Yes, the post you’re reading today in January is my late holiday post. I think the title covers all the well-wishing, and so, for space issues, I’m going to start right in with the bragging.
Lina is in the highest math group in her fourth grade advanced learning class. She is on reading level Y. (What’s after Z? Nothing! Books for adults! Kafka!) She is currently reading Harry Potter V and will dead to the world for a while. Her (evil) parents did not allow her to read the final three books until she had finished three Newberry Award winners last fall. She’s in competition dance, plays the violins, and talks more than you. Yes, you personally.
Cora’s first grade teacher attends our church and stopped me in the hall to say how much she enjoys Cora and how helpful Cora is. Such a proud moment for a parent! (My actual emotion was relief.) Cora was in soccer this year, getting more confident at going after the ball and making friends with teammates. She can read chapter books and writes and illustrates stories on stapled papers. She wants to be a writer when she grows up. Who can blame her?
Mia and Carter are in home preschool this year (to simplify our schedules). Actually, let me clarify. Mia is in home preschool and Carter runs around trying to ruin every activity she picks. Mia chooses the subjects we read about (the seasons, cars, digestion, how snot is made, etc.). We have friends over for sandbox time. We cook. The first thing we made was homemade macaroni and cheese and all three of our little ones refused to eat it because it had onions. Ha, ha. Mia is practicing the long vowels and likes to write stories with kid-spelling just like Cora used to.
Carter is finally potty-trained for real this time, his Thomas the Train underwear being the ticket. He only got to wear them if he stayed dry and it was seriously like a switch: Not potty-trained. Potty-trained. Recently I went through a phase where I tried to calm Carter’s temper via saying yes to him all the time. This mostly led to him asking for impossible things. Like to run to McDonald’s at bedtime, or put his broken banana back together. The kid is determined to stick to his requests, too, to prove that he’s in charge. So sometimes he refuses to eat his favorite yogurt, or wears three pairs of underwear at a time, or clutches two cups of milk simultaneously, etc.
Graham occasionally cries every time he sees me leave him (like walk-across-the-room leave him), but he’s such a sweetie that I do nothing but indulge him. Plus, he doesn’t eat enough, even the doctor says so, and crying burns calories he just doesn’t have. I’m thinking of his health when I give into him every second. A conversation with Graham goes like this: “Do you want to eat broccoli?” No! “Do you love your mom?” No! “Do you want cheese or a banana?” No! Then he smiles and hides his face and peeks to make sure you’re watching.
Our big vacation recently was a twenty-hour road trip to Texas to visit my sister Laura and her family for Thanksgiving. So awesome! We watched a cattle-run, met Santa at an outdoor Christmas Village, “sledded” on cardboard boxes down Laura’s driveway when an ice-storm kept us house-bound, married off Princess Mia to Underwear Superhero Carter in an epic ceremony involving French Maid Cora as the officiator, felt an “earthquake” in a Dallas museum, cut down a real live Christmas tree, and basically had Bluebonnet ice cream, hot chocolate, or turkey and cranberry every day until our stomachs hurt. We miss Laura and family so much!!!
Mike’s big news this year is that he left Domo in May to follow his dream of becoming an entrepreneur in partnership with a few friends. He works from an office in our basement with a sign on the door that says “Mike Trionfo” and everything, writing code in preparation for the company to enter the micropayment space and hopefully make sales sometime this year. We love having Mike around a lot more. Plus, the extra time let him join a CrossFit gym and go to a lab at BYU to track his body fat which has dropped 7%, putting him in the moderately lean category. Congrats, honey, you deserve it. J
As for me, I’m busy assembling dressers and painting rooms now that the basement is finished. My kids are more fun each day, and I still attend my local writing group. I got to be in sunny California for Christmas with my family and when I got back, I’d missed the coldest days of the season so far. Perfect timing! I couldn’t be more ready for 2014!
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