Isla 68 Months

Thank you to everyone who has asked after Isla. I'm happy to report that school is going MUCH better and the last couple weeks she has responded with a resounding "great!" anytime I ask her how school was. I am thrilled that it was as easy as changing her seating assignment and it's nice to have our busy little girl back.

I would say that she is really thriving this month. We've established some new routines and have actually stuck with them so now she is getting herself dressed and making her bed before we are even out of our rooms in the morning. She is even asking to scramble eggs for breakfast. It's amazing what a Morning Routine Chart will do for a rule-following first born!

Ain't she purty?? I took the above picture on a recent mommy daughter date. Right before I launched into a description of what exactly we mean when we say "the birds and the bees." And you think I'm kidding. So, my five year old is now "informed," thanks to the recommendations of a local expert on the topic, Amy Lang. I won't go into the details of our conversation but I do have to share one precious little tidbit. When I told Isla that women have eggs, she immediately cut me off and laughingly said "People don't have eggs. Chickens do!" 

I love spending one on one time with her! The rest of our mommy date included lunch at Starbucks, swinging and playing on the beach at Juanita followed by shopping for beach toys and flip flops at Michael and Walgreens. We had a blast and I think our time together filled both of our tanks.

Isla has been almost as excited about planting our garden as I have. She's been busily helping me fill my pots and water our starts. She's already dreaming aloud about the fruit stand we will set up out front to sell from our bounty. She's an entrepreneur for sure!

A couple weeks back, she and Emma decided to earn money by selling from-scratch lemonade. You can't read the sign in this picture but purchasers had the option of paying $1 or 20 cents - their choice. They sold out in about 30 minutes. Isla was so proud of their work and could hardly stand even a 5 minute lull when her business wasn't booming. The girls proceeded to spend their prophet at Value Village on a couple new toys.

Speaking of toys, Isla definitely loves her stuff! I wouldn't necessarily call her a hoarder but it's borderline. Sometimes I hide things in the bottom of the garbage can (and I'm talking like shards of paper scraps she cut off another project) and she'll discover them and begin WAILING that they weren't trash. Nothing ever is. Included used straws and candy wrappers she finds on the roadside.

After a rather rough season in the obedience department, we've begun implementing some Love and Logic concepts which occasionally involves getting rid of toys as a natural consequence. If you can imagine, this has been quite motivating for my eldest and we've experienced much improved behavior.

We as her parents are finally doing a better job of incorporating reading practice into our daily routine (finally, I know). It's amazing the progress Isla has made even since we began doing this regularly. She is also really loving math and makes up all sorts of equations for fun. We had a blast "tricking" each other with various math problems in the sand (above) on our date awhile back.

Isla LOVES the dentist. She asked daily for the 60 days leading up to her regular check up if today was the day of her dentist appointment. She also tells me just about as often that she has a loose tooth. We found a book at the library about the tooth fairy. She was obsessed with it and requested I take a picture of it's cover and "send it to Costco" so she could bring it to show her dentist. I obliged. 

And boy am I glad I did! You should have seen her glow as the dentist gushed over the picture. You'd think Isla was just awarded an academy award. (Yes, her dentist is awesome). Other news from the appointment: no cavities. And all that chatter about loose teeth? I was embarrassed to learn that the two bottom from ARE actually loose. And here I thought it was just wishful thinking... 

Isla is our ever-busy, ever-social creature and we love her so much!

Phoenix, Offspring Free (the REAL pictures)

I've already shared the deep and personal gushy details of our trip - now for the fun pictures! Admittedly, photo-taking was not the huge focus of our trip. If it were, you would be getting an eyeful of us in our swimwear, basking in the sun by the pool. But we spared you and didn't take a single picture on the real camera of that. The pictures of me would have included a giant box of Kleenex and a stack of cold medications anyway...not really a glamorous sight. I literally could not taste, hear or breathe or smell a darn thing until the 2nd to last day of our trip which was a real bummer. I tried to live vicariously through Graham, as he narrated aloud how good the food we were eating was. My ears were so plugged that I assigned Graham the important job of letting me know if at any point I started raising my voice and yelling. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I sent my drink back the first night, before I really knew what was going on. I mean, it tasted HORRIBLE. I'd tried to be adventurous and try something new and chalked up my dislike to the fact that I must just not be a whiskey girl. When the margarita they replaced it with tasted just as awful, It was then that I realized the problem was me, not the drinks. Whoops.

Like I said, this series of pictures makes it look like we were out and adventuring a lot but in reality, we laid nearly dead by the pool for 4 full days. And it was awesome. We took breaks on occasion to eat but otherwise, books poolside kept us good company. 

  After sniffling and blowing my nose by the pool for 3 straight days, I finally rallied enough gusto to take Graham on a hike. The guidebook boasted that the Echo Canyon Trail up Camelbak would provide some of the best views of the city. At a mere 1.2 miles, how hard could it be?  

 As it turns out, HARD. Like really hard. I'd never been on a hike this vertical in all my life.

 We were literally scaling walls of rocks gripping a metal pole while we pulled ourselves upwards with our arms. It was awesome! And you know what is more fun than hiking up in this fashion? Coming down. I'm totally serious. I LOVED IT!! If there were an extreme sport that involving galloping down rock cliffs using the a bar for support, I'd be all. over. it.

 One of us made it to the top quite chipper and ready to take on the next peak. The other one of us decided he'd had enough hiking for the year. I won't divulge who was who. Oh wait... 

 The views from the top were AMAZING. 

 Unfortunately I think our non-exercise clothing gave away our ill-prepared nature for this hike. You should have seen all the gear everyone else had on - Camelbak water packs, gloves, the whole 9 yards. Sun hats are sporty, right?

 King of the Mountain

 The following day, we headed north toward Sedona to play tourist. We stopped just before town to do some wine tasting. We stopped at three different places, basking on sunny patios while tasting at two of them. Rough life.

Upon arriving in Sedona, we headed up toward the airport to take in the views. I've always wanted to visit the red rocks of Sedona and am pleased to get to check it off my bucket list. The scenery was BEAUTIFUL and our only complaint were the cool temperatures (56 degrees).

The rock formations were so cool and I got a major itch to get my hike on.

We started up the West Fork Trail, a lovely, FLAT hike along a creek. What we saw of it was awesome before we opted to turn back around (someone - I won't mention any names!!! - was not in the mood).

Someday I am going to do the whole hike. Which I guess means I just added to the bucket list I was slowly whittling down....

I will close with this shot, which is jaw-dropping for obvious reasons. I mean, REALLY!? These home owners definitely made a valiant effort to compete with the scenery...

So now I can say I "saw" Sedona but I'm hopeful to one day also say I "hiked" Sedona. What a beautiful place! And what a lovely trip! 

Respite

As I type this, I'm sitting outside on the patio overlooking the pool. The the sun is just beginning to disappear behind the stucco walls of the resort and it's quite balmy out, really. Graham and I have escaped to Phoenix together for some much needed respite and sunshine.

The destination was a bit random - we had airline miles burning holes in our pockets but they were proving themselves quite useless. We'd had them in our possession for three years, but each time we tried to use them, we were met with a blaring error message "there are no flights available to your desired destination." We were beginning to believe every location on every day of the calendar year was a "black out date" for this particular airline. Finally, we got smart. We picked our dates and then literally plugged in every sunny location we could think of. After failed attempt after failed attempt, suddenly Graham exclaimed "It worked! I'm booking it!" We had not yet arranged babysitting but we knew if we walked away from the computer screen for even 3 seconds, the flight match would magically evaporate. So he booked it! And here were are in Phoenix, a mere $22 later (plus the airline miles of course).

The weeks leading up to this trip were horrendous. Aren't they always? If my prior three posts on each of our lovely trio of children didn't enlighten you, let me summarize in brief: THEY HAVE BEEN CHALLENGING! Illness deserves the majority of the blame but free will and stubbornness claim the remainder. Admittedly, Graham and I more or less ran away from the minivan containing our beloveds when it circled the departure area of Seatac. We needed a break and quite honestly, we were pretty sure our kids needed a break from us too. We boarded the plane in hopes that the trip would serve as some sort of a "reset" button for all parties involved.

Both of us had some personal things we needed to work through and the two of us were crying before the plane touched down in Arizona. I pondered this phenomena - the whole-both-of-us-crying-on-the-plane thing. It isn't the first time. In fact, I think we are beginning to make a tradition of it on our kid-less travels, if my memory serves me well. My gut response was something like WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH US but was replaced only moments later by an intense gratitude for the depth that I share with the man I married. We need these times together. Every healthy marriage does. It is during these moments when the distractions (i.e. kids, a remodel, gray weather and work in our case) are stripped away that we begin to peel back the layers and expose the deepest parts of our souls. We reveal hurts and experiences that cut us to the core, big hopes, risks we long to take that feel insurmountable, aspirations. These moments are as lovely as they are hard and each time they occur, I am thankful. 

I wrote, back in January, about my New Year's Resolution of sorts for 2015. Here we are, about to put the cap on April and I question whether I have made any progress in my quest to get to know God for who He really is, a God of love and grace. Per a friend's recommendation, I am studying the book of John as he has been referred to as "the disciple Jesus loved." What better teacher on love than one who claims to have been loved by the Father, right? Before you mentally affix a "super spiritual" stamp across my forehead, let me better define what I mean by the word "study." I mean that I started reading the book of John back in February AND ONLY YESTERDAY CRACKED THE PAGES OF CHAPTER 5. Sooo, yeah, Hold that word "study" very loosely. Even despite my failings at regular Bible reading, I am realizing that my lens on the world is shifting. I am beginning to see more clearly all the ways my misconceptions of God as an iron-hand ruler have permeated my life. Most notably, my twisted viewpoint has misconstrued the way I think God sees me and, in turn, the way I see myself. This faulty outlook impacted the way I approach life, my marriage, and for absolute certain, my parenting. 

Thanks to the recommendation of another friend, we are BOTH (insert happy dance here) reading an amazing book called Loving Our Kids On Purpose by Danny Silk. How this is the first time I have ever heard of the book, I do not know but it has been the perfect read for us! When we left, we were in the thick of it with our kids for sure. This book introduces a total paradigm shift for both of us that couldn't go more hand in hand with my desire to get to know my God as a God of grace. I am absolutely petrified to return home to chaos but am so very, very thankful for a week of quiet, reflection and respite.

Jack turns 1 1/2 (18 Months)

 Aaaaaaaand, suddenly my baby is 1 1/2! How on earth? Graham and I were reminiscing on his little life last night and mutually confessed that we really can't remember much about his babyhood. Was he a good sleeper? Uhhh....yes? I guess since it didn't make a lasting memorable negative impression than probably? And that right there is why I record these sorts of things on this blog!

His actual half birthday felt a little half-hearted but maybe that is fitting? Graham and I had a flight to catch that afternoon but we made a family trip to Starbucks in the morning sort of in his honor (also, we were out of coffee) and treated him to a bagel.

I did actually have the forethought to pick him up a little gift ahead of time which he opened upon returning home.

 Another pack of train tracks for his Ikea train set! He promptly declared the train tunnel a "hat" and used it as such:

Other happenings this month?

He had his first REAL haircut (read: I paid someone to NOT butcher it like I did the time previous. Here is before: 

And after! Such a little man now!

He had a rather rough month physically and spent most of it being held by mom as he suffered from the cranks with cold after cold after cold. It was just icing on the cake when I hit him in the face with a scooter and gave him a black eye for Easter. He still rocked it in his little suit thought! I PROMISE it was an accident!

He burned the midnight oil (quite literally) for a bit there, dancing in our bathroom at ungodly hours while we tried to sleep.

But there were also a few precious moments when he would give in to sleep while I was holding him and it was HEAVEN!

Two of his top molars managed to cut through, unbeknownst to us, and now it looks like his incisors are on their way too. Maybe that explains his sudden rejection of mealtimes? He's been throwing himself backwards and arching and refusing to get in his booster seat and opted out of dinner probably 5 out of 7 nights for a couple weeks there. Except when pasta was on the menu. Man oh man do we have another pasta lover! It's Crozier tradition I guess.

We are praying for a better month next month!

Emma 43 Months

This girl...she's always gonna give us a run for our money!

-and I mean that in a literal sense

-she's discovered this new behavior called running away when we ask her to come

-it's not my favorite

-we were debriefing after one such episode recently, and I asked her "Emma, do we run away from mommy?" Her response? "Yes, because I runned the fastest and you couldn't catch up with me."

-seriously.

-but gah!! how could you not just love a face like hers?

-she's grown equally more adorable as she has testy with each passing day

-she's my most constant kitchen helper and I've almost got her flipping pancakes unassisted

-asks no less than 10 gajillion questions every time you read her a story

-doesn't prefer quiet time and tries to convince me her clock already beeped (our timer) at least 3 times a day

-she has, however, mastered the art of staying in her room til 7 AM - hallelujah!!!!

-recently started having nightmares involving snakes all around her so rarely sleeps through the night anymore (zzzzzz)

-started her very first ballet class and LOVES IT

-it made me feel like the best human being to ever walk the planet watching her glow when I took her

-convinced me to buy a scooter we saw at a second hand store and had it figured out in 2 seconds flat

-didn't qualify for speech therapy through the school district and we are told this is a good thing

-for now we are to work at things at home and making sure she is given opportunity to talk slowly and finish all her thoughts

-stutters the most when super excited and just can't seem to get the words out fast enough or when she has "competition"

-also when asking questions about the book you are reading her

-says her favorite stores are Barnes and Noble and Home Depot

-favorite colors: pink and yellow and purple

-wears dresses and tights every day with an eclectic selection of shoes (usually on the wrong feet)

-she is awesome

To all of Emma's peeps

To all of Emma's fans,

I'll get straight to the point. I wanted you all to know that we've started speech therapy. If you are reading this, there is a high likelihood that you are in this spunky girl's life and I want us all to be on the same page. Although our visits to therapy may be ending nearly as quickly as they started, there is still some work to be done. It may come as no surprise to you when I say that she has struggled with a bit of a stutter. It comes and goes but, as far as I can recall, she has essentially been stuttering in some capacity since she first began stringing together words. We chalked it up to normal language development when she was 2 but then we didn't really notice much of an improvement at age 3. About 5 weeks ago, things got really bad and her stuttering frequency increased ten-fold, to the point where she showed marked frustration that she couldn't say what she wanted to. It didn't help matters that her older sister would yell with great urgency to "Just say it!!" They definitely have a love-hate relationship. 

 Needless to say, I quickly called her doctor's office to seek advice. They directed us to the school district and now here we are, a couple sessions in with a lovely therapist who Emma is convinced is a doctor. The first time we went, I told Emma she had an appointment and she looked at me almost excitedly, and asked if she was going to get shots. She and I have been going to the sessions, just the two of us, and this may sound weird but I am totally cherishing our time together. I don't think anyone ever wants to bring their kid to therapy and I am definitely no exception. It has been a bit of a tough pill for me to swallow, this whole business. But, the silver lining has been getting the opportunity to spend solo time with just my second-born, maybe some of our longest stretches alone together in her entire life. I feel like I've gotten to know her so much better as I watch her interact with the therapist and answer her many questions. She is the sweetest, most hilarious little human and I can hardly stand it! At her first appointment, she was asked to identify and name a bunch of different animals one might spot in a pet shop. The therapist held up a picture of a guinea pig and without a moment's hesitation, Emma yelled "It's a chinchilla!" I nearly died laughing. What kid (or adult even!) can identify a chinchilla? Mine, apparently. At another point, they were conversing about animals that lived on the water and I when she excitedly burst out "And Jesus walks on water!!!" I could have eaten her she was so cute.

Our appointments have been enlightening. Emma stuttered some but quite minimally when she was alone. The GOOD news is that she isn't showing any other physical signs of stress when she stutters. This means it is a fairly mild form and it is quite unlikely she will qualify for further services through the school district. Yesterday, we had big sis join us for the last part of the session and we noticed a marked difference. It was eye-opening to watch her go from speaking smoothly to stuttering when there was someone else in the mix. Her therapist and I will be having a phone conversation to discuss these findings next week but essentially what she saw was a very normal example of two siblings trying to get a word in edgewise which likely is making things challenging for Emma. We have our work cut out for us!

 

For any of you in Emma's life, here are the tips and tricks we are trying to put into practice to help her:

-lead by example and use slow and easy speech

-don't rush her

-allow her to finish all of her sentences and ask her questions

-it's ok to acknowledge "you had a hard time getting those words out, didn't you?" if she is obviously frustrated but otherwise avoid commenting on her stuttering   

-stand up for her and help create space for her to finish when you notice others cutting her off

 

Please and thank you!

 

Lastly, I'll close with this breakfast time snippet. She's ridiculously cute, I'm telling you! 

Isla 67 Months

Want to know what's up with Isla this month? Here are a few tidbits:

-new seating assignment = better days at school! (THANK YOU for praying!!)
-she is now sitting my her best friend at school, Savannah, and it sounds like the two are inseparable

-we still aren't out of the water yet, so to speak, but we've determined that misbehaving, constantly-talking kiddos who mess around during assignment time to be a big culprit in her anxiety 

-would die happy if she could have a play date or adult interaction 100% of the time

-I kid you not - one week I planned 4 play dates and she was still complaining about wanting to see her friends
-REALLY excited about her new morning routine chart to help her get ready for school

-loves "mommy talk" at bedtime

-has newfound love of rough housing with daddy, particularly a game they've named "tickle horse" 

-walks around the neighborhood loudly exclaiming "Mom, do you want to meet them!?" toward every new person we pass (we're meeting lots of our neighbors...)
-loving the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary from my childhood and she listens to them on CD during quiet time

-loves creating and projects, most recently, sewing

-we sewed her first dress together and she was SO PUMPED

-next up, I'm hearing plans of a matching headband and maybe another dress using a different pattern

-speaking in whinese most of the time which has been trying for us this month

-obsessed with space thanks to the show Space Racers (when we told her we were going to AZ, she asked if it was still on earth...)

-doing lots of math and loving writing her own equations at home

-really helpful with entertaining and caring for Jack lately

-fighting and bickering with her sister tons

-sort of had a brief mischievous stint (ok it was just one day) where she decided to test the rules
-I left her kneading bread and returned to find this:

-CANNOT WAIT for her dentist appointment on April 22nd (and has been asking when it is for 3 weeks straight now)

-sleep walking regularly and speaking jibberish and crying while she does it
-would pay big money to have her Grandma Crozier tell her made up stories all. the. time.
-speaking of money, earned some of her own to go toward a toy crown by doing extra chores
-wants daddy to try and "trick her" at dinnertime by asking her hard questions such as "What is the capitol of Washington?" or "What is 100 minus 10?"
-she's getting tougher and tougher to trick, for sure!