Thursday, January 31, 2019

Samuel is 6!

It's so crazy that the tiny little baby we brought home is now a half dozen. Halfway through Kindergarten! Time really does fly. We celebrated with a surprise trip to Wilderness at the Smokies (Great Wolf Lodge type place) because it was super cheap, Eric was off, and I really didn't feel like planning a party!

It's been really fun to watch Samuel grow and develop more of his personality this year.
He is a really great artist, and loves to do all things crafty.
He got really into graphic novels and drew a lot of comic book type stuff.
His reading took off shortly after his last birthday, and he can keep up with any 3rd grader now.
He's gotten crazy good at legos and can build some pretty amazing creations.
He started taekwondo, and while it's probably not his forever thing, he looks super cute in his outfit and does some pretty awesome moves.
He learned to swim, but still won't put his head under the water. I'm really impressed with his skills though!
He can climb up pretty much anything, and likes to pretend to be ninja warrior.
He loves playing games - Monopoly, Battleship, Scrabble, Yahtzee... games are his love language these days.
He misses Winston-Salem still, but has done a really good job transitioning to a new life in Asheville. He's totally meant to be a mountain boy.

At 6 he's 47" tall and around 45 pounds. He sleeps right at 10 hours most nights, and occasionally takes a nap (I figure I'll want that info when Levi reaches this age. haha). He still has all his teeth - TBD if he loses one before age 7 or not! I think I was 7.5 when I lost my first one. We'll see!

Anyway, I'm excited to see what year 7 brings for our sweet boy!


Friday, January 4, 2019

Once a month.

That's my goal here. To write once a month this year. It doesn't have to be long or flowery. But I like keeping up with what's going on.

So here goes.

CHRISTMAS  was crazy. Eric was off (woo!), so we had a nice weekend to finish prepping, went to Christmas Eve service at church, woke up Christmas morning for presents and breakfast, then took off to Charlotte to catch a flight to Houston, where my dad whisked us away to Conroe and we spent the next two days eating lots of food and playing lots of games and getting very little sleep with a lot of long-lost relatives. It was a bit of a whirlwind. We had to buy a new suitcase to come back. Our plane got delayed and we got caught in traffic, and ended up arriving home a mere  30 minutes before Eric's parents showed up. More days of eating and movie watching commenced. They stayed until New Years Day and now life is semi getting back to normal? I feel like we all need to recover.

SAMUEL started back to Kindergarten yesterday and is going to be 6 in like 3 weeks which is insane. He earned his blue belt in Tae Kwon Do last month. His current obsessions are Bop It and Simon and making water bottles into snow globes, much to my chagrin. He's a champion reader and traveler, though, and he and Levi are finally starting to play together for longer stints without almost killing each other. I mean, until they almost kill each other, but at least the time until that happens is longer. Haha. Seriously, he's a mess, but he loves so big and hard, and has the best smile. He's an awesome sleeper (a trait that I find very endearing in my children), and a great helper (when he wants to be). HE is currently eating me out of house and home and "is starving" 94% of the day. He's super creative and loves to craft and come up with ridiculous random questions to ask me non-stop, which I mostly find funny except when I'm not int he mood. I'm also fairly certain he's going to be an American Ninja Warrior in a few years, but don't quote me on that yet. (He may also turn into Andy Sandburg's super loud character on Parks and Rec).

LEVI is all about dinosaurs and puzzles and books and cleaning. He got a vacuum for Christmas and that's just been the best all around. He's super opinionated about everything because he's 2 and I guess that's just how 2 year olds roll (Buckle the seatbelt BACKWARDS. He needs to wear the dinosaur shirt UNDER his other shirt even though he's worn it twice this week already). He finally gave up the pacifier in October and has been talking nonstop ever since. It's hard to believe I was worried about his speech just 3 months ago! He's adorable and super sweet and loves giving hugs and "getting so cozy" (most of the time). He "pews" everything with his "laser guns." Clarification: We do not own any guns, but everything he finds is made into a gun, because this apparently also how 2 year old boys roll. I have convinced him to only "pew" chocolate at me, which I find hilarious. He has also learned the word "butt" which is just a ton of fun to correct constantly, though one day he told me I was a "kick butt mommy" and I didn't hate that. OH, and apparently he "has powers." Carole and Jimmy asked him if he climbed up to the candy bowl to get something, and he responded "no, I got it with my powers." His little voice is just the cutest and he keeps me laughing. He also is a fabulous sleeper, though his naps are starting to get a little spotty - some  days he'll give me 3 hours, and other days he falls asleep in the car and then refuses to go down again.

Eric and I are still just holding on by the seat of our pants, because his work is ever changing, I"m still house hunting because one day something we want to buy is going to have to pop up, and thinking about going back to school but maybe not because I'm not sure we can handle me working once I'm done. We are in the process of joining our church and have a babysitter that comes a couple of times a month so we can go out and be semi-human occasionally. And that's life now. Moving has been good, and some things are SO much easier now that he's done with training. But It's busy and messy, in some ways awesome and in someways I'm sugar coating things because it can be hard and lonely too, being somewhere new with no real, deep connections. Some days I really miss Winston-Salem and our people there, but I don't think either of us miss training at all! God's provided all along the way, and I know He'll continue to, and moving somewhere new is a chance to rely more on Him and His grace rather than others (because my little extroverted self looooves relying on others!).

Anyway, time to get dinner going. I think I'm halfway to tying my posts for last year. Woo!