Surgery tomorrow

Tomorrow morning is Tripp’s surgery. We have to be there at 6:45 am for his 8:15 surgery, so we’re staying in a hotel in north Austin. It’s about an hour and a half drive, so a hotel is the best option! We’re all pretty nervous and ready for it to be over. We had his pre-op on Monday where a Child Life Specialist came in to answer all of the questions that all 3 kids had. The girls had as many questions as Tripp did. Child Life was amazing and made them all feel better about the surgery.

Homeschooling is going well, but this week has been a little off since we have the surgery. Our math curriculum was not great, so we are trying something new. I’m not super on top of it right now, but we’ll get back into a routine on Monday! For now the kids are loving learning about US history and artists. No one is a fan of math, so we just kind of have to get through it. Today we’re taking the day off and doing whatever we want. The girls are making crafts and Tripp is making our family into Pokémon cards!

Here is what we’ve been up to these past few weeks:

Webelos!

glass bottom boats in San Marcos

Back to Blogging

 Social media is getting to me lately.  It always leaves me in a negative space (elections, everything else in the world), so I'm taking a step back.  I decided to get back to blogging as a way to chronicle what we're doing.

Ella recently asked me if she had a baby book. She does, but I think I filled in a few months and then gave up.  Instead, I pulled up this blog for her.  She calls it her baby book! I'm so glad that I spent their first year blogging like crazy.  It was such a blur, and I don't remember most of it, so it's fun to have this to look back and see what we were doing.  

So here we go...

We moved to Blanco, Texas in 2021.  Mark got a job in Johnson City and we landed here.  He's working for a great company and he's great at his job, so it's been very nice! The Texas Hill Country is very different from the Gulf Coast.  There are water restrictions here!  I'd never heard of such a thing.  The first summer we were here, Mark came home from work one day and I had the sprinkler on under the trampoline while the kids jumped and got soaked.  He told me I had to turn the sprinkler off because we were under stage (whatever) water restrictions and I was shocked.  In League City, the city would come once a month to drain the water hydrant in front of our house and the workers would leave it on while my kids ran around and got wet.  That would not fly here!  It's all about conserving water! 

We also moved away from all of our family, which has been hard, but we've made friends here and are doing well.  The kids went to 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade at Blanco Elementary.  We will be homeschooling them for 5th grade.  I'm overwhelmed and stressed, but so excited to be able to do this with them. We are on week 2.  We started slowly last week and went all in today, Monday of week 2! We've got some learning curves, but we'll get there.  I thought we could start with math this morning to get it out of the way but we had a breakdown and had to take a break.  We ended up finishing and also did Science and History. We're also using things like grocery shopping to work on math, and a lady at the quilt shop this morning had the girls doing math to determine if it was cheaper to buy 2 fat quarters or half a yard off the bolt.  It turns out there are little learning events everywhere we go! We went to Costco yesterday and Mark taught the kids why things at Costco are so much cheaper than HEB or Walmart. They can't get away from learning! It's a good thing they love to learn.

With our homeschooling, we've started tea time at 3 everyday (shout out to Elizabeth for that idea).  We have real tea (not Ella- she puts milk in her teacup) and snacks and learn about an artist.  Last week we learned all about Vincent van Gogh and the kids loved it! This week we've started learning Michelangelo and they're excited to learn more about him.  Once we get past colonial times in history, we'll learn about a President or 2 each week during tea time.  It's a fun way to sit down with the kids and learn about something that isn't dreaded math or science! I've enjoyed it just as much as they have!

With homeschooling comes such flexibility.  Today, doing 3 subjects, we were done by 11.  That was with the  math breakdown and break! We'll get to travel more and do more things that the kids want to do.  We've only got 7 more years with them and the years are going by way too fast.

Next week Tripp is having surgery to fix a submucous cleft palate.  He's been in speech therapy for 7 years and was dismissed from speech at the public school because it was "no longer academically necessary."  We got him a private speech therapist, who after 1 visit said, "I think something's wrong.  You need to see and ENT."  We did, and then saw Speech Language Pathologists and surgeons and it was determined that he needs a Furlow Palatoplasty to correct the hyper-nasality in his voice. We are lucky enough to have a Texas Children's Hospital in Austin now, and an amazing surgeon who will be doing the surgery. With this comes a lot of anxiety and stress. Not only for me, but for the kids, too. Mark is an EMT now, and very comfortable with medical stuff.  He's watched videos of this surgery and is familiar with what will happen.  The girls wanted to watch the video, so he showed it to them.  They are almost as nervous as Tripp is for this surgery.  They randomly ask questions about it.  We'll take them to the pre-op appointment where Child Life will be there to explain it better to all 3 of them.  I do better not knowing what the surgery will look like.  I've read about it, and I've read about the recovery process, but I can't watch a video about it.  After it's over, I'll be able to handle it from there.  (I was the same way in January when I had my appendix removed. A nurse was explaining the procedure to me and I got sick.  I have to trust that the doctor will do what needs to be done and then deal with the rest afterward). Mark, my mom and I will be at the hospital with Tripp during the surgery and the girls will in with my in-laws hanging out in Austin.  They'll come visit him after he's awake.  They're very worried about him! He's experiencing a lot of anxiety as well, but he prefers to talk about it 1 on 1 with Mark and me. Of course I'll update after the surgery, if not before then.

When the kids were babies, updating this blog was therapeutic for me.  It helped me to get out everything the kids were doing and just put it out into the universe.  I didn't feel like I had to remember everything because I wrote it all down!  My plan is to continue that, even if it's years later! They're turning into little tweens and life is getting a little more difficult, so I'm hoping this will help me.  It'll also serve as a way to keep family and friends updated on what we're doing, instead of social media.

It's been awhile

It's been almost 3 years since I last updated this thing!  Things have changed quite a bit!  The kids are 6 now and in Kindergarten!

I won't go into what's happened over the past 3 years, that would take forever, so I'll just update on our current situation.

We are quarantined due to Covid-19, just like most of the world!  We've been home for over a month.  I go to the grocery store a couple of times a week, but that's it.  The kids' Kindergarten year was cut short, and we're doing school work from home.  It's not as bad as it could be!  They have to do 3 assignments a week and work on the iPad to do math and reading.   Luckily we're all healthy and so are our friends and family.

We had some porch photos done by a local photographer.  I tried to keep it as real as possible, but did do my hair and make up!

It's been very hard to have everyone home 24 hours a day for the past few weeks.  I got very used to having time to myself while Mark went to work and the kids went to school. I'd run errands and volunteer at the school during the week.  Now they never leave!  The silver lining is that we are spending a lot of time together doing things that we don't typically have time for.  We go on bike rides everyday and play in the backyard constantly.

Mark is a League City volunteer firefighter now, which has been keeping him busy along with working from home.

I've done some sewing, which I haven't done in quite awhile.  I've got a few quilts in the works.  I'm also cooking my kids what seems like 45 meals a day (They eat so much!) and making sure they get all of their school work and reading done.

Emily and Tripp are doing speech therapy through Zoom meetings with their speech teacher.  It's been really fun to watch.  A month ago Emily couldn't say her L sound no matter how much we tried to work with her on it and she has it now!  They play Candy Land, their teacher gives them a sentence to say with the sounds they're working on and once they get the sentence correct, they get to make a move on the game.  They love it!

It's been cool to see the differences in how they each learn and do their work.  I had an idea, but hearing it from their teachers and actually seeing it is very different.

Emily is a people-pleaser.  She does whatever she's asked and writes sentence stems exactly how they're supposed to be.  When she has to draw a picture and label parts, it's usually a little messy, but she wants to make sure that her teacher can understand it.  She practices writing her letters and numbers the right way and makes sure she knows what she's going to say before I start a video if she has to submit a video with what she learned.  During the video she stiffens up and speaks quickly, then waves and says good bye.  She's doing really well with this whole distance learning thing.  She stays up in her bed at night and writes us notes that she gives us the next morning!  She reads books that are way above her reading level.  It's very impressive!

Ella is very much a little artist and it shows in all of her assignments.  If she has to draw a rose, she draws a whole rose bush, complete with soil, roots, leaves, thorns, and a butterfly somewhere near it.  She labels everything very neatly and makes sure it's spelled correctly.  She sometimes focuses more on the art than on the writing, but she always fixes the writing afterward.  She has neat handwriting and takes her time forming her numbers and letters.  Her video submissions always start with "Hi Ms. Goddard, I miss you," and end with, "I love you Ms. Goddard!"  She misses her teacher and her friends.

Tripp qualified for GT this year (we haven't told them that they were tested or that he is the only one who qualified this year).  His brain has always worked a little differently.  He likes to create things.  Last week he decided he wanted a solar system in his room, so he built one!  He found a book about the whole solar system and made each planet.  They're now hanging from his ceiling around his room.  His assignments take a little more time.  He gets distracted very easily!  His work is usually very messy and I try to get him to fix it, but he insists that his teacher will love it.  He's right, too.  Everything I send in to her she absolutely loves!  I'm not sure how she reads some of it or differentiates between things he's labeled, but I guess as a Kinder teacher, she's gotten pretty good at it!  His video submissions are always completely improvised.  I try to get him to tell me what he's going to say beforehand, but he always says he knows what he'll say.  His videos are usually longer than his sisters' because he has random ideas and facts that he shares in between sentences.  For instance, today he was showing off his drawing of our pepper plant.  He sat next to the actual plant during the video.  He was telling her the parts that he labeled and his sentence stem, but kept interrupting himself to say things like, "Peppers are very spicy.  These are the spiciest peppers in the world," and, "I will never eat these spicy peppers.  We're only growing them for my Aunt Laina.  She loves them," and, "Oh look, I found a new little pepper growing."  It's difficult to keep him on task!  I knew this before, but it's more challenging when I'm trying to get him to do work to turn in!

The kids were in separate classes for Kindergarten.  It was hectic for us, but the kids did really well with it.  They each have their own teacher and friends and their own experiences.  The girls have decided that they want to be in the same class in 1st grade.  Tripp wants to be in a class without his sisters again.

I'm going to try to update much more often than every 3 years.  We'll see if I stick to it!

Almost 4!

These kids are almost 4 years old.  They're practically grown adults.  They dress themselves, write their own names, and have very strong opinions!  Here are updates about each kid:

Emily

Emily needs things done in a particular order.  She has to help you do everything.  She helps build stuff, pour drinks, peel wallpaper, make sandwiches... you name it, she wants to do it!  She loves to be the center of attention, but is very shy around strangers.  She will talk to strangers if I'm near her and her brother or sister talk first.  She loves to tattle on her siblings.  She loves to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and raw bell peppers dipped in ranch dressing.  She likes to look at bugs but not touch them!  She loves to be outside digging in the dirt or anything to get dirty! She marches to the beat of her own drum.  She picks out her own clothes, and does not care if they match or not, as long as she likes them!  She wants to be a mommy just like her mommy, a fireman, a police officer and Daisy Duck when she grows up.

Her Beat Bugs backpack that Nonna got her for school

Peeling wallpaper

She took the yellow strap off of a purse and now uses it as a belt!

She LOVES Tucker, one of my parents' dogs

She chose to have a puppy face painted onto her face at the 4th of July parade

She buried a chain, then wanted to bury herself.  Always dirty!

I made her a Nella the Princess Knight costume

She drew this picture of me (obviously) and then wrote her name on the bottom

She was so brave and hugged this giant turtle

Riding Ainsley's horse

More wallpaper peeling

Aunt Laina's drill team hat

She loves to steal my phone and take pictures.  Most of them get erased, but I love this one because it shows that she's wearing different shoes.  She has her own style!

She asked to wear my earrings.  Daddy was not impressed

Another shoe mishap.  Here she is wearing one of her shoes, and one of Ella's shoes on the wrong foot.  Ella's shoes are 3 sizes smaller than hers

She entertained me with some music while I peeled some wallpaper

Ella

Ella has been very sensitive lately.  She is quite the little artist and likes to draw her feelings.  She recently started drawing eye lashes on all of the faces that she draws.  It's very funny.  She draws flowers, unicorns, people and rainbows.  She still loves pink, although she claims that she loves all of the colors because I say I love all of the colors.  She is very bossy.  I often find her yelling at her siblings with her hands on her hips.  I remind her a lot that she isn't in charge!  She loves to wear dresses and lots of accessories!  She doesn't like to be dirty or wet when we play outside.  She loves to pick flowers.  So many flowers!  She loves to make a bouquet and then give it to someone, but then she immediately asks for it back, claiming she will "just hold it" for them!  She wants to be a "real princess" when she grows up.

She decided to make a very bold fashion statement this day

She made a flower crown at the Children's Museum.  2 of her favorite things: flowers and crowns!

She got a new princess castle for Christmas, and I decided it was time to give her old baby one to Livia Rose.  Ella didn't handle it well.  I think she might still be hiding some of the princesses upstairs.

Her best friend Alaina

This is a princess riding a unicorn.  Those are trees up at the top.

Sleeping Elsa

Flowers!

When I curl my hair, she asks me to curl her hair (I tell her her hair is curly, but she doesn't believe me)

Eating kale at Nana's house

She got a rainbow painted on her face at the 4th of July parade

Dancing with Daddy

USA

Tripp

Tripp is very much a boy.  He doesn't listen to anything unless I yell.  It's frustrating!  He wears a cape every day, even if it's just a blanket tied like a cape, he wears it and he is a superhero!  He eats anything, but does not like to feed himself.  Also very frustrating!  He's a little bit lazy and likes to have things done for him.  He doesn't mind being bossed around, which is why he plays with Ella most of the time!  He loves to cuddle.  If he's sitting next to someone, he usually has his hand somewhere on them.  It's very sweet!  He is so goofy and loves to be Batman.  He wants to be a pirate captain when he grows up.

He chose a Lego Batman backpack for school

Just going to check the mail...

Dancing

Spiky hair

Our new kitchen has this little desk area and I didn't know what to do with it.  Now I know why it's there, to sit kids there when they won't stop playing during meal time.

He loves to pee outside.

Carousel with Pawpaw

He has no problems making himself comfortable

He made a pulley with bungee cords

Swimming at Aunt Rachel's house

The kids have been asking questions about how they got out of my belly, so we showed them the video.  Tripp didn't like it at all

We've gone a few trips in the last few months.  The kids and I went to South Padre Island with my parents and Gwen.  My sister Alaina spent a few days with us there.  

Then the 5 of us went camping in Livingston.  It started to rain and we had to come home, but we made some memories!  

We went fishing

Emily tried to climb this pole Mulan style

We went swimming in a pool and the lake

Then it rained and we learned the hard way that the waterproof seals were not on the tent!

We huddled under an umbrella in the tent

Then we went on our annual camping trip in Wimberly with Mark's family.

Here are some super cute random pictures!

Mark and I were dancing to our wedding song, and they wanted in.

We visited Mark at work and they decorated for him

My grandparents gave Mark their extra riding lawn mower since our yard is pretty big.  The kids love it!

I had to take them to the doctor with me one day.  They were so well-behaved.  They got lots of compliments!

Before bed the night before Easter, Emily freaked out that the Easter Bunny would come in her room.  She told me to make a sign for the front door.  She told me exactly what to write.

Mark and I found this duck purse in Galveston for Emily

Pappy got them this cool pool for the backyard

One of the greatest parts of our house is that it's right down the street from my sister-in-law.  We opened up the back gate and they walked down the easement to our house.  We've walked to their house a few times, too!

Swinging with friends

My sister in law, Rachel, helped design this bus for Alvin ISD.  We went to an event and got some books out of the bus!

We did the Stroll for Epilepsy at the Houston Zoo.  The company that Mark works for has a device to help with epilepsy, so we did the stroll with his company.

Tripp drew this pirate ship!

Tripp has his hand on Emily's leg, watching TV

Fishing at the Children's Museum

Uncle Charles drove his Corvette over to our house and gave the kids a ride

Ella dressed like Belle, Tripp wearing his Beast shirt, a blanket cape, and his Harry Potter wand

Tea party

They call this "the kid line"

My mom and I took the girls to have tea with Aurora at a cafe in Pearland.  Mark took Tripp to see Lego Batman.  They all got to dress up!