Bookends

End of summer fun!

So bright!

Love my Dad!

love those last warm summer evenings (and sweet corn!)

Ayla's first day of school

Zeke's first day of 4K!

Cookies at the farmer's market

Inside the capitol

Tennis!

Fall fun!

Daddy gave me a haircut

Minion love

Halloween! Rainbow Dash and a minion

Summer flew by and school started, and then I blinked…. and it’s November. It is to be expected. Each new year passes more quickly than the last. So where does early November 2014 find our A and Z?

Ayla started 2^nd grade this year. Her teacher’s name is Mrs. Pitts. She and Ayla don’t seem to be jelling quite as well as Ayla did with her teacher last year. Still Ayla seems to enjoy school and does quite well at it. We had her parent-teacher conference tonight. Ayla is reading at a 5^th grade level and is testing even higher than that in math.

Outside of school Ayla and Jake have taken up tennis together. Jake started teaching her earlier this year and they hit the ball back and forth to each other in the street in front of our house. They both really enjoy it. Sometimes they head up to the courts near our house and as with most things Ayla does rather well (if you can get her to put less of her energy into talking and more into hitting the ball!)

That being said, Ayla is still a chatterbox. Actually the term chatterbox seems insufficient. She never. stops. talking…ever. Like I said she does well in school (thankfully) but when she gets home, her brain and mouth are on overdrive. And as she moves her mouth she tends to forget what other parts of her should be doing things. (“Ayla, please stop talking and finish washing your hands.” “Ayla, please stop talking and finish brushing your teeth.” “Ayla, you will never fall asleep if you don’t stop talking.”) It is definitely something I want to work on with her and am thinking of spending a little time with her each day to quiet ourselves and listen to soft music or something. I think it would be good for me too since my brain seems to reside in that same land of Overdrive.

 Ayla talks like an adult and I often chuckle at the way she phrases things, like tonight when she told me that she was ‘pleased” about something. She also asks really good, really BIG questions that require wise and thoughtful answers, or at least an honest, “I don’t know.” Lately she has been very curious about different denominations of the Christian church. (She’s not gonna get a lot of help from me on that one!) She surprises me with her wisdom and perception at times. The other day she said to me, “When I think of hate, I think of unmatched puzzle pieces.” However, she still has two words that she pronounces like a little kid and I don’t correct her, I enjoy the reminder that she is still little for now. The words are “which” and “regular.” She pronounces them “wooch” (with the O sound of “wood”) and “reg-ah-ler” instead of “reg-YOU-ler.”

One sound she makes that is most welcome in our house is this little musical, trumpety, “vrrrrrrrr” sound. If you hear that sound from the other room you know she is focused and busy working on something-whether it is drawing or crafts or rainbow loom or setting up dolls in a little set up, for the moment she is calm and content.

As I lead into talking about Zeke, I want to tell you a little story that highlights just how very much our two kids are Yin and Yang. One morning I was laying in bed and both kids had just woken up and crawled in. It was 6am. Zeke looked at the clock and said, “look Mom, it’s 6 o’clock! Next comes 7!” Ayla corrects, “actually Zeke, next comes 6:01 and then 6:02 and then 6:03…”

So. Mr. Zeke. Zeke started 4K this fall, which is a little hard to believe. We had HIS parent-teacher conference today and he is very advanced in his literacy and art skills. No big surprise there. This kid draws all day long. Minions. Yellow minions. Purple minions. Yellow minions turning into purple minions. Yellow one-eyed minions. Yellow two eyed minions. “Mom, will you draw a purple minion with one eye and crazy hair and an open mouth going ‘BLAAAH?’” Jake and I have each drawn approximately 682,000 minions. Zeke absolutely loves the darn things. I think he officially likes them more than Larry Boy.

He doesn’t just draw though. Many times lately you will see Zeke grab the scissors (“zizzors”) and glue and get down to business. He will draw separate smaller pictures of all the components of a larger picture and then cut out all the pieces and glue them together. So instead of drawing a minion, he draws goggles and overalls and an arm and another arm and a leg and another leg and so on and then cuts them out, arranges and glues to form a minion.… unbelievable.  He will also draw a picture, cut out around it, and then cut it into a bunch of smaller pieces to be put together as a puzzle.

Zeke has a bit of an obsession with “golden coins.” Golden coins are just that- a collection of coins that are goldish in color. One is a token from Rocky Rococo’s, one is from the zoo, one is from the dentist. A few are actual gold dollars, a few are circles he cut out of sparkly gold scrapbook paper. To him they are not gold, they are “GOLDEN” and they are precious to him. He carries them around the house in a little treasure box and incorporates them into every scenario he has going. If he plays trains, they have golden coins as their cargo. If he plays with his talking minion doll he poses the hand in a position so he can set a golden coin in it. “Look Mom! Dave is carrying a golden coin!!” They are stacked in piles or lined up single file across the living room floor. They are all over the house. To him they are treasure. Or as Zeke says it, “trea-jure.”

He continues to be so sweet and good-natured. He is a giver of love, affection and meows. Yes, he still loves kittens. Last night I was repositioning him in his sleep and he sat straight up and said, “meowr.” Or tonight as I put him to bed I received a hug and a meow. He has a saying that he uses when he is feeling very affectionate toward you. He says, “You’re so cutsy wootsy nice cat.” Sometimes he will say to you, “I love you puurrrrrson.”

Zeke is an enthusiastic little person. He has such a wonderful attitude and seems genuinely delighted by good things. (Vs. others of us who seem to have to remind ourselves to be grateful for those same good things… I’m talking about myself of course) Recently I was giving kisses to everyone before I left for work. I kissed Zeke, Ayla and Jake. Zeke exclaimed, “I got three!(kisses)” This evening I informed Zeke that tomorrow will be the first time he will have to wear snow pants to school. He exclaimed with a shout of joy, “I will be able to make snow angels!!” This is what I picture when I think that Jesus told us to be like children.

Zeke has always had a rather obvious lisp. Nothing we were ever concerned about, he just has never been able to properly say “sss,” “sh,” or “ch” sounds. They both always came out as “th.” Suddenly he is correcting himself and working very hard to say “sh”  and “ch” in the correct places in words. We wondered if maybe his teacher at school was working on it with him but we asked her at conferences and it turns out she is not. We figured he would eventually grow out of it, but it is very interesting how practically overnight he became aware and started working on it on his own. He’s not at all upset in the process, if he gets stuck he just asks how to correctly say the word. So now, “Watth. Thee’s gonna thare her cookie,” is “WatCH. SHe’s gonna SHare her cookie.” (He tends to over-annunciate a bit because he is being so intentional in the pronunciation.)

And now for a few cute Zeke sayings: He calls hand sanitizer san hanitizer. Recently he said, “If there was a big me then I would give myself a hug!” (I know there are more but it is my bedtime and I am drawing a blank.)

Life is good. We pass our weeks in a pretty comfortable status quo for which I am grateful. I love our book ends (A&Z) who fill up our days and our hearts with their laughter and insights and art and sounds and energy. They are challenging and yet life giving. They suck me dry and yet fill me up to overflowing.