This got better almost instantly with cloth. Natalia had similarly sensitive skin. Rosa, on the other hand, is our little indestructible baby and her skin wasn't affected by what diaper she wore. In fact, in the end, we ended up using a cheaper generic diaper for her and it didn't matter one bit. With the older kids, it was Huggies or nothing for nighttime.
So, Rosie has been our 99% disposable baby. That has been great, too, and has had plenty of upside in terms of convenience. I think I would have been a much worse and less patient parent (and I struggle with that anyway) if I had been trying to force the cloth diapering issue when it just wasn't working with three little ones.
Anyway, we are now at the point where diapers, cloth or disposable, are about to be a thing of the past. Six years of diapers, whew!! We are still going to need them at night for awhile, I'm sure, but Rosie is just about there in terms of daytime. She has been using the potty during the day for three weeks now, and she has had just a few accidents. She has been wearing underwear and doing great with it. We just have to remember to take her at regular intervals, but she has shown that she can control when she goes and has even been waking up in the mornings and from naps dry. She is clearly ready, even though she didn't have nearly as much exposure to the potty from birth.
I didn't mean to write such a dissertation on diapering, but, really, it has occupied many of my thoughts for the past six years. I mean, I can't even begin to imagine how many diapers we have changed. It was all for a good cause!
And, we hope that our stash of cloth diapers will continue to be useful to others as time goes by. There are sure a lot of them! We may have gotten a little bit too into it :) Here they are, in all their glory, with the kids that have long outgrown them!
We started cloth diapering Mateo in perhaps not the most usual way. For some reason, despite the fact that we live in what must be the cloth diapering capital of the world, I was completely against doing it. It just seemed like a huge hassle. I was so sure we would never do it that I hadn't even given it a second thought...or a first one! So, when Sacha came to the opposite conclusion (ie, cloth diapering? YES!) when Mateo was about a week old, I nearly blew a gasket. I am not normally so excitable, but we were both incredibly overwhelmed, sleep deprived, and all that, and I just couldn't handle it.
Of course, as with almost every decision we've made in the 12 (!!) years we've been together, Sacha was right on target. Once I calmed down and we agreed to try out this cloth diapering thing and just see how it went, I liked it more and more. It was just one of those things that took getting used to, and once we had a routine, it was easy to keep up with. We cloth diapered both Mateo and Natalia full-time during the day until they were potty-trained, which happened at about 18 months for both of them.
Using cloth helped us feel good about throwing away fewer disposables (which we still used at night), but it also dovetailed nicely with the exposure to the potty that we started essentially from birth. The kids never got used to feeling dry in their diapers, at least during the day, and so they always knew when they had used them. Of course, we changed them frequently, so it's not like they were sitting in anything, but they were certainly aware of it when they were wet.
Of course, there were some hiccups along the way, including the first few days, when we didn't realize that you can't put most diaper creams on cloth, because many of them contain some kind of cod liver oil and that stinks to high heaven when you try to wash them. Not only that, but the smell just gets worse and worse and more and more fishy the more times you put them through the wash, plus turning the rest of the load fishy as well. Happy times!
Overall, though, the whole experience has been very positive. We eschewed a diaper service and just washed them ourselves, which was much easier than I expected. Yes, there was a fair amount of pre-rinsing involved and getting them ready for washing wasn't always the most appealing task, but it all went very smoothly with the actual washing...and, as proof of that, I offer up our huge supply of cloth diapers of all types, which are only minimally stained after three years of us using them full-time and then several other families using them between then and now.
When we had Rosie, as I may have mentioned in the past, all of what I just said went right out the window! It really wasn't a big deal to cloth diaper the older two kids, but somehow it was the straw that broke the camel's back with #3. I take the blame for this, because I just couldn't handle it. I don't remember fully what we did when she was a newborn, but I'm pretty sure we gave it a good try. It was when Sacha went back to work that I just gave up.
One of the reasons we started Mateo on cloth in the first place was that his skin was VERY sensitive and he was getting lots of rashes from regular disposables. This got better almost instantly with cloth. Natalia had similarly sensitive skin. Rosa, on the other hand, is our little indestructible baby and her skin wasn't affected by what diaper she wore. In fact, in the end, we ended up using a cheaper generic diaper for her and it didn't matter one bit. With the older kids, it was Huggies or nothing for nighttime.
So, Rosie has been our 99% disposable baby. That has been great, too, and has had plenty of upside in terms of convenience. I think I would have been a much worse and less patient parent (and I struggle with that anyway) if I had been trying to force the cloth diapering issue when it just wasn't working with three little ones.
Anyway, we are now at the point where diapers, cloth or disposable, are about to be a thing of the past. Six years of diapers, whew!! We are still going to need them at night for awhile, I'm sure, but Rosie is just about there in terms of daytime. She has been using the potty during the day for three weeks now, and she has had just a few accidents. She has been wearing underwear and doing great with it. We just have to remember to take her at regular intervals, but she has shown that she can control when she goes and has even been waking up in the mornings and from naps dry. She is clearly ready, even though she didn't have nearly as much exposure to the potty from birth.
I didn't mean to write such a dissertation on diapering, but, really, it has occupied many of my thoughts for the past six years. I mean, I can't even begin to imagine how many diapers we have changed. It was all for a good cause!
And, we hope that our stash of cloth diapers will continue to be useful to others as time goes by. There are sure a lot of them! We may have gotten a little bit too into it :) Here they are, in all their glory, with the kids that have long outgrown them!
Monday, December 31, 2012
Ringing in the new year
It has been awhile since I last blogged, and a lot has happened! Shortly after the election, we embarked on a holiday whirlwind that has just about wrapped up now. We had Thanksgiving and Hanukkah and Christmas all here at home, which was nice for all of us. During the Christmas seasons in particular, we got to see our families, we ate good food, we all opened lots of gifts, and we had lots of good time together as a family. Especially in light of the shootings in our area and across the country, it has been especially nice to get two weeks to spend time with our kids, each other, and our families.
I have been unable to get the Newtown events out of my mind, but I don't have anything very coherent to say about them that hasn't been expressed elsewhere. Having small children and a spouse who is a teacher made it all hit very close to home. My only hope is that some kind of forward progress on gun control will come from this.
On that happy note, I thought I would write a quick round-up of some of the events of the last year that I'd like to remember, and some things we have been up to lately.
As has been the case with the last several years, we have had a big year! This time last year, we had just sold our old house and were settling into our new one. I was schlepping the kids back to our old neighborhood twice a week for preschool, which was fun for no one! We were all glad to see that routine come to an end, as much as we loved their old school.
Then, we had the summer, which was glorious in every way, complete with satisfying travel, lots of family time, lots of dinners outside on our patio, kids playing on our new play structure, and all sorts of other experiences.
We were sad to see the summer come to an end, but happy to start new routines for almost everyone. Mateo started kindergarten, Natalia started a new preschool, and Sacha started her first split class at a new school. It has been a big adjustment for everyone, but everyone is thriving. And, I am enjoying having alone time with Rosie two mornings a week, and time with the two girls on the other mornings. Somehow, I feel like I am running around more than ever, even with Mateo in school all day, but it is all for a good cause.
Among the satisfying things about our new neighborhood is that we have found a church we really like. We had been searching for some kind of spiritual home for years and hadn't found anywhere that drew us back. When we moved here, we noticed that there was a progressive-looking church on the corner just two blocks away, but we didn't do much other than notice it. Then, one day, when Sacha was floating (another new experience for her this year) she felt inspired that we should check it out. We did, and we loved it right from the beginning. We have been back just about every Sunday since then, and it has become a beloved part of our weekends. Rosie seems to feel at home in the nursery and both big kids are liking Sunday school there. We have found the pastor to be inspiring and the rest of the congregation welcoming and friendly. It is especially nice to feel explicitly welcomed as a same-sex couple/family, and to see other gay people and families there.
It has also been really nice to live so close to my grandmother, who lives just about half a mile from us. We have enjoyed spontaneous get-togethers and being able to walk to her house. And, the kids love it when she drops by to bring them treats or Advent calendars, or just to say hi!
We have had an eventful holiday season in a couple of ways that I haven't mentioned yet. First, following Rosie's lead, we have gotten her just about completely potty trained! With our older kids, we worked with them on the potty pretty much starting at birth, and they were both using the potty full-time when they were about 18 months old. With Rosa, I just didn't have it in me to manage getting her used to the potty while also dealing with the older two, so we decided to just do diapers (and disposables at that - gasp!) while she was little. However, she has been increasingly showing signs that she is ready, so we decided to take winter break, while we were both home, and see what progress we could make.
As it turned out, she was completely ready. She had several accidents in the first week, but then she hit her stride and has been dry for at least the last four or five days, including naps and nighttime. We are sooo proud of her and happy that this has worked out so well. We have even been on several outings, including going to the zoo, where she kept herself dry. I have a lot of confidence now that I can carry on with this after the school and work routine starts up again. Go Rosie!!
Finally, we had to say goodbye to our beloved cat, Yarn, about a week ago. Over the course of several days, she went from acting normal to just sitting on the heating vent in the bathroom all the time. Then she began to act disoriented and from there it was a quick downhill slide. A trip to the emergency vet confirmed that she was in bad shape, and that she had gone completely blind. They didn't know why, but suspected a blood clot or brain tumor. Poor baby :( By the next day, it was absolutely clear to us that she was suffering and that it was time to let her go. Thanks to the recommendation of some friends, we were able to have a vet come to our home and gently put her to sleep.
We all loved Yarn very much, and the kids did particularly. When we were in Europe this summer, we went to one of those Locks of Love bridges in Paris and my sister got the kids some locks to put on the bridge. We asked them to think of their favorite person in the world, so we could put their name on the lock, and they both immediately said, "Yarn!" We got Yarn as an adult cat, so we knew that we might not have her for very long, but were hoping she would live to a ripe old age. Unfortunately, the universe had other plans. We are thankful that we got to have time to snuggle her at the end and say goodbye. It was especially hard for Mateo to process all this, and we are all pretty sad about it. We will miss you, Yarn!
On that note, I am going to wrap this up. We are planning to enjoy our last couple of days of break, celebrate the new year coming, and then get back to our regular routines. Happy New Year to all!
I have been unable to get the Newtown events out of my mind, but I don't have anything very coherent to say about them that hasn't been expressed elsewhere. Having small children and a spouse who is a teacher made it all hit very close to home. My only hope is that some kind of forward progress on gun control will come from this.
On that happy note, I thought I would write a quick round-up of some of the events of the last year that I'd like to remember, and some things we have been up to lately.
As has been the case with the last several years, we have had a big year! This time last year, we had just sold our old house and were settling into our new one. I was schlepping the kids back to our old neighborhood twice a week for preschool, which was fun for no one! We were all glad to see that routine come to an end, as much as we loved their old school.
Then, we had the summer, which was glorious in every way, complete with satisfying travel, lots of family time, lots of dinners outside on our patio, kids playing on our new play structure, and all sorts of other experiences.
We were sad to see the summer come to an end, but happy to start new routines for almost everyone. Mateo started kindergarten, Natalia started a new preschool, and Sacha started her first split class at a new school. It has been a big adjustment for everyone, but everyone is thriving. And, I am enjoying having alone time with Rosie two mornings a week, and time with the two girls on the other mornings. Somehow, I feel like I am running around more than ever, even with Mateo in school all day, but it is all for a good cause.
Among the satisfying things about our new neighborhood is that we have found a church we really like. We had been searching for some kind of spiritual home for years and hadn't found anywhere that drew us back. When we moved here, we noticed that there was a progressive-looking church on the corner just two blocks away, but we didn't do much other than notice it. Then, one day, when Sacha was floating (another new experience for her this year) she felt inspired that we should check it out. We did, and we loved it right from the beginning. We have been back just about every Sunday since then, and it has become a beloved part of our weekends. Rosie seems to feel at home in the nursery and both big kids are liking Sunday school there. We have found the pastor to be inspiring and the rest of the congregation welcoming and friendly. It is especially nice to feel explicitly welcomed as a same-sex couple/family, and to see other gay people and families there.
It has also been really nice to live so close to my grandmother, who lives just about half a mile from us. We have enjoyed spontaneous get-togethers and being able to walk to her house. And, the kids love it when she drops by to bring them treats or Advent calendars, or just to say hi!
We have had an eventful holiday season in a couple of ways that I haven't mentioned yet. First, following Rosie's lead, we have gotten her just about completely potty trained! With our older kids, we worked with them on the potty pretty much starting at birth, and they were both using the potty full-time when they were about 18 months old. With Rosa, I just didn't have it in me to manage getting her used to the potty while also dealing with the older two, so we decided to just do diapers (and disposables at that - gasp!) while she was little. However, she has been increasingly showing signs that she is ready, so we decided to take winter break, while we were both home, and see what progress we could make.
As it turned out, she was completely ready. She had several accidents in the first week, but then she hit her stride and has been dry for at least the last four or five days, including naps and nighttime. We are sooo proud of her and happy that this has worked out so well. We have even been on several outings, including going to the zoo, where she kept herself dry. I have a lot of confidence now that I can carry on with this after the school and work routine starts up again. Go Rosie!!
Finally, we had to say goodbye to our beloved cat, Yarn, about a week ago. Over the course of several days, she went from acting normal to just sitting on the heating vent in the bathroom all the time. Then she began to act disoriented and from there it was a quick downhill slide. A trip to the emergency vet confirmed that she was in bad shape, and that she had gone completely blind. They didn't know why, but suspected a blood clot or brain tumor. Poor baby :( By the next day, it was absolutely clear to us that she was suffering and that it was time to let her go. Thanks to the recommendation of some friends, we were able to have a vet come to our home and gently put her to sleep.
We all loved Yarn very much, and the kids did particularly. When we were in Europe this summer, we went to one of those Locks of Love bridges in Paris and my sister got the kids some locks to put on the bridge. We asked them to think of their favorite person in the world, so we could put their name on the lock, and they both immediately said, "Yarn!" We got Yarn as an adult cat, so we knew that we might not have her for very long, but were hoping she would live to a ripe old age. Unfortunately, the universe had other plans. We are thankful that we got to have time to snuggle her at the end and say goodbye. It was especially hard for Mateo to process all this, and we are all pretty sad about it. We will miss you, Yarn!
On that note, I am going to wrap this up. We are planning to enjoy our last couple of days of break, celebrate the new year coming, and then get back to our regular routines. Happy New Year to all!
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