Did I ever mention that I received a new phone for Christmas? It’s lovely. Small children no longer ask intrusive questions about why my phone is so small. Despite this phone/camera update, I find myself taking less pictures than ever, so I’m gonna just have to jot a few sentences down. (Related aside- why do I take less pictures? Because everything that happens now has already happened 15+ times before (kid in sports uniform for instance)? Or maybe because Nolan has reached the irksome age of wanting to play on my phone/take 18 selfies every time he seems me pull it out? Hard to say.)
We’ve been attending a new church (Redeemer Round Rock) and have decided to take the plunge and become members. This feels 100% right and scary at the same time. Truth be told, I mostly like to keep new people at arms length. If you are in our family or if I’ve known you forever, please have conversations with me that include way too many TMI tidbits; that’s my jam. But I can’t pretend to appreciate small talk. And I’ve got a solid five amazing friends. How many does a girl need?? (My sister-in-law (enneagram 7) is now rolling her eyes, while another sister-in-law (5) is nodding without realizing it. Or perhaps thinking, ‘sheesh! Five friends?? One is plenty!’)
I digress. We have enjoyed the preaching, both convicting and encouraging. We have met people easily that we have quickly clicked with ( even me. Ha.) It is also a fairly young and small church. The children’s and youth area leaves room for growth, which is again wonderful and terrifying. I’m glad to be able to jump straight in and serve, but realize input from parents will be even more crucial than at a big ol church.
Our block-away neighbors also happen to attend this church and we have begun getting together with them once every week or every other week. They are a yoooooung family. Husband, wife, and 1 year old; narry a wrinkle on the combined faces. I loved being in this position as a young newlywed. It was such a joy and learning experience to be invited into homes of families that were a stage or two ahead of us in life. (The Caire family comes easily to mind.) I’m glad for our neighbors, but man oh man, it makes me feel my age. (Related side note: Jon recently told me that Nolan is closer to college age than I am. I can’t even. Bizarre.) They were over last night and their daughter was picking up everything from the coffee table and carrying the items to people in the room. She picked up my sudoku book and brought it to her mom, who laughed and said something funny about sudokus. Then the little girl opened the book and the mom realized that many of the pages had been completed and back-pedaled a little. Now dear reader, you have to understand that virtually nothing embarrasses me, but I believe at that moment I blushed. Why yes, new young friend. You can call me granny and sit next to me while I work on my puzzles.
School continues to go well for the boys. Ollie talks about how he likes it better than Waters, which of course makes my mama heart so happy. It seems like Seth is learning entirely new content, which lights him up (Cold War, elements and minerals). He always has enjoyed learning, if not the work that often accompanies it. It’s time to look at electives and sign up for 7th grade classes as well as decide on if he wants to try out a sport. The kids aren’t allowed to play sports in 6th, which seems wise to get acclimated to middle school before adding sports. Seth says he wants to try football and I have very negative feelings about this. Between injuries, his hot temper, and my precieved lack of interest, it doesn’t seem like the best choice. Is he actually interested or does he just want to play because Ollie loves it? I can count on one hand the amount of times he has gone out to play football with neighborhood kids, but is this because he is uninterested or because of his social and emotional delays? Thoughts welcome.
Seth is really proud of himself for how well he is handling middle school, and Jon and I completely feel the same way. He continues to receive specialized support but has a daily excell spreadsheet that all 8 of his teachers have to sign in on and they continue to write the kindest and most encouraging things about him. Seth really does try so hard, he’s a pretty determined kiddo.
Ollie has a neighborhood crew that he plays with daily and is starting to noticeably pull away from us. There are days when I only see him for a couple hours because of school, then him out playing at the park, and his spending more time alone in his room. (You have no idea how I long for Seth to get to this stage. Oye.) It does make the time we spend together sweeter, he’s a pretty affectionate and helpful kiddo.
He also has a big head but not sure what to do about that. Pray for humility perhaps? He gets plenty of affirmation from school in terms of awards and grades, not to mention interest from girls that he handles by giving a major cold shoulder. Just yesterday when I was subbing a girl came up to me and said, “um, for some reason Jazmine wanted me to tell you that she has a big crush on Ollie.” I laughed and said, “who wouldn’t?” Honesty, this is not a girl that I would have had on my “she’s got a crush on Ollie” list either. I have witnessed first hand (on two different occasions) neighborhood girls chatting happily with him over the course of few days, only to see them sit a little closer and then he responds by completely ignoring them for the following month. Does this merit a conversation with him? Probably not now. But maybe that’s something parents have to teach kids. How to let the opposite sex down kindly. Can’t say Jon or I have any experience in this department.
Here’s one more cute story about Ollie. The teachers at school have an awards program every 9 weeks. In addition to awards given by classroom teachers, the specialist teachers (music, pe, art) get to hand out one award for the entire grade level that has excelled in their area. They can’t all pick the same kid though, they are required to spread the love. The first time, he received the award for music and a few days later the pe coach came and told me how disappointed she was that she couldn’t pick him. The second time around, he received the pe award and the art teacher told me a week later that she was bummed that she couldn’t give her award to him. No wonder he has a big head. Pray for him to have the grace to handle it well.
Nolan is still the peachy cutie pie he has always been. I have given up that he will ever sleep in his bed all night, though. He prefers sleeping on the floor, usually on his nap mat (which he calls his flat bed) and often changes positions and rooms serveral times a night. A typical night: Jon or I read him some books, put him to bed. 7:40 pm he is asleep in his bed. Jon and I go to bed around 10 pm and check on everyone; Nolan is asleep on his nap mat, laying on the floor in the upstairs hallway. The puppies whine at 5:30 am to be let out and Nolan is asleep on his nap mat in the downstairs living room. I go back to bed and get up at 6:20 am and Nolan is asleep on his nap mat on the floor right by Jon’s side of the bed. I wish I was exaggerating. The silver lining is that he doesn’t wake us up all that much. Kids diagnosed with adhd often have sleep disturbances like this, which makes me wonder if Nolan has a diagnosis in his future. He doesn’t have an over abundance of the other symptoms though, so who knows.
He has also turned into quite the tall tale teller. I kinda wonder if this stems from being the youngest and listening to his brothers tell us stories about their days. You always know Nolan is in story telling mode when you hear about his grandma. “Once I rode a donkey. At my grandma’s house when I was a baby.” “I’ve seen that before. Yeah, I saw a king on a camel at my grandma’s house.” “That’s not that big. My grandma is bigger. She’s bigger than this whole house.” “I play football. Yeah, I play with Odell Beckham Jr. We play at my grandma’s house.” The phrase “my grandma’s house” is turning into code for “I think that’s a lie”. If you ask Nolan about his real Grandma or Mimi, he says, “ nooooo... not that grandma, my other grandma!” He keeps us on our toes and continues to crack us up daily.
Whew! And that is quite the update! I probably just doubled the word count on the ol blog.
Alright, now I’m off to pet my puppies. (They are all sleepy and sore from their 12 week shots this morning), then I’m gonna prep some jalapeño poppers for the super bowl. Go chiefs!
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