April had brought so much heartache for us and our ward family. We needed time to recover. So, even though our family got sick with two bugs in a row (a cold and then a tummy bug) I can say without any doubt in my mind that May was a much, much easier month than April.
Lucy and Atticus were sick at the same time and it was so sweet. They just snuggled on the couch for a few hours that day. My poor sick babies! But what a relief it was to have them comfort each other.
Early in the month we celebrated Mother's Day and it was the best one, yet. Dane spoiled me rotten (I don't know that I deserved it but it sure was appreciated.) Hinckley painted some pictures of me, and Atticus made me a picture frame and "softened the dirt outside for me to plant in" (...huh? ha ha, but it's the thought that counts!)
As an added bonus, Hinckley didn't throw a shoe at my head before church! (You guessed it- that was my mother's day gift last year!) It was a wonderful day and I felt and still feel incredibly blessed.
Atticus has taken off on the piano. He started a week and half into the month of April with an app called Simply Piano and it was just what he needed. After several weeks of that I asked him if he thought he could play some of the songs in the book we had been using sporadically (from the Alfred's Basic Piano Library) and he was able to play with both hands. He can sight read just about all of the songs. We still would like for him to have a formal teacher but are so excited about how much he LOVES playing now.
We ended the school year the day our local school district ended (May 25) and we've been having a blast ever since. He keeps telling me, "I love summer!"
One memory I wanted to record here dealt with his aforementioned illness. When he was sick and feverish Atticus had night terrors three nights in a row. He hasn't had a night terror in quite some time so it was a step backward, for sure. What was most upsetting, however, was the severity of his second night terror.
He sat up in bed and was moaning and yelling for quite some time. Not much of what he said made sense, other than the times he would look at us or grab my hands and say, "Help me!" which is so heart wrenching. Then I overheard him saying, "I can't pray." And I knew that was exactly what needed to happen. As I got ready to pray he beat me to it and uttered a brief prayer, after which he said, "Your turn, Mom." It was amazing. The second I began praying his breathing slowed and he relaxed on his pillow. When I closed emphatically, "In the name of Jesus Christ," I could tell that he was back to normal. He was awake and we quietly spoke. He was so tired and grateful that we had been there. We sang "A Child's Prayer" and he went back to sleep.
It was emotionally exhausting but so amazing. Prayer is powerful. The Lord is aware of us!
He loved his soccer team so much. He didn't always have the best attitude about his practices or his coach but we were so pleased with his progress. He still throws fits when the other team scores but he's starting to get it under control faster and faster (partly because his coach didn't put up with it, which was awesome.)
His last two games were pretty unforgettable. He felt so sick for the second to last game but still put his very best out there and got his only goal of the season. The next day they played the best team in their division. They were undefeated and Atticus's team had lost to them last time. They were able to tie them, 0-0. Atticus and his team were so happy afterward it was like they had won.
He ended the month with some high highs and low lows. He did the Murph Workout with me on Memorial Day and did two full miles, plus his version of all 600 exercises. We ran the first mile together and then he raced ahead of me with his sets and so when I did my second mile run we gave each other a high five as he headed home. It was so fun to do an actual workout with him! Then he grabbed Hinckley and encouraged him to run a full mile and do some exercises, too.
I was so proud of both of them.
Later that day he asked if he could help Hinckley with his reading lesson (see below) and he did a great job. He wasn't as patient as I would like but he's only seven.
The next day he was helping his brother score goals and cheering him on while all of the neighbor kids played hockey.
These are all great things, right? Unfortunately, he also is struggling, big time, with gratitude. It's understandable. He has a lot of friends doing big things for their summer break. He sees friends eating things that we don't eat all the time or having a lot more screen time than he gets. This, unfortunately, leads him to get really mouthy with us fairly often.
It got so bad on May 31st that he disappeared upstairs and a little while later came down with his blanket and a Ninja Turtle suitcase full of chochkas. He informed us that he was "moving out" and that he had "all the things [he] needed to survive." He grabbed a baseball bat from the garage and set up a lean to outside, with one end of his blanket on the bush and the other end on the bat. It wasn't sophisticated but it did the job.
Meanwhile, Hinckley began packing his Ninja Turtle suitcase with still more instruments critical for survival (like Batman figurines, fidget toys and flash lights.) He grabbed his Batman blanket and let us know that he would be joining his "brudder." Thankfully, he was much more cordial with his parents than his older sibling, reassuring us as he packed, "Don't worry, you can come and visit me if you want to. You can stay with me, if you want. I won't say mean things like my brudder." It was much appreciated.
In the end a reconciliation was accomplished sooner than it might have, otherwise, thanks to our wonderful friends, the Campos family. They have been our next door neighbors since the summer of 2020 and had to move. They came that very evening to hang out with all the families on our street one last time. We quickly resolved our differences and socialized with them for the rest of the evening.
I'm sure we haven't seen the last of those suitcases. We're pretty mean parents, after all.
Atticusisms:
- "I'm on the taco diet."
- "My friends call me 'Atti.'" (I took a double take- they do?)
Holy cow did Hinckley grow this year. His first and last day pictures are so different, it's crazy!
And talk about cognitive and motor development- at the end of May he was able to write his full name all by himself for the first time. He was so proud and so was I. Here it is!
This was his last day with his Joy School friends. We were so blessed to be with almost all of these families for two full school years. The moms have been second mothers to sweet Hinckley and are my dear friends. How grateful I am that we had each other, even during the pandemic and all that has transpired since then.
His imagination is still just difficult to keep up with. Above you see what appears to be a pile of junk, right? No, apparently he was sending "traps" to his cousin Noah in Texas. He included a note of scribbles and was very anxious about its being sent immediately. Below you can see him slowly and methodically taking one step at a time on his way to Atticus's soccer game with his "fighting stick" over his shoulder. I can't even remember the scenario he was playing out at the time, only my impatience with him as he made me several minutes late for the game. At the same time, I couldn't help but laugh and snap a picture at his whimsical ways.
Speaking of which, I have a few anecdotes to record that bring a smile to my face.
One evening he kept talking about going camping and started taking his blanket and pillow out to the trampoline. I came to find out that he was camping at his work with his friend and with his boss (named "Jeff," which happens to be the name of one of his dad's coworkers.) He invited all of us to join him and we just coulnd't help but play along. We all laid out on the trampoline under blankets. After about ten minutes of alternating between joking and "sleeping," we all headed back in. It was ten precious minutes we never would have had without Hinckley's vivid imagination.
And here's one more that happened just tonight Hinckley walked into a room where Dane was on a call for work. Dane says he held up his arm with a finger pointed upward to indicate that he'd be with Hinckley in a minute. For now he'd have to wait. Instead, Hinckley disappeared down the hall.
When Dane finished his call he went looking for Hinckley and he found our little boy in his room with his wooden "work phone" held up to his ear. He was having a very important conversation and when Dane took a step into the room Hinckley looked at his dad and held his hand up- just as his father had earlier.
He was so cute at his last soccer game. They played against his best friend Nash again and even though they played terribly he gave his friend a hug and had a big smile on his face.
He loved his coach and had fun. That's all we can ask for.
Here he is with his sweet friend.
He still has his rough days and moments and he still slows us down so much when we are in a hurry... but May was such a good month for this little four and a half year old. He has been carrying his scriptures around the house and writing his letters in them, asking me what he has written. He has even composed his own scriptures, based on the stories he knows. It's absolutely wonderful what he has digested and is now able to articulate.
Hinckley Speaks:
- "The leaves are actually fish. They're asweep." (Explaining what he's trying to catch with his "fishing pole"- a stick with a piece of yarn tied to it. He has brought me salmon, tuna, and octopus to try. Yum!)
- "Can we watch a show" ("No.") "How about Confwence? Or Little House on the Pwaiwie?" (Wow! he nearly got me! You have to watch this guy.)
- "When I gwow up I'm going to be a teenagoh." (He never wants to be an adult. I think it's still because he doesn't want to grow a beard... although just yesterday he disappeared and came back with a wet chin, telling me he had shaved his whiskers.)
- "I wish we could go to church every day." (The boys had missed a week of church when they were sick and were so happy when they got to go back. That made my heart very happy.)
- "Alexa, pway 'We Awe the Champions" by Daiwy Queen!" (Yelled very slowly and deliberately.)
- (Atticus says, "I'm never going to grow my hair out like those dumb teenagers.") "I will." ("Well, I'm going to cut your hair if you do!") "Mo-oom! Atticus is going to cut my hair!"
Oh, how we love our beautiful and very loud Lucy. Here she is with tears in her eyes. This time it's because she wanted so badly to hold this sign. She was very relieved when it was her turn to say, "Sheeeze!"
She is such a daredevil! I may have said this last month but she LOVES the feeling of falling. She also loves to have an audience. This means that for many hours of the day our home is filled with her extremely loud call, "MOOOOM!" again and again so that I can watch her do something. Most often it is so I will watch her fall off the top of the couch onto the seat. It was scary at first and now I'm desensitized to the danger she might be in.
She is in the cute toddler stage where she wants to help me with everything. She is starting to close all the doors and drawers, she helps me put away the dishes and silverware, she helps clean the toilet and she even has tried to put the dog food and water on our counter (which I have been doing for months when she's around so she won't eat the dog food or spill the bowl!)
The last milestone for Lucy aside from her constantly growing vocabulary that you'll see in a minute is her hair. I have been able to braid it this month and even was able to get almost all of it into a bun a time or two. She is shockingly good for this, at least for now. And, oh, how cute she is (when she leaves the elastics in!)
Listen to Lucy:
"Duts... Duts... Duuuuuts..." (Her version of "Duck, Duck, Goose" but in hers, no one is ever Goose
"Eyes, ee-aws, nose, mou, ta-oos." (She is getting her body parts down so well.)
"Die" ("Daddy")
"Tacos"
"Pizza"
"Zheezhuh" ("Jesus")
"Sigh!" ("Slide")
"Hee-haw" ("See-saw," although now she is starting to say it properly- always with a HUGE grin.)
"Bee-bee" ("Baby"- often in reference to herself.)
"Tsu-Tsu" ("Swimsuit." She loves playing in the splash area of the pool.)
Homeschooling has definitely slowed down with the summer and all of our fun adventures. One part of our week I'm not willing to give up, however, is going to the Community Garden. It fills me with so much joy to work in the dirt and see what is blooming and ripening from week to week.
It has also been fun to feed the chickens each week. Well, it's been fun for three of us. Hinckley said he hated it. In fact, in a letter to his Nana, he told her it was a nightmare for him. So I was very proud of him when he tried to feed them again. I won't say he has completely overcome his fear (there is one aggressive hen, in particular, that I have to keep away from Lucy and Hinckley!) but he is facing it, week after week and doesn't want to give up.
I just have to gush a little more about this garden and its effects on my kiddos. They have tried virutlaly every fruit and vegetable that has been offered them here. There is something about having it straight off the vine or out of the dirt that makes them so curious and eager. We picked tons of blackberries and apricots and when we got home, we made the most delicious apricot-blackberry cobbler.
The boys were completely invested in that cobbler- from start to finish. They picked the fruit, washed it, helped me make the cobbler and ate it with relish. What a magical day.
Yes, May was a good month for our family. Until next time!
