Conversations with Adam

A conversation at the dinner table.  

Adam- Dad!  Hit me as hard as you can!

Jason- I'm not going to hit you.

Adam- Just try!

J- If I hit you, I'll knock you into tomorrow!

A- What does that mean?

J- It means you'll fly so far that by the time you land tomorrow will be here.

A- (contemplating.... contemplating...) Let's give it a try!

J- No! I'm not hitting you.

A- (hitting Jason) There!  I hit you as hard as I could.  Now you hit me as hard as you can!

J- Nope.

A- (wrapping his arms around his chair)- How about now?  I'm ready!

J- No!  If I hit you I'll put a hole in you.

A- (contemplating... contemplating...) Awesome!  Let's do it.

This kept on, but he didn't get what he was asking for.

*****

A conversation at the lunch table.  Adam, Emma and I were having delightful pretend banana-phone conversations.

Me- I just love you both so much.  I sure am glad that Heavenly Father sent the most adorable kids in the whole wide universe to be in our family.  

Adam- And I sure am glad that he sent me to the most beautiful-est mommy in the whole wide universe!  

Awww.  He got an extra banana for that sweet comment.  

One day I was running late and didn't have time to take our traditional farewell portrait together, so I sent him a text via Jason's phone instead.  

Adam is my one child that becomes obsessed with things- toys, Legos, stories, Math Battles.  For the last four nights in a row he has come giggling down the stairs like a kid on Christmas Eve.  He is working toward earning new Mixels (a kind of Legos) in the family store and just cannot decide if he wants to earn them one at a time or save up all of his tickets so he can buy them all at once.  He's been giving us a mind-change by mind-change update all week long.  I love that he gets so focused on things, even if they are as seemingly insignificant as Legos.

He's discovered a great posse of friends in the neighborhood that will also be going to kindergarten next year.  He's spent the last two days running around outside with three other boys. He then comes running in to tell me all about the frogs they've caught or the bikes they've temporarily traded or the silly potty words they are shouting into the storm drain.  It's all boy, and he loves it.

And this.  I just love this.

Pulling Up

Nothing below two and a half feet is safe in our house anymore.  

Including the toilet.  Time to take housekeeping to the next level!

Big News

This is really, really exciting news.  

There is a forest in our town!  

We previously thought the closest thing to an "enchanted forest" (aka- a place where we can wander and run and collect and be outside together in the shade as a family) was about 45 minutes away.  And for that long of a drive, it wasn't really that impressive (no offense, Iowa.  And don't worry, we're not giving up on you just yet.)

But today we discovered a forest!  In our town!  With stairs and trails and bridges.  And, according to the kids, unicorns and gnomes caves and possibly lions.

It was so, so hot and humid- the temperature was 86 degrees *feels like 99 degrees* due to humidity and lack of wind.  

But we still wandered and ran and collected and were outside together as a family.  

And it was magical.  

As all enchanted forests are. 

Ten Months

 To my sweet little fellow, 

You are growing up altogether too quickly.  You have been with our family now for just as long as I was pregnant, only this ten months seems to have flown by so much more quickly.  Your first birthday will be the next one celebrated in our family.  How did this happen so fast?

You're growing up so very cute and just the right amount of chunky and an absolute ball of fun.  You call us "mama" and "dada".  

You hang out with your brother and sisters and play with their toys and occasionally frustrate them when you won't share.  You sleep more, but still not enough to make your mama feel like a normal person. 

 You still nurse like a champ, although I can sense that you'll be ready to wean shortly after your birthday.  Once we stopped trying to give you that yucky baby food, you've never since met a food you didn't like. 

You love your mama so, so much, and you still torture anyone who tries to take you away from me.  Given the fact that your siblings run away from me without a backwards glance, I kind of sort of love the fact that you still want to be with me so much.  

You fill my heart up with so much love.  

And I love you, too.  We all do.

First Anniversary

We've been home owners for a year now.  One year ago we closed on our house, took the keys from our builder and welcomed ourselves home.

It felt like we did a lot of work on the house as soon as we moved in, and then backed off for a while in the name of having a baby, hosting visiting grandmas and grandpas, enjoying the holidays, surviving the freezing winter, enduring through the end of the school year and then having lots of summer fun.  And along the way, we've had a repair or two to address.  We're starting to understand the "joys" of home ownership.

Some days I look around and think that there is still so much to do to make this house seem like home.  Curtains to hang.  Walls to paint.  Rooms to furnish.

But this is definitely our home now.  Slowly over the last year our shelves have started to look decorated and organized,

our walls have slowly started to fill up,

and our stuff has started to show the wear and tear of six sets of hands using it daily.

We are creating memories in every nook and cranny here, and as I look back on pictures of our first year here, I realize that no matter how big or small, how expensive or cheap, how clean or dirty, home is simply where our family loves being together.

I can see how easily people can sink every extra penny they have into beautifying their homes- the lush landscaping, the decked out basement, the ultimate garage storage system or inviting backyard set up- we could spend much more money on all that and more.  

The desire that people fight to "keep up with the Jonses" makes more sense to me now than it ever has before, even in areas where I have no real desire to keep up.  

Because the trick in searching for happiness in a house is that, I'm slowly learning, you will never be satisfied.  What felt like more than enough a year ago has become a bit more comfortable to us and we are looking forward to what is next.  Adam told me today that, after he gets all of the Legos in the world, then he will be happy.  We had a good talk about the fact that you can't wait for some future desire to materialize to be happy- happiness is a choice that comes now regardless of our haves or have-nots.

And for us, we are more than happy with where we are right now.  The happiness comes now in the form of the beautiful sunset that I get to watch out my west-facing windows every night.

It comes when I watch my kids run up and down the finally-finished sidewalks with droves of neighborhood kids, or when I see them ride their bikes to and from school.  It comes when I get to sit in my yard and chat with my sweet neighbors, or text them about which house my kids left their flip-flops at this time.

Happiness is spreading out a blanket in our backyard and laughing and playing and tickling each other.  It's watching my kids learn how to jump rope in the driveway and play hide-and-seek and cops and robbers with the neighborhood kids until it's too dark out to see each other anymore.  It's realizing how much we've all grown in this one quick year that has gone by, and looking forward to the years and changes that are ahead.

It's the anniversary of being in our house, but most of all our family is celebrating life in a happy home.

Back to School

Second grade already.  Look at that big girl- 

 practically a pro at this school business.  

Confident in the halls- 

 "Take my picture!  Blog it and write 'Look!  A pregnant lady!'"  Sheesh.  

 Still plenty of smiles in the hallway-  

and in the classroom with her new teacher Mrs. Eischeid.   

 Perhaps a bit less sure in the classroom- 

But a reassuring wave from Mom brought one more smile.   

Ok!  That is enough.  You are dismissed.  

 We geared up for back to school with a Family Home Evening lesson about "being a builder".  We have lots of ways that we build- we build our testimonies by developing a strong relationship with our Heavenly Father, we build relationships with new friends, relationships with teachers and adults at school, we build good habits and set new goals, and we build other people up by the things we say and do.   

And then we built with Duplos!

The tears and jitters started the night before school, and Jason offered each of us a priesthood blessing.  After a good night's sleep Leah woke in plenty of time for a back-to-school breakfast feast and she was all smiles by the time I pulled out the camera.  

 I think she is going to have a great year.