Right Now

The chalk is out,

I heard frogs in the pond the other night,

tulips are peaking,

and crocuses are out.

It's still winter, but we are getting those signs of spring that give everyone hope. 

I can do this. 

Evan got fish for his birthday. 

It was way more complicated that we thought it would be. I imagined the cartoon-like bowl with a goldfish swimming around...

but the folks at PetCo convinced us that that is a myth and a real tank with rocks and filter is the way to go. Plus only the tiny fish would survive in our "tiny" tank. And you need an odd number of fishes because they get confused if their isn't a leader. (To this, I call their bluff because one of the fish died, and the fish do not seem a single bit confused.)

It has actually been pretty fun to watch them swim around. I think me and Jim are more entertained than the kids, but whatever. 

Here is bigger news:

We got Andrew tested for developmental delays and he qualified for preschool! 

It is the same school and teachers that Evan had. 

We weren't totally sure he was "that" delayed...sometimes he seems on par, but sometimes he seems so below his friends at preschool.

It was so fun and interesting to watch him get tested. Some things he is so strong at! 

Like: spatial awareness (also something Evan is freakishly strong at!)

He completely aced that portion. Kris would set up block in a pattern, and Andrew would imitate it perfectly.

He always makes likenesses of things out of legos. The above picture he made all of the Cars cars. 

Remember he made all the Yo Gabba Gabba characters?

and one day he made each one of us family members, complete with heads, arms, and feet. 

For speech, he has some strengths, but is weak in leaving the end sound off a word,

and he's not good at answering why, when, how, what, questions.

The thing that really made me question his delays was:

one time during preschool I asked all the kids "What would you do if Santa was stuck in the chimney?"

Here is what they answered:

"Lightning McQueen" is his answer. 

Every night before bed, Andrew and Jim sit in the rocker and play seek and find books and read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Jim works on letters. The one letter Andrew knows consistently: Q. 

One morning Evan brought me breakfast in bed. 

He watched me eat the apple and dry cheerios. 

It is 8:40 and all three of my kids are awake. They have been put to bed, but are not asleep, and it saps the energy and life right out of me. 

Evan is whining about his pillows. He wants this one magic pillow that is advertised on TV. He calls it "the green pillow" and he must have it.

Avery is crying because I snapped and told her to go to bed! (I got sick of telling her over and over in a nice voice, so mean voice had to come out, and off she ran, crying.)

Andrew was crying from his bed "moooommmmmmmyyyy!"

so Jim let him come into my bed with a pillowcase full of cars. He dumped them out in my bed.

Avery just poked her head around my door. Now she and Evan are whispering in the hallway.

I just can't do it after 8:00. I have clocked out and I just can't be awesome at all after 8:00.

I want to kill with a knife.

I'm the worst mom in the world after 8:00.

WORST IN THE WORLD.

Avery is crying loudly from her bedroom and I just can't. 

Cannnnn't. 

Anyway. 

We explored Galbraith Mountain today. This is the mountain Jim bikes on. It was fun.

I signed up for the Ogden half marathon in exchange for the Masons signing up for a trail race here. 

Kids are still awake. Avery brought me a note that says I broke her heart and "sorry but I will probably be mad for a few days."

Evan

Here is Evan's birthday interview I forgot to post on his birthday post:

Who's your best friend? Logan

(there is Logan, sitting in the VIP spot next to the birthday boy)

What's your favorite toy? Legos
What do you want to be when you grow up? a pilot
What's your favorite thing to do with your family? have family home evening
Where would you like to visit? Logan's house.
But where in the whole world? London and Paris and New York City
Why those places? They're just super cool states.
What do you like about Avery? She plays with me and Andrew and hide and go seek.
What's your favorite food? chocolate.
but real food? fruits. apples. (for the record he only eats apples as far as fruit goes...)
What's your favorite school subject? Math (this is after we sifted through the usual PE, recess, legos)
What's your favorite season? Spring.
Why spring? Because it's really sunny and we go to the pool.
What's your favorite thing to learn about in church? Uh when Lisa talks and learn about the prophets.

Some other things to note about Evan when he turned seven:

The night before his birthday, I was cooking dinner and he was standing by the stove playing on my phone. He had the maps open and was flipping around the world finding the Eiffel Tower, then he would flip the world around and zoom in on the Space Needle. Then he would spin down to the Golden Gate bridge and then the Statue of Liberty. 

He just knows where these places are in the world, based on the spatial awareness of the planet Earth.   

Later that night before bed, I was helping him do the world puzzle that was scattered all over his floor. He would pick up a country and discuss what continent it belongs to.

"What does this belong to?" (holding up India)

"Asia" 

He is a bloodhound at smelling.

The other day we were driving and I put on some lip gloss. From the third row seat I hear him ask, 

"what smells like vitamins?"

He described a recent dose of dimetapp as tasting like grass.

I love how he pronounces words like "little". He says LiT Tle. 

Like, the t's are emphasized and clear. 

On Valentine's Day morning, he came in to my room and woke me up by whispering "happy Valentine's day" right in my ear, then kissing me on the cheek. 

It was sweet, but he has been instructed NOT to wake me up in the morning a thousand times. It was probably 5:30am. He was excited about his class party and excited about the Lego set he bought with his birthday money coming today. 

But a whisper and a kiss on the cheek? I didn't get too mad at him. 

When given any kind of task (picking berries or a worksheet at school) he becomes laser focused on accomplishing the task. Sometimes when he is being a pest and he needs a project, I will tell him to do his math worksheets. It magically calms and focuses him. 

He is highly motivated by praise and love and not being left behind. 

Evan is 7

This was a birthday to remember because school was cancelled for 

SNOW 

for the FOURTH day in a row. 

We boarded up in our jammies all day

until the sun went down

and we got cabin fever and I got sick of kids picking on each other,

so we bundled up in snow clothes and went outside to build a snowman.

Our fun neighbor friend Al is always wandering around dragging a sled, looking for someone to play with, so he helped.

Then they started having a snowball fight, in which I took my leave back into the warm house because I don't do snowball fights 

(or water balloon fights).

After a while Evan came in crying with a bright red ear still wet from a snowball (case in point). 

That night a warmish front came through and rained on the snow, so we went back to school for Friday. I subbed in Evan's class and we sang Happy Birthday and ate cookies during snack time.

Saturday Evan had some friends over for a birthday party. 

We put these lego batman cars together. It was truly a fun activity for this age group. They worked and puzzled on those cars for about a half hour, then drove them around the house for another half hour. 

Then we watched the Lego Movie and all the boys just kind of spread around the house working on legos or playing with cars.

Boys are so fun when they aren't fighting. 

Evan showed off his bottle cap collection.

Update

The snow continues. All week school has been cancelled, and tomorrow is as well. 

A month ago Mrs. Shapiro asked me to sub three days in a row. I was kind of dreading it because three day in a row, man.

But since school is cancelled, "snow day" meant something extra special to me. haha. 

It's currently snowing like a blizzard.

Also an update on the angel turds: it doesn't matter how many times I sweep, there is always a tuft of them blowing in the corner. 

Embrace the Winter

For a minute we were pretending that it isn't winter still. 

This was a trail run to Cedar and Pine Lakes.

We went to Padden on a Saturday and hiked around whole lake. 

It was out of whack because Jim was at work, so instead of mountain biking, Joe joined us on the hike. 

Every time I look at this pic it cracks me up. Baby Hudson wanted out of the baby backpack, and Evan went in. He could almost touch the ground. 

Thursday we went on another run to Lost Lake. 

I love this trail. It circles around the south side of Chuckanut mountain, so a lot of it was in the sunshine. Out of nowhere, Lost Lake sneaks up on you, but it's a drop off distance down the mountain and hidden behind trees.

Even though everything is covered in moss-sweaters, and the deciduous trees are bare and skeletal, 

I pretend winter is practically over. 

Cut to the very next day...

the snow came. 

It snowed all day while the kids were at school. They came running home from the bus stop shivering and snowed on. 

Evan didn't realize I was taking picture after picture of him eating the snowball off the door. It cracked me up. 

Ok, so maybe you've never done something like this, but you know how sometimes you let your kids do something messy because it is entertaining them and they are happy and busy? 

This was that.

We got some packages from UPS filled with angel turds. At first they were contained in the box, but then Andrew dumped the box...and they became fodder for all kinds of imaginative play. Avery spent HOURS making "soup". 

After about 24 hours, when it was time to clean up, we crossed our hearts and hoped to die that we would never do this again. 

There is still styrofoam floating around the house, hiding under couches and pianos, peaking out every now and then when a gust of wind blows through. 

The snow continued. 

Today it snowed for much of the day.

We watched the blizzard snow globe from our warm house while not going to church (cancelled!).

This is the part when I discuss how I'm trying not to wish away time...that I am trying to embrace this winter. blah blah blah. 

I really am. I know we need to be dormant for a while. 

School is cancelled tomorrow. 

It's just hard to embrace dormancy when you have three kids to entertain. 

Maybe we will get another delivery of angel turds at our door?