Well, life has had its easier days…. Or maybe I should say
less interesting days.
I’ll just start with the good things. First off, we welcomed
our newest family member, Penny, to our crew at the beginning of July. It’s
been fun, exciting, nerve-wrecking, and stressful. She’s truly adorable and
mostly a sweet-natured pup that the girls want to hold ALL. THE. TIME. She’s
been held upside down by her tail, knocked off the couch, picked up by the
neck, and sprayed with the water hose. Girl’s gotta be tough to hang with my
kids. The girls truly do adore her. Addie has been wanting a dog for at least a
couple years now so we took the plunge. Andrew and I left on a Saturday morning
to go to Sparta, TN to pick her up. My parents kept the girls and then we got
back home around 2 and Addie came outside to meet her new surprise. She was beyond
excited. She said “did she hatch out of an egg?” haha. Cute.
In some ways its been
easier than expected and in others its been much harder. I didn’t anticipate
that I would need to monitor the girls and her non-stop. I had JUST gotten to a
point where I didn’t have to supervise them constantly. Oh well, hopefully the
newness will wear off and they’ll learn to be more gentle with her. I want Penny
to like them and not be a terrified dog. She’s doing pretty good with house
training. She’s def had accidents inside, mostly when the kids let her out of
her crate when she shouldn’t be. PLUS my body has decided that 32 is a good age
for me to start being allergic to dogs. BUMMER. I hope I “grow out of it”.
Please Lord. Maybe our old yorkie Allie is sending bad voodoo my way since we
gave her away and got a different dog. ;)
The dog has been the most exciting part of our summer other
than a beach trip to Destin we took with Debra and the Wilkins. Besides almost
losing Levi on day 1 at the beach, we had a great time. We had great weather
and the kids had so much fun playing in the waves for hours. Emme wasn’t a huge
fan yet. Being shorter than the waves kind of made them not as fun and being
hot in the sticky sand wasn’t her favorite thing in the world. She just kept
wanting snacks and to go back inside. She loves her food.
Emme just passed her 2 and ½ yr mark in June and Addie is
going to be 5 in a month. In some ways they are playing better together but
there’s still kind of a bossy toddler vs. pestering little baby vibe going on.
They seem to encourage each other to get into all sorts of trouble too. Maybe
one day I’ll be able to turn my back and not worry that they’ll smear
toothpaste all over the bedroom.
Emme is almost 30 lbs and is jumping off the ground all the
time. Her language has definitely taken off. She says full sentences constantly
and loves to use her words to tattle tell now too. ;0 I guess she decided she’s
earned it. She can almost say her abcs with some translation required. She’s
almost riding her tricycle all by herself and likes to swing in the big girl
swing on her belly. She still wants me to push her (A LOT) on her baby swing
too though. Her Dora shoes are def her fave accessory even though she’s
probably never seen the actual show. We took her crib front piece off because
she had started climbing out a couple months ago. (We also tried letting Addie
sleep in Emme’s room around then and lets just say after two weeks we decided
we aren’t trying that again for a WHILE.) So now her bed is basically a daybed
with a rail on the front. FOR THE MOST PART, she stays in it when we put her to
bed. I think it’s only because she can’t open the door so she knows there’s no
escape route. PRAISE THE LORD OF LORDS that so far she’s been pretty good at
going to sleep. SO THANKFUL. I still rock her some but we’re trying to wean off
of that. She still wants only Momma at bed time. I think 15 mths of nursing her
to sleep is to blame. Oh well.
Now, onto the big (almost) FIVE year old. In some ways I’m
ready for 5 because I’m ready for a little bit less of toddler meltdowns and
dependency. However, that also means she’ll officially be entering big kid status.
GULP. She’s been wanting to do everything by herself since she was born though so
that hasn’t changed… except for now she actually can do some things well on her
own like get dressed (eh, with a little help picking out the clothes), brushing
teeth, getting her water, fixing breakfast (granted the other morning it was
chips and marshmallows), “helping” with the dog, and cleaning up (ummm…
somewhat). I am proud of her growth in many ways. Her prayers sometimes make me
catch my breath they are so sweet and sincere. I love how she acts around
friends at church and seems to treat others kindly. She’s still a little timid
around peers and gravitates more towards her familiar friends like Harrison at
church. She’s more of a fan of “reading” a book to me or Andrew than she is of
listening to one. I haven’t pushed too much forced academics this summer so her
mind can rest and play. She starts her Mt. Zion kindergarten in August as well
as dance. I still wonder if I should’ve just started her in Monrovia but I do
think she’ll do really well at Mt. Zion. I hope she’ll gain confidence in
herself. I can tell that when she can’t do something perfect the first time she
gets very frustrated. I hope she will learn to give herself more grace and gain
more perseverance. I’m excited to see all that she will learn. I think she
might be more interested in gymnastics right now but we’ve signed up for
another season of dance so we’ll give that one more year then see what she’d
like to do. I just want her to find a passion and enjoy it. She’s played a lot
less with her animals and toys lately and has been into coloring and drawing
more. It’s kind of sad to not see her playing with all her “people”.
It’s
a busy, challenging stage but also very sacred. Thank you God for this time.
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