I can hardly believe another year has passed – as the old saying goes, time flies when you’re having fun! Life is good; we are very blessed.
We are approaching ten years of living in our home here in Utah, and we still enjoy very much our community and friends here. Hugh is still commuting to Salt Lake City for work, though he now has permission to work occasionally from home, so he is getting a little more sleep.
As for me, I love being a mom. Admittedly, I don’t enjoy every second of it – I could do without endless chores, stinky diapers, and squabbling – but I really do love being a mom and I am so grateful for every one of our children. My greatest challenges are having the wisdom to know what things are most important, and then having the time (and energy) to fit it all in! Our older five kids attend a charter school, and while it takes a considerable amount of time and commitment on my part, for the first time I feel at peace with the education our children are acquiring.
Our family adventures this year included a family reunion with all our Dosdall kin (all twelve of my siblings!) at Bear Lake, Utah in late June for one last hurrah before my dear parents left for Bangalore, India to serve an 18-month humanitarian mission at an orphanage supported by our church. We also were able to visit Disneyland for the first time as a family along with my sister, Kristen, and her family.
We entered a new era as Steven turned 13 in May this year. He is a pleasant, down-to-earth kid. We hope that he will keep that quiet confidence and goodness that are his with him all through his teenage years! He plays violin in the school orchestra and is still taking piano lessons. Much to his delight, Steven recently passed me up in height. Steven enjoys soccer, reading, playing with friends, and negotiating for as much time to play electronics as he possibly can.
Daniel turned 12 in October and became a deacon in our church, which has given him opportunities for more service and responsibility. Daniel has a great sense of humor and a tender heart. After faithfully saving his pennies for nine months, Daniel accomplished his goal of purchasing a Nintendo DS. He and Steven are enjoying the fruits of his labors. Despite dragging their feet when it comes time to practice, Steven and Daniel are becoming quite the pianists and it is fun to listen to the lively duets they play.
Julia turned 10 in July and is a very musical little person. She enjoys BYU sports, concerts with her dad on Temple Square, soccer, Sudoku, playing the piano, reading, and drawing. She has experimented in the kitchen enough that she can follow a recipe pretty much without my help from start to finish. (Cleaning up the mess in the kitchen, now that’s another matter entirely…)
Michael, who turned 8 in April, is all about school and sports. He played soccer and flag football this year and is just beginning the basketball season. Though he is young for a 4th grader, he is doing well and is enjoying school. He loves his cousin, Guts, and is so glad that the Wrights moved here to Spanish Fork this year. Michael is a talented writer and pianist, though he is very shy about showing off these talents.
Alyssa, who will be turning 7 in January, is our little home-body. It has been a rough few years since she started preschool as separation anxiety has been a major issue. To make a long story short: things are much improved after a few sessions with a pediatric therapist who helped me understand how I was contributing to her insecurity. (Lest I start thinking I know anything, my children are there to humble me!) She has been helped a lot by the teachers and administration as well as her fellow 1st graders. Alyssa is occasionally grumpy and obstinate, but more often very sweet, generous, and helpful. She is a pretty girl who likes pretty things and notices style and details (I don’t know yet if this is a good thing or a bad thing…)
Natalie, who just turned 5, is an interesting little person. Sometimes she is sweet as sugar, but then other times it shocks me to hear the mean, angry sounds that come out of such a pretty, innocent-looking face. She has unintentionally given her little brother an arsenal of mean names to call us when we displease him. She has a way with words, and recently came up with the ultimate insult by calling Matthew “Math-Ute” (the U of U Utes are BYU’s arch-rival.) She goes around the house showing off her new skills of whistling and snapping. She is a cute, spunky little person.
Matthew, who just turned 3, loves things that go. His favorite toys are Hot Wheels cars, a wooden train set, and puzzles, movies, and books about cars, trucks, tractors, machines, etc. He wears his beloved Speed Racer hat nearly 24 hours a day, allowing us to take it off only when he takes a bath, has his picture taken, or goes to church. He is becoming much more verbal, but sometimes we wish we had an interpreter to help us understand what he is trying to say, which I’m sure is frustrating to him. He can be difficult and demanding, but he is precious and has an adorably expressive face and voice.
Emily, our baby, is not really a baby anymore. Almost 17 months old now, she is constantly running, climbing, pulling chairs and stools around the house in order to reach all kinds of dangerous or messy things. Emily talks little but understands a lot. She loves her siblings and they love her. It is truly delightful to have a baby, especially with a house full of adoring siblings.
We are so grateful for you, our friends and family, and for the peace we have in our lives because of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and his wonderful Gospel. We pray that you are well and happy and can see the hand of the Lord in your lives through your good times as well as your challenges.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Saturday, October 11, 2008
October 11, 2008
Hello Everyone!
We hope you are enjoying the last of the flowers and green leaves as the cool autumn winds blow in. It is beautiful – every season is – but I don’t enjoy the long, cold winter that is sure to follow. Anyway, we are doing well. We went on our first trip to Disneyland for a week near the end of September. We nearly ended up cancelling the trip because our children were being so irresponsible about their make-up homework since we would be missing an entire week of school, but once they realized the trip was in jeopardy, they whipped themselves into shape. We had so much fun together! I went into the whole Disneyland experience somewhat cynical, wondering what all the hype was about. But I have to admit that we had such a good time, I would love to go back as a family again at least once before the kids start leaving for college (in four short years!) Part of the fun was just being there together for the sole purpose of enjoying each other, but part of it was the family friendly, detail-oriented atmosphere of Disneyland. We loved it!
I will backtrack a little bit and report things that have gone on in the last couple of months. After a couple of weeks of being frustrated by the disorganization and the hassle of transporting reluctant kids to and from the charter school, Kristen and James decided to withdraw Jamie, Guts, and Josie and have them attend the local elementary school. We were all sad (especially the kids,) and it really caused me to reconsider whether we were doing the right thing, especially in view of how much more work it is for me. Since I am in charge of fundraising for the parent organization of the school, I didn’t feel like I could just drop out and leave them high and dry. Fortunately, as time has passed, we have become more comfortable with our decision and Wrights with theirs. I have been so impressed the last month and a half with the additions to the curriculum as well as most of the kids’ teachers, and for the first time I feel that our children are really being challenged and taught to think beyond just the rote, oversimplified concepts they have been taught until now. I haven’t spent much time volunteering at the school yet, but hopefully I can work out swapping kids with another mom one day a week so that we can both help in our children’s classes.
I don’t remember whether I mentioned that we have had leaking in our basement three different times over the last year anytime we have had a large amount of rain or snowmelt, but it had become big concern and hassle, and I knew we would need to figure out how to fix it before the ground freezes again. Thanks to my dad and my brother, Mike, the problem is now fixed (hopefully forever!) after a day of hard work drilling through our impenetrable clay soil and some plastic tarps which were inexplicably placed in a couple of the window wells and were preventing water from draining. What a relief – thank you, Dad and Mike! We also had new countertops and a new sink installed in our kitchen just a couple days before we left for Disneyland. The countertops are beautiful, but even more than that, I love the deep stainless steel sink which looks shiny and clean and hides the dirty dishes, and the new faucet which no longer leaks water onto the wood cabinets below.
I’m so grateful that Hugh takes such good care of us that we don’t have to worry about the necessities and can do fun extras like Disneyland and new counters once in a while. Hugh has been able to work from home only a handful of times since we got high-speed internet. People keep scheduling meetings for which he must be present, so at least so far it hasn’t worked out the way we had planned. He doesn’t seem as tired lately as some times in the past, thank goodness. He has enjoyed watching BYU Football, though he says it has been a relatively boring season because BYU is so much better than the teams they have played.
Steven, Daniel, Julia, and Alyssa just finished their soccer season within the last week. Steven loves soccer so much that he dropped out of his art class when he found that a soccer class was offered. It hasn’t turned out to be what he was hoping, but he will be glad to have it, especially now that the regular season is over. Steven opted to take two advanced math classes this year, and the jury is still out as to whether that was the best decision. About a week before our Disneyland trip, I found out that Steven was failing his Health class and had a C- in Algebra 2. He is fully capable of earning all A’s, so we have had to put some restrictions on him until he figures out how to apply himself in order to earn the grades he should be getting. He is a reluctant Scout, who would skip his Young Men activities at church most of the time, the Pow-wows and campouts always if we let him. Still, he is basically a good, pleasant kid. Hopefully we are pushing him in the areas which matter the most.
Daniel is enjoying school, thanks to a great teacher, and a new friend he made – a kid named Jon who is attending school for the first time in his life, having been home-schooled through fifth grade. Daniel likes his elective art class, but is also expressing an interest in drama. He has specified that there is to be no singing or dancing, ONLY acting, so we’ll have to see if there is such an option. Daniel, Julia, and Michael are participating in a program called RAD kids, which teaches children how and when to defend themselves against aggression or harm. Since the twelve hours of classes are taught on the weekends during what would otherwise be the kids’ treasured free time, they were very resistant to the idea of participating in the class. I gave them no choice and a little bribery (a shake or treat after each class,) and I really think that in the end they will be glad they did it.
Julia also has a wonderful teacher and is enjoying and being challenged in school. She is currently working on a board game based on the Underground Railroad for a project in history. Her class will be writing and producing an opera together this year in school. The charter school holds a History Fair on Halloween during which each grade level dresses up as characters from a certain assigned time period or geographical region. The fifth grade was assigned the Civil War, so originally Julia wanted to sew (or wanted me to sew) a Southern Belle type dress, but since I have qualms about whether we have the skill and the time to do that, she has decided instead that she will dress as a slave (we can probably handle that.)
Michael was so sad to lose his cousin, Guts, as a classmate. He is struggling with a competent but strict teacher. He is very bright, but emotionally immature, which raises behavioral challenges at home (and probably at school) in terms of his not taking ownership of things that are his responsibility (like homework, chores, practicing piano, and just basically being pleasant to others.) I am hoping to help him to understand that when he makes a choice, there are always consequences associated with that choice – some good, and some bad – and he needs to learn to look at both the immediate and the eventual consequences of his choices and weigh them out. He just finished his first season of flag football, which he enjoyed. He is not the biggest kid on the team, but he is one of the fastest. Since he takes the game seriously and is quick, he was able to score half a dozen touchdowns throughout the season.
It has been an interesting couple of months with Alyssa. She has had a tendency ever since she was in preschool to exhibit serious separation anxiety. You may remember what a challenge it was last year for me to get her to go to kindergarten and dance class. I had hoped that it was just a phase, and that she would see that even though she may be afraid when she goes, everything turns out fine, we’re still here for her, she’s okay, etc. A couple weeks into school she started becoming very anxious and throwing tantrums and clinging to me, sobbing and refusing to go to school. The assistant principal and the secretaries at the office were so kind and accommodating to Alyssa, allowing her to sit with them as long as she needed to in order to gather up the courage to go to class. Alyssa loves her teacher, and there are some really sweet kids in her class (one morning four of her classmates stopped to try to comfort and reassure Alyssa when she was struggling to leave me.) When I had tried everything I could think of to figure out where this was coming from and what to do about it, I decided to take her to a psychologist. The therapist has worked with me more than with Alyssa to help me understand how to approach the situation so that Alyssa will respond differently, and it has helped a lot. I wish I knew more of this parenting stuff intuitively, but every kid is so different, and what works with one doesn’t necessarily work for another. Anyway, hopefully we will be able to apply what we have learned to the other kids as well.
We decided to try a different kind of music class with Natalie and Alyssa called “Let’s Play Music” which teaches music theory through games and songs and a lot of hands-on, multi-sensory techniques. I have to attend the class with the girls every other week, so it is fortunate that Steven and Daniel are willing and able to watch the little ones for an hour or so while I am gone. Alyssa, Natalie, and I are all out of our comfort zones singing and dancing in front of/alongside other people, so hopefully this will help us to not be so shy and self-conscious. Natalie has been trying Alyssa’s trick of refusing to go to preschool, but since I have a better understanding of how to respond to it, it hasn’t gotten too carried away. It is fun to get into the mind of a four year old. Natalie told me, “If I grow up to be a cement worker, I won’t swear because you’ve taught me right.” (This after various related conversations over the last year or two...) Fortunately, Natalie has been more sweet than sour lately, but like Alyssa, her mood can change very unexpectedly. Natalie likes to check out books from the library and “read” them to me. She is able to sound out simple words, but doesn’t have the desire or tenacity to really learn how to read just yet. She also thinks she can play all different songs on the digital piano that are programmed in and will play correctly whether she hits the right notes or not. I hope that feature will not end up being counter-productive to her musical education!
Like his brother Michael did when he was two or three, Matthew has a hat to which he is very attached. He wears it every moment he is awake, sleeps with it right next to him, and seeks it out the moment he wakes from a nap or in the morning. His original “Old Navy” hat had become very ragged and dirty-looking, and we wondered how we could ever get him to part with it until Julia found a spiffy black Speed Racer hat, which he instantly took a liking to. He is in the habit of whining, crying, throwing fits, and generally being quite unpleasant, so now that he is becoming more verbal, we are trying to teach him how to use words to express what he wants. He does have such an irresistibly cute, animated little face, especially when he is happy or excited about something.
Emily, now 14 ½ months old, is becoming such a little person. She is not as stoic as she was for a long time; she actually smiles and claps and gives “high fives” and other fun responses – at least to people in our family (she is still quiet and shy with anyone she doesn’t know well.) She carries on conversations with us in her own language, complete with nods or shakes of the head and very emphatically pronounced sounds and lively expressions. She is constantly climbing (and falling) and getting into things. She thinks she is too big to crawl up and down the stairs, even though she is so small each stair comes halfway up her thigh. She skillfully supports herself walking up the stairs with one hand braced against the wall, and goes down on her behind, one step at a time. She has learned to sleep through the night most of the time, but her naps are erratic since I often have to pack her up four or five times a day to run older kids to school and other activities.
I know this is very long, but one last thing I will mention is that my parents are still here. They were supposed to have left yesterday for their humanitarian mission to Bangalore, India, but a couple days ago found out that their visas had not yet come through. So we are enjoying a few last chances to see them this weekend before their 18-month absence.
We hope you are happy and well.
We hope you are enjoying the last of the flowers and green leaves as the cool autumn winds blow in. It is beautiful – every season is – but I don’t enjoy the long, cold winter that is sure to follow. Anyway, we are doing well. We went on our first trip to Disneyland for a week near the end of September. We nearly ended up cancelling the trip because our children were being so irresponsible about their make-up homework since we would be missing an entire week of school, but once they realized the trip was in jeopardy, they whipped themselves into shape. We had so much fun together! I went into the whole Disneyland experience somewhat cynical, wondering what all the hype was about. But I have to admit that we had such a good time, I would love to go back as a family again at least once before the kids start leaving for college (in four short years!) Part of the fun was just being there together for the sole purpose of enjoying each other, but part of it was the family friendly, detail-oriented atmosphere of Disneyland. We loved it!
I will backtrack a little bit and report things that have gone on in the last couple of months. After a couple of weeks of being frustrated by the disorganization and the hassle of transporting reluctant kids to and from the charter school, Kristen and James decided to withdraw Jamie, Guts, and Josie and have them attend the local elementary school. We were all sad (especially the kids,) and it really caused me to reconsider whether we were doing the right thing, especially in view of how much more work it is for me. Since I am in charge of fundraising for the parent organization of the school, I didn’t feel like I could just drop out and leave them high and dry. Fortunately, as time has passed, we have become more comfortable with our decision and Wrights with theirs. I have been so impressed the last month and a half with the additions to the curriculum as well as most of the kids’ teachers, and for the first time I feel that our children are really being challenged and taught to think beyond just the rote, oversimplified concepts they have been taught until now. I haven’t spent much time volunteering at the school yet, but hopefully I can work out swapping kids with another mom one day a week so that we can both help in our children’s classes.
I don’t remember whether I mentioned that we have had leaking in our basement three different times over the last year anytime we have had a large amount of rain or snowmelt, but it had become big concern and hassle, and I knew we would need to figure out how to fix it before the ground freezes again. Thanks to my dad and my brother, Mike, the problem is now fixed (hopefully forever!) after a day of hard work drilling through our impenetrable clay soil and some plastic tarps which were inexplicably placed in a couple of the window wells and were preventing water from draining. What a relief – thank you, Dad and Mike! We also had new countertops and a new sink installed in our kitchen just a couple days before we left for Disneyland. The countertops are beautiful, but even more than that, I love the deep stainless steel sink which looks shiny and clean and hides the dirty dishes, and the new faucet which no longer leaks water onto the wood cabinets below.
I’m so grateful that Hugh takes such good care of us that we don’t have to worry about the necessities and can do fun extras like Disneyland and new counters once in a while. Hugh has been able to work from home only a handful of times since we got high-speed internet. People keep scheduling meetings for which he must be present, so at least so far it hasn’t worked out the way we had planned. He doesn’t seem as tired lately as some times in the past, thank goodness. He has enjoyed watching BYU Football, though he says it has been a relatively boring season because BYU is so much better than the teams they have played.
Steven, Daniel, Julia, and Alyssa just finished their soccer season within the last week. Steven loves soccer so much that he dropped out of his art class when he found that a soccer class was offered. It hasn’t turned out to be what he was hoping, but he will be glad to have it, especially now that the regular season is over. Steven opted to take two advanced math classes this year, and the jury is still out as to whether that was the best decision. About a week before our Disneyland trip, I found out that Steven was failing his Health class and had a C- in Algebra 2. He is fully capable of earning all A’s, so we have had to put some restrictions on him until he figures out how to apply himself in order to earn the grades he should be getting. He is a reluctant Scout, who would skip his Young Men activities at church most of the time, the Pow-wows and campouts always if we let him. Still, he is basically a good, pleasant kid. Hopefully we are pushing him in the areas which matter the most.
Daniel is enjoying school, thanks to a great teacher, and a new friend he made – a kid named Jon who is attending school for the first time in his life, having been home-schooled through fifth grade. Daniel likes his elective art class, but is also expressing an interest in drama. He has specified that there is to be no singing or dancing, ONLY acting, so we’ll have to see if there is such an option. Daniel, Julia, and Michael are participating in a program called RAD kids, which teaches children how and when to defend themselves against aggression or harm. Since the twelve hours of classes are taught on the weekends during what would otherwise be the kids’ treasured free time, they were very resistant to the idea of participating in the class. I gave them no choice and a little bribery (a shake or treat after each class,) and I really think that in the end they will be glad they did it.
Julia also has a wonderful teacher and is enjoying and being challenged in school. She is currently working on a board game based on the Underground Railroad for a project in history. Her class will be writing and producing an opera together this year in school. The charter school holds a History Fair on Halloween during which each grade level dresses up as characters from a certain assigned time period or geographical region. The fifth grade was assigned the Civil War, so originally Julia wanted to sew (or wanted me to sew) a Southern Belle type dress, but since I have qualms about whether we have the skill and the time to do that, she has decided instead that she will dress as a slave (we can probably handle that.)
Michael was so sad to lose his cousin, Guts, as a classmate. He is struggling with a competent but strict teacher. He is very bright, but emotionally immature, which raises behavioral challenges at home (and probably at school) in terms of his not taking ownership of things that are his responsibility (like homework, chores, practicing piano, and just basically being pleasant to others.) I am hoping to help him to understand that when he makes a choice, there are always consequences associated with that choice – some good, and some bad – and he needs to learn to look at both the immediate and the eventual consequences of his choices and weigh them out. He just finished his first season of flag football, which he enjoyed. He is not the biggest kid on the team, but he is one of the fastest. Since he takes the game seriously and is quick, he was able to score half a dozen touchdowns throughout the season.
It has been an interesting couple of months with Alyssa. She has had a tendency ever since she was in preschool to exhibit serious separation anxiety. You may remember what a challenge it was last year for me to get her to go to kindergarten and dance class. I had hoped that it was just a phase, and that she would see that even though she may be afraid when she goes, everything turns out fine, we’re still here for her, she’s okay, etc. A couple weeks into school she started becoming very anxious and throwing tantrums and clinging to me, sobbing and refusing to go to school. The assistant principal and the secretaries at the office were so kind and accommodating to Alyssa, allowing her to sit with them as long as she needed to in order to gather up the courage to go to class. Alyssa loves her teacher, and there are some really sweet kids in her class (one morning four of her classmates stopped to try to comfort and reassure Alyssa when she was struggling to leave me.) When I had tried everything I could think of to figure out where this was coming from and what to do about it, I decided to take her to a psychologist. The therapist has worked with me more than with Alyssa to help me understand how to approach the situation so that Alyssa will respond differently, and it has helped a lot. I wish I knew more of this parenting stuff intuitively, but every kid is so different, and what works with one doesn’t necessarily work for another. Anyway, hopefully we will be able to apply what we have learned to the other kids as well.
We decided to try a different kind of music class with Natalie and Alyssa called “Let’s Play Music” which teaches music theory through games and songs and a lot of hands-on, multi-sensory techniques. I have to attend the class with the girls every other week, so it is fortunate that Steven and Daniel are willing and able to watch the little ones for an hour or so while I am gone. Alyssa, Natalie, and I are all out of our comfort zones singing and dancing in front of/alongside other people, so hopefully this will help us to not be so shy and self-conscious. Natalie has been trying Alyssa’s trick of refusing to go to preschool, but since I have a better understanding of how to respond to it, it hasn’t gotten too carried away. It is fun to get into the mind of a four year old. Natalie told me, “If I grow up to be a cement worker, I won’t swear because you’ve taught me right.” (This after various related conversations over the last year or two...) Fortunately, Natalie has been more sweet than sour lately, but like Alyssa, her mood can change very unexpectedly. Natalie likes to check out books from the library and “read” them to me. She is able to sound out simple words, but doesn’t have the desire or tenacity to really learn how to read just yet. She also thinks she can play all different songs on the digital piano that are programmed in and will play correctly whether she hits the right notes or not. I hope that feature will not end up being counter-productive to her musical education!
Like his brother Michael did when he was two or three, Matthew has a hat to which he is very attached. He wears it every moment he is awake, sleeps with it right next to him, and seeks it out the moment he wakes from a nap or in the morning. His original “Old Navy” hat had become very ragged and dirty-looking, and we wondered how we could ever get him to part with it until Julia found a spiffy black Speed Racer hat, which he instantly took a liking to. He is in the habit of whining, crying, throwing fits, and generally being quite unpleasant, so now that he is becoming more verbal, we are trying to teach him how to use words to express what he wants. He does have such an irresistibly cute, animated little face, especially when he is happy or excited about something.
Emily, now 14 ½ months old, is becoming such a little person. She is not as stoic as she was for a long time; she actually smiles and claps and gives “high fives” and other fun responses – at least to people in our family (she is still quiet and shy with anyone she doesn’t know well.) She carries on conversations with us in her own language, complete with nods or shakes of the head and very emphatically pronounced sounds and lively expressions. She is constantly climbing (and falling) and getting into things. She thinks she is too big to crawl up and down the stairs, even though she is so small each stair comes halfway up her thigh. She skillfully supports herself walking up the stairs with one hand braced against the wall, and goes down on her behind, one step at a time. She has learned to sleep through the night most of the time, but her naps are erratic since I often have to pack her up four or five times a day to run older kids to school and other activities.
I know this is very long, but one last thing I will mention is that my parents are still here. They were supposed to have left yesterday for their humanitarian mission to Bangalore, India, but a couple days ago found out that their visas had not yet come through. So we are enjoying a few last chances to see them this weekend before their 18-month absence.
We hope you are happy and well.
Monday, August 11, 2008
August 6, 2008 letter
It has been a fun, busy, fast summer for us. We started June with several of the kids participating in various day/overnight camps. My siblings and their families began arriving during the last week of June for the Dosdall Family Reunion. We spent three days together with our much-loved Dosdall relatives at Bear Lake, about four hours’ drive northeast of Spanish Fork on the Utah-Idaho border. We had a great time, and though we never get much rest when we’re together, we wish everyone could live near. We love having Kristen and her family just a few blocks away – the kids love playing together and never seem to tire of each other – and it would be so nice to have that closeness with more of our family. Anyway, we sure appreciate the efforts everyone made to be there; we know it is a sacrifice. This reunion was kind of a last hurrah before my parents leave on their long planned for and much anticipated 1 ½ year mission to (drumroll please)......Bangalore, India! We will certainly miss them when they leave at the end of September, but we are excited for them to have this opportunity to serve and learn and experience new things, and we appreciate the example they are setting for us and for our children.
We are also looking forward to seeing Hugh’s siblings and parents this coming weekend. I can’t honestly say that I am looking forward to camping, as it is so much work to pack and unpack, as well as to keep track of all our little ones in the great outdoors, but the kids love it and I’m sure would feel like their summer was incomplete if we didn’t go at least once.
Steven (reluctantly) went to Scout Camp in June and surprised himself by enjoying it. While I wouldn’t accuse him of being an overachiever, he did come home with five merit badges. Steven and Daniel have done some yard work for a neighbor on and off throughout the summer, which is a good thing since Steven and Michael have decided to start saving up to buy a Nintendo Wii. We increased the kids’ allowance and upped the reward for doing extra chores to $.50. While I am not anxious to have the boys spend more of their time playing electronics, I do like this exercise in setting a goal, having a plan, and staying focused on that goal until they achieve it. I still allot only two to three hours of time each Saturday morning for the kids to play electronics, but since they would like much more than that, the boys tend to use the piano practice rule (2 minutes piano= 1 minute electronics) almost every day. Since we got high-speed internet a few weeks ago, Steven has spent a lot of time reading through and downloading a bunch of cards to expand playing options for Talisman, the game he bought with his birthday money. He has not been as creative about keeping himself busy this summer, wanting to play with friends or play electronics most of the time, but he really is a good kid. He is acquiring some great people skills. He is complimentary without being a sycophant, he is generally helpful rather than whiny or demanding when he wants something.
After nine months of scrimping and saving every penny (except those spent on other people,) Daniel finally found a good deal and purchased a Nintendo Gameboy DS on eBay. I worried that he would be disappointed after all his hard work, but he seems very happy with his purchase, even though he has only one game and would have to save for another six months to earn enough money to buy another one. Of all the kids, he has complained the most about me being a slave driver – making him continue piano, reading, chores, etc. through the summer. He wanted to quit piano altogether, but I explained to him that since we don’t live on a farm, and since Hugh and I are not drill sergeants, we have to create something at which these guys have to work hard. So for now, piano is it. His attitude has changed somewhat since he was asked to accompany one of the songs for the Primary Sacrament Meeting Program coming up in October. He went to work on it right away, and can play it quite well now, though it’s a different thing entirely playing it when people are singing, and having the composure to keep going even if he makes a mistake. Daniel talked the six older kids into scraping their money together to send Hugh and me out on a date. I was so touched by their sweetness and generosity, and I wanted to give them their money back, but I also want to acknowledge and accept their sacrifice for what it is. I realized that Daniel doesn’t hug me several times a day like he used to; he still likes me and is still sweet to me, but I guess he just doesn’t feel the need to hug me as much. That makes me sad because it reminds me that my kids won’t always want to be close to me and that they won’t always be here to hug! The beginning of a new school year is always such a hard time for me because I enjoy these guys, and it reminds me of how quickly the time goes, how fleeting each stage of life is.
We celebrated Julia’s 10th birthday (July 16th) with one school friend and her three Wright cousins decorating cupcakes, going on a treasure hunt, and playing night games. We bought her the two things she really wanted - rollerblades and a Supersoaker watergun – and thanks in part to the birthday money she received from relatives, she just broke the $100 mark for her “microscope fund.” She has been saving for over a year now and some of her siblings have contributed to help her get to this point, so I really need to research it a bit and see if we can get at least a halfway decent microscope for $100. Throughout the summer, Julia has gone to several concerts on Temple Square in Salt Lake City with Hugh (including the big Pioneer Day celebration with the Osmonds) and a couple of plays at a great little theater in Orem. When I realized I hadn’t taken some of my older kids to the doctor for regular checkups in over five years, I decided I should do that before school starts. The kids are glad to have their Aunt Kristen do the majority of the check-up. I feel like I have spent many hours at the doctor’s office the last couple of weeks, and will need to schedule appointments with the ophthalmologist for Daniel and Julia, who may need glasses. I am sorry for any bad genes I have passed on to my children!
Michael suffered his first major sunburn at the Dosdall Reunion at Bear Lake, and I am sorry and hoping it served as a learning experience for us both! We were so excited to find out that Michael will be in the same school class this year as his cousin, Guts. They are both smart, athletic, cute boys and get along so well; I think Guts will help Michael greatly to break out of his shell this year. Michael is at a stage in which he is motivated only by very concrete rewards. It’s almost comical how getting a treat at the end of Scouts or a piano lesson or a doctor’s appointment changes his attitude about the whole experience. Michael will be playing flag football this fall instead of soccer, and he will be starting practices soon. Just thinking about the craziness that is imminent – school, preschool, homework, football, soccer, piano lessons, music lessons, Scouts, Young Men, my fundraising responsibilities at the school, my church responsibilities, etc... it just makes me tense and stressed to think about it. Wasn’t I just saying something about how fleeting this time is? I guess the key to happiness is to stop waiting to arrive at some future point when you can start enjoying life – so I’d better figure out how to enjoy that craziness to some degree.
Alyssa and Julia have both become quite proficient at fixing hair in the last couple of months. Alyssa has a much easier time talking Julia into putting curlers in her hair than me, and Julia does at least as good a job as I do. Alyssa can part and braid her own hair well enough that I will let her wear it that way even when we leave the house. She has done some more humorous things with Natalie’s hair, like when she put a dozen or so Medusa-like braids coming out all over her head. The three girls like to play what they call “The Airplane Game” in which they seatbelt themselves into an airplane and fly to different places and have adventures all over the world. I found Alyssa dressed in a Snow White dress being Natalie’s teacher – I’m not sure where the costume fit in, but it was cute. Since Alyssa is so shy, she is nervous for school and her new music class to start in the next couple weeks. Hopefully it will reassure her to have her siblings at the same school with her.
Natalie will be starting preschool in a couple of weeks, and since she has done better the last month or so with going to her Primary class, I have hopes that she will be just fine going to preschool three afternoons a week. Natalie is very sweet and forgiving of Emily. She often reassures me, “I’m okay with her scratching (hitting, sneezing on, kapowing, whatever) me.” She says the funniest things sometimes, like when she came over to me with a pained look on her face and explained, “I just hurt my tongue because I accidentally bit it with my vampire teeth!” (Meaning, her incisors...) She can also be so defiant, sassy, and mean. I have resorted to giving her a little taste of bar soap when she says mean or sassy things, reminding her that if she chooses to say mean or bad words, the soap will help her to clean the bad language out of her mouth so she will choose not to use those words next time. I am surprised to hear the mean sounds that can come out of such a cute little person! She recently mastered whistling and snapping with her fingers, so Hugh sometimes calls her “Snappy”. She loves to go swimming, and Hugh is such a good sport about it, he has taken some of the kids to the indoor/outdoor Lehi pool three of the last four Saturdays.
We love Matthew, but he is not the easiest kid! He does a lot of screaming and throwing fits because he often can’t have what he wants when he wants it. He bullies poor little Emily, but I think he likes her. Often the first thing he does in the morning is go straight to her room and watch her sleeping in her crib. Sometimes he will just sit next to her crib and look at books while she sleeps, but most of the time, he wakes her up by yelling excitedly, “Happy Emily! Happy Emily! Look, Happy Emily is awake!” (Surprise, surprise!) He likes to go to the library to look for more books about cars, trucks, and trains, and carries his books around the house and looks at them often. He has survived the summer wearing long-sleeved shirts the majority of the time, not because he doesn’t have other clothes, just because he refuses to wear them.
Emily is officially no longer a baby, but now a toddler. She turned one on July 26th, and has been walking quite well for several weeks. I miss the little cuddly baby she used to be, but it is fun to see her personality coming out more as she gets older. She is more mobile, more communicative, and more prone to throw fits. She doesn’t talk much, just the occasional “Mom”, “Dad”, or “uh-oh” but she does shake or nod her head, wave, and seems to understand more of what we say. She is adored by her siblings and cousins, and usually enjoys the attention. She has such a cute six-toothed grin, and delights us with her bouncy “dancing.” It shouldn’t surprise me, but like all her siblings, she loves her daddy and greets him warmly even though she sees him for only a few hours every evening when he comes home from work. I guess that says something about what kind of dad he is when he is home!
I have been urging Hugh to look into working from home sometimes so that he can sleep in at least a couple days a week. We recently signed up for high-speed internet and shuffled bedrooms around so that Hugh will have an office upstairs where he can work once the kids start back to school. We will need to get a lock for that door, and it will take some time to teach the kids that when Dad is working at home, it will be just as if he were working in Salt Lake City We both always feel like there is simply not enough time to do all the things we would like to and should be doing even though we feel like we have cut out all the unnecessary stuff, so hopefully this will help a little.
We are planning our first trip to Disneyland in September, and we are all excited, especially since we were able to plan it to overlap with the Wrights’ vacation so cousins can be there together. I have put it off for years because it is going to cost a lot of money, and I wanted to make sure the kids are old enough to enjoy and remember it, so hopefully this is the right time and it will be worth the investment. Other than school starting in less than a week and a half, everything is good. We are well and happy and grateful to Heavenly Father for our family, our friends, our health, our home, and most of all, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We are also looking forward to seeing Hugh’s siblings and parents this coming weekend. I can’t honestly say that I am looking forward to camping, as it is so much work to pack and unpack, as well as to keep track of all our little ones in the great outdoors, but the kids love it and I’m sure would feel like their summer was incomplete if we didn’t go at least once.
Steven (reluctantly) went to Scout Camp in June and surprised himself by enjoying it. While I wouldn’t accuse him of being an overachiever, he did come home with five merit badges. Steven and Daniel have done some yard work for a neighbor on and off throughout the summer, which is a good thing since Steven and Michael have decided to start saving up to buy a Nintendo Wii. We increased the kids’ allowance and upped the reward for doing extra chores to $.50. While I am not anxious to have the boys spend more of their time playing electronics, I do like this exercise in setting a goal, having a plan, and staying focused on that goal until they achieve it. I still allot only two to three hours of time each Saturday morning for the kids to play electronics, but since they would like much more than that, the boys tend to use the piano practice rule (2 minutes piano= 1 minute electronics) almost every day. Since we got high-speed internet a few weeks ago, Steven has spent a lot of time reading through and downloading a bunch of cards to expand playing options for Talisman, the game he bought with his birthday money. He has not been as creative about keeping himself busy this summer, wanting to play with friends or play electronics most of the time, but he really is a good kid. He is acquiring some great people skills. He is complimentary without being a sycophant, he is generally helpful rather than whiny or demanding when he wants something.
After nine months of scrimping and saving every penny (except those spent on other people,) Daniel finally found a good deal and purchased a Nintendo Gameboy DS on eBay. I worried that he would be disappointed after all his hard work, but he seems very happy with his purchase, even though he has only one game and would have to save for another six months to earn enough money to buy another one. Of all the kids, he has complained the most about me being a slave driver – making him continue piano, reading, chores, etc. through the summer. He wanted to quit piano altogether, but I explained to him that since we don’t live on a farm, and since Hugh and I are not drill sergeants, we have to create something at which these guys have to work hard. So for now, piano is it. His attitude has changed somewhat since he was asked to accompany one of the songs for the Primary Sacrament Meeting Program coming up in October. He went to work on it right away, and can play it quite well now, though it’s a different thing entirely playing it when people are singing, and having the composure to keep going even if he makes a mistake. Daniel talked the six older kids into scraping their money together to send Hugh and me out on a date. I was so touched by their sweetness and generosity, and I wanted to give them their money back, but I also want to acknowledge and accept their sacrifice for what it is. I realized that Daniel doesn’t hug me several times a day like he used to; he still likes me and is still sweet to me, but I guess he just doesn’t feel the need to hug me as much. That makes me sad because it reminds me that my kids won’t always want to be close to me and that they won’t always be here to hug! The beginning of a new school year is always such a hard time for me because I enjoy these guys, and it reminds me of how quickly the time goes, how fleeting each stage of life is.
We celebrated Julia’s 10th birthday (July 16th) with one school friend and her three Wright cousins decorating cupcakes, going on a treasure hunt, and playing night games. We bought her the two things she really wanted - rollerblades and a Supersoaker watergun – and thanks in part to the birthday money she received from relatives, she just broke the $100 mark for her “microscope fund.” She has been saving for over a year now and some of her siblings have contributed to help her get to this point, so I really need to research it a bit and see if we can get at least a halfway decent microscope for $100. Throughout the summer, Julia has gone to several concerts on Temple Square in Salt Lake City with Hugh (including the big Pioneer Day celebration with the Osmonds) and a couple of plays at a great little theater in Orem. When I realized I hadn’t taken some of my older kids to the doctor for regular checkups in over five years, I decided I should do that before school starts. The kids are glad to have their Aunt Kristen do the majority of the check-up. I feel like I have spent many hours at the doctor’s office the last couple of weeks, and will need to schedule appointments with the ophthalmologist for Daniel and Julia, who may need glasses. I am sorry for any bad genes I have passed on to my children!
Michael suffered his first major sunburn at the Dosdall Reunion at Bear Lake, and I am sorry and hoping it served as a learning experience for us both! We were so excited to find out that Michael will be in the same school class this year as his cousin, Guts. They are both smart, athletic, cute boys and get along so well; I think Guts will help Michael greatly to break out of his shell this year. Michael is at a stage in which he is motivated only by very concrete rewards. It’s almost comical how getting a treat at the end of Scouts or a piano lesson or a doctor’s appointment changes his attitude about the whole experience. Michael will be playing flag football this fall instead of soccer, and he will be starting practices soon. Just thinking about the craziness that is imminent – school, preschool, homework, football, soccer, piano lessons, music lessons, Scouts, Young Men, my fundraising responsibilities at the school, my church responsibilities, etc... it just makes me tense and stressed to think about it. Wasn’t I just saying something about how fleeting this time is? I guess the key to happiness is to stop waiting to arrive at some future point when you can start enjoying life – so I’d better figure out how to enjoy that craziness to some degree.
Alyssa and Julia have both become quite proficient at fixing hair in the last couple of months. Alyssa has a much easier time talking Julia into putting curlers in her hair than me, and Julia does at least as good a job as I do. Alyssa can part and braid her own hair well enough that I will let her wear it that way even when we leave the house. She has done some more humorous things with Natalie’s hair, like when she put a dozen or so Medusa-like braids coming out all over her head. The three girls like to play what they call “The Airplane Game” in which they seatbelt themselves into an airplane and fly to different places and have adventures all over the world. I found Alyssa dressed in a Snow White dress being Natalie’s teacher – I’m not sure where the costume fit in, but it was cute. Since Alyssa is so shy, she is nervous for school and her new music class to start in the next couple weeks. Hopefully it will reassure her to have her siblings at the same school with her.
Natalie will be starting preschool in a couple of weeks, and since she has done better the last month or so with going to her Primary class, I have hopes that she will be just fine going to preschool three afternoons a week. Natalie is very sweet and forgiving of Emily. She often reassures me, “I’m okay with her scratching (hitting, sneezing on, kapowing, whatever) me.” She says the funniest things sometimes, like when she came over to me with a pained look on her face and explained, “I just hurt my tongue because I accidentally bit it with my vampire teeth!” (Meaning, her incisors...) She can also be so defiant, sassy, and mean. I have resorted to giving her a little taste of bar soap when she says mean or sassy things, reminding her that if she chooses to say mean or bad words, the soap will help her to clean the bad language out of her mouth so she will choose not to use those words next time. I am surprised to hear the mean sounds that can come out of such a cute little person! She recently mastered whistling and snapping with her fingers, so Hugh sometimes calls her “Snappy”. She loves to go swimming, and Hugh is such a good sport about it, he has taken some of the kids to the indoor/outdoor Lehi pool three of the last four Saturdays.
We love Matthew, but he is not the easiest kid! He does a lot of screaming and throwing fits because he often can’t have what he wants when he wants it. He bullies poor little Emily, but I think he likes her. Often the first thing he does in the morning is go straight to her room and watch her sleeping in her crib. Sometimes he will just sit next to her crib and look at books while she sleeps, but most of the time, he wakes her up by yelling excitedly, “Happy Emily! Happy Emily! Look, Happy Emily is awake!” (Surprise, surprise!) He likes to go to the library to look for more books about cars, trucks, and trains, and carries his books around the house and looks at them often. He has survived the summer wearing long-sleeved shirts the majority of the time, not because he doesn’t have other clothes, just because he refuses to wear them.
Emily is officially no longer a baby, but now a toddler. She turned one on July 26th, and has been walking quite well for several weeks. I miss the little cuddly baby she used to be, but it is fun to see her personality coming out more as she gets older. She is more mobile, more communicative, and more prone to throw fits. She doesn’t talk much, just the occasional “Mom”, “Dad”, or “uh-oh” but she does shake or nod her head, wave, and seems to understand more of what we say. She is adored by her siblings and cousins, and usually enjoys the attention. She has such a cute six-toothed grin, and delights us with her bouncy “dancing.” It shouldn’t surprise me, but like all her siblings, she loves her daddy and greets him warmly even though she sees him for only a few hours every evening when he comes home from work. I guess that says something about what kind of dad he is when he is home!
I have been urging Hugh to look into working from home sometimes so that he can sleep in at least a couple days a week. We recently signed up for high-speed internet and shuffled bedrooms around so that Hugh will have an office upstairs where he can work once the kids start back to school. We will need to get a lock for that door, and it will take some time to teach the kids that when Dad is working at home, it will be just as if he were working in Salt Lake City We both always feel like there is simply not enough time to do all the things we would like to and should be doing even though we feel like we have cut out all the unnecessary stuff, so hopefully this will help a little.
We are planning our first trip to Disneyland in September, and we are all excited, especially since we were able to plan it to overlap with the Wrights’ vacation so cousins can be there together. I have put it off for years because it is going to cost a lot of money, and I wanted to make sure the kids are old enough to enjoy and remember it, so hopefully this is the right time and it will be worth the investment. Other than school starting in less than a week and a half, everything is good. We are well and happy and grateful to Heavenly Father for our family, our friends, our health, our home, and most of all, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
June 2008 newsletter
June 4, 2008
Hello Dear Family!
How are you doing? We are doing well. I have decided that writing a bi-monthly letter is both good and bad. It’s good, because then I dread it only every other month, but it’s bad, because then I can’t remember what has happened the last two months, and then when I finally do, you have to read a novel! So however it turns out, here goes...
The kids are out of school for the summer, as of May 29th. I do enjoy having them home, and we have a pretty good system in place that gives them some structure and ensures that they are still using their brains and helping around the house. We have started out the summer pretty busy as three of the kids have camps this week, so I have had to get up early to get kids ready and transport them.
The five oldest kids played soccer in March/April/May, this being the first time the city offered the option of a spring soccer season. I’m not sure that I want to do it again next spring, partly because the weather was so disagreeable but also because it was very stressful for me trying to coordinate getting each of the kids to their twice weekly games, sometimes at the same time at different locations without Hugh’s help (since he was working late hours during tax season.) But the kids enjoyed it, and they really are fun to watch.
Steven is now a teenager (yikes!) as of May 18th! So far, so good (pretty much.) He is pleasant, sometimes responsible (we won’t mention the phone call I got from his English teacher informing me that he was failing her class because he had not turned in several assignments... Oops, I just did, never mind...) He’s getting the lower voice and the bigger feet and the acne and everything. Steven talked us into signing him up for a soccer camp at Utah Valley University which started today. He was also trying to get me to sign him up for a summer soccer club, but that would have entailed a lot more driving all over the valley throughout the whole summer, and I think I deal better with craziness if I can have some rests in between. Steven was surprised that the majority of the kids at the camp were girls, but he said it was fun and hopefully he will be able to pick up some tips on how to be a better player (I mean soccer!) Steven has signed up to take two advanced math classes concurrently next year, and while I think he is smart enough to handle it, I question whether he has the will and the discipline to pull it off. I hope he understands this will be his last chance to get it figured out (8th grade) before it really counts.
Daniel has been sadly anticipating his last weeks and days at Canyon Elementary forever (he’s a sentimental one, that Daniel) since he and Alyssa will be joining their siblings and cousins at ALA (the charter school) in the fall. ALA is piloting a new program in which students choose one of three “tracks” or areas of study with different emphases. I’m hoping that this approach will enhance each of our kids’ learning styles and help them to enjoy school and get more out of it. Daniel just returned today from a three-day, two-night fifth grade camp. He seemed to enjoy it but also seemed happy to see me when I picked him up. Daniel reluctantly finished a big poetry/prose autobiography assignment a week before the end of school, and I have enjoyed reading his writing. Sorting through his backpack full of papers, I have come across some assignments that he obviously didn’t put much thought into, like this one: “The people I admire most are... my mom and dad because they’re my parents. My biggest goal for the future is... to keep breathing, because I like to live.” Slacker – slacker with a sense of humor, but still a slacker! Daniel would like me to relax my expectations of them for the summer, but I can’t just let their brains turn to mush over the summer, so I guess I’ll have to think about a good compromise so that we can both feel like the summer was well-spent.
Julia likes having a project to work on. She has been excited about helping me come up with a schedule of things we should study during our “Brain Time” every day. This is what we came up with: math (do worksheets,) science (watch Bill Nye the Science Guy or The Magic School Bus,) history, geography, art, cooking or baking, biography, read-aloud, poetry (reading or writing.) I’m excited about the things I hope to learn with the kids. Julia, Michael, and Alyssa made chocolate chip cookies all by themselves for the first time last week. Julia asks me nearly every day if the Wrights can come over and have a sleepover, which doesn’t happen as often as she would like since Hugh still has to wake up at 4:30 every weekday morning, summer vacation or not.
Michael just finished up a four-day basketball day camp, which he and his cousin, Guts, said was mainly “TLC - torture little children.” I suppose that just means they had to do drills and exercises rather than just playing basketball - you know, doing the things that will actually make them better players. So I’m glad that they did it, but I wonder if they will choose to do it next year. Michael and Matthew share a room, and though Matthew drives Michael crazy sometimes, he really likes him. Sometimes Michael will read to Matthew, sometimes they will shoot hoops or play catch while they are supposed to be reading, but Matthew struggles to get to sleep at night if Michael isn’t in the room with him. Michael always comes home from piano lessons with four or five candies he has earned for memorizing songs. He really seems to have a good ear for music but doesn’t ever play the piano just for the sake of making music; he is much more motivated by the promise of candy or extra electronics time. Since my last letter, Michael turned eight years old and was baptized. I hope that we have taught these guys not only to do the right things, but also to seek for more understanding as to why the things we ask them to do are right so that they will be more likely to choose those right things once they are outside of our influence. Michael did amazingly well academically this year as a third grader, but he did tend to use his age as an excuse not to complete assignments he didn’t want to finish, so we will have to watch him more closely on that next year.
Alyssa (Lissy-loo) is very much into pretty hair lately. She likes to twist the lock of hair which frames her face until it sits there in a gentle corkscrew curl. She has taught herself to braid and put her hair and Natalie’s into rubber bands in different configurations (some cute, others silly.) She tried to fix Emily’s hair, but Emily has so little hair still that all she could do was slick it up into a Mohawk, or put it up in a rubber band, where it looks like a unicorn’s horn sticking out of the top of her head. Alyssa was happy to finish school and dance last month, neither of which she much looked forward to, oddly enough as she begged me for a year or two to put her in a dance class before I finally did. Alyssa and Natalie love to play with their cousin, Josie, and they spend lots of time outside on the swingset or riding bikes or inside dressing up, coloring, or painting. Alyssa and Julia have learned to roller skate pretty well in the last couple weeks.
Natalie is enjoying her newly acquired skills of riding a bike without training wheels and whistling. She is such a funny mixture- such a sweet, cute little doll-faced girl using big words and phrases like “seriously” or “in real life,” and then she can be so defiant and grumpy for no apparent reason other times. I’m afraid she is learning to be “prissy” from Alyssa, so I am trying to emphasize that how she acts is much more important than how she looks. She has been very shy (or is it just plain rude?) about talking to adults lately, to the point that Alyssa has had to accompany her to her Primary class for months now. I’ve tried to start having “special time” with Natalie for even just ten minutes a day, and she seems to relish that. Sometimes when she asks about it, I am working on something that I can’t put off until later, so sometimes she helps me finish what I am working on (and she calls this our “helping special time”) so that I will have time for “fun special time.” It is very sweet.
Matthew is such a paradox. He is so very Two - territorial, prone to temper tantrums, easily frustrated, and yet he is the kid who most often tells me “I love you, Mom” and most consistently says “thank you.” He bullies poor Emily, though he likes to hug her and “soft her” (pat her) and baby talk to her in a high voice. It is amusing (sort of) to hear him say “Go away, Happy Emily” and “I love Happy Emily” all in the same breath. He lays claim to anything he likes. Thus, all the cars and trucks or books about cars and trucks, etc. belong to him, and you’d better not touch them unless you’re prepared to fight for them. He is constantly sneaking outside to ride Natalie’s old pink, three-wheeled scooter back and forth on the sidewalk in front of our house. His ever-increasing vocabulary is not always easy to understand, though I have a better time of it than Hugh since I am home with him all day. He amuses me when he points out my “spider eyes” as he watches me put on my mascara. It makes me wonder about how he perceives other such mundane things! Matthew likes to “help” say prayers at most meals now, which is again somewhat amusing to hear as his face is buried in his folded arms with the first word and his voice muffled until the pronouncement of “Amen!” at the end of the prayer. What a little character!
Emily is ten months old now, active and curious and seeming more like a little kid and less like a baby. She just barely figured out how to crawl up and down the stairs but still makes me gasp and jump to her side when she teeters near the edge of the stairs. She walks around the room while holding onto furniture, and can stand in one place for 10-20 seconds at a time. She likes to say “huh?” as she points or gestures at things. She also likes to wave and say “hi”, and Julia is sure she taught her how to say “up,” though I’m not sure she totally understands what it means. She likes to point to the pictures of all her siblings while I name them for her. She melts us with her adorable two-toothed grin and baby giggles, but is generally stone-faced and wary of anyone she doesn’t know well. Matthew’s nickname of “Happy Emily” has stuck, even though she is not as easy-going and friendly as she started out. She puts everything in her mouth, and I have often noticed her little cheeks bulging with scary things that could choke her like game pieces or toothpaste caps.
Hugh got through an especially rough tax season, and we are hoping he and his boss can figure out some kind of arrangement so that Hugh can work either from home or from BYU a couple of days a week so he doesn’t have to spend so many hours commuting to Salt Lake City every day. Since the weather has been nicer, Hugh has started riding his bike to the bus stop. As food and gas prices have soared, I have felt a new sense of urgency to make sure we have at least a three- to six-month supply of food and non-food items stored up for emergency or disaster. I am also experimenting with cooking/baking more with wheat, both for our health and to use the food that we can easily store for long periods of time. It’s too bad I didn’t do this a year ago – it would have been a lot cheaper had I purchased the bulk of it then! It has been a cold, wet spring, and we have had new leaking in the basement, so we will probably have to dig out the three window wells at least five feet down (below the level of the basement floor) and fill them with rocks big enough to allow space for water to sit until it can soak down to the water table. We are so excited for the Dosdall Family Reunion at Bear Lake and the arrival of cousins and families about two weeks from now. We know it is a big investment of time and money to come here, and we really appreciate everyone’s willingness to make it happen.
I’m sure there’s much I have forgotten to report but this letter is too long already, so I will sign off now. We hope you are all well and happy. We love you.
Love,
Ann, Hugh, Steven, Daniel, Julia, Michael, Alyssa, Natalie, Matthew, & Emily
Hello Dear Family!
How are you doing? We are doing well. I have decided that writing a bi-monthly letter is both good and bad. It’s good, because then I dread it only every other month, but it’s bad, because then I can’t remember what has happened the last two months, and then when I finally do, you have to read a novel! So however it turns out, here goes...
The kids are out of school for the summer, as of May 29th. I do enjoy having them home, and we have a pretty good system in place that gives them some structure and ensures that they are still using their brains and helping around the house. We have started out the summer pretty busy as three of the kids have camps this week, so I have had to get up early to get kids ready and transport them.
The five oldest kids played soccer in March/April/May, this being the first time the city offered the option of a spring soccer season. I’m not sure that I want to do it again next spring, partly because the weather was so disagreeable but also because it was very stressful for me trying to coordinate getting each of the kids to their twice weekly games, sometimes at the same time at different locations without Hugh’s help (since he was working late hours during tax season.) But the kids enjoyed it, and they really are fun to watch.
Steven is now a teenager (yikes!) as of May 18th! So far, so good (pretty much.) He is pleasant, sometimes responsible (we won’t mention the phone call I got from his English teacher informing me that he was failing her class because he had not turned in several assignments... Oops, I just did, never mind...) He’s getting the lower voice and the bigger feet and the acne and everything. Steven talked us into signing him up for a soccer camp at Utah Valley University which started today. He was also trying to get me to sign him up for a summer soccer club, but that would have entailed a lot more driving all over the valley throughout the whole summer, and I think I deal better with craziness if I can have some rests in between. Steven was surprised that the majority of the kids at the camp were girls, but he said it was fun and hopefully he will be able to pick up some tips on how to be a better player (I mean soccer!) Steven has signed up to take two advanced math classes concurrently next year, and while I think he is smart enough to handle it, I question whether he has the will and the discipline to pull it off. I hope he understands this will be his last chance to get it figured out (8th grade) before it really counts.
Daniel has been sadly anticipating his last weeks and days at Canyon Elementary forever (he’s a sentimental one, that Daniel) since he and Alyssa will be joining their siblings and cousins at ALA (the charter school) in the fall. ALA is piloting a new program in which students choose one of three “tracks” or areas of study with different emphases. I’m hoping that this approach will enhance each of our kids’ learning styles and help them to enjoy school and get more out of it. Daniel just returned today from a three-day, two-night fifth grade camp. He seemed to enjoy it but also seemed happy to see me when I picked him up. Daniel reluctantly finished a big poetry/prose autobiography assignment a week before the end of school, and I have enjoyed reading his writing. Sorting through his backpack full of papers, I have come across some assignments that he obviously didn’t put much thought into, like this one: “The people I admire most are... my mom and dad because they’re my parents. My biggest goal for the future is... to keep breathing, because I like to live.” Slacker – slacker with a sense of humor, but still a slacker! Daniel would like me to relax my expectations of them for the summer, but I can’t just let their brains turn to mush over the summer, so I guess I’ll have to think about a good compromise so that we can both feel like the summer was well-spent.
Julia likes having a project to work on. She has been excited about helping me come up with a schedule of things we should study during our “Brain Time” every day. This is what we came up with: math (do worksheets,) science (watch Bill Nye the Science Guy or The Magic School Bus,) history, geography, art, cooking or baking, biography, read-aloud, poetry (reading or writing.) I’m excited about the things I hope to learn with the kids. Julia, Michael, and Alyssa made chocolate chip cookies all by themselves for the first time last week. Julia asks me nearly every day if the Wrights can come over and have a sleepover, which doesn’t happen as often as she would like since Hugh still has to wake up at 4:30 every weekday morning, summer vacation or not.
Michael just finished up a four-day basketball day camp, which he and his cousin, Guts, said was mainly “TLC - torture little children.” I suppose that just means they had to do drills and exercises rather than just playing basketball - you know, doing the things that will actually make them better players. So I’m glad that they did it, but I wonder if they will choose to do it next year. Michael and Matthew share a room, and though Matthew drives Michael crazy sometimes, he really likes him. Sometimes Michael will read to Matthew, sometimes they will shoot hoops or play catch while they are supposed to be reading, but Matthew struggles to get to sleep at night if Michael isn’t in the room with him. Michael always comes home from piano lessons with four or five candies he has earned for memorizing songs. He really seems to have a good ear for music but doesn’t ever play the piano just for the sake of making music; he is much more motivated by the promise of candy or extra electronics time. Since my last letter, Michael turned eight years old and was baptized. I hope that we have taught these guys not only to do the right things, but also to seek for more understanding as to why the things we ask them to do are right so that they will be more likely to choose those right things once they are outside of our influence. Michael did amazingly well academically this year as a third grader, but he did tend to use his age as an excuse not to complete assignments he didn’t want to finish, so we will have to watch him more closely on that next year.
Alyssa (Lissy-loo) is very much into pretty hair lately. She likes to twist the lock of hair which frames her face until it sits there in a gentle corkscrew curl. She has taught herself to braid and put her hair and Natalie’s into rubber bands in different configurations (some cute, others silly.) She tried to fix Emily’s hair, but Emily has so little hair still that all she could do was slick it up into a Mohawk, or put it up in a rubber band, where it looks like a unicorn’s horn sticking out of the top of her head. Alyssa was happy to finish school and dance last month, neither of which she much looked forward to, oddly enough as she begged me for a year or two to put her in a dance class before I finally did. Alyssa and Natalie love to play with their cousin, Josie, and they spend lots of time outside on the swingset or riding bikes or inside dressing up, coloring, or painting. Alyssa and Julia have learned to roller skate pretty well in the last couple weeks.
Natalie is enjoying her newly acquired skills of riding a bike without training wheels and whistling. She is such a funny mixture- such a sweet, cute little doll-faced girl using big words and phrases like “seriously” or “in real life,” and then she can be so defiant and grumpy for no apparent reason other times. I’m afraid she is learning to be “prissy” from Alyssa, so I am trying to emphasize that how she acts is much more important than how she looks. She has been very shy (or is it just plain rude?) about talking to adults lately, to the point that Alyssa has had to accompany her to her Primary class for months now. I’ve tried to start having “special time” with Natalie for even just ten minutes a day, and she seems to relish that. Sometimes when she asks about it, I am working on something that I can’t put off until later, so sometimes she helps me finish what I am working on (and she calls this our “helping special time”) so that I will have time for “fun special time.” It is very sweet.
Matthew is such a paradox. He is so very Two - territorial, prone to temper tantrums, easily frustrated, and yet he is the kid who most often tells me “I love you, Mom” and most consistently says “thank you.” He bullies poor Emily, though he likes to hug her and “soft her” (pat her) and baby talk to her in a high voice. It is amusing (sort of) to hear him say “Go away, Happy Emily” and “I love Happy Emily” all in the same breath. He lays claim to anything he likes. Thus, all the cars and trucks or books about cars and trucks, etc. belong to him, and you’d better not touch them unless you’re prepared to fight for them. He is constantly sneaking outside to ride Natalie’s old pink, three-wheeled scooter back and forth on the sidewalk in front of our house. His ever-increasing vocabulary is not always easy to understand, though I have a better time of it than Hugh since I am home with him all day. He amuses me when he points out my “spider eyes” as he watches me put on my mascara. It makes me wonder about how he perceives other such mundane things! Matthew likes to “help” say prayers at most meals now, which is again somewhat amusing to hear as his face is buried in his folded arms with the first word and his voice muffled until the pronouncement of “Amen!” at the end of the prayer. What a little character!
Emily is ten months old now, active and curious and seeming more like a little kid and less like a baby. She just barely figured out how to crawl up and down the stairs but still makes me gasp and jump to her side when she teeters near the edge of the stairs. She walks around the room while holding onto furniture, and can stand in one place for 10-20 seconds at a time. She likes to say “huh?” as she points or gestures at things. She also likes to wave and say “hi”, and Julia is sure she taught her how to say “up,” though I’m not sure she totally understands what it means. She likes to point to the pictures of all her siblings while I name them for her. She melts us with her adorable two-toothed grin and baby giggles, but is generally stone-faced and wary of anyone she doesn’t know well. Matthew’s nickname of “Happy Emily” has stuck, even though she is not as easy-going and friendly as she started out. She puts everything in her mouth, and I have often noticed her little cheeks bulging with scary things that could choke her like game pieces or toothpaste caps.
Hugh got through an especially rough tax season, and we are hoping he and his boss can figure out some kind of arrangement so that Hugh can work either from home or from BYU a couple of days a week so he doesn’t have to spend so many hours commuting to Salt Lake City every day. Since the weather has been nicer, Hugh has started riding his bike to the bus stop. As food and gas prices have soared, I have felt a new sense of urgency to make sure we have at least a three- to six-month supply of food and non-food items stored up for emergency or disaster. I am also experimenting with cooking/baking more with wheat, both for our health and to use the food that we can easily store for long periods of time. It’s too bad I didn’t do this a year ago – it would have been a lot cheaper had I purchased the bulk of it then! It has been a cold, wet spring, and we have had new leaking in the basement, so we will probably have to dig out the three window wells at least five feet down (below the level of the basement floor) and fill them with rocks big enough to allow space for water to sit until it can soak down to the water table. We are so excited for the Dosdall Family Reunion at Bear Lake and the arrival of cousins and families about two weeks from now. We know it is a big investment of time and money to come here, and we really appreciate everyone’s willingness to make it happen.
I’m sure there’s much I have forgotten to report but this letter is too long already, so I will sign off now. We hope you are all well and happy. We love you.
Love,
Ann, Hugh, Steven, Daniel, Julia, Michael, Alyssa, Natalie, Matthew, & Emily
Monday, April 7, 2008
April 1st 2008 Newsletter
Hello Dear Family!
Long time no write, huh? We hope you are all doing well and surviving the extended winter weather many of us are experiencing. Hugh is nearing the end of tax season (two weeks to go) and has been working long hours for the last couple of months. We all feel it when Hugh is gone so much. Even Alyssa has commented that she hates tax season. Hugh works really late on Friday nights (rolling in about midnight) and then has to prepare his Gospel Doctrine lesson most of the day Saturday every other week. He never complains, but he sure does look beat whenever he’s at home (or maybe that’s just the effect we have on him?)
The five oldest kids were supposed to have the first of their spring soccer season games tonight, but since there is a decent amount of snow on the ground again, the games have been cancelled. I have to admit that is a relief, even though I am glad that the kids are healthy and want to play soccer. It makes our evenings crazy when I am trying to figure out how to get two or three kids to games at various times and in various locations, as well as making sure they are all fed and the younger ones have something to do (other than whine and fuss) while we shuttle older kids around and try to watch them play. It’s all good, it’s just that sometimes there’s too much going on to really enjoy it.
We really enjoy having the Wrights live close to us. Until the recent snows squelched things, James had been taking their two older and our four older kids over to the neighborhood park for early morning workouts. He works them hard but he makes it fun, and the kids welcome the challenge. James has also worked with the kids some on learning to play baseball, which our kids have never really done beyond one or two seasons of T-ball when they were very small. Kristen and James have been transporting the kids to and from school a lot of the time, which has really helped me a lot. We will have some juggling to do when James’ work schedule and the seven kids’ (five Wilkins and two Wrights) sports seasons are in full swing, but we won’t worry about that until we have to. It has been so fun for me to watch our kids enjoy each other, as well as for the adults to get to know each other’s children better. The kids always look forward to sleepovers and days off together.
Steven has had some fun opportunities in the last month or so. He participated in a math competition at the University of Utah and enjoyed the day, as well as the weekly after-school classes for the six weeks prior to the competition. He was also able to “job-shadow” Hugh. Hugh showed Steven around the Church Office Building and Steven at least got an idea of what his dad does all day. Steven was wishing his Uncle Derek would move here so he could tag along with him and learn about his bio-medical engineering job. I love to watch Steven with Emily – if she is fussing and I ignore her, Steven will pick her up. He often brings her straight to me, but sometimes if I tell him I just can’t get her right then, he will hold her so she can watch me until I’m ready to get her. Steven often gets what he asks for because he is reasonable and negotiates so pleasantly.
Daniel has such a cute (I would get in big trouble if he knew I used that word to describe him) sense of humor. The other day after I watched him jumping around while brushing his teeth using some new, very minty toothpaste, he said, “Is this jalapeňo-flavored toothpaste?!” And this morning, he complained about pain in his eyes. As I was asking him questions about it, he offered, “I think I know the problem. I think I just need more electronics time.” Daniel has mentioned that he would like to be in some kind of drama class or production, though he emphasized that he does not sing or dance. He is also quite the writer, which is apparent when the kids play Balderdash, a game in which players try to make up the most plausible definitions to obscure words in order to get other players to vote for theirs as the authentic one. Daniel slammed his own finger in the door as he was trying to get away from Steven to avoid retribution for his taunting. It cut his finger deeply enough that he could have had stitches, but we just kept it well-bandaged for a week or two, and it seems to be healing okay. Hopefully he learned a lesson about not bugging his siblings!
Julia and the other three oldest kids have been Sudoku maniacs lately. These guys seem to just zoom through them. Julia recently finished reading the Harry Potter books again and is looking for another series to dive into. Julia especially has really gotten into softball with her cousin Jamie and Uncle James, and (with James’ coaching) is getting pretty good. I half-heartedly offered to sign her up for softball, and since she didn’t jump at it, I’m just going to leave it at that. (I’m not too excited to start softball before soccer is even finished, especially since the season would go halfway through July...) Julia excels in music, and sometimes I think I should push her a little harder to practice the violin.
As I wrote last time, Michael won the third grade spelling bee, and since then ended up coming in third place in the regional spelling bee. Since studying homophones, one of Michael’s favorite things to do is to try to see if he can outsmart me by asking me to spell a word which has two or three different spellings. Much to his satisfaction, he has caught me a few times. He enjoys using his calculator to figure out square roots for different numbers. Michael will be eight years old in just a couple of days, and will be baptized next weekend (since General Conference will be this weekend.)
Alyssa still struggles with going to school and dance lessons, but she is improving. Once I finally decided she was just manipulating me, I have taken a forceful approach in making her go to school – literally wrestling her into the neighbor’s car on carpool days (thank goodness I have a supportive neighbor), letting her cry at the curb while I lock myself in the van so she can’t get back in, and even giving completely serious threats of spanking (which we have never done.) The first couple of times this happened, I worried that she would hate me when she came home from school, but she has been just fine, even happy she went. She has also made great strides in getting her room clean nearly every day (sometimes those Little Debbie treats work magic!) Alyssa seems to get headaches quite often for a child, and I sometimes wonder whether she just likes the medication (or the attention?) so I have told her she may have Tylenol no more than twice a week.
My little sugar and spice Natalie seems to need more attention, so on the pediatrician’s recommendation, I have tried to institute a “special time” with her each day. We set a timer for 10-15 minutes and do something she wants to – read, play a game, work on a puzzle, paint her fingernails, whatever. We don’t always get to it, but she really seems to like it and suggests we do something beyond our morning reading nearly every day. She is cute, enough that when she recently announced with enthusiasm, “Mom, I have a REALLY BIG IDEA! Let’s get out all the boxes of toys at the same time!” I was tempted to say yes just because it was so cute until I thought about what a really big, bad mess I would find myself cleaning up. Matthew picks on Natalie more than anyone else, and he really is rough with her. Other times, like when the older kids are all at school, they get along fairly well. I just have to smile at those times, like when I find the two of them sitting in Matthew’s crib, covered with blankets and books and “reading” together.
It is fun that Matthew (at least tries) to say just about everything now. Even though he is more verbal now, he is still in the habit of throwing fits when he doesn’t get what he wants or when we take too long giving him what he wants. Just yesterday, he threw his toy cell phone because I was too slow in helping him to get his shoes off, and it landed behind the washer, where it will not be retrieved until we move out of this house. And then today, he was on the floor throwing a fit and threw something heavy up in the air, not anticipating that it would come right back down in his face. As you might imagine, he gave himself a painful and immediate punishment (which was somewhat amusing to the rest of us.) Matthew goes over to Emily at least a couple times a day, pretends to “eat” her, and says “de-ish-us!” (delicious) He recently started “vacuuming” with the toy lawnmower just the way Michael used to.
Emily, now eight months old, just cut her first tooth. I with great restraint held off giving her baby food fruits, trying to get her to take rice with vegetables so that she wouldn’t have the sweet tooth the rest of us do. But I succumbed in my desperation to buy time to attend to other kids and household duties, and I’ve ruined her with graham crackers and low sugar cookies and pretzels. Emily is not the easy-going baby she was the first 3-4 months of her life. She usually wants me to hold her, and when I do set her down she cries so suddenly and with such intensity that you would think I just stomped on her and walked away. She is just barely getting the crawling thing figured out, and is very clumsy and inefficient but so precious to watch. The kids like to get her hair wet and slick it into a Mohawk, and it stays that way even through her naps. Emily claps and waves sometimes and makes adorable baby sounds. She is round and cute.
I am still trudging along with some projects at the charter school, and am kind of at a standstill until I get approval/feedback from the administration. I seem to forever have more to do than I can possibly get done, so hopefully I am devoting my time and efforts to the things that really matter. We are grateful for our health and our abundant blessings. We hope you are doing well.
Love,
Ann, Hugh, Steven, Daniel, Julia, Michael, Alyssa, Natalie, Matthew, & Emily
Long time no write, huh? We hope you are all doing well and surviving the extended winter weather many of us are experiencing. Hugh is nearing the end of tax season (two weeks to go) and has been working long hours for the last couple of months. We all feel it when Hugh is gone so much. Even Alyssa has commented that she hates tax season. Hugh works really late on Friday nights (rolling in about midnight) and then has to prepare his Gospel Doctrine lesson most of the day Saturday every other week. He never complains, but he sure does look beat whenever he’s at home (or maybe that’s just the effect we have on him?)
The five oldest kids were supposed to have the first of their spring soccer season games tonight, but since there is a decent amount of snow on the ground again, the games have been cancelled. I have to admit that is a relief, even though I am glad that the kids are healthy and want to play soccer. It makes our evenings crazy when I am trying to figure out how to get two or three kids to games at various times and in various locations, as well as making sure they are all fed and the younger ones have something to do (other than whine and fuss) while we shuttle older kids around and try to watch them play. It’s all good, it’s just that sometimes there’s too much going on to really enjoy it.
We really enjoy having the Wrights live close to us. Until the recent snows squelched things, James had been taking their two older and our four older kids over to the neighborhood park for early morning workouts. He works them hard but he makes it fun, and the kids welcome the challenge. James has also worked with the kids some on learning to play baseball, which our kids have never really done beyond one or two seasons of T-ball when they were very small. Kristen and James have been transporting the kids to and from school a lot of the time, which has really helped me a lot. We will have some juggling to do when James’ work schedule and the seven kids’ (five Wilkins and two Wrights) sports seasons are in full swing, but we won’t worry about that until we have to. It has been so fun for me to watch our kids enjoy each other, as well as for the adults to get to know each other’s children better. The kids always look forward to sleepovers and days off together.
Steven has had some fun opportunities in the last month or so. He participated in a math competition at the University of Utah and enjoyed the day, as well as the weekly after-school classes for the six weeks prior to the competition. He was also able to “job-shadow” Hugh. Hugh showed Steven around the Church Office Building and Steven at least got an idea of what his dad does all day. Steven was wishing his Uncle Derek would move here so he could tag along with him and learn about his bio-medical engineering job. I love to watch Steven with Emily – if she is fussing and I ignore her, Steven will pick her up. He often brings her straight to me, but sometimes if I tell him I just can’t get her right then, he will hold her so she can watch me until I’m ready to get her. Steven often gets what he asks for because he is reasonable and negotiates so pleasantly.
Daniel has such a cute (I would get in big trouble if he knew I used that word to describe him) sense of humor. The other day after I watched him jumping around while brushing his teeth using some new, very minty toothpaste, he said, “Is this jalapeňo-flavored toothpaste?!” And this morning, he complained about pain in his eyes. As I was asking him questions about it, he offered, “I think I know the problem. I think I just need more electronics time.” Daniel has mentioned that he would like to be in some kind of drama class or production, though he emphasized that he does not sing or dance. He is also quite the writer, which is apparent when the kids play Balderdash, a game in which players try to make up the most plausible definitions to obscure words in order to get other players to vote for theirs as the authentic one. Daniel slammed his own finger in the door as he was trying to get away from Steven to avoid retribution for his taunting. It cut his finger deeply enough that he could have had stitches, but we just kept it well-bandaged for a week or two, and it seems to be healing okay. Hopefully he learned a lesson about not bugging his siblings!
Julia and the other three oldest kids have been Sudoku maniacs lately. These guys seem to just zoom through them. Julia recently finished reading the Harry Potter books again and is looking for another series to dive into. Julia especially has really gotten into softball with her cousin Jamie and Uncle James, and (with James’ coaching) is getting pretty good. I half-heartedly offered to sign her up for softball, and since she didn’t jump at it, I’m just going to leave it at that. (I’m not too excited to start softball before soccer is even finished, especially since the season would go halfway through July...) Julia excels in music, and sometimes I think I should push her a little harder to practice the violin.
As I wrote last time, Michael won the third grade spelling bee, and since then ended up coming in third place in the regional spelling bee. Since studying homophones, one of Michael’s favorite things to do is to try to see if he can outsmart me by asking me to spell a word which has two or three different spellings. Much to his satisfaction, he has caught me a few times. He enjoys using his calculator to figure out square roots for different numbers. Michael will be eight years old in just a couple of days, and will be baptized next weekend (since General Conference will be this weekend.)
Alyssa still struggles with going to school and dance lessons, but she is improving. Once I finally decided she was just manipulating me, I have taken a forceful approach in making her go to school – literally wrestling her into the neighbor’s car on carpool days (thank goodness I have a supportive neighbor), letting her cry at the curb while I lock myself in the van so she can’t get back in, and even giving completely serious threats of spanking (which we have never done.) The first couple of times this happened, I worried that she would hate me when she came home from school, but she has been just fine, even happy she went. She has also made great strides in getting her room clean nearly every day (sometimes those Little Debbie treats work magic!) Alyssa seems to get headaches quite often for a child, and I sometimes wonder whether she just likes the medication (or the attention?) so I have told her she may have Tylenol no more than twice a week.
My little sugar and spice Natalie seems to need more attention, so on the pediatrician’s recommendation, I have tried to institute a “special time” with her each day. We set a timer for 10-15 minutes and do something she wants to – read, play a game, work on a puzzle, paint her fingernails, whatever. We don’t always get to it, but she really seems to like it and suggests we do something beyond our morning reading nearly every day. She is cute, enough that when she recently announced with enthusiasm, “Mom, I have a REALLY BIG IDEA! Let’s get out all the boxes of toys at the same time!” I was tempted to say yes just because it was so cute until I thought about what a really big, bad mess I would find myself cleaning up. Matthew picks on Natalie more than anyone else, and he really is rough with her. Other times, like when the older kids are all at school, they get along fairly well. I just have to smile at those times, like when I find the two of them sitting in Matthew’s crib, covered with blankets and books and “reading” together.
It is fun that Matthew (at least tries) to say just about everything now. Even though he is more verbal now, he is still in the habit of throwing fits when he doesn’t get what he wants or when we take too long giving him what he wants. Just yesterday, he threw his toy cell phone because I was too slow in helping him to get his shoes off, and it landed behind the washer, where it will not be retrieved until we move out of this house. And then today, he was on the floor throwing a fit and threw something heavy up in the air, not anticipating that it would come right back down in his face. As you might imagine, he gave himself a painful and immediate punishment (which was somewhat amusing to the rest of us.) Matthew goes over to Emily at least a couple times a day, pretends to “eat” her, and says “de-ish-us!” (delicious) He recently started “vacuuming” with the toy lawnmower just the way Michael used to.
Emily, now eight months old, just cut her first tooth. I with great restraint held off giving her baby food fruits, trying to get her to take rice with vegetables so that she wouldn’t have the sweet tooth the rest of us do. But I succumbed in my desperation to buy time to attend to other kids and household duties, and I’ve ruined her with graham crackers and low sugar cookies and pretzels. Emily is not the easy-going baby she was the first 3-4 months of her life. She usually wants me to hold her, and when I do set her down she cries so suddenly and with such intensity that you would think I just stomped on her and walked away. She is just barely getting the crawling thing figured out, and is very clumsy and inefficient but so precious to watch. The kids like to get her hair wet and slick it into a Mohawk, and it stays that way even through her naps. Emily claps and waves sometimes and makes adorable baby sounds. She is round and cute.
I am still trudging along with some projects at the charter school, and am kind of at a standstill until I get approval/feedback from the administration. I seem to forever have more to do than I can possibly get done, so hopefully I am devoting my time and efforts to the things that really matter. We are grateful for our health and our abundant blessings. We hope you are doing well.
Love,
Ann, Hugh, Steven, Daniel, Julia, Michael, Alyssa, Natalie, Matthew, & Emily
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