Funerals and covenants

Last week, a family in our ward experienced the sudden loss of a grandfather/father/husband. The entire extended family is in either our ward or the other ward in our building. It was a huge loss. The person has been in our stake since it was formed decades ago. Some of the grandchildren are in our primary so the kids knew the family well. 

Unfortunately, the timing of the funeral also happened to be during our ward's shift at the peanut butter factory. Joseph had already committed to that. I decided to take the kids to the funeral anyways. The kids pushed back a little ("I HAVE to wear church clothes AGAIN!- Tanner said as soon I told them). But I reminded them of our baptismal covenant to mourn with those that mourn. I am glad to have teaching moments to help my children see the physical manifestations of our covenants.

I haven't always been able to attend funerals when I wished I could have. There was one in particular that I desperately wanted to attend but couldn't. And I still regret that. I rationalized that Ashton was too young and I wouldn't get to be as present as I would want to be. But I wish I would have gone anyways. Because of that experience, I have since tried to attend the funerals to show our love and support.

The kids surprised me by sitting fairly well for the nearly two hour service. Tanner enjoyed hearing the stories about the man. I hope the kids learned a little bit about their baptismal covenants. Sometimes it means showing up and doing something you don't want to do. Sometimes it means just being there, not saying anything and not helping in any specific way. I still remember a friend who helped me very quietly when my grandma passed away. It was such a small and simple thing she did but it meant the world to me.

The kids got all dressed up and Tanner even wore his white shirt. He was so proud to look like a young man. Hopefully that is the last funeral we have for a while.

The family also asked me to come over the night of the death to explain the loss to the grandchildren. It was a special experience to use some ideas of play therapy to help the young children process the event and what the week ahead would look like. I was glad the parents asked me and I could use my knowledge of child development to help them.

Sandcastle Competition

 The Galveston Sandcastle competition takes place every August. I took the three oldest down to check out the castles and swim at the beach for a little bit. The kids had a fun time looking and building their own castles. The kids could have stayed at the beach all night, jumping waves.

Schlitterbahn Visit

Most years, we try to find a water park to visit as a family. Last year, we went to SeaWorld and did the water park next door. This year, we decided to stay closer to home and go to Schlitterbahn in Galveston. The kids had a good time. Ashton and Tanner clearly had the most rides they could go on. Gemma was only tall enough for one ride, which Lydia could go on too. Although, Gemma and Lydia had a blast playing in the toddler/kid areas with some fun slides. We were bummed that some of the rides/areas were closed. We suspect it is due to lifeguard shortages as that has plagued most of Houston this summer. Lydia loved this frog slide and went down at least 100 times.

HEB Kids Day

 Our local HEB (grocery store) held a Kids Day earlier this summer. We took the kids and they had a blast! The store let the kids check things out, participate in a cake walk (Tanner was set on winning a cake- and he did), pet a lobster, and some other fun activities.

Bookworm Gardens

 Our final day on vacation last month was spent driving back to Chicago for our late evening flight. To break up the drive, I found this fun stop in Sheybogan called, Bookworm Gardens. When we left Door County, the traffic back to Chicago wasn't bad at all. But when we stopped at the gardens, I looked and the traffic had worsened. I wish we could have spent more time at the gardens but we had about an hour and half. It was an awesome stop and the kids (and parents) could have easily spent twice as much time there. The garden had a ton of kid stories come to life with little houses, play areas, etc. We got back to Chicago in time for our flight, despite the extra long traffic.

Lydia at 2.5 years old

July marks the half birthdays for Tanner and Lydia. As Lydia gets older, I keep wishing she could stay little. Lately, she likes to wrap up in a blanket and be rocked like "a little baby." I don't mind doing that. It is the only time of day she will sit still.

Here are some fun things about Lydia at 2.5 years old:

- She is Miss Independent. This girl gets herself dressed, bathed, fed, etc. If she is hungry, she takes charge. "I do it" is a common phrase.

- Still very attached to me. I can finally leave the house for an appointment or meeting and she will just sniffle a little. She quickly says, "Mommy come back soon." Then, when I return, she says, "I miss you, Mommy."

-Lydia rules the roost in nursery. She is a fairly large kid, especially compared to other kids her age in the nursery. We pick her up and she gives us the whole report of nursery each week. Her favorite part, aside from snack, is singing time with "Sister Lopez!!!!"

- Lydia's speech and vocabulary have definitely caught up. She talks up a storm. The doctor could understand most of what she said at the appointment so that's a great sign of speech intelligibility.

- Still in the crib. Shows no signs of wanting to get out. Even though her siblings have lovingly showed her how.

- Lydia continues to talk about my family from our summer trip. She adores my parent's dog, Molly. We hung up a picture of the two of them together from our trip. One of her favorite things to do is see if Nana sent any Marco Polo videos. My mom reads books to my kids via Marco Polo and Lydia loves Biscuit books from Nana.

- Favorite song is Follow the Prophet. She also likes some Vocal Point songs I have in the van, Sunbeam, and Wheels on the Bus. She recently started singing the ABCs (or her rendition of them) while brushing her teeth.

-Lydia loves any and all books. Reading on the couch with Mom is a favorite activity of hers.

- Favorite color is purple. But I think this is just to annoy Gemma, who also likes purple.

- Being the baby of the family, she has designated one of her baby dolls as the "baby sister." She carries it everywhere and sleeps with it at night.

Here is her typical schedule.

7:30/8am Wake up. I don't know when she actually wakes up. She is often very quiet in the morning and almost always awake when I come in around 8 or 8:30am. Obviously that will change when school starts.

Morning is filled with activities for the big kids or playing around the house right now. In the fall, Gemma will go to preschool a few mornings a week so it will just be Lydia and I at home.

1:30-4 Naptime! A typical nap is about two hours for her.

7:45 Bathtime and bed time. Lydia's choice of sibling for bathtime is Tanner. They have fun together.
8-8:30 In bed. She gets a little frustrated with her blankets some nights but otherwise, she goes to bed with little fanfare.

Stats:

She is 34 lbs and 37+ inches tall. She is about 90th percentile for her age. We'll see if she continues to be taller.

"Ta Da" at our temple Friend to Friend primary activity

Swim Season

 Tanner and Ashton joined our neighborhood swim team this summer. Ashton had a blast last year so we were ready for another season.

Ashton had her physical goal set as: Improving her butterfly stroke. Last year, she disqualified every time with her butterfly. It is a pretty technical stroke. I think I would DQ every time too. 

 Not only did Ashton never DQ in it this season, she actually qualified for the Champ meet. That meet is by invitation only based on times. You have to swim under a set time in that specific event to qualify. She was beyond excited. Right until the moment we found out the meet was on a Sunday. Through a petition process, we got permission for her to swim the event in the "Reserve" meet on Saturday instead. This meant she had to forfeit her chance to win the event across 15+ teams competing. But she could at least race. She also qualified for the reserve meet in her backstroke. She swam both events at the reserve meet and improved her time even more in the butterfly. She really likes that stroke now.

Ashton DQ'd some in the breast stroke so we're working on that one still. Overall, she improved her times and definitely finished the season as a much stronger swimmer. Next year, she will move up an age bracket and be required to swim 50 yard races rather than 25 yards. That will be an adjustment.

Tanner struggled with swim team, as I expected. He always wants to be first place. And when he is in a race, he focused more on where everyone else was than his actual swimming. Every race, he'd pop his head up to keep an eye on the competition. He swam in the 6 and under age bracket. At most meets, he also got pulled up in the 7 and 8 category for many relays. Tanner had a difficult time with relays. He felt discouraged when he would swim his hardest and his team would still lose. Overall, swim team was a good experience to help him learn how he does his best and lets the team do their best.

We'll be back for next season and our hope is Gemma can make the team. We are working hard to get her to swim across the pool with no help yet this summer. We shall see.