Now We are Six

This past year has been one of incredible growth for H. He learned to read, finished his first year of "real" school, started taking real responsibility around the house (with plenty of encouragement), built his first full Lego set alone, learned to ride a bike without training wheels, and has grown in so many ways.




H is my most generous kid, my child most likely not only to share, but to give of his resources. This became evident one day when he said he wanted to order pizza for dinner instead of having leftovers, as I had planned. I responded with my usual, "Are you paying?" This always gets the other kids. H, however, decided that it was, indeed, worth his money to order pizza. What blew me away was that he ordered enough for everyone, not only himself. He bought dinner for the whole family.

This year, I have also realized how much H is like me. When the kids attended VBS this summer, the leaders handed out a CD with the music they were using in the program. H and I ranked our top three exactly the same.

H looks a lot like I did at his age. 

H also loves beauty in all forms. We recently finished reading The Trumpet of the Swan, and now his goal is to play "Beautiful Dreamer" on the trumpet some day. He wanted me to find a trumpet version to download on my phone so he could listen to it whenever he wanted to. The only version I could find plays it as a waltz, and he loves listening to that.

All this took me by surprise since he also loves robots, Minecraft and Star Wars. In fact, one of his favorite outside games to play is "Minecraft Earth," in which he pretends to gather materials and build in real life, as opposed to on a tablet.

I am so happy to have H in our family. He really adds a unique dynamic to our household, and when he is sick, I miss that. I can't wait to see what the next year brings. I know that he has already started moving away from the little boy phase, and, while I will miss that part of his life, I am excited to see what God has in store for him as he grows.

Learning New Things

This post is really for me, so I will remember these things. Otherwise, I know the memories will fade as my children grow.

H
This week, H learned to ride his bike without training wheels. I knew he was capable if he just had someone working with him. I just had not taken the time to help him. K was attending a ballet intensive, so our school days were very basic. This left a lot more time for learning in other areas.

K had taken one of H's training wheels off, but I could see that all that was doing was training him to lean to one side, so I removed the other training wheel and practiced with him. The first day, he didn't get it. Old habits die hard, and I could feel him leaning mostly to one side as I held his seat to balance him. On the second day, I decided to use a different approach, I leaned over and put my hands over his, holding onto the handle bars with him. This worked much better, and before long, he was able to ride short distances on his own. After building some confidence, he was riding all over the driveway on his own. The only difficulty he had now was starting, but once I showed him the trick to that, he was able to slowly master it and be on his way.

H still needs some practice before we go on long bike rides, but I am so pleased with him and the effort he put into learning this.

Little A

A recently figured out how to nod her head. This was a fun accomplishment, but it meant saying goodbye to her old way, which was just too cute.
When she figured out how to shake her head to say no, she soon learned that she needed to start doing something to say yes. Her solution was to do kind of a whole body up and down movement. It is difficult to describe, but we all enjoyed watching her communicate in her own way.
She also has started to use her signs a lot more frequently. I love when she signs "please" because she says the "s" sound with it. Actually, it is probably more like "pssss".  I am really enjoying this phase of her life with all the cuteness.