Summer Fun

It's not summer without the pool, a constant state of semi-undress and hours under the sun.  It helps when you have neighbor kids the same age and everyone gets along.  It's even better when you have the world's best dad teaching you his favorite games.  There is something magical about long summer days and warm summer nights that makes me very content.

 

Kid Update: Wyatt

As we drove in the car tonight, Wyatt asked me a question.  As soon as the question was out of his mouth he answered his own question with a pretty accurate answer.  He then turned to me and asked me this question.  "Mom, why every time do I have a question as soon as I say it out loud, my brain starts working on the answer eliminating possibilities until I've figured it out on my own so fast I'm not even sure why I got to that answer?"  And that really is one of the most notable things about Wyatt.  He is brilliant, like actually, technically.  When he was having his IQ tested at school they start with a small 1/2 hour test with the guidance counselor.  Depending on how they do on that they then engage in a multi hour testing session with the district psychologist.  After the initial testing with the guidance counselor he met with me.  He said he did really well, he was answering questions so quickly, at first, that I thought he was just guessing.  As we continued though and he did better than I imagined I realized that's just how his brain works.  Just as the guidance counselor was in awe a couple years ago, I still experience those moments with some regularity.  To see his brain in action really is quite unique. 

Inversely because a lot of things especially mental come so easy to Wyatt he struggles to push himself hard and his work ethic is sometimes questionable.  After a particularly frustrating couple of months at the beginning of the summer I had a conversation with him about why it's important to work hard, push yourself to do things you didn't think you could and grit through the learning curve and pain of trying hard things.  Shortly thereafter he took those words to heart and decided to run a 1 mile race.  After finishing he decided that he would like to run a 5K with me as well.  I was nervous but he did awesome.  Later I found out that he cried as we ran - it was a glow run at night - but I didn't even realize because he had taken to heart what I had said about gritting through hard things and pushing himself.  Even if it seems like Wyatt isn't paying attention he is always listening and taking what you say to heart.

Wyatt isn't really talkative like myself or some of the other kids.  But when he talks there is always a purpose.  He's very introspective and after a class report, where I sat watching, the teacher allowed the kids to ask the presenter questions.  As kids asked Wyatt questions, he thought long and hard sometimes before answering.  His teacher commented that this was what she loved most about Wyatt.  Instead of answering quickly that he didn't know or just saying something whether it was true or not, he took the time each time to mentally assess the question to see if he knew or could deduce the answer.  I decided that day I wanted to be more like Wyatt in that way.  Likewise when he doesn't know the answer to something he asks question after question leading to a million more until his thirst for knowledge is quenched.  This has led me to do interesting research with him in many areas including the question, do bugs fart. 

Right now Wyatt loves video games, computer games and reading.  Sometimes I worry that I should make him read non-fiction or use his time solving hard scientific equations but instead I usually indulge his need to be a kid, despite my worry that I am doing his intelligence a disservice. 

Wyatt has the world's longest eyelashes -yes those are real-, happiest smile and a way with people that makes me realize I've never met anyone who didn't love him to pieces.  He was the easiest baby ever and he continues to be the easiest child to raise ever.  I love this boy more than words can express. 

Shocking

Most people think I have straight hair.  It wasn't until I had lived in PA for three-ish years when I came to the bus stop and my neighbor asked "Is your hair curly?"  I remarked that I didn't think it was curly but it definitely wasn't straight.  She was surprised since my hair is usually straight or in a knot of some sort.

She said she liked the curls and that I should embrace them more.  I agree that they are pretty but in a state with so much humidity, it can go wrong oh so fast.  But I was surprised I had kept this fact, unintentionally, pretty well hidden.

I decided to photo document my hair pretty au natural.  This was a morning I woke up after showering the night before and going to bed without doing anything to it. 

P.S.  The color here is not so au natural, but pretty great still the same, eh???

Morning Routine

Every family has a morning routine that gets them off to school usually repeated M-F almost exactly the same and involves waking up, eating and scrambling for the bus.  But although kitchy, I believe in the touted phrase "A family that prays together, stays together."  And so that last thing we do before everyone leaves my house each morning is this...

I feel his power strengthening my kids, our home, this family. 

Family Update #1

So much to cover, so little time.  But the kids are changing, the school year has wrapped up and I feel like I need a kid review to remember this time period.  So first I'll start with the I-man.

Issac means he will laugh and when he was just a few months old Travis and I worried we had misnamed the two boys based on temperament.  Because Issac was a colicky baby and he just didn't fit the ideals, standards and expectations that my other two kids had set as precedent before him.  Wyatt means little warrior and he was the easiest baby ever and we were starting to wonder if we had totally given each child the wrong legacy.  Because for all of Travis and my name picking that was what we made our decisions on most, what kind of legacy the meaning of the name could potentially have for the child.

After several months of constant crying, multiple diagnosis from the doctors and several procedures later they chalked it up to his temperament or colic.  Eeks I was scared.  My mom and dad gloated in his difficulty because I had been an especially prone to crying infant as well.  But after six months or so he flipped the switch.  And the child I had known to that point left and was to never be spotted again.  Instead lay a little boy with smiles for miles, almost dimples, the bluest blue eyes and blond hair making women everywhere coo over him and exclaim his absolute adorableness.  On the first day of nursery he walked away from me never looking back or worrying about where I was.  Likewise started the pattern of his life of never needing me.

Although he was a much easier child in some ways I worried most over him.  He didn't need me long before he could communicate and I wondered how he was away from me.  Because although he was now a very happy child, he was super spirited and filled with a mischievous streak that could make him seem like his often compared alter ego Dennis the Menace.  Sending him to Primary and Preschool I worried about how he was behaving, if he was being good or if he was using his new found freedom from me to reign in terror.

And for the most part I got good reports from his teachers and other adults.  Still at home he remained our amusement maker.  In Kindergarten at a parent teacher conference his teacher expressed her only concern "When he gets excited he talks louder and louder and louder."  To which I replied, "Have you met me?  I can't teach him something I haven't learned to do yet.  But we'll work on it."  And we did.  He started his first grade year this year.  I was a little nervous because his teacher was a neighbor and I just didn't want something to happen that would cause later awkwardness.  But alas my concerns were for naught.  He had a great year.  So great that at the end of the year he got the Principal's Award, which is for the student who best exemplifies the behaviors and attitudes of our school of being responsible, organized, kind, etc...

So what would I say about this kid now. He's amazing, he's kind, he controls his mischief and instead focuses all his energy, enthusiasm and drive into sports, extreme sports and playing.  He's fearless and brave, a leader, a good example, a great big brother and a good little brother.  A happy kid who loves to be happy and make others happy.  He's taken a huge growth spurt as well as maturity spurt this year and changed from a child to a boy.  I can't wait for him to grow into a man.  Each day of child raising is a surprise, one kind that I particularly love! 

I'm Speechless

It's Father's Day.  I want to write something wonderful about my hubby, a tribute to be quoted it is so amazing.  But alas, I am speechless.  Maybe for the first time ever.  Because words can't do him justice.  So here he is...

If you see him, get to know him.  I've never met anyone who regretted it!

Monte Carlo

So Bella and I for our first day of summer vacation indulged in ridiculous girl movie watching.  I love that we can indulge our goofy side together.  So we watched the movie, Monte Carlo, one I had not seen, but Bella had. 

The scenario was 3 girls, 4 boys.  And as we watched we oohed and aahhed over different male leads.  Once the movie was over we continued the debate finding other internet images of these boys.  We still can't agree, so I'll leave it up to my viewing audience.

Who is the hottest of these boys (boy 3 and 4 are the same, one with long hair, one with short-if you choose him you must pick a hair length as well)?  Well what are you waiting for?  Weigh in!

Pierre

Luke

Giulio 1

Giulio 2

Cory