I should have expected as much with the summer and three kiddos but still, I'm feeling a bit blindsided by how fast this summer is going (even though some of the days have seemed pretty long..). We've started our back-to-school shopping and with a glance around the property, you can tell that, before too long, this summer will be but a memory!
The blogging over the last few weeks has certainly taken a backseat to everything else going on. The short version... the weather has been less than summery, the big kids are missing school, Auntie Lacey is back stateside after 3 years in England (Uncle Mark will be back before we know it!) so she was here for about 2 weeks and life has just been going on and on and it seems that Stella is still changing every single day. It both been crazy and relaxing at the same time.
While Lacey was here, we went to the wildlife refuge, we shopped, we ate out, we shopped, we got coffee, we had a movie night, we shopped, we went to the park and the zoo, we got our hair cut, we shopped... you get the idea. I worked a bit at bringing "me" back along side the mom part of me and it was invaluable to have another opinion besides that of a 6 year old!
I have hardly had a chance to go through my pics and honestly, we spent most of the time visiting and enjoying each other and though we tried to get a few good pics, it seemed rare that everyone was "on" at the same time. Oh well!
The big kids, like I said, are missing school. They are both quite smart (every parent thinks that though) - at 4 1/2 Rylan has figured out how to read which is his big summer accomplishment. But even with this, he's also spending much of his time trying to keep his mind busy. He's not reading enough to where he can just sit with a book and read. I'm looking forward to that time though! You can just see everything clicking away in his little mind which is great. However, at the same time, when he gets bored he gets a bit... um... difficult. Not a trouble maker or a bad kid by any stretch of the imagination just different than what we've been used to with him. He was an easy baby, a mellow toddler for the most part so this phase (that has seemed pretty long) has been kind of draining for me. He's very sweet but is also really experimenting with exerting his independence, voicing his opinions and testing his boundaries and our consistency. That's normal and to be expected but I'm having a very hard time figuring out what his currency is and trust me, I feel like I've tried everything. On the bright side he's not testing us 100% of the time so we do still have fun with him!
Karleigh's very helpful with Stella and Rylan. She likes to feel important, just like everyone, so keeping her helping around the house keeps her happy. Give her a bunch of Clorox wipes, a dust rag and a broom and we're golden. She however is going through a (what we perceive as irrational) fears phase. She doesn't like to be alone, inside or outside. She doesn't like the dark or the sound of the toilet flushing. She's quite the little environmentalist and things that she loved last year, now terrify her. I'm not exaggerating. While Lacey was here, we had a bob cat wander through the field just below the house. She loved seeing it but at the same time, it totally freaked her out. She ended up crying while trying to go to sleep because she couldn't let the thought of the bob cat go. The next day she woke up and was covered in a hive like, blotchy rash. Anxiety induced. We looked up videos of bob cats purring on the internet, talked about how grandma has had several students bring in bob cats for show-and-tell throughout the years, how she's seen them at the zoo before, how they are very shy predators... she woke up the next morning totally fine. However, we're dealing with similar fears again because we have a confirmed black bear on the property as well too. I feel it's important that they know not to be afraid but what to do if they do happen to see the bear while they are outside. I feel to NOT educate them would be negligent, no different than teaching water safety if you live on or are around the water... stranger danger in the city... it's just part of living where we do. Last year she was IN LOVE with the black bears we saw at Glacier and Bear Haven. She would. not. sleep until we put Stella down in their room. Although just the other afternoon, as we were setting things up to move Stella into their room, Karleigh got teary because she was afraid that Stella would stop breathing while she was sleeping in there. *sigh* ...too much for a 6 1/2 year old to be thinking about. So, I need to figure out how to help her work through these fears. I remember being afraid to crawl into bed when it was dark for fear of "something" grabbing my ankles or being afraid to go into the downstairs bedroom of this house in the dark, but that's because one night my grandpa "peek-a-boo'd" right in the window and I totally didn't expect it at all. So, now I've got to try to figure out how to help her work through this anxiety.
Little Miss Stella is just blossoming. I think there's something to the idea that it's more like 4 trimesters... I know, mathematically, that doesn't make sense but the idea is that they really start to show their personalities and get more physically active after the 3 month mark. Yes a few days ago, she moved into the room with Karleigh and as far as she's concerned, that's been a seamless transition. She's still sleeping from 11 or so until around 8am. She's also napping in there and I'm thrilled to say that I'm even able to put her down awake but drowsy and have her sleep!
She's babbling and belly laughing, rolling and taking everything in around her. We got her a jumperoo yesterday and she loves it. I love that it gives me a few more minutes to get a few things done around the house and it doesn't add to the bald spot on the back of her head like playing on the floor does!
I was so funny to see the way she looked at Jim once he got it put together and set her in it. She kept looking at him like "THIS!?! All of this for me???" Cutest thing ever!
All in all, we've done a few fun things around here. We'll be heading up to my parent's house in a few days and then it's back down here for doctors and dentist appointments and getting ready for school to start! It feels like before we know it, I'll be posting Halloween pics!
