One year of ARR

To my last baby on my last first birthday

To my last child on her first birthday.

Oh Ainsey - I love you. You are the perfect final icing on the cake to our family. You bring everyone to smiles but I don't think you have any idea of how much you are loved. Your siblings adore you and your dad falls more in love with you every day.

The joke was that if you survive your first year it's not due to the hard work of your parents who have been working to keep you fed and warm, but the credit goes to your siblings who have put you through the paces. You've been pulled at, picked up, clipped with a chair, and literally rough loved on with all the best of intentions. Your first year has been a blur - starting with introducing you to your siblings who began by calling you Angry Roof (E's credit) to watching you and them grow as they now to calling you Ainsey (G's credit).

 

Some beautiful moments and memories include E loving holding you in the hospital room, to G first holding you at home, you keeping me up til midnight most nights for the first or second month, your cheering crowd during tummy time, your soft snuggles for naps - which have never been long, you sleeping in with me when everyone took off to daycare and work, your going to work with me as well as starting a new job, first foods, first rolls, first crawls, the scrunchy nose when we were learning to smile, the way you would whip around trying to see your siblings while you sat in your chair. First Halloween, First Christmas. I've been trying to soak it all in but it's been hard.

You will never not know the blur of life. You seem to ebb and flow with it better than I can. Sometimes you are so quiet soaking it all in that we don't even know that you are there and then there are other times where you make your voice know. You yell, you throw, you speak up as you need to to get your attention. You watch your siblings, you watch your dad, and you watch the world and react. I feel like this is one of your greatest strengths. You aren't afraid to make your place known but don't need to yell just to be heard.

I love you little girl and am so thankful that you showed up in our life.

Love you, Mama.

Valentine's, Organization, Outings, Tiny Shrimp

It's fun to see how the kids are getting interested and involved with the holidays. Valentine's Day by far seems to have had the most hype - I think because they are starting to understand holidays and waiting and the build up meant something to them. They decorated their boxes, made their valentines, and talked about how daycare decorated. Eleanor has been counting down sleeps and has been looking at outfits and thinking and talking about sharing her valentines with her friends. They both were so excited to bring their Valentine's Day Boxes with items home to go through them. It made me smile to watch them.

 

 The weekend was busy. We did stuff around the house, including some work in the kids' rooms to give them a little more piece in this world. They each have their own bed, their own nightstand, and now their own toybox in their room. I also worked on my 30-day challenge - I want to fill 30 bags of trash in the attempt to declutter the house a bit.

We took a few trips out and about too - one to the zoo to burn off some energy and one to the sports show. The kids thought the boats were okay but liked the dock dog competition and the kettle corn samples with the face painting.

We had some great meals too - Matt made a seafood chowder that was amazing. While Eleanor was not impressed with the lack of knoephlas, Grady was pumped. He liked finding all the different seafood pieces and all the different veggies - he had two full bowls. We also had our annual Valentine's Day meal, sans kids - but it was nice to do something just us.

E started a new round of swimming lessons - a Christmas gift. She was nervous and not as excited as last time for her first lesson. I'm hoping the next session has her come out of her shell a bit.

ALR filing a bag of garbage. GRR "helping"
ALR opens cupboard - sees large light bulb for outside of house.
ALR: Grady, let's go put this in the garage for Dad to put outside.
GRR: Okay
GRR runs off.
GRR comes back with shoes, coat, and hat on. GRR grabs bulb off freezer. Bulb drops to floor.
GRR: uh-oh
GRR picks up bulb and sounds come from bulb giving evidence it won't light any longer.
ALR opens garbage bag for bulb to go inside. 

Alice, Soundtrack, Pickle, Fairy Garden, Boppy

We headed to Dickinson this past weekend. The main purpose was for Ains's 1 year photoshoot. It's hard to believe we are knocking on her first birthday. The best byproduct was spending some time and the night at Rick and Shantelle's. We haven't seen them for ages and even longer to actually have a good conversation. The kids played relatively well. We were a bit adventurous thinking the girls could sleep in the same room yet but they'll get there someday.

Grady and Ains loved Alice's toys. Alice had a carving set and Ains thought the cleaver knife was the cat's meow. She carried it all over the house. Now Grady was so impressed with Alice's organization - which he wrecked - and her full kitchen. He served pizza with condiments up to everyone multiple times. I felt a bit bad for Alice as I know that my three tornados in her space may have been a bit hard - I don't blame her, sometimes I wish they'd keep their grubby paws off my stuff too!

We also had a big breakthrough for our eldest daughter. Long ago she was "blessed" with an alarm clock from someone very special and we "thank" them mentally for this gift (#youknowwhoyouare). On said alarm clock is Anna and Elsa and when you push the button on the back 30 solid seconds of Frozen plays. The same 30 seconds - no matter how many times you push the button. She continues to push the button over and over and over again. It begged a question from Matt and the serious discussion of whether or not to get a music subscription so we at least can hear the rest of the song. We did and she was mystified. She sat for 25 minutes straight and listened to the Frozen soundtrack. I believe I may have been given World's Best Mom award for that hour.

 Over the past week, we've been counting down days until they could decorate their valentine's day boxes. We headed out to the farm and after dinner, G made his pickle box and E made her flower and butterfly garden. They did pretty well and were so proud of what they did!

Meanwhile, Ainsley has found a new space in the kitchen. Grady brought out the boppy - a u-shaped pillow that we used when she was a baby. He did it for her... and she's taken it over as her little seat in the kitchen. She lounges in the pillow, brings her things there, sits in it, stands by it. It's her little place in the world.

Driving home
EER: Mom, we decorate our valentine's day boxes tonight? Miss Heather put up read hearts and said it's going to be Valetine's Day soon and we need to have our boxes ready.
GRR: Valentine's Day!
ALR: We can't decorate yet, we will decorate with Grandma and Grandpa. We will do that this weekend. We have to go to bed and have five sleeps.
EER: Five snores?
ALR: Ha, yes, five snores.

SOTS, Torchlight, Mall, EGA

It's been a busy week. I'm STILL recovering from pink eye - I'm sick of wearing my glasses - it's getting ridiculous. I also made a trip to Grand Forks this week for the State of the State, which we sponsored. I live tweeted the event - which I'm proud of as I had one tweet approx every 2 minutes - complete with pictures. It was actually the first address of this nature I've attended in person, usually I watch the live feed.

The highlight of my week was coming home. I was happy to see the kids and was glad to see

their smiles. E has been giving us a hard time lately. She has pulled the medical flashlight from one of her doctor kits and has been staying up at nights reading with it. When Matt called her out on it, she informed him that "no, she didn't have a torchlight." Her British lexicon will come in handy someday.

Over the weekend, we took in the annual Sanford kids' day at the mall. We recently found out the devastating news that our ped is leaving and we will miss her terribly. We were hoping to talk to some potential doctors but instead enjoyed the activities and getting out. The olders made a bear at the end but I will admit, their favorite part may have been the snacks.

The kids have been busy as ever... Ains is getting into everything and starting to cruise carpet and stand up. Her favorite thing is crawling into her siblings bed when they aren't there - she gets so proud of herself. She also has a thing with carrying around her favorite items - this includes a tiny spoon and a play thermometer lately. She also picks the scalpal from the doctor kit too! Grady's taken an interest in the kitchen lately. Making plates of food and mixing things up. E is all about coloring. Markers, crayons, pencils, sheets, books... doesn't matter - she loves it all lately.