I keep thanking Jesus that we have come home from China in the summer time. God bless all of you who have come home to the dreary January or March days in Minnesota.
Brian coached Calista’s soccer team again this summer/fall. We met some more Homecroft Elementary friends and learned we like to play goalie!
Blowing bubbles is never boring!
The boys and I continue to muddle through without Calista to help us. We blow bubbles, bike and hit the Y when Elam doesn’t have preschool. Elam loves school: today as we drove away at 10:15 am he asked why Calista wasn’t coming too. She stays longer than you, I told him. He wanted to stay all day as well. He also says a million hilarious things every day and I am not wise enough to write them down or smart enough to remember. Suffice to say he is fun.
Leafland
We did have to separate the boys in the backseat. XS had been in the middle, but today, after Elam slugged his brother in the face and I pulled over on a road with no shoulder, I had had it. I made Elam get out of the car, trample through the tall weeds and stand at the back for a few minutes while we “fixed the problem.” Sheesh. They hit more than I ever imagined was possible.
Xuan Song is learning words like any smart 3 year old. He loves to point out big machinery, colors and count. He makes it to 6 or 7 most every time. Today we worked on letters and found he (almost) knows “T” “X” “E” and “O” – this kid is one smart cookie. They told us he was a good student. We also wonder at his first 3 years, being raised among many special needs kids, especially Down Syndrome kids. What was that like for him?
Calista “teaching” XS to ride a 2-wheeler
Calista continues to amaze how she can handle 2 boys (sometimes better than I). She walks into the house most days and offers to read to them, play or make them crafts. She makes lots of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle masks, reads their books and shares her coloring pages with them. She is a hero many afternoons when I’m beat.
There is a tree next door and the kids LOVE to climb. This is a succession of pics, at the end, XS was stuck but wanted to get right back up. Brave.
This weather is such a blessing, but sometimes we still gotta go to the library. This week, the boys sat quietly, reading to themselves and I exhaled (probably for the first time that day). This parenting is a tough gig, but we live for moments like this. It makes changing their underwear for the 5th time that day worth it.
I swear I didn’t doctor this photo.