For Annea

For months now I have not written, and worse, I haven't even thought about writing in here. But! Annea is still a small being, with many funny antics and preferences to report, and as a continuation of the "baby book" idea, I need to keep recording her life in some way.

*Adessa and Eliana are doing well, for the readers of posterity.
Adessa: 4th grade, 9 years old. Loves to read. Gets my jokes and thinks I'm super funny (Yes!). Helps out a lot.
Eliana: 2nd grade, 7 years old. Loves to play, plays for hours with Annea. She likes to read (mostly to Annea).

They are both doing well in and enjoying school. They are still turning scratch paper into artwork at untidy rates, with Annea right in there coloring, too.

And little Annea. Preschool three days a week, 4 years old. Nayna, Nayneezie, Nayners, and Shanaynay are a few of her nicknames.
She loves her preschool and teachers, and gets to be walked down to school by Grandpa and Nana and their dog, Carson, since I work on her school days. She already talks about going to Kindergarten, she wants to be big and doing what the girls are doing so bad, it's hard to watch and help her process. She loves to hold hands, much more than the other girls she always reaches up to hold my hand no matter how long or short the distance. She is constantly singing, mostly at the top of her lungs while standing on my bed (I think it's her stage). She still doesn't get the words to songs right, but sings what sounds right to her. For the pop song that goes: "If I die young, bury me in satin..." Annea sings: "If I die long, bury me in sausage." Close! She loves her sisters, loves to giggle with them and play with both or just with Eliana while Adessa reads. She likes to be helpful, and put her clothes away or "wash dishes"--only minimally helpful but the spirit is there. She loves to snuggle, still likes to be held and carried sometimes (less and less often, I notice!). She likes to be read to, which I need to do more! and she likes to play games. We've instituted game night and she's right there in the mix, playing Uno (with help) and Charades. This summer we went to the creek a bunch, and Annea would sing along the banks floating a plastic boat on a string, while the big girls fished for crawdads.

We have been out of the baby stage, and toddler stage, I think it has been easier for about a year and a half. I have had more energy for lots of things, church camp, planning my 40th, big things that would have seemed impossible with littles. Annea stopped napping this summer, which changed our whole lives: we can push through and do more than one thing per day, stay places longer, and sometimes we have major meltdowns by 6pm. Baby gear is almost completely gone from our storage, except the Ergo, which is such an extension of my baby holding arms I just can't get rid of it. It's the only way I know how to care for a baby. And we even hiked this summer and I wore it in case Annea got tired. (Which, I'll have you know, she did. :)

Pics to come!

Weepy Lately

I can't figure out how to make the privacy settings work, so you have another installment of the life and times of Adessa, Eliana, and Annea, for free.

We're well. We're okay. We've been enjoying the rain. I notice when I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror, sometimes I see my mom in my face--some aspect of my expression or jawline that is her. Makes me cry.

A CHP officer was killed after being hit by a car on the side of the road in Tahoe, with three little kids about our kids' ages. Makes me cry, too.

We are mud, sanctified only by God. We can't make ourselves better mud. This has been very humbling and good for me, as I have been missing the point of Jesus. Also made me cry. https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/glory2godforallthings/2014/12/05/youre-not-better/

Let me see if anything hasn't made me cry? Lots of things don't make me cry, most of the time. I really love their soft sweetness and how Adessa laughs at my jokes and Annea says the beginning of her question or statement over and over and gets flustered and starts over again and doesn't understand that she could put her effort into the end of the question or sentence. Spit it out! I got that part already!! Eliana loves to wrestle and hug and pounce and I think she's sensory seeking. I want to sign her up for rugby. Eliana is a second mother (maybe first, sometimes) to Annea. Annea calls me Eliana sometimes. I talked with Fr. Noah about something he's interested in and tasked with, keeping our kids in the Orthodox faith. Just makes me realize what a big task we have, imparting divine love to our kids so that God at church is surely God in our home and becomes God in their hearts. Lord, have mercy. Didn't make me cry, but almost.

Taking advantage of a sunny day.

Abba keeping Annea warm at church, the way he did for my siblings. Precious to see.

Rainy day walks, made sweeter by the promise of hot chocolate back at home.

A sweet love note from Eliana. Eliana likes to get notes from me in her lunch, and writes me often missives full of love.

This man is so key to our home, operations and heart and soul.

New Blog Settings

Hi Faithful readers! (Who may or may not have spanned the gap of months with no posts. :)

I would feel more comfortable not writing personal stuff about my daughters if I didn't have the blog on public settings. Which means people would be on my reader list and would have to sign in, which is a pain, I realize. If you'll be willing to take the extra step, please send my email your email so I can approve it for readership and then I'll make the blog "invite only" kind of. Hope that makes sense and will work- my email is: akeidab@hotmail.com. Thanks! Keidi

Visual Accompaniment to the Non-Catch-Up, Part 1

Summer Sisters

Summer Camp!

First Day of School

Thanksgiving with Aunt Florence

Not even going to try...

to catch up. Just starting again. The summer was great, the girls started school, we had Halloween, Thanksgiving in Yerington, NV, and Christmas, and all without a word from me.

But they are fine! Things are fine, just some radio silence.


For the records:
Adessa: Third grade, Ms. Winters, loves school and everything about it, hates homework (already, the battles!). She is an ideal student in the classroom, totally focused and wanting to please the teacher. She likes to draw and craft, and has found books! She spends hours snuggled in our recliner reading reading reading. I have enjoyed helping in her classroom, seeing her in action. She hangs out to read in the library during most recesses, and doesn't have a lot of close friends, which I'm not worrying about yet.(!) Especially because her sisters are her friends, we don't have many playdates because they are so happy being home and entertaining themselves or each other.

Eliana: First grade, Mrs. Volheim. She likes school, too, though is a different student than Adessa (duh), much more distractible and less of a perfectionist. (She, too, despises homework, so I'm sure I'm doing something wrong.)She is physical, and likes to pick people up and give them piggy back rides and wrestle and run around. She does have an aptitude for things like hitting a whiffle ball, throwing, etc. It will be interesting to see. Eliana just gave the office a scare at her school during a party. She told the teacher that she was allergic to chocolate and her throat was hurting. I cot a frantic call from a lady in the office who was trying to find her file and see if she was allergic and what to do about it.

Annea: Tues/Thursday Playschool. Started out not too sure about school, despite being excited to start and carry a backpack. She now is enthralled with her friends and teachers and loves going. Her Playschool teachers notice how different she is from Adessa and Eliana, more outgoing, and a bit more willing to challenge authority. One of the funniest things I notice about her is that she doesn't hear the words that are in songs, she sings her own words and made up phrases and sounds. Super bizarre, I even asked the speech teacher about it and stumped her.

We are okay! All's well, reading public! :)

Summer Summer Summer

Or should I say: Riverside Riverside Riverside. Our big vacation was to Riverside, Auntie's house and then the Mission Inn. We tried to acclimate to being on vacation somewhere that we weren't paying, so went to Auntie Evie's house first.

Biking

For most of the school year, I have been running twice a week with my friend Sarah. It has been such a great time to exercise and get to be friends with Sarah, and to feel like a "runner" for the first time in my life. Or at least a "jogger". The very idea of running a few miles doesn't strike fear into my heart, which is a big deal. The big girls would be at school and Annea would be in the stroller, happily being strolled around and around the Redwood Loop. Until she decided she had enough and freaked out at the mention of the woods. Enter the iPad, with a few kid's movies on it. That worked for months. Until it didn't work, and then... I promised her bike riding time after I ran. She fits the little balance bike we had for Eliana. So far she has not learned to glide, or even to sit her butt down on the seat, so it's a lot of walking her bike around while wearing a helmet. But there's hope, and we're going to keep working on it.

Ready to go!

Snuggling with her bike. She loves carrying it, dragging it around, and sitting on it. The gliding hasn't happened so much, but it will come!

As for the big girls...we did some disservices to our girls in the bike riding department. I feel really good about some of my parenting skills. Like potty training. I feel like if you gave me a kid between 2-4 years old, I could potty train him/her in a weekend. I got that one. Bike riding, however, I would happily have outsourced. We didn't get a strider bike (balance bike) for Adessa, but did for Eliana, so when we went to teach them, Eliana got it much faster than Adessa. She already had the balance thing down. So Adessa (understandably!) got more and more frustrated as she watched Eliana zooming by her. It was difficult to try to encourage Eliana (She's riding a bike!! Hooray!!) while not totally demoralizing Adessa. Difficult. We learned to divide and conquer, and Adessa is getting it after a few sessions with Daddy.


The future bike gang.

During Annea's eight minutes of biking. Now I bring the stroller for Annea and jog along with Eliana while Calvin works with Adessa.

Eliana going for it.

Daddy helping Adessa get started.

Adessa riding! Daddy keeping his post right by her side.

Eliana, again. She is a funny rider, which I guess they all must be at the beginning. She puts her feet down to brake, she goes wherever she is looking (followed a lizard right off the road), and tries to turn too tight. This ride she had her first spills, which gave her the idea of how to fall off.

Church Camp 2015

It is with great pride and a week-long, camp induced euphoria, that this next post is written. Seven moms from church got together months ago to create an Orthodox VBS kind of camp for our kids. We wanted them to build Orthodox identity, to get to know the other kids better, and for us moms to bond and build community. And it worked! From the first day, all of our hopes were realized, and things just got better and better as the week went on. The kids got the theme, Tending the Garden of Your Heart. They had fun with the crafts and songs and games. They sat through our puppet shows! We worked hard and were all (kids and moms) exhausted, but so elated and blessed and thankful. It felt like a rebirth, a big flipping deal, a new frontier. Yayyyyyy!!

Monday at the Machnee's. Listening to our camp book, the basis of the theme: The Hidden Garden, A Story of the Heart, by Jane Meyer.

Adventurous hike!

Tuesday was at the Newberry's beautiful Bonny Doon property.
Lavender gorgeousness. The kids "got" how cool a beautiful, established garden is!

Practicing using her five senses, Annea sniffs the flowers.

Ladybugs!!

Annea in the flowers.

Annea went off on a hike with the big kids and Karla! As we were getting in the car, she asked Karla if she could come to her house again, without Mommy. :)

Wednesday at the Beck's:

Adessa (and Jayden!) developed their Limbo skills.

Craft time! The kids did great, up-cycling all kinds of stuff to make lovely flowers.

Getting ready for the puppet show!

Thursday started at the church, then ended at Uncle Ben's Farm.
Learning about the Fruits of the Spirit!

Picking berries at the farm, bearing good fruit.

Weeding Uncle Ben's farm: practice tending the garden, pulling the little weeds before they get too big, and using a friend (or two's) help to pull the big weeds.

Busy pulling weeds. The kids surprised us all and loved pulling weeds-- tugging them out, piling them up, seeing the difference their work made.

Eliana giving the weeds what-for!

Friday:
Playing the "Weed or Flower" game in their awesome camp shirts.

Friday finale face paint!

Camp Photo Op! All the kids wore their t-shirt for the picture, except Annea, who had to be convinced to even be in the picture. Oh well!