Birthday Week at the Havlir House

Dear Kids, 

The last shall be first and the first shall be last. So Hailey, you are our last, so I'll share about your week first. Today is your official 1st birthday. You've survived our care for 365 days and girl, these 365 days flew by at light speed. 

For your birthday, we celebrated with a chicken party. You love chickens and puppies when you see them in books. You can eat chicken, so because 1st birthdays are just as much for the family as it is for the child, we combined our love for food and your love for chickens and hosted a chicken iron chef style party.. Each of the families brought a chicken dish to get judged by the big kids. 

And at the end, we all had chicken cakes...and no chickens were involved in the making of said cakes. 

We started to sing happy birthday and quickly you realized that you were the center of attention. At that moment your face just lit up. 

Photo Credit: C. Vaughan 

You probably enjoyed your cake more than Nathan or Hannah did. Your frosting was mostly whipped cream, so I pretty much let you have as much as you want...until you started to fling cake around. 

 The families brought chicken fried rice, chicken pockets (Nathan's favorite food ever), chicken bbq pizza and we made chicken lettuce wraps.

Photo Credit: A. Lemon

So after the kids all tasted the dishes and marked their scoring sheets with the appropriate emoji, Nathan got to work and started calculating the score to see who brought the best dish. Surprise surprise, it was chicken pockets (AKA Chicken thunder). 

So Hailey is still not sleeping through the night [sigh], which reminds me that I need to savor these last few weeks of night snuggles. Hailey is starting to be more confident with standing and cruising, especially if there are puffs set up to encourage you to move. As you can see, Teddy approves this training. 

 I snapped this picture tonight because I'm just so proud of you. You have the cutest tricks right now: Dance, horsey ride, clap your hands, shake your head "no", and splash splash. You can say nai nai, which means milk, and you sometimes will say Mama. You point to what you want and you love to look at books. It seems like you know the routine at night. I'll finish nursing you and then you'll point to the books. I'll read you a few books, and put your sleep sack on. You then point to the door. I walk you out to say goodnight to the rest of the family and then we go back to your room. You point at the sheep painting in your room, we count to 3 and then you turn off the light. I will sing a lullaby and then put you down for the night. You've been sleeping for 30 minutes to 3 hours before you wake up crying.

This is such a fun age. You are excited about everything and you are able to go with the flow.

Dear Nathan, 

2 days ago, you turned 6. A few days before that, we invited 2 of your school friends out to lunch and play. First we had bbq nachos and cake. 

 Then we went to epic fun to play some games. Bowling,

 Bumper cars,

 Even the babies had some fun.

 On your actual birthday, I made your favorite dish: Chicken Thunders. In the picture below, there is 1.5 chicken thunders. That day, you ate almost 3. You sure love it!

 At 6 years old, you are still the sweet and thoughtful kid that you've always been; however, you are starting to realize that life is unfair and this has made you slightly vengeful. We are trying our best to help instill more kindness and forgiveness into you. It's tough, so if anyone has tips on how to do so, please let me know.

You lost your second tooth tonight. Those teeth are just so small. We'll see how much the tooth fairy will leave under your pillow.

El Tigre visits us from Tiger's class.

 This week was the perfect week for El Tigre to visit. He had a chance to celebrate with us.

El Tigre went with us to HEB and enjoyed sitting up front. 

 When they earned buddy bucks, he was so lucky to stop the wheel at "Instant winner"

El Tigre even went on a bike ride with Hannah and Daddy. 

This past weekend was also the mid-harvest moon festival. Chinese tradition is to grill and eat moon cakes. So, we grilled...

 and ate moon cakes.

 Hailey even joined in on the fun.

 This has been a super busy week for me. On top of my regular mom duties, I also clocked in about 30 hours of work after hours and that is not even counting all of the help that you all have been giving me.

(On a side note, Nathan helped me assemble some organizational baskets that I got for the pantry.)

 Hailey helped me separate name tag holders,

 and throw away scraps of paper.

 While Nathan and Hannah helped me assemble name tags.

It's been an emotional week with birthdays and getting ready for the first mentoring day of the year. I'm looking forward to having some fun with ya'll in the next few days. I am so blessed to be able to be a mostly stay at home mom. Just the few hours I had away from you guys really made me miss being with you guys. You all are my heart and I love you so much! 

Love, 

Mommy 

2 Weeks worth of fun @ Week 51

Dear Nathan, Hannah, and Hailey,

I am just so blessed to have you three call me Mommy, Mama, and Mah Ma Ma. As Hannah you started your last year of pre-school last week, I am suddenly overwhelmed with how quickly these few years have gone by, so I am starting to cherish these moments with the three of you even more. Now that Nathan is going to school from 7:30 to 3:00 each day, I feel like I hardly even see you much anymore.

Well, it's been a busy 2 weeks. I'm going to rewind to 2 weeks ago, we went to a birthday party and if you look in the picture below, I have a picture (can't find it right now) of the same 3 girls in a ball pit at around age 1. Now you all have turned 4.

 

Hannah, you have started practicing on the little bike now that your feet can touch the ground. Daddy took the pedals off and I've been having you scoot around with me on our walks to the mailbox. I think with one more week of scooting, you'll be ready to put the pedals on and take off. I think Nathan was about this age when he started to ride with no training wheels.

So Daddy took the last week of his Paternity leave last week, so he had lots of Dad duty time. One of those days, I volunteered at Nathan's school and had lunch with you. School lunch has come a long way since I was in school. For the most part things are healthier, with whole wheat pasta and breadsticks, and the veggies seemed like they were frozen, instead of canned (yuck), but the chocolate milk hasn't changed much and the fruit choices are still pretty much the same.

Daddy also came and had pizza lunch with you one day too. This sure beats the rectangle pizza that we had back in the day.

Daddy was pretty productive as he drilled and patched a bunch of holes in the wall and then he basically painted half of the downstairs. So now we have wipe-able walls instead of the builder grade paint that just came off with the slightest wipe...which is a pretty big deal because we had grubby prints knee height all over the house.

This past weekend we went to another birthday party and as we arrived, Nathan projectile vomited, so only Hannah got to stay to play. The bug ended up lasting 24 hours, which I am very thankful of.  The birthday party was at a new place that opened close to us, so it was cool for Hannah to check it out.

Hailey is now really into putting things into containers and taking them back out. I will set a bowl of plastic lids on the ground while I am cooking or cleaning up the kitchen and you will play with them for a good 30 minutes. Best toy ever!

You are also very cuddly. When holding you, you will often lay your head on our chest and just sing, which usually comes out as a long moan. You love it when we hold you close and rock you back and forth while saying, "Aaawww." You will mimic us as we do it.

Whenever anyone is laying on the floor, it's like an open invitation to climb. Sometimes you are very sweet and lay your head down as if you are giving a hug,

but then sometimes you go WWF style and pin down the unsuspecting victim.

You are also like to experiment with different types of head wear. Hats, hoops, bowls, rolls of tape, all seem to be headpieces for you.

 So we plan on decorating a trunk for our church's trunk or treat this year.  The theme will be revealed in a few weeks once we have more things created, but here's a sneak peak of Hannah's costume.

This last picture I just had to take because one day we can look back and say, "Hailey, I remember when you used to fit in this sink and brush your own teeth!"

School has been overall good for Nathan. I really like your teacher and after seeing briefly how she runs her class, I am overall impressed. You continue to have weekly run-ins with the same kid in your class. Last week you told me about a situation which made me so proud of you:
So you were at the lego station with this kid. He broke your creation. Instead of taking revenge and smashing his car into pieces (like I kind of expected you to do, based on all the tantrums you've been throwing at home lately) you told us that you just got up and went to the peace corner to calm down.

I was so proud of you when I heard what you did. You are showing lots of self control.

But then yesterday, this same kid punched you in PE (teacher called me about it) after you pulled a flag off his belt (which is what you are supposed to do). He apparently didn't know the rules and got mad at you for pulling his belt. You even told us that he was talking while the teacher was giving instructions, which is why he didn't understand. Ohhh, and get this, you told me that this kid flat out told the art teacher that his art was not very good.

While I am a bit annoyed at how this kid is acting, I'm kind of glad that you have one of those kids in your class because this gives you a chance to learn how to work with difficult people in a safe and controlled environment. While I can definitely see a "falling out" sometimes when you come home from school (you get bothered more easily by little things), I can see that you are really trying to practice self control and figure out how to outsmart this difficult kid.

Nathan, you've signed up for Tennis club after school. The coach tells me that you are the youngest kid, but you hustle and you make good contact with the ball. You absolutely love it and look forward to it each Tuesday.

Hailey's sleep is more predictable nowadays. Waking up around 7:30, taking a first nap around 10, and then another one at 2:30. You go to bed at 8 and will wake up once before I go to bed and then another time before I wake up in the morning. You are pulling up to stand and cruise, but you are nowhere ready to walk. Your crawl is still upright, pushing with one leg, while sitting on your bottom.

It's been raining a lot and when it's not raining, the thought of taking 3 kids out on an outing just sounds exhausting, but we really need to get out more. I'm going to make an effort to do so (especially with the cooler weather, there is no excuse!)

I feel so much more rested and am working on being a more intentional mom with the things that I do and say to you. I've resorted to lots of threat and "because I said so" for too long and I need to go back to being more patient with you all (especially now that I'm more rested).

Until Next Week,
Love,
Mommy

Our Everyday Joys of Week 49

Dear Hailey, 

Every day your actions become more purposeful. You are starting to be quite the thrill seeker as you love being pushed high on the swing and you also love being thrown up high at the pool. 

Joy: Swinging

You are pulling up to stand every moment you get and you are quite the squirmy wormy during diaper changes. Singing a song to you is the only way I can get you to lay still long enough for me to finish the job. You are starting to understand, "No, no no" and will imitate us by shaking your head side to side when you hear "No, no, no." For now it's absolutely adorable.

Joy: Mouth Exploration

You have picked up writing. You now know that pencils, markers, and crayons are writing utensils.

Joy: Writing (mimicking older kids)

Hannah's gymnastics coach suggested that I put you in a box with a marker. You had a blast, just scribbling away. Oop, I thought those markers were washable...

Joy: Scribbling

Joy: Scribbling inside a box

I finally got around to taking your 11 month photos. Here's a series of photos that show just how active you have become. 

Joy: Taking Pictures

Dear Nathan, 

You are now really enjoying kindergarten. You seem to be really excited about the technology aspects of school and you love sharing the new songs that you learn in school with us. 

For the most part, you are making new friends at school, but the same kid who has been bothering you, continues to bother you. I'm encouraging you to use your words to tell him "Stop it!" when he bothers you. This idea seemed pretty foreign to you when I we were role playing, but then when I looked through your folder tonight, that was one of your weekly objectives! We'll be having a little talk tomorrow to try to connect the dots. 

It's definitely nice having older kids around the house. You seem to be pulling your weight more these days. You are good at cleaning up your toys after playing with them, you do your chores without complaining, and you help out with little jobs around the house. I'm glad to have you on the team. 

Joy: Being Useful and Helpful

So two days ago, I sat down to play mario kart with you. Uhhh, you are getting really good! You even beat me and I was trying my best!

Joy: Beating Mom at Mario Kart

Well, this seems to be the season for birthday parties. It seems like we have at least 1 birthday party each week this month. I accidentally wrote down the wrong time for one of the parties, so you guys missed doing the craft and then you got to take it home to work on it. I'm excited to see how it turns out.

Joy: Crafting Together

Dear Hannah, 

You went to a girly nail party and got your nails done for the first time at a salon. You were a bit apprehensive at first, but overall you enjoyed the experience. I was just a bit disappointed about how quickly the polish fell off. One didn't even last until the car ride home and by the next day, all the polish had come off. Maybe you kids are just so active that polish comes off so quickly. 

Joy: Getting sparkly nails

Joy: Sitting under a fancy blue light

On Sunday evening, we went out for dinner and while everyone in the family ordered Pho, you decided that you wanted sushi and ordered a shrimp roll, which you devoured yourself.

Joy: Shrimp Sushi

You continue to love to help (except when asked to clean up toys) and enjoy doing things alongside me. You have started going to school 4 mornings a week and I'm really tempted to keep you home one more day so I can really enjoy spending more time with you; however, you say you really love gymnastics, so I want to keep you in that program.

I just realized how awesome your fine motor skills are. You do great with tweezers, and you are very careful when sewing.

Joy: "Weeding" Vinyl

Daddy is going to take the rest of his paternity leave days next week, so let's see what exciting things happen then.

Until next week,
Love,
Mommy