Other than that, here are a few bullet-pointed highlights. (Sorry for the lazy format, but I'm still trying to recover from all the writing I did for the trip post. And don't act like you don't need some more time off to recover from reading it):
- David and I cashed in his Christmas gift date to me and went to see John Heffron at The Punchline. Hilarious. His mouth was...less than clean...but oh my stars, did we hurt ourselves from laughing.
- Our church, 12 Stone, launched FIVE new campuses on January 11th, one of which we left the comfort and familiarity of their main central campus to pioneer. It's taking some getting used to, as we're currently meeting in a high school, but we know this is where God wants us right now.
- We bought a new car. In case you missed that, you can read more here. Basically, it was time to sell the 4Runner, so we did and bought D a new-to-us 2012 Acura TL.
- I registered Luke for fall preschool. My heart alternates between leaping for joy and breaking, leaning more towards the latter.
- Since I am participating in the semi-annual Kidsignments Consignment Sale, this month meant a ton of tagging and prepping for that. Because of our Disney trip, I decided not to hold a presale as I've done in the past, so I saved myself a little time there. By the way, I put the last of my maternity stuff in this sale. You know how some things can be really hard to let go of because it marks the end of an era? Yeah, not those.
- I did my usual volunteer circuit at Audrey's school and confirmed to myself, yet again, that TEACHERS DO NOT MAKE ENOUGH MONEY.
- The kids got colds around the middle of the month, but thankfully, it didn't turn into anything too serious.
- I'm still running, but not very much or very far. I'm hoping to sign up for a race very soon to give me some much-needed motivation.
- D left for Ohio for a few days right before our Disney trip. This has kicked off a string of additional travel for him, but I'll do more complaining about that in another post or next month's recap.
- My job load kinda kicked my tail a couple of times this month. I don't work ton of hours, so every hour over "normal" is a huge percentage increase, if that makes sense. I'm holding my own, though. The honeymoon phase is over, but I still enjoy the benefits of something outside of mom and wife-dom that makes me feel like I'm using my business brain a bit. To sum it up in a graphic, an advertisement for this hoodie popped up in my Facebook feed the other day:
Yup, some days are just like that!
Now, onto upates about and quotes from the kids:
Audrey
AJ got back into the post-holiday routine pretty well this month. (Sidenote: I'm learning that the second day after a break is always harder than the first for her. On the first day back, she's excited about seeing everyone again and looking forward to catching up a bit. By day two, however, that thrill is gone and Grumpy McGrumperson is a force to be reckoned with.) Anyway, we had Disney to look forward to, which was a lifesaver for getting through the January blahs.
She doesn't love school as much as I wish she would, but she doesn't hate it either. I hope that'll change for the better next year. She does like art a lot, of course, but isn't a fan of P.E. She had one little girl in her class that David and I were kind of worried about her hanging around all the time for various reasons, but that has simply worked itself out because now the girl's clinginess drives her crazy (she hides it well in class and is polite, but I get an earful at home) and she's forming other friendships.
Other news on AJ:
- She's still patching her eye (our next appointment is in March), but we're doing terribly with remembering to stretch.
- She's reading like a pro and loves it more than any other activity. Frankly, she likes it more than she likes most people.
- Speaking of liking people, she and Luke have entered into full-on sibling love/hate relationship. I think it's actually been going on for several months now, but I've been in denial. They are either driving each other crazy and fighting/yelling/blaming/trying to sneak in punches or they're giggling and playing like the best of friends. More and more I'm attempting to let them solve their issues on their own and may occasionally even use the beloved mom phrase "Do not come to me about it unless you are bleeding." Still, let someone else dare to lay a finger on them or create an issue and the other will move mountains to protect their sibling. This even includes Luke turning on me if he thinks I've upset Audrey.
- She still struggles with shyness when she's one on one or one on two with adults (in a roomful, she's a little grown up herself.) David and I have been trying to work with her about the difference between bashful and just plain rude (i.e. when an adult speaks to you, you need to make eye contact and answer.) We're trying to give her little ways to practice, like ordering at restaurants or asking an employee something in a store. I don't want to fundamentally change her personality, but she's old enough to swallow it a little and be functional and respectful.
- Despite the rough "real world" of kindergarten (and parents who insists on manners), her sensitive heart is still very much in tact. It has it's cons (for the love of pete, quit being afraid of G-rated Disney movies, especially when we agree to fast-forward the scary parts!), but obviously has infinitely more pros (i.e. praying every night for weeks for a new classmate who's having a rough adjustment.)
Luke
As time goes by, Luke steps deeper into boyhood. I don't know why such an obvious and natural progression surprises me, but I guess having AJ first and being a girl myself, it's new territory. I just don't understand why we have to sword fight everything. The other day at Target, he actually had a foam sword (I know...totally my fault) and kept yelling "I just wanna hit something!"
Also, everything is a competition these days. I can't tell you how many times a day he'll announce he beat me at something, like racing to the car. Most of the time I had no idea we were competing! Boys.
Despite all that, he, like his sister, still has a tender heart that melts me. A few weeks ago he watched a Jake and the Neverland Pirates (and yes, I'm laying off it in an effort to curtail the sword fighting) where they had to forfeit their beloved ship to Captain Hook. A little while after it was over, we sat down for lunch and he said, "Mommy? Why does that song about Bucky [the ship] make me so sad?" and proceeded to go from teary-eyed to full on SOBBING about the unfairness of the plot. I kid you not, I tried everything to talk it through and then distract him with other things, but I finally just had to pick him up and hold him to calm him down. Henceforth, that episode is called "the sad one" and we do not go near it with a ten foot pole.
Also like his sister, he loves to read and has developed a great attention span for it. He asks lots of questions while reading, but we're backing off the "why" stage just a bit, thank the Lord. Now we're into very-long-story-telling stage, which can be equally frustrating. We try hard to focus and listen when we can, though, because I know this to be true:
Quotes:
- David was rocking him to sleep one night and he was drifting off but suddenly popped his head up and said, "Daddy? Do you like puppies, sheep, or donkeys?" Being very used to having a two year old and the randomness that accompanies that, David answered without hesitation and said puppies. Luke retorted, "Sorry, Daddy. There's already a puppy in my bed, so pick a different one for you." ??? Oh, the imagination of little ones.
- He was helping me carry in groceries one day and the neighbor beside us was outside and called over, "You're strong, Luke!" He proudly grinned and replied, "Yup." ...So humble, too.
- Every once in a while, he'll squeeze me hard and say "I love you to the moon and back!" :)
So that was January, mostly. Unfortunately, I have very few pictures from anything other than our Disney trip, but the 200 from that should tide you over until next month. I'll let you know when I post them!
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