Adorable Geek

Kaisha got her teeth today. To her it was like a gift or a prize or a box of chocolates. She was so excited! Dental assisting version of geeking out. She was adorable about it.

We're still waiting on my mom's property. It's still unbelievable...

Ania is getting a little cold and was trying to convince me tonight that she is very, very sick and needs to stay home from school tomorrow.

I filled the dents and holes in the walls, especially up and down the stairs, from moving (there were lots of dings when we moved in from the renters that were here before us) and spray spackled them. All ready to paint tomorrow. Same color. Just without the dirt and stains and holes.

Showed my mom where to pick up Alissa when she has swim practice up at Western. I am counting the days until Alissa is 16 and can drive herself places! I love that she is on the swim team, but the driving is hard. Three mornings a week at 6AM and five afternoons a week to/from the different pools. Plus team parties and Young Life and youth group and extra credit stuff. Then walking the little girls to/from school ten times each week. It's a lot. It just started and I'm already feeling a bit worn out. It'll get interesting next week when I start my 18 credits. Ahhh, life can be crazy!

All Smiles

First day of school. 

We walked. 

No tears.

Much bouncing.

School Tomorrow

First day of school for Ania, Mia, and Alissa tomorrow morning! (It was moved a day late due to the strike last week.) We met Ani's first grade teacher today at the Meet & Greet. Loved her. All the first graders in the cul de sac are in the same class. We also met Mia's teacher. Loved her. Mia is one of 11 fourth grade kids in a 4th/5th grade mixed class, along with Mia's friend across the driveway (look out world, the two of them together are magnets for trouble...or at least dirt). One of Mia's friend's from last year is in her class too. The two of them competed in good humor all year for top grades in the class. We were glad to see him take the seat next to her.

Alissa got her schedule last week at the sophomore orientation. She has great classes! Tenth grade English, German, World History, Honors Chemistry, Forensics, & Algebra 2. She catches the bus at 7:09AM when she doesn't have to be there at 6AM for dryland workouts 3 days a week. She's been swimming with the team for over two weeks already. She is about to be rather busy.

The problematic thing is that her unbusyness this summer (spare the fact that she's worked tons!) has totally covered my undoable schedule. In two weeks when I start school I'm not sure how we're going to quite do it. Maybe mom's property issues will be solved and the moving projects completed and angels will come in the night to cook and clean.

I packed the first bento box lunches tonight. My friend turned me onto it, gave me a quick tutorial the other day, took me shopping, and wa-la...first day of school makeshift bento box lunches. I was making it for Mia and Ania and Alissa walked by and asked me to make one for her too. They're kindof lame as far as bento boxes really go...I was tired and couldn't get the rice to pack together and I don't have any books with examples and had no creativity coming so I figured it was close enough. It is my first try, and who knows, maybe my last, but if you never try to do something fun...how boring is that. And for me, if I do the time/energy math I always come up in the red, so I just turn a blind eye to reality and do it anyway, hoping that it all works out somehow in the end. Which is usually does.

Alissa gave me a 10PM curfew tonight, which it is. Good-night!

If you are very adorable sisters...

And you accidentally wear matching outfits one day...

Your mom might just have to do a 10 minute photo shoot in the entryway.

The bigger sister might attempt to teach the little one to pose like a fashion model...

Changing your pose with every click of the camera.

These girls. Love them.

One Eye Works for Him

On the trampoline in Scansen's backyard in Billings, MT

Haircut by Kaisha & Hannah S.

Photo by Kristine

Irresistibility by God

This little girl is all energy. Good energy. And sometimes not so good. But mostly good. She gets frustrated by her own limitations. Just like me. She gets tired and worn out and bored. So do I. She has things to say but she can't always get us to understand. That happens to me. She's completely unique, but just like the rest of us. But she definitely has more battery life than I do. She can run circles around me.

My friends, and Alissa's friends, and Kaisha's friends, (and Collin's friends would be welcome too ...) have been coming over to hang out with Ania and work with her. The one on one time is doing amazing things for her. One of the older kids said the other day, "Is it just me...or has Ania been amazingly mature lately?" I'm beyond thankful for every minute that others spend with her and for the time it gives me to get caught up on other things. (Call me if you want to join Team Ani-girl.)

Her bedtime happinesses are still overall heading in the right direction. She passed her hearing test at the university with flying color and incredible bravery. She loves hanging out with her newfound amazing Uncle Kevin. The new hairdo was an impromptu great decision followed by not a drop of regret. She was born to ride 14 hours straight through on driving trips. And she LOVES camping and the outdoors.

 At Uncle Dick and Aunt Karen's property on the Clearwater River in eastern WA

 With her Uncle Kevin. 

On the drive every 15 minutes she would call out from the back seat, "Uncle Kevin..." And he would say to her, "Hey, baby." That was it. Just double checking that he was still in the front seat.

 Pink Puppy in Winthrop. He has issues.
But she loves him ruthlessly despite them. 

First, you need a fire.

 I've, oh-so, wanted a fire pit ever since we moved here. Today the fates saw to it to make it happen. Which is actually just a contrived, sort of dumb way of saying that we bought one! Well, first you have to know that I pressure washed the bottom patio. Actually, first you need to know that I pressure washed the swinging chair I got for free outside of someone's house a few weeks back. It was green and slimy and my mom had to bring my dad's truck down to get it moved to my house and my kids thought it was disgusting, which it was. But it won't be. Ok, never mind all of that. We'll stick with the fire pit story.

I had to assemble the fire pit. 

Pretend that that sounds hard and you're impressed.

  Then we had to build a fire. I had actually moved a small pile of wood from our country home a year and half ago because I was so sure we would someday have a fire pit!

 Then Mia had to look creepy,
like something out of a teenage boy's video game.

 Then we had to be silly because we were so happy
to be moving toward the most awesome smores!

 Is more fun possible?

 Have you bought the jumbo marshmallows yet? Yummmmm.

Now we're just playing with the camera and flames and marshmallows.

Alissa in front of a camera...

Gosh, Lis, you have the best eyebrows. 

 Beautiful and sticky all at once.

How could a fun evening get any better?

Braden could show up. Unexpectedly. 

Biker Girl

First time ever...Ania rode her bike to school today! Training wheels and all. 

Helmet. Bike rack. Lock. The whole deal. She loved it!

Run the Numbers. Not Good.

When you do the math on my Parent of Teenage Girls years, I have ten years down. Thirty-eight to go.

There is Collin, of course, who is 18. And being male, he pretty much rocked out on the whole teenage experience. He brings sanity to an otherwise wrong situation and has and continues to enjoy the perks of not being female.

There is Alissa, newly 15 and fully permitted to drive, who is the quintessential classic teenager. Amazingly strong and mature at the most surprising moments and shockingly dorky when you pretty much expect it. She's far more level headed than I expected her to be at this point. And I have great confidence that she'll be out of her teen years around the age of 21.

Then there is Mia. She's approximately 13 right now, which is a full 4 years ahead of schedule. If you do the math she will be a very pleasant person when she hits 19. The math works like this: a teenage girl is unreasonable and not at all to be taken seriously until they are 23, at which age they finally become nice. So if Mia is four years ahead of schedule and you stop being a teenager at age 23 if you are female, then she should be a decent human being at about age 19. Being that she is actually 9, I have ten years left with her.

Ania isn't anywhere near being a teenager in any form or nuance. BUT she is about as much work as fourteen year old twin girls. My estimated projection time for her is a bit grim. I think it will be about 3 more years until she is only as much work as one fourteen year old girl, which will plateau until she actually reaches 16, at which time she will progress from fourteen to the estimated time of female pleasantry, age 23. So, with the math that is (3×2)+7+9=22years.

Kaisha is twenty-one. She stopped being a teenager about half way through her 20th year. It was the best of surprises, completely unexpected, that she graduated early, since the theory of 23 was developed with her. The other shock was that it wasn't gradual. She was dreadful and then she wasn't. Pretty much overnight. Just ask her.

Total.....6+10+22=38. I have 38 combined years of parenting teenage girls left.

I tend to be a bit of realist and think we should deal with these types of things straight up. Thus this declaration to the world of people.who.have.nothing.better.to.do than read my long, fairly stupid blogposts.

The bottom line? The absolutely obvious conclusion we should all draw?

image by Alissa

Collin might do well to move out. Soon. Before...um...before...hmm. You tell me. What horrible thing happens to victims with toxic doses of estrogen exposure? It can't be good.

Although...two very good things that have come out of the whole unfairness are: one, he's never had a girlfriend. He knows faaaaaar too much about girls to be dumb enough to date one. And two, he will, I would bet my life on it, make THE best husband someday. The girls would be lining up for interviews if they had any idea how completely amazing he is.

For Crying Out Loud

image by Alissa

I've NEVER been able to get past the way a baby crying at bedtime sort of sucks the last bit of the day's life out of you. You would think that with the fifth child I would have learned how to shrug it off. Not. Even worse, maybe, is a five year old crying at bedtime. Ania's never really done bedtime gracefully. But the last 7 months have been seriously horrible. 

Every part of the getting-ready-for-bed process has been crisis triggers for her over the years. Brushing the teeth. Washing the hair. Wearing certain pajamas. Potty issues. Can't find the stuffies. The blankets aren't just so. Etc. All have sparked the nightly meltdown. It's not that she's naughty, although I'm sure there is some of that...its just hard for her. And me. Once she is finally settled into bed, we have civil time. We chat and talk and read and laugh and sing. But as soon as I get up to leave, she falls apart. 

She cries, sometimes sobs. She calls to me and asks questions. Fears. Sadness. Completely unsettled. Six months ago it included screaming and anger. Without exaggeration, it sometimes took over 2 hours of this before she was asleep. By the end I would be crying too. And nobody in the house could sleep until it was over. 

There were lots of contributing factors in the fall. Kaisha moved out. Which meant that Ania's roommate moved out of her room and it was her first time ever sleeping alone. Then her dad moved away. In the spring, my job shadow hours started before she woke up. So twice a week there was no mommy in the house when she got out of bed. Then her Papa died. I'd cry too. I wavered between gushing with compassion for her to pulling my hair out. It was a nightmare. And at the worst possible time of day for me. I was exhausted and there was never a break.

This past week, with the exception of Wednesday night, she fell asleep every night without crying!!! No crying. No questions shouted out. No whimpering or growling or talking mad to her stuffs. Mostly no emotional meltdown. Ahhhhhh. And she is starting to fall asleep quickly. Maybe within 10 minutes of me leaving the room.

You have no idea how HUGE this is for her and I. Huge.

We have the most adorable bedtime routine now. First, I try to start getting her ready for bed at 7:30. Which usually doesn't quite happen. One great thing is that [drum roll...] she is brushing her own teeth now. *sigh of relief* Some nights I pick out her pajamas [feel the tension] but some nights I let her wear whatever she wants [oh, the joy]. Then I sit on her bed and we basically do a reading lesson for about a half hour. [She LOVES it!] We pray. We sing. I lay next to her while she reads to me. I kiss her. She asks if she can come snuggle me in bed in the morning. I always say yes and tell her I love to see her every morning. I turn out the light, go straight to the bathroom to get her a drink (even if she already had a drink), walk back in with the light off, stand there while she pretends to drink, put the cup on the dresser and walk out. 

Last fall I would have paid thousands to have her not cry at bedtime. Now...I would pay thousands to keep it this way.

Stickers and Strawberries

Celebrating Mia

Sweet 9

Happy Day

Born

Life 

Adopted

My Privilege

Complete Adoration

So here's the party. Minus Grandma, who had the sense to leave when the chalk came out. And missing Collin, who is being a responsible human being and attending his evening chemistry class. Earlier though, we had spaghetti dinner and strawberries on mini angle food cakes topped with strawberry ice cream drizzled with chocolate sauce. Unless you were Mia and you had strawberries only because your tummy hurts, like it often does these days.

Then presents that make a bedroom makeover, complete with two colors of wall paint, fuzzy bright pillows, sparkly lime green curtains. Then pastels to draw with after you've read good books while you're wearing your new shoes and your hat-like-kaisha's...all the while eating Skittles. Plus the lime green garbage can that any decent 9 year old would kill to receive for a birthday gift.

Treats on birthdays aren't allowed at school anymore due to kids with allergies. But stickers are in. I stopped by school to drop off 25 sheets of monkeys and fish and bees and frogs for Mia to give to each of her classmates. And the whole cafeteria sang Happy Birthday to her, which, evidently, makes a little girl sit there with big eyes until it's over.

Trippin' It

Ania's class went to the Light Catcher Museum recently. I was finally able to go with them on a field trip. They had a psychedelic flashy colored lights room. A whole farmer's market. Life sized tinker toys. Everything necessary to keep 20 kids completely over stimulated for thirty minutes. It was awesome.

Pigtails with an Inner Artist

 Birthday Girl

Her first year really "getting" her birthday.

Her first year with big sister's boyfriend bearing gifts and bringing out her inner artist.

 Ania's first birthday where Alissa is totally cool and if you don't believe it read Kaisha's blogpost.

 Ania's first birthday in which we all wear her new skirt on our heads. 

Saving Cody, who is far too dignified. But not really.

 Her first year getting to wear a pink birthday crown at school with a glittering 6 on it.

 Her first year going to bed the night before her birthday asking if I was going to sing to her tomorrow.

Her first year not having her Papa come over to celebrate with her. [Side note: I seem to have projected Papa's disdain for having his picture taken onto Grandma, who of course was here!, and didn't subject her to smiling for the camera. That's going to have to end!]

Her first big girl, shiny new bike!

Being 6 looks good on her.

Said Child Turns Six

Six years ago today, and defying the first law of thermodynamics, energy was born on the other side of the world. A bundle of kinetic energy and absolutely cute.

Happy birthday, Ania!

Bohemian Skirt with a Touch of Crocs

Ania has about ten articles of clothing that she is willing to wear. You're looking at four of them, unless we count the shoes. Five. To get her to wear anything else is just shy of a battle. I figure I have too many events in my life already, so she wears these clothes a LOT. The trick is washing them when she's not looking. 

My mom had promised Ania a quick trip to the park after school one day this week, contingent upon the sun showing up. Which he did. So they went. She asked about Papa. She wanted to know if he was at the dentist? And was heaven a long way? She said she wanted him to come back.

Maybe it's a good thing to have a five year old around to speak bluntly, forcing you to acknowledge a reality that you'd rather ignore. She says stuff that many adults can't say because it's so awkward. I think Ania is growing us up. She's definitely sanding away my rough edges. Fashion wars or honest questions.  Either way, she's good for me. 

Two in the Picture

Love this picture. Two of my favorite people!

The nothing-exciting that happened today:

*schools were running 90 minutes late because of the snow and so we had a lazy morning.

*I did school with Ania in our cozy warm office much of the afternoon.

*Ania and I walked all bundled up to get Mia from school. We took Wellington.

*Alissa used my camera to take pictures with a friend for her photography class after school.

*We washed dishes by hand because our dishwasher is broken.

*There is a huge very dead rat in our driveway.

*There were adorable, tiny paw prints on the front porch this morning. We thought squirrels. But now I'm sort of thinking rat-friends? Ewwww.

*We sorted through books and found some stacks to get rid of. Bliss to Collin. Why does he have such disdain for my books? But then he had me put five of them back on the shelf. He hopes to read this summer! Gasp of surprise. 

*And some hard stuff. Four out of five kids having significant issues to untangle before 11 o'clock this morning. Divorce paperwork to figure out. Taxes. The house that I worked at cleaning off/on all day that is a mess right now. The school work that I didn't touch ... yet. An overly tired 5 year old. The afore mentioned broken appliance. 

In the end, it was actually a pretty quiet, uneventful, good day. 

Oh, really? A phonetic language?

I have a friend that knits. She knit this hat for Mia for Christmas. Adorable. 

I'm waiting for Ania to fall asleep so I can start taking my exams online tonight. The exams are timed. Once you start, you can't afford an interruption. So, I wait for Ania to go to sleep. So, that gives me time for a quick blogpost.

The four sentences from the last blogpost... they are comprised of Ania's sight words. She can read all four sentences! She is up to 55 sight words. She's not exactly fitting into the box with her academic skills at school. They have a very set way they like to see children learn to read. First you learn the names of the letters. She almost has them learned. Then you learn the sounds of the letters. She cannot associate the letters with the sounds they make to save her life. Then you learn to put words together or take words apart phonetically. Not happening.

I figured out last spring that she had an amazing ability to do sight words when she showed me that she knew all her classmates names. So I've casually taught her some other sight words, up until about two weeks ago, when we started trying harder. You can hand her a newspaper and she can pick her words out in a snap. She loves it. We're adding new ones almost every day.

I mentioned her sight words to a lady at the school that works with her significantly and is discouraged because she hasn't learned the sounds. I asked her, "Did you know she has 50 sight words? Maybe we should shift gears and work in that direction for a while?" I was informed that "we do have a phonics based language." No kidding. A few other patronizing comments later (it was stunning), I was ready to ... hmm. I was not happy. Welcome my first negative experience with the public schools. It's actually a long story including the IEP and meetings with other school staff and another appointment next week. To protect the somewhat innocent I'll just leave it at that. Bottom line: Ania's making great progress.