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Happy Birthday, Mommy!
Today is the anniversary of Kira’s birth! We spent yesterday doing our version of celebrating, which has toned down quite a bit since we were childless. Kira started by taking a trip to the Chicago Temple: one of the few places where she can get a few minutes of peace and quiet. When she got back in the afternoon, we all gathered around the television to watch Beauty and the Beast, which we all enjoyed. We had to pause it in the middle to make sure the kids all ate their dinner and got cake before bed, and then we finished it once they were all asleep. Today has been pretty typical, but she’s attempting a very long nap, so that ought to be special. Maybe when the kids are a little older and we have a little more cash lying around, we can send her to a spa. Hopefully, she’ll enjoy her upcoming break in August when she heads to Utah.
We also enjoyed celebrating our nation’s independence this week! We were invited to a large gathering at some friends’ house, so spent the day getting our food contribution ready, and wrestling with naps and meals like any other day. By the time it came, I opted to stay home and try to get Merritt for a nap, as I was pretty wiped out and am not much one for chit-chat. Merritt ended up declining a nap, but we had a good time in the back yard.
Carver and Hakan have decided to be friends most days, which makes for a much more pleasant home. They still have their bouts of carnage, but mostly, they’ve made real efforts to be chums.
Carver and Avey finished their swimming lessons on Friday, much to their relief and delight. They both made a lot of progress, impressing us both and hopefully themselves. I am especially glad that Carver made it all the way through. Avey seems to understand the point of hard work – it eventually pays off, and at least it feels nice to accomplish something you weren’t sure you could do – but Carver’s nature is not so adventurous. He crumbles pretty easily at some new experiences, like food, and when the going gets tough, he likes to lie down on the floor until it passes by. Something may have shifted in him with swimming, because after his meltdown last week, he worked at it a couple of days and then advanced to the next skill station. By the end of the lesson on Friday, he was probably ready to move on to another station yet. We sure hope that he felt the rewards of hard work, so that it will keep paying off.
That’s about all of the news from our week. See you next time!