Maddie with her bow and arrow at the park on Christmas day.
While the days are sometimes long, the years seem to just speed by. I can't believe my only daughter is six and a half. I was reading through the blog, reminiscing about what she was like when she was three and a half and it seems like it was just yesterday. At least once a week (sometimes it's more like daily), I can't help but think how this parenthood thing is the hardest, most humbling, soul-searching, challenging job I have ever had. I hope it is refining me in good ways and helping me become a better person. That said, it sure is rewarding to watch my children learn and grow. And our little Madelyn seems to be learning and growing so much lately. Here are a few things I want to remember about her at six and a half:
She loves bacon. She told me it is her favorite food. I indulged her on New Year's Eve and wrapped Little Smokies in bacon and baked them for her and the boys. Now that is her favorite food--processed meat wrapped in more processed meat. Her second favorite food is snap peas. This girl can down a pound of snap peas in a single setting. Do the snap peas balance out the bacon?
She loves to ride her bike outside, play Legos and "house", read book after book (The Ramona series by Beverly Cleary is a current favorite), and play with her baby brother. She thinks everything he does is adorable.
Her new favorite TV show is Studio C.
Most of the time she is a peacemaker in our home. Except when she's not.
For Christmas she got the card game Sleeping Queens and has wanted to play it almost nonstop ever since. Her brothers seem to love it as much as she does, and frankly, so do I.
Maddie is very outgoing and makes new friends wherever she goes.
She still loves to be tucked in at night.
She told me that her New Year's resolution for 2015 is to learn to play hockey. That might be tricky here in the desert but we'll see what we can do.
She is a great teacher to her younger brothers and is usually very patient with Davis and Nathan. She loves to teach them new things.
Listening to her use big words (in or out of context) is comic relief for me. And she has recently taken to using air quotes (usually incorrectly) and I have to hold the giggles in every time.
Getting her out the door on time each day is a monumental feat. I'm crossing my fingers that this is just a phase she will grow out of.
We took the kids to a fun center yesterday to celebrate the new year. They had a very small indoor roller coaster. Having never experienced the thrill of an amusement park before, Maddie jumped on the coaster and had her hands in the air seconds after it took off. They remained high above her head the entire ride while she squealed with delight as it went around and around. That is how I always want to remember my Maddie at six years old.
Christmas 2014 was the first year that, aside from getting together with friends in morning to decorate cookies, our little family spent the holiday with just the six of us. I wasn't sure how it would all end up going down (i.e. would I get desperately home/friend sick during those two days?), but we looked for to spending time with one another. And while we did miss our family and friends over those few days, we had a really nice time together. We took the kids to the park on Christmas Eve and just let them play and ride bikes until the sun went down (thanks AZ sun!). Then, instead of heading home to cook our usual Mexican feast, we headed to Cafe Rio and let them cook it for us instead--it was awesome!. No clean-up and everyone was happy.
Christmas day we spent the whole day playing and building (Legos) and eating and just hanging out (confession: I didn't even take a shower!). We ate a nice meal that I had mostly prepped days before so I didn't have to spend hours in the kitchen. I was worried that this would be the first Christmas of pure disappointment because none of my kids were getting anything with an "i" in front of it (they all had primarily electronics on their initial Christmas lists. When I told them that wasn't going to happen, they revised the lists to include Legos and action figures). Luckily, all three of the older ones declared it, "the best Christmas ever!" just like they do every year. I'm sure that won't last forever so I am clinging to those words as long as I can.
I love this time of year and I'm always a little bit sad when it's over, but I think January can bring an excitement all it's own. We aren't celebrating the birth of our Savior, but we are celebrating new beginnings and new resolutions to be more like Him. I have high hopes for 2015. I can't wait to see what this next year brings.
Maddie and Davis at her school's Fundraiser fun run.
Ryan and I were reprimanding Isaac after he hit Maddie, reminding him that it is never OK to hit his sister. Davis chimed in (as he almost always feels inclined to do when someone else gets in trouble), adding "yeah, but if you say you are going to hit someone then you need to do it, because if you say you are going to do something and then you don't do it then that would be lying, and it's not ok to lie."
The Genie Brush: My sister introduced me to this little miracle brush. If you have a child with hair long enough to be brushed, you should really get them one of these. While not completely pain-free, they are so much less painful than your typical, everyday grocery store hairbrush.
Trader Joe's Srirchacha BBQ Sauce: I bought this last week and we used it to make bbq chicken pizza. If you like a little bit of a kick in your bbq sauce, this one is a winner.
Dinosaur vs Santa: All of the Dinosaur vs. books by Bob Shea are winners with my children, and this is one of our favorite ones of the season.
My New Friend Is Fun: It's no secret that I am one of Mo Willem's biggest fans, and this book is our current favorite. I laughed out loud the first time I read it. When the snake tries to cover his eyes I just can't hold it in. Perfect books for budding readers.
Caramels: I learned how to make caramels for the first time this year and I kind of created a monster. I think I made half a dozen batches of caramels (at least!) during the month of December. We made vanilla pecan ones, cinnamon ones, and even black licorice flavored ones. The cinnamon ones were some of our favorites. And dipped in chocolate (like the picture above), they tasted like chocolate dipped cinnamon bears. Who doesn't love cinnamon bears dipped in chocolate? Mel's Kitchen Cafe is where I found all the recipes and tips for chocolate dipping.
Steel Cut Oats: I love them. I cook a big batch in my slow cooker every couple of weeks and then I just heat them up and eat them almost every morning for breakfast. This recipe (I ditch the heavy cream and opt for milk and extra pumpkin instead and I don't sweeten it--I do that individually because everyone's sweetness preference is different in my family) tastes like the perfect blend of pumpkin pie and oatmeal. I love this one as well because maple and brown sugar just go together so well IMO. In this recipe I add the maple but wait to add the brown sugar until I'm going to eat it. With both of these recipes, I only cook them for about 4 hours on low because that's how I like the texture. When I've let them go overnight it always turns out too mushy for me.
I really like this article on motherhood. One of my CT sisters sent it to me and I thought it was so enlightening and motivating. And something that I could definitely work on, stepping back and asking, "How would you do it?"
Merry Christmas Everyone! I'm sure you've all seen this video, but I couldn't do a Favorite Things post without mentioning it. I think I've watched it dozens of times and have found that it's the perfect cure anytime this season when I've needed to be reminded of the real meaning of Christmas.
Davis seems to be growing up at an ever increasing rate these days. I love watching my kids learn new things. It is, for me, one of the biggest paybacks of being a parent. In the last month or so, D has learned a couple of exciting new things.
Riding a Bike:
Our next-door neighbors lent Davis their Strider Balance bike a few weeks ago. The first time he sat on it and tried to ride, he was so wobbly that I thought it would be years before he was peddling his own two wheeler. I was wrong. After a week or two of zooming around the neighborhood. he seemed to have the whole balancing thing down. So we took off the training wheels of a normal bike and I told him to do just what he does on the balance bike, only "Pedal really fast as you go!" He did, and that was all it took! I am a true believer in those magic bicycles. The video above was shot about 5 min. after the training wheels were removed. Seriously, balance bikes, I tell ya!
Learning to Read:
Davis and I started doing "home school' (as he calls it) this past fall when his older siblings started back at elementary school after summer break. "Home School" consisted of reading a lesson a day from the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I have used this book with both Isaac and Maddie as well and it is pretty awesome. I'm not sure if it's because Davis took to it more than the other kids or because I was just more relaxed than when I used it with I and M, but this time around was so much more pleasant! It helped that Davis really looked forward to these lessons (a quarter for the candy machine after he finished each one may have had something to do with it). Yesterday he barreled through the last 4 lessons so that he could finish all 100. As a celebration he chose to go to the movies with Isaac and Maddie and myself to see "Night at the Museum # 3." I was overjoyed that he finished right before Christmas. The perfect gift for me. It's been great to see this little guy's confidence grow as he has learned this new and important skill. Even though the book can be tedious and boring as can be, I have loved being a part of teaching him.
