Upside? Lots of fun photos all at once.
If possible life just keeps getting more full. I swear we don't have any more kids but the load just grows and grows.
I've told countless people that THIS has been my hardest parenting year, and I think it's true. I don't have one single moment to myself in a day (until the kids crash). It's just nuts, but so full and good.
More than ever I'm hanging on to the good. I'm so much more aware of how good now is and how with each stage in all of our lives, something new and amazing shows up.
I love watching my girls learn to read. At night they sit by the light of their nightlight and sound out words from my big adult chapter books.
Almost every day Ainsley comes home with a note of me that she wrote at school.
She has a book to fill with 100 words for their hundredth day celebration at school and she wants them all to be complex and new. Not words like cat and Mom and love that she knows how to spell. Oh that girl. She's not a simple one that's for sure.
We're finding a new groove with her too. Using more humor and distraction to douse flare ups and tempers, finding alone time for her in a day. So far long baths and sink play are working wonders, as is a bit of one on one time with mom or dad on weekends.
Ainsley is so very creative, even I, with a like mind, struggle to keep her occupied and challenged. She is forever arranging and rearranging and concocting and planning. It's all so very elaborate and specific and exhausting and incredible.
Louise has taken to carrying around a tiny pink notebook and drawing all day long. Her pictures are just the sweetest.
Our second girl is like a tiny angle sent from heaven (well they all are, but you know what I mean). The other night I remarked at dinner that we forgot napkins and she quietly walked up and grabbed us all some and put them in our laps without a word returning to her seat. She is so observant and calm. I try so hard to channel her zen most days. She is the sweetest big sister imaginable to Felix and those two are such a pair. One of the things I'm grappling the most with about kindergarten next year is taking them away from each other. They are so in love.
And Felix? Oh goodness he'll be two in three short months. He sings and talks and is saying 3 and four word sentences (I want mo peez, is my new favorite). He LOVES to read, and he loves birds. He loves to watch the garbage trucks (just like his big sister Ainsley) and is most content to just wander around exploring. Most of the time he loves when I sing and do finger plays with him. But he can also be very opinionated and will vigorously shake his head no if he's not in the mood.
He is the sweetest little man I can imagine.
After a short break after Christmas making I'm enjoying new projects. After finishing some last minute leg warmers for my dancer girl Louise, I stumbled across a half finished cap sleeve cardigan for me that I'm close to finishing. It's quite the treat.
I made a spur of the moment decision to make Felix a quilt. I am so in love with it I'm already concocting an excuse to make another. Perhaps a throw for the living room? The girls need so little for the spring (so far) that I'm holding off on dresses and skirts until the need arises. I simply must make Felix a light spring cardigan and summery quick change trousers though. Who knows how long that little guy will be happy to let me dress him?
Ian is gliding along at work and we are anticipating changes in the next year. Finally we should know where we'll be long term and while that thought is daunting I'm surrounding myself in the comfort of knowing and being here right now which has turned out to be a darn good place to be.
Late January love to you all!
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