DAMON
Damon turned 12 on July 2. I can't believe that happened. He was so excited to get to go into Young Men's and become a deacon. It's fun to watch him pass the sacrament. He's a great kid. This was the night of his interview with the bishop. Jeff took him in style!
We celebrated his birthday at Pizza Pie Cafe with family. Colleen made sure he and Jonny had their own personalized desserts made. They were delicious!
Damon still plays baseball, soccer and basketball. He is fairly athletic, but he does not have that competitive drive to be the best. He would rather be in the background than in the spotlight. Still, he's not bad enough that I wish he would quit playing. He's right in the middle ground--not bad enough to embarrass us, but not good enough to put all his time and energy into playing.
Damon is very responsible and organized. His 6th grade teacher said she has never had a student as organized as he was last year. He really does do a great job keeping track of all his assignments and responsibilities. Just this past weekend, we went to St. George for the twins' baptism and the kids packed for themselves. Damon brought a bag for his dirty clothes and organized his suitcase by the days he would be wearing the clothes. Way above and beyond.
He really wanted a grey suit this year for his birthday and we got him a nice one at Adrian's.
He also got to go to scout camp for a week and earned five merit badges. His favorite was Horsemanship. His scout leader emailed us midway through the week to let us know that Damon was doing really well. He said that Damon gets along with all the boys, has a gay attitude, and keeps everyone on track. I'm not sure about the gay attitude (I hope it wasn't THAT kind of scout camp, haha), but that pretty much sums him up.
Damon's going to be starting seventh grade in two weeks and I have mixed feelings about that. I know he will be successful, but it's just such a big change, I also know there will be a learning curve for him. I pray that he will find really good friends who will help him throughout junior high and high school. I know he wants to do what's right, and is always willing to help me out, but he's showing signs of becoming a teenager too. He gets annoyed really easily if the little kids mess up his room or need his help. Mostly he's easy to get along with, but every now and then he will prove that a few years from now might be more difficult.
ALLIE
Allie has her ups and downs, just like always. She battles anxiety all the time, and though she has mostly learned how to manage it, there are times it creeps up and gets the best of her. Staying up late and sleeping in has been great for her, but I'm nervous about 8:00 school in two weeks. That will probably be hard for her.
She is far less social than Kyla is, and is often content to stay home and read rather than seek out friends. But she has plenty of friends when she wants them. She is very helpful to me, but she especially enjoys taking care of Jeff. She gets him a glass of milk every night willingly, and is always looking out for things we can do for him. Her brothers love her and she takes a turn reading to them and getting them to bed.
She decided she didn't want to do dance this summer after they realigned the classes and she would have been with the 10-14 year old girls. She really had a fit when I tried to take her to the first class. She was crying hysterically and really not happy about it. So I told her to take the summer off. Great decision. It has been much easier on me not to have one more thing on our schedule and she really hasn't missed it too much. I'm sure she will want to start again in a couple weeks and that's fine with me. She's always so happy when she gets home from dance. Even if I don't see a big future for her, I'm happy to let her enjoy it now.
She and Kyla did Bright Ideas this summer, which is sort of a summer school program, and they both really enjoyed learning all about oceans. I'm glad they didn't have to go the whole summer without some school type activities.
One funny I wrote down from Allie:
One night at dinner (does it seem that a lot of the funnies start that way?), we were talking about cursive handwriting and how it's becoming a lost art. Jeff said he thinks that practicing handwriting helps with all kind of hand skills later in life. He was talking to the kids about what he does for a living, and why he needs hand skills. He asked, "what do I do in my job?" Allie replied, "write checks." We laughed and laughed, and Jeff confessed that sometimes it DOES feel like he writes a lot of checks.
KYLA
Kyla has continued her first love--Tumbling--this summer and moved up to the highest Intermediate class they offer. She can do a round off and four back handsprings and has been working hard to do an aerial on the ground (she told me today that she did it)! She has had a fun summer with lots of friends, swimming, playing and Seven Peaks. She is tall enough to go on all the rides and she has taken advantage of that by doing everything she can.
We hatched baby quail again this year, and our animal lover has been so happy about it. Our other quail have been laying eggs, and we have been really enjoying eating them (I scramble them or boil them). We consider them part of our "food storage. "
Kyla also had to have a moment with the big toad we found in Grandma Karen's garage. She was a bit concerned about the croaking that was coming from the toad's throat, but her night was not complete until she got a turn.
CARTER
Carter had a big summer this year. He learned how to ride a two wheeler, cross the monkey bars alone, swim without a floatie, do a front flip (and land it) on the trampoline, and do an aerial off the diving board. It has been a lot of fun watching him learn and grow!
We went on a fishing trip as a family, and Carter caught his first fish. He is hooked! As was the fish. He could not stop talking about the fish he pulled in and how he couldn't wait to go back. Jeff and Damon are happy to have another fishing buddy. McKay didn't get to reel in a fish (baby problems), and was very sad, but I'm sure he'll have his chance in the future.
Most of our favorite quoteables come from Carter. Here are the ones I managed to write down.
McKay wanted him to bring a chair into the laundry room when I was bathing Bex. Carter replied, "I think I can handle it."
While McKay was learning to get potty trained (and not having a lot of success), Carter offered his words of wisdom. "When you feel the pee coming, you just run to the bathroom and pee in the toilet." McKay soon picked it up.
At Jonny's wedding, we were eating a big lunch, and I wanted to make sure the kids were getting full. Carter piped up, "the more you don't eat, the more you sneak." True words.
At the park one day, Carter was dribbling a soccer ball. He told me, "watch how a real man plays soccer!"
Carter often wakes up in the night and tries to get in bed with Jeff and me. We put the kabosh on that plan, so he started getting in bed with Damon. I gently reminded him that he needs to try to stay in his own bed all night. In his prayer that night, he said, "Please bless that I won't disappear into Damon's bed tonight."
One day, out of the blue, Carter asked me, "why does Boomer have it?" Not knowing what in the world he was referring to, I asked him to clarify. He said, "you know, like the song. Boomer has it." As he sang a couple of bars, I realized he was talking about the Adele song, Rumor Has It. We had a good laugh about it, and I started calling him Boomer.
Also from the Lady Gaga file, he told me he likes to listen to Booger Face. "You know, the one that goes ba-ba-ba-booger face ba-ba-booger face." Listen to it with new ears. That's what she says!
When we were growing up, we had a miniature collie named Buffy, who died a couple years ago. One day, at the park, another collie was running around. Carter noticed it and said, "look! A buffalo dog!"
One night at dinner (haha), Carter's soup was too hot. He asked, "Can I have another iceberg?"
And finally...At dinner one night, Carter was not having much patience waiting for me to serve him some food. I told him I was going to, but I needed him to wait. He said, sort of under his breath, "eventually." I asked where he had learned that word, and he said, "I teached myself."
McKAY
McKay has had a fun summer. He is finally completely potty trained and quite independent. He gets himself dressed, cleans his room (when it's not too messy) and makes his bed (after I straighten the covers, he puts the pillows on). He is mostly a good, sweet boy, but he has his "terrible three" moments, too.
He sneaks food constantly and jumps on the couches. Recently, the kids put a 4 inch hole in the wall downstairs because they were running and tipping the couch over repeatedly. He eats all the raspberries that we pick from the garden and sneaks dessert when he knows he shouldn't.
But what do you expect? He's three.
He loves to sleep in late, which he has been able to do a few times this summer. We are still pretty good about getting up and eating breakfast with Jeff at 8:00, so I'm not super worried about school starting in a couple weeks, but McKay often doesn't get as much sleep as he wants and falls asleep in the car when we are driving around in the afternoon.
McKay thinks he can swim, and he can. Sort of. Not well, though. I had a horrible nightmare one night that I found his lifeless body on the bottom of the pool and I had to revive him with CPR. It was awful and it woke me up quite disturbed. I have kept a closer eye on him than ever after that, although we really haven't had any close calls.
Probably the scariest thing that happened this summer was when he got lost at Seven Peaks. We were walking from the baby pool to our chair (over a bridge, about 100 yards away), and when we got to the chair, McKay was gone. Carter was still with me, but he hadn't noticed where McKay had wandered off to. So we started looking. And looking. But he was nowhere to be found. The lifeguard manning the bridge hadn't seen him. He wasn't back in the baby pool. I tried to stay calm, but I was a little panicked. He didn't have his puddle jumper on, and while I knew the chances were slim that he would get into a pool too deep for his comfort, it was still worrisome.
I went to the front of the park and was told to check the first aid tent. I did. And there he was, coloring a picture. He had colored quite a bit of it, so I'm sure he was there almost the whole time I was searching for him. He wasn't upset, although he told me he had cried when he couldn't find me. He is just such a wanderer! He wants to observe everything around him, yet he gets so distracted from his goal. He usually has a bruise on his head because he walks into walls. That's a good Indian name for him--Walks Into Walls.
McKay had a couple of funnies that I wrote down.
At a family gathering, I got him a plate of food and showed him to the table where he would be sitting. He asked if I was sitting there too, and I told him no. He said, "it is just for little guys?"
He was playing with his friend, Millie, and told her, "you be the mom and I'll be the dad." I was quite happy that he was happy with those gender roles.
McKay loves to play with my hair, and one day (before I cut my hair), I was wearing a ponytail, and he told me, "I like your hair waterfall."
Finally, he was getting out of the shower, and had a towel wrapped around himself. He ran downstairs, exposed himself to the kids, and said, "I'm a nudist!"
Phew. That was well overdue. Now back to the catching up.
1 comment:
I always love these updates!
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