I don't know exactly what it is, but this week I have been just completely overwhelmed by how much I love my kids. It's weird how much more I can love them today when I thought I loved them fully just yesterday, but I somehow love them more. I feel so completely devoted to them it almost hurts. I am watching my little Juni walk and climb and point and do so many things by herself and it's killing me that she is already 15 months old and she is my last baby. I want to snuggle her every minute, but she is busy being baby busy with so many awesome things. She is curious and easy going and indipendent and does not throw fits yet. She smiles all the time. She loves to clap for her brothers at their baseball games. She loves to laugh with them. She thinks Joren has the coolest stuff in his room and Joren is always trying to keep her out of his stuff. She loves to climb the stool in the bathroom and brush her teeth. She imitates all of us. She loves animals. She obeys well and doesn't do dangerous things. She loves to drink from a cup, although she's not great at it yet. She feeds herself. She does baby signs for more and drink and eat. She gives hugs and blows kisses and is all around the easiest baby and so much fun to be around!! Seriously, she is so stinking cute I can't get enough of her.
I want to make every little minute with Teig, the terrific count because too soon he will be off with someone else spending his days making them smile instead of me. Oh, he is sweet. He is smart and confident and strong. He never questions himself. He has a firm, steady grip on reality, but allows himself the extravagance of having an imaginary pet named Scratchclaw that is to blame when anything goes wrong and he is also super strength and any other number of miraculous things. If we need extra money, don't worry, Scratchclaw has some extra. If we need to move our house, don't worry, Scratchclaw is stronger than the whole world and can easily move our whole house. Also, he is gentle and can snuggle at night if you need a snuggle. Teig is also a great negotiator. He has figured out that he needs to fill up on healthy food before he can have treats so he keeps careful track of all the good food he eats and tallies it up to tell me so he can qualify for a cookie or something. His idea of what is healthy can also be pretty humorous. Teig also will negotiate by letting us know that he will stay with us for the rest of our lives if he can have a cookie, or he will let me snuggle with him or play with him if he can watch just one short show. He knows how to work me for sure. He's not one for dressing up or playing pretend much. He's very practical and determined. He loves play dough and lately we have been painting together every day. He knows all his letters and is learning to sound out words. I think by the end of the summer he will read and ride a bike with no training wheels. He gets to go to Friendship Farm, one of the greatest places on earth. It's a green barn where kids his age meet for preschool. They are called farmers and every day they get a job to take care of one of the animals there. They work in the garden and play in the yard. The teachers are awesome and the whole thing is just magical. I love that he gets to go there twice a week. He's only done it for 2 months and next week is his last day. He will start again in the fall.
Joren has continued his love of creating things out of paper. It is beyond hobby and borders obsession. His teachers had to ban him from making paper airplanes. He is so good at it that all the kids were always hiring him to make them airplanes and he was going through too much paper at school. In place of airplanes, he has started a collection of what he has named "Harsheburg" Aliens. He has invented worlds for all the different species of aliens and he has been bringing home a few new ones every day for weeks. They are pretty interesting and very creative. He gives some of them names. I started hanging them on his walls and they look impressive together. He's passionate about them. He asked me to make Harsheburg aliens with him one night. I took a toilet paper roll and some green painters tape and started making a creature. He started flipping out. He was so mad at me. He said, "How do you do that?" He did not want me to make something cooler than his aliens. His teacher has told me again recently that Joren does not work well in partnerships or groups. This is not news to me. He has never been good at letting me help him with ANYTHING. He is MR. independent and does not want guidance or help. It was kind of a big step for him to let me show him how I made my alien and then he made one exactly the same. I have a feeling school is going to get more and more challenging for him. His is a creative soul trying to squeeze into a school that requires non-creative work. I feel extremely grateful to be in the awesome school district that we are in because already the teachers have been good enough to recognize his gifts and given him time to develop them. I know he will need to do some uncomfortable conforming to be successful and I am squirmish thinking of how that will be for him. He is so unique and an absolute brilliant, determined, passionate, gem. I adore him.
Eirik is my heart. He is working so hard to be a man. He is so good. His heart is gold. He wants to serve, and please and love everyone. He loves people so unselfishly. If someone gets hurt he wants to give them his favorite possession to help them feel better. I told him of a former teacher that I feared was lonely and he went to his room and drew a treasure box and wrote on it, "we treasure you." and brought it to me to mail to him. He did not even know him, but did not want to see anyone in pain. He is truly gifted at working with younger kids. He is a true motivator. He understand people really well. He works hard, and sets a great example for his younger siblings. He had what they called, Kids town at school where they could create, sell and buy things. He chose to be a Doctor. He got little tupperware jars and put candy in them and made up fake names of drugs to sell to his kids to help them with their headaches and stuff. With the money he made at his profession, he bought art for me, a necklace for me and a box he made with mice he made inside it.. for me. Why did he spend all his money on his mother. He is so kind to me, it blows me away!
I do have to say that I have been reading 1,2,3 Magic. I love it. I have been using it for a few weeks and I think my relationship with my kids is improving because of the refinements in our interactions from this book. I really like it!
No comments:
Post a Comment