New Things Going on in the New Year

Dear Kids, 

This post is once again, late. But I have a good reason. I feel like this picture below represents the state of our house for the past 2 weeks and slowly, I'm seeing the silver lining. I've been reading Marie Condo's book, The Life Changing Magic of Cleaning Up. I've also been watching her Netflix show and I've been inspired to Marie Condo (used as a verb) our house. Here are a few of my take-aways from these past few days. 

Basic premise of Marie Condo's method is to keep only things that spark joy in your life and then organize them in a way that they are easily accessible and visible. 

1. After following her "program" I now have a different attitude about cleaning. I used to see it as a dreaded chore, something that has always lingered pestered me, beckoning me to organize once again so the kids could just mess things up again. Quickly things were done simply out of necessity. Clothes were sorted, but they were thrown in drawers haphazardly, most of the time unfolded. Now as I see the fruits of my labor slowly start to reveal itself as neat and organized, in an almost satisfying way, I now see cleaning up as an art and take more pride in folding, and organizing the things of our home. 

 Nathan, you are getting better at not wanting to keep every toy/paper you own. Hannah, you are a pro at folding clothes, and Hailey...you like to make sure I fold things perfectly, and if it's not to your standards, you make it known.

 2. My grandparents grew up during the depression, and that made my parents fairly frugal people, reusing things, saving everything usable, basically mild cases of hoarding. They have passed that tendency down to me so as a surveyed my belongings, I found that I had so much stuff that I was only saving for the sake of saving. (Being a crafty person doesn't help either because you never know if you'll need that some day). Part of Marie Condo's method involves thanking each item that you are discarding, which may sound hokey to some, but to me, it's not so much that I'm thanking the item because it hears me, but it's more for me to have closure, to know that the item has served its purpose and will move on to serve someone else purpose.

3. Overall, I feel more peaceful. Before I went through this process, I was always thinking, "I need to clean the house." But now that we've cut out so much of the clutter, that thought doesn't cross my mind. Don't get me wrong, clutter does eventually creep back in, but almost everything has a spot now so it's easy to just put it away instead of in the junk basket.

Am I done with the process? No. Not even close, but I feel like I'm at a spot where I am content. I will definitely continue as the days go on, but I've literally put so much of life on hold (like this blog) to jump start this process of tidying up. I really hope that this will be sustainable and will be a skill that will be passed down to you guys.

Hailey, peer pressure still continues to work well for coaxing you to eat vegetables. Every time I am introducing a new food, I'll have you watch Nathan and Hannah eat it first. Almost always, you end up following their lead to eat and enjoy the food.

Yum, Roasted Cauliflower! 

 You've recently discovered dipping. You love ketchup and cheese. I took this picture below after you demolished a package of cheese and breasticks.

 Hailey, you've also become so helpful with groceries. You definitely have preferences on where you want to sit on the cart. Sometimes you want to sit in the seat, sometimes you want to stand. You are getting very good at pointing and communicating.

You are also getting pretty good at using a spoon. For the most part you can scoop and get most of what you scooped into your mouth.

You are still waking up twice at night for a quick 10-15 minute feed. I'm really considering measures to encourage you to sleep through the night. You are walking for about 10 feet before you topple over and you are babbling up a storm. I think you are currently teething, molars are coming in, so that's been...fun. You have actually started to sign and say words this week. Your first word may be "na na" for banana or milk. "A dun" (All done). You can sign "milk," "sleep" and "book." 

You are absolutely adorable and I'm going to treasure these moments of innocence and wonder. 

Hannah, 

We finally signed you up for the thing you've been wanting to do forever and you absolutely love it. On Mondays I drop you off for at a mother's morning out dance program. So far, your favorite form of dance is hip hop. 

 You've also learned how to cross the monkey bars all by yourself! You saw a friend cross and then you said, "I will never be able to do that!" I took a double take and immediately replied, "hey, let's just try 2 bars, I bet you can do 2." So you proceeded to start and you did 2, then 3, then 4, and then you dropped. You stood up, thought about it and said, "I wanna try again!" And before you know it, you were crossing the whole thing by yourself! Proud mama moment.

Hannah you also finished your first lego set all by yourself. I had to help you find a few pieces, but as far as assembling, you did it all by yourself. Nathan, you completed a 1,700+ piece kit all by yourself as well. It was a quiet week in the Havlir house. You each have a couple of more kits, but I'm saving those for a rainy day.

Almost everyone in the family got new cuts last week. I started with Teddy, then Nathan wanted a trim, and then Hannah you told me that you wanted short hair like me, so I tried to copy what Reyna, my hairstylist does with my hair and I think it turned out pretty cute. It's also way easier to maintain. No more tangles! Win!

We set up our back to roots aquaponics fish tank. Nathan read the directions, while we set up the tank and we invited 2 guppies, Little Fire and Blueberry, into our homes.

 The next day, we lost them. Considering how long we had them, you both were very sad about the death. I have a feeling that when it's time for Teddy to leave, it's going to affect you both. I need to start getting prepared on how to explain this concept to you in a way that won't cause you to fear death like I did as a child.

 On Saturday, we met up with some friends for a yummy Chinese dinner. Nathan, I don't know why you have a grumpy face in the picture. We ordered all of your favorite foods...Sometimes you just don't like being in pictures.

 And last week, I signed you two up for mixed martial arts. Originally, this was something that Nathan really wanted to do, but at the trial class, Hannah, you decided you wanted to give it a go as well and ended up loving it. So now we have you both in it and we've been trying to make it to 3 classes a week.

Nathan, you lost your third front tooth yesterday. Now you have a gigantic gap in front but surprisingly, your speech has not been affected much. Sometimes I'll mess with you by making whistling sounds as you speak, but you just think it's funny for a little and then ask me to stop really quick. The picture below is actually a 2 teeth gap. I'll have to take an updated 3 teeth gap tomorrow. 

Well, here's to new skills, new classes, new teeth, and new tidy habits!

Until next week,
Love,
Mommy