After we officially decided to move to Mexico, I told everyone (and myself), "We'll worry about the move after the holidays." Well, it;s the second week of January and we're at that point. We're filling out benefits paperwork, planning our look/see trip (happening in two weeks!), and cleaning out closets. In short, I'm freaking out. I'm looking at the calendar and realizing that we're leaving in NINE weeks. Nine. I'm calculating all of our friends and family that we want to see as much as possible and wondering how we're going to fit that all into NINE weeks. Yes, I'm freaking out. We're excited, we're nervous, we can't believe that this is actually happening.
Thankfully, we just came off such a wonderful break with Ben. He had seventeen days vacation from work. It was time together that we really needed. We holidayed, traveled, and rested. We didn't do any school at all, but we read together a lot (we started the Chronicles of Narnia with the twins and are all totally into it). We got obsessed with puzzles. It was such great family time.
Yesterday was back to routine for all us. Ben headed to work, and the kids and I did school at home. It was nice. Josh even did a little workbook while the boys did their math. He's starting to hold his pencil correctly and is taking interest in learning. Seth, Sam and I spent some time talking about what they want to learn this quarter and they really want to take a stab at cursive. We're also going to tackle some geography and continent studies as well as continue on with our typing and map work. We're going to work very hard daily on Spanish (and hopefully start with a tutor soon!). We'll continue with Classical Conversations for one more quarter, and will be so sad to leave our community at the end of February. These next few months of school is going to be all about trying to have some routine and normalcy in the midst of the craziness of preparing to move to a foreign country.
So here's a little about each kid:
Seth is doing so much better. Last time I wrote an update on him, we were kind of at our wit's end, wondering what in the world to do with his volatile emotions. Now, while we still have our rough moments, they are at least spaced out over a few days. He's working through disappointments better and learning "not to make a mountain out of a mole hill," (mom's favorite phrase). The other night, he and Josh played together for a long time and I didn't hear Seth trying to control him once...they just played. These are huge steps!
We're proud of Seth for his perseverance. He has been continually beat at chess by Sam. In fact, he's never beat Sam. But he keeps playing, he doesn't complain, and he doesn't cry when we looses. And last night, he finally got his first win: against Ben! He was so happy he couldn't fall asleep!
Sam is also doing well. One thing we noticed about Sam over this Christmas break is that he is a "big picture kid." I realized it while we were working on puzzles together; Sam is excellent at joining two sections together because he sees the big picture. This also helps him in his chess game because he can see long term consequences. I like this about Sam and I think that it will serve him well (he's like his Daddy in this respect!)
Also like Ben, Sam is such a sports fanatic. He knows all the players on the professional teams and their numbers. He knows all the routes, plays, penalty calls, etc. He loves watching games on TV with Ben and analyzing them.
I love this age for Josh. He's such a kick in the pants. He's really into size right now, so multiple times each day we hear that he is "growing bigger and bigger and bigger....and then I'll be a dad." He is also into how TALL daddy is, but how "little" (skinny) Ben's legs are. He got up from rest time the other day and told me, "I'm bigger now!" It totally cracks us up. I love when he uses his hands to show us something is "Dis big."
We realized that Josh didn't have Christmas artwork to hang on the walls, so we had to remedy that!
Another funny comment Josh told me the other day was, "Seth always bees whiney." Oh man. He's picking up on lots of "real life" things around him and listening to him verbalize them is awesome.
Finally, on January 9th, at three years and four months, Josh counted to 10. Yep, that's the first time he actually put all 10 numbers in the correct order. It usually was, "One, two, three, NINE!"
Candy Land is Josh's favorite game. We all have played it with him about fifty times. Seth is wonderfully patient at being his Candy Land buddy. Josh also likes Chutes and Ladder, Memory, and the Richard Scarry Game. He loves puzzles as well. It's been interesting for us to have a child this age who actually want to play with US (instead of his twin). All throughout the day he'll ask Ben or I, "Will you play with me?" And when we reply, "Yes, what do you want to play," he always returns with an emphatic, "What do YOU want to play?" The twins always just played with one another at this age...games, pretend, anything. It's been different to have the "playing" responsibility land on Ben and I, and we're working hard to embrace it, knowing that these sweet toddler years are so fleeting. Josh will even let us know when he needs some "tention" (attention); we think that he's a quality time kid for sure!
I wonder how much longer all three boys will be able to sit in the chair with daddy?
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