Virtute.org

Nicole will complete 10th grade later this month. This has been a good year for her in many ways. She has gained more social confidence. She says she didn’t talk to people much at lunch last year, but she now feels more respected by others and more comfortable in social situations. She was thrilled to be invited to a Discord server where she is able to communicate with a large group of peers from school. She was one of the first to be invited to the group that has grown to 18. It has also connected her with them in a way that allows her to sometimes play online computer games with them as well.

Nicole is also enjoying more elective options at school . She has been taking a CTE class where she gets to learn and practice a variety of coding languages. She says HTML is her favorite and that she finds Python boring. She has also really enjoyed learning ASL this year. She finds it fascinating and fun to learn. Theater is still one of her favorite electives. She just finished performing as Olivia in a 90s adaptation of 12th Night. She loves to be on stage and wants to get into community theater.

Nicole describes her current musical preferences as Punk Rock, Experimental, Synth-pop, 80s, and 90s. Some of her favorite bands are Belle and Sebastian, Gorillaz, Stars, and Arcade Fire. She named “No Cars Go” as one of her current favorite songs.

Some of her favorite games to play are Roblox and Streets of Rogue. She also likes to play Lethal Company with her friends and enjoys retro gaming and JackBox Games. She has recently started watching and enjoying Trigun, a Japanese manga series that her friends introduced to her.

Other things that Nicole likes to do on computers/tablets are to draw digital art and experiment with digital audio. She likes the fun and creative sounds of the synthesizer and would love to have her own synthesizer to experiment with.  She also  likes AI chatting and Reddit. Her favorite things on Reddit are absurd and amusing things like a group named “food stapled to trees.”

Nicole is still fascinated by medicine and fashion. She likes to read books about diseases, contagion, immunology, plagues, and ancient medicine. She enjoys designing outfits on Roblox and experimenting with different looks in real life. She especially likes modern/steampunk/medieval style clothing. Nicole is jealous of some of her sister Charlotte’s medieval clothing accessories and wishes to spend more time at thrift stores looking for unique clothing items and accessories.

Nicole read through and studied the driver’s ed manual and took several online practice tests before declaring that she was ready to take the test.  She passed it on her first attempt, but hasn’t had much opportunity for driving lessons yet.  I’m perfectly happy to take our time working towards her driver’s license.

Nicole loves Asian food and Asian treats.  She loves to try news foods, particularly foods from other cultures. Ramune soda is one of her favorites, but she also really likes Pocky and Popin’ Cookin.  She loves fancy drinks like sodas or hot chocolate with flavoring and whipped cream. She likes Funions and good beef jerky as well.

Nicole loves animals and nature and still enjoys finding interesting insects.  She likes to observe animals, but she usually wants to interact with them as well. I think she dreams of Sleeping Beauty/Snow White moments where she convinces a wide variety of forest animals to trust her enough to eat out of her hand and let her pet them as she tells them about her life experiences and I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if they helped her sew some new outfits. 

Nicole loves to dance and she’s got some sweet moves.  She is not a wallflower, even if she’s all by herself she will usually be out on the dance floor dancing her heart out.  Perhaps I’ve only seen her dance with timid boys, but when I’ve seen her dance with a boy, she usually takes the lead which results in lots of fancy twists and twirls.

Speaking of boys, Nicole has had an interesting year on that front. She has enjoyed a few romantic gestures from young men seeking her approval. She also had her second experience with a boy asking her to be his girlfriend which she walked back the next day. I think it’s hard to know what to do in the moment, but she’s trying to avoid an exclusive boyfriend/girlfriend situation. Luckily her current mutual crush is of the same mind. There’s a pressure to pair off, but it feels like going from 0-60 to be in an exclusive relationship before you’ve even been on an official date. We’ve had several conversations about it lately and she likes the idea of dating and developing stronger friendships with potential. Hopefully she can still have lots of exciting romantic moments without committing to exclusivity just yet.

I adore Nicole and am glad that I get to be her mother, even if I get the occasional eye roll or hug avoidance. Here is what I wrote about her last year.

Thomas is in his last year of elementary school (6th grade).  He is enjoying his 4th year in ALL (accelerated class).  Most of his classmates have been in the same class all 4 years which means they know each other well and have a lot of inside jokes.  Thomas has become good friends with many of his classmates.  His current best friends list includes Nate, Ian, Matthew, William, Davey, and Christian.

He’s looking forward to Jr. High, maybe mostly because he will be at the same school as his sister Ila.  He is also ready for a change of pace and a new experience.  He is not looking forward to getting up earlier (Jr high starts over an hour earlier than elementary school.)

Thomas gets up and gets ready for school completely on his own.  He packs his own lunch and makes his own breakfast and heads out to the bus stop. Usually he is up and ready early enough to play on his computer before school. He communicates with his friends and plays with them online as well.

Thomas’s favorite computer games are Terraria, Stardew Valley, Starbound, and Raft. His favorite books are Keeper of the Lost Cities, The Unwanteds, Mihael Vey, and Artemis Fowl. Thomas likes to play card games like Poker, Egyptian Rat Screw, Uncultured Swine, and Golf.  He likes to play Jackbox Games and Chess. He enjoys jumping on the trampoline and swinging on our backyard swing.

In January Thomas left primary behind and joined the Young Men’s organization.  He is excited for all the new opportunities.  He was glad to go to the Temple for the first time almost as soon as he could.  He thinks passing the sacrament is really great.  He is serving as the 2nd counselor in the Decon’s quorum presidency.

Thomas likes to be silly and joke around. He has made up a variety of little songs and taught them to his friends at school.  Some of them are modifications of well known songs, but he has his own original creations as well.  His longest and most creative jingle is about him working in a variety of jobs, but losing each job by doing crazy things.

He has a good relationship with all his siblings. He enjoys a special bond with Isaac since they’re the only boys and they share a room.  He has always been tight with Ila who is closest to him in age. When either of them has a friend over, they always include each other. He likes to play a made up choose your own adventure game with Nicole which he calls “the Bakerling Trials.” He enjoyed discussing plot ideas with Charlotte as she was writing a short story for her creative writing class and he was so impressed with her story that he retold her story for his school storytelling competition. He also shares Charlotte’s fascination with weapons and desire to own a variety of them. One of his favorite things is walking with his siblings to the local grocery store to buy treats.

Much like his siblings, Thomas is an avid cat lover.  He enjoys petting cats, watching them do ridiculous things, and wearing cat themed clothing.

Thomas enjoys being with family.  He loves that he can visit his grandparents across the street whenever he wants and has been known to stop over for frozen treats regularly. 

Some new experiences from this year included getting to fly a small airplane, working the concession stand at a BYU football game (and the Stadium of Fire/Journey concert), flying to Texas for a weekend with his mom in which he learned that he loves moving sidewalks, and learning to tie his own tie.

I am glad that Thomas is part of my family and I love him tremendously.  Here is what I wrote about him last year.

Charlotte is 18 and a senior in high school.  If she can make it through her last semester without failing anything (and complete one packet), then she will graduate in May. She has filled her senior year with creative classes. She took woodworking, mythology,and sewing first semester.  Now she’s taking Jewelry making, studio art, creative writing, film literature, life activity, seminary, French, and Chemistry.

Charlotte is not sure what she wants to do after high school.  She is an aspiring author and has been working on writing her own fiction novel.  She has a group of friends who are all aspiring authors that she communicates with on a discord server.  They also make plans and meet together in person or on video chats.  They love to discuss aspects of the characters that they’re developing, plot ideas, character arcs and other such things.  It’s interesting to me to hear them say things about their characters such as “she has a better fashion sense than me” because it makes me wonder about a character that can surpass her creator in sense of style.

Charlotte enjoys drawing.  She taught herself to draw through nearly constant doodling at school and home.  She is also an amateur art critic. She will often say “a child didn’t draw that” and then go on to explain why as we’re watching a show that has just shown a “child’s artwork.” She likes to look at art and talk about it.  There are a few movies that she enjoys because of the artwork in the movie. Here are some of her drawings:

Charlotte enjoys being creative.  She has grand ideas about things that she wants to make.  Nowadays, most people generally find someone on the internet who has already successfully made a thing and piggyback off of their creations.  Charlotte creates her ideas from scratch.  She sketches out her ideas and often has to work her way through a variety of challenges to get her project right.  This year her idea was to make some wings that would move when she pulled a string. She was very particular about how she wanted the feathers to change the way that they pointed depending on whether the wings were opened or closed.  

Charlotte got her first job in April  working as a front end courtesy clerk at a local grocery store.  She bags groceries, collects carts from the parking lot and returns them to the store, sweeps the isles, puts items away (go backs), and cleans the bathrooms. After her first 4 hour shift, she said that she thought baggers should have chairs, but it sounded like she said badgers should have chairs which is why we are referring to her position as ‘badger’ instead of bagger, also because it’s much more fun to say.

Charlotte has two groups of friends that she enjoys spending time with. The first group includes friends that she has had for a long time, including her first best friend that she made after moving here more than 10 years ago.  We refer to them as her DnD friends, because they met  together every week for more than a year to play Dungeons and Dragons.  They still try to meet up weekly, but several of them graduated from high school last year and are now away at college so they often have to meet up online.  They also don’t play DnD anymore, much to Charlotte’s disappointment.  Last summer they took a road trip together to Colorado to go to a Meowwolf immersive experience. They planned it all out and divided up meal assignments, found a place to stay, and binge listened to “Welcome to Nightvale” on the the way up and “The Magnus Archives” on the way home as they drove. Several of her “DnD friends” are part of that aspiring writer discord server that I mentioned earlier. Most (maybe all) of the girls in that group are very creative and excel at making things and enjoy drawing.  They are very talented girls and I am impressed with their artwork and creations.             

Charlotte’s second friend group is affectionately referred to as her “swine friends.” She met a girl from her school at girl’s camp in a writing class.  They found that they have a lot in common since they both enjoy drawing and writing.  They started having lunch together at school and her friend introduced her to a new friend group with about  5-6 fellow students who all eat lunch together in the back of the library.  They became known as “swine friends” because they would often play a card game at lunch called Uncultured Swine.  One member of the group bought everyone in the group Jackets that say “Cultured Swine” and he bought one “Uncultured Swine” jacket for one member of the group. The group is composed of 2 girls and 5-6 boys. They go out for food, watch movies, or play games together. Charlotte has been introducing them to Dungeons and Dragons and they have started their first campaign together with Charlotte as the DM (Dungeon Master).

Charlotte enjoys listening to music and audio drama podcasts. He favorite bands are a Canadian indie pop/rock band called Stars, Radical face which is categorized as folk/electronic, and The Crane Wives which describe themselves as a “home grown indie-folk outfit from Grand Rapids, Michigan that defies musical stereotypes.” Her favorite podcasts are Malevolent, the Magnus Archives, and Welcome to Nightvale.

Charlotte has recently developed an interest in thrift shopping.  She has started to identify a style that she likes which I would describe as a mix of medieval/steampunk/gothic/cosplay.  She likes things made out of leather like boots and coats.  She also likes things like pirate shirts and interesting hats.

Charlotte continues to be fascinated by weapons. She used her first paycheck from her job to buy herself a custom made sword.  She is proud of her knife collection and has recently purchased herself a compound bow.  She hopes to set up her own ax throwing and archery range in the backyard.

Charlotte still carries a set of chopsticks with her at all times.  Some of her favorite foods are sushi, Thai food, Hawaiian Haystacks, peaches and cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese with fresh tomatoes and basil, hummus, pepper jelly with fancy cheese and crackers, and honey walnut shrimp. She does not like melted cheese or American cheese.

Charlotte enjoys puzzles, cat petting, drawing, reading, archery, exploring, watching things burn, road trips, and being out in nature as long as it’s not too cold outside.

Here is what I wrote about Charlotte last year. I am greatful to have such a creative and fun daughter and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for my newest adult child!

Ila is now 14 and in the 8th grade.  English is her favorite class this year and she loves to read.  She’s an incredibly fast reader.  She will sometimes check out two 400-500 page books from the school library before school, finish them during the day somehow (I’m not sure how she can find the time while in class), and then return them after school and check out the next two 400-500 page books. Some of her favorite book series are: The Unwanteds, Keeper of the Lost Cities, Land of Stories, and Fablehaven.

She is in her 2nd year as a percussionist in the Jr High band.  She tried a photography class this year, but didn’t like it very much.  She is excited to try out peer tutoring and ceramics this semester.

Ila’s obsession with cats continues.  She says that she knows that God loves her because he made the perfect orange cat for her.  He knew she would need him to comfort her when she feels sad.  In addition to real cats, of which she is not allowed to collect unlimited amounts, she collects plush cats.  She particularly likes to collect what she calls “sprinkle cats.” She calls them that because they are plush cats that are fat and they “look like giant sprinkles.”  She also has lots of cat shirts, cat jewelry, and other cat accessories.

Ila enjoys spending time with her siblings. She has a good relationship with each of her siblings and enjoys spending time with them. She shares a room with Charlotte and they enjoy late night talks and excursions to the grocery store during the daytime.  Thomas is the sibling that she plays computer games with the most. She also enjoys being around extended family and looks forward to seeing grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. 

Ila likes to spend time with her friends.  Some of her favorite things to do with friends are walking to Dairy Queen together, walking around the mall, watching musicals or plays together, playing computer games, going to a trampoline park, playing card games/board games, or just hanging out. Because Ila tends to be shy and quiet, she usually prefers to hang with her friends one on one more than being together in a big group. Ila’s best friends are Tim, Addy, Elena, Cecily, Evie, and Isaac.

Ila enjoys playing chess.  She plays chess online, but prefers to play on a real board.  She recently started going to an after school chess group. She enjoys card games, board games, and computer games.  Her favorite computer games are Cat Quest, Cat Quest 2, People Playground, Stardew Valley, and Terraria. She likes to draw, paint, and bake.  

Ila loves the outdoors.  She likes to explore, go on walks, go swimming, have water fights, and  jump on the trampoline in the backyard.  She typically chooses to walk home from school and stops to pet every cat she encounters along her walk. 

For years, Ila has been an extremely picky eater.  She is diagnosable as a “selective eater.”  She has eaten a limited variety of foods since her fist bites of solid foods and her diet expands very slowly. In anticipation of our trip to Europe this summer, she has been forcing herself to take a bite of every dinner in hopes that she will be able to eat the new foods on our trip.

Oh, and she got braces this year:

Ila is a kind and compassionate girl. She likes to help others.  She loves children and enjoys taking care of children and babies. She never forgets to hug me goodnight and I am grateful to be her mother.

Here is what I wrote about her last year.

Nicole completed her first year of High School. She enjoyed the increased freedom of high school where she had the flexibility to sit where she wanted for lunch instead of being required to eat in the cafeteria.  Nicole has always hated school cafeterias so that was a good change for her.  She also got to know many upper grade students that she didn’t know before and has enjoyed some new friendships this year.

High school dances were a new fun thing for Nicole.  She was excited to be asked by a boy to go to the Halloween dance which happened at the end of the day during school hours.  The same boy invited her to go to the Winter Formal with him. After the dance, she said it was the best night of her life. We encouraged her to not date any one boy exclusively so she made plans with a different boy for prom.   

Nicole loves music and enjoys dancing and singing.  Last summer she went to For the Strength of Youth (like a church summer camp for teens known as FSY). She texted me after the first night that she had won the dance competition and danced with 2 different boys.  By the end of the week, she reported several fun experiences and she came in 2nd place for the final dance competition.

Nicole says her taste in music has changed some this year, though she still loves a lot of older music and complains about modern music.  She says that she’s more into ‘synth’ music and really likes Electric Light Orchestra.

Nicole’s interest in fashion has continued to blossom.  She got her ears pierced over Spring Break and has enjoyed creating entire outfits around some of her new earrings.  She loves to have a theme for her outfits and only wishes she had an infinite supply of clothing to accessorize with. I’m glad that the daughter who used to compose the most extreme, mismatched, clashing outfits, now understands how to match and coordinate in a way that no longer offends the eye.

She has started studying her driver’s ed manual in preparation for getting her learner’s permit, but I think we’ll take our time getting to the point where I feel comfortable letting her drive anywhere outside of a parking lot.  She has also started talking about getting a job and thinking about where she’d like to apply for her first job.

The insect world still fascinates Nicole. She has become more selective about the insects that she’ll collect.  She passed up two perfectly good cockroaches that I found outside yesterday, but was delighted by the swallowtail caterpillar.  Some of her more unique bug interactions this year included trying to teach a grasshopper to skateboard and attempting to feed a praying mantis lunchmeat.

Nicole is still very interested in medicine and diseases.  She enjoys studying books with descriptions of causes, treatments, and symptoms.  She has fun trying to diagnose people from her hypochondriac’s guide to deadly diseases.  She also has a book about quackery which describes odd and sometimes dangerous ways people used to try to cure and treat disease that she has read over and over.

Nicole has always enjoyed drama and was excited to play the role of Cecily in “The Importance of Being Earnest.” She has always loved having an audience and hopes to continue preforming. She started writing a musical in hear head, I think it had something to do with aliens blending in and then falling in love on Earth.

Nicole loves Japanese treats, especially Ramune soda and Popin Cookin.  Panda Express is her favorite place to eat. She still loves eggs and bacon for breakfast, mini corndogs, imitation crab, and bagel bites.  Sodas and fancy drinks bring her much joy.

Nicole appreciates sleeping with a cat in her bed and enjoys going across the street to pet her grandparent’s cats.  She loves all animals.  She has spent many hours watching and trying to feed some deer that have been living in an orchard near our home.  Whenever I couldn’t find her, the orchard is one of the first places that I’d look and I’d usually find her trying to entice a deer to eat out of her hands.

Roblox is probably Nicole’s favorite computer game.  She enjoys trying to make games that others would want to play and she enjoys interacting with others from the comfort of home.  She also likes to try the games that other people make in Roblox.  She also really enjoys Jackbox games, and People Playground.

Nicole finds AI fascinating and enjoys having conversations with AI and role playing games with AI.  She has experimented with AI chat rooms and AI generated discord servers.

Nicole loves to laugh and always enjoys a good meme.

Nicole also enjoys exploring the concept of Liminal space and Backrooms. I had to ask a lot of questions and do some internet research to understand this concept well enough to define it.  It’s basically an eerie inbetween space, sometimes a disquieting image that just feels off or unsettling. Liminal space has developed into a particular aesthetic in itself. It includes empty paths, hallways, waiting rooms, lobbies, or even abandoned malls carrying an “eerie and unsettling vibe.” Nicole’s first attempt to describe it was “like falling through the floor into an empty room with yellow walls, moist carpet,and a buzzing sound.” Nicole says she enjoys reading about and looking at pictures of these types of spaces.  Many years ago she enjoyed watching Gravity Falls and started imagining mysteries that only she could see all over her school.  I think the mysterious, unsettling nature of that idea that appealed to her then, has matured into this liminal space fascination that she enjoys now.

Nicole is full of life.  She is engaging and creative.  She is fun and kind.  I enjoy Nicole on many levels and enjoy being her mom.  Here is what I wrote about her last year.

Thomas is in 5th grade and halfway through his 3rd year in the ALL (accelerated) class.  He has always just learned things with very little effort.  I think maybe it makes him a little impatient because he races through his work and doesn’t want to take the time for neatness, particularly with things like art.

Thomas is enjoying learning about US History this year.  He has been working on the great American 5th grader challenge. He has to memorize the Gettysburg address, all the states and capitals, the preamble to the constitution, all the presidents of the US in order, the pledge of allegiance, and be able to write and spell all the words in the pledge of allegiance.  When his brother moved out, Thomas cleaned off the desk in their room and declared that he felt like he made the Louisiana purchase because he gained more than 50% more desk space.  He also pointed out how Thomas Jefferson made the purchase and he purchased the land from the French likewise Thomas Cochran gained more desk space from his brother who will be speaking French as a missionary.

Thomas has had a special relationship with his big brother, Isaac.  He was particularly sad as the day of Isaac’s leaving approached.  After two weeks of home MTC, Thomas assumed that Isaac would sleep at home during his Provo MTC time and became sad when he discovered that he was actually saying goodbye sooner than expected.  Thomas enjoyed getting a chance to be Isaac’s mission companion during some of Isaac’s home MTC days. Despite the time he expected to have being cut short, Thomas has been enjoying the freedom of having his own room. Thomas and Nicole spent some time together planning out the perfect hangout space to create on the top bunk.  By the time they were done, Nicole had an Amazon cart with $80 of items including neon signs, curtains, and new blankets.

Thomas continues to claim that hotwheels cars appeal to him even though he rarely plays with them.  He does still enjoy Legos.  Mostly he likes to make stop motion videos with the things that he builds. He likes playing chess and playing some card games. He is particularly good at Egyptian Rat Screw which is a card slapping game.

Thomas recently installed DouLingo and started learning Russian. He chose Russian because he wanted to learn something different and he likes that they use a different kind of alphabet with Cyrillic letters.

Thomas anticipates things with excitement, he is almost always anticipating something.  He is often telling me how many days and sometimes how many hours until some exciting event happens..  Lately he has been tracking his birthday, but he also keeps track of when the next family birthday will occur or how many days till an appointment, field trip, or celebration. He eagerly anticipated his first chance to shoot a BB gun and became extra excited when a time was finally set.  

Thomas has started participating in D&D every Thursday with his friends.  I think there are 10 boys in the group. After school they walk over to one of the boy’s houses. Thomas likes to bring a bag of cheddar jalapeno cheetos to share with his friends each week.  It has become a fun social event and a good bonding opportunity for all the boys. 

Thomas enjoys socializing with his friends and siblings. Thomas’s best friends right now are Christian, Matthew, Nate, William, Kaden, Davey and Ian. Thomas is good at finding unique ways to connect with his friends online while he is at home.  They started with having group conversations on Google Docs, but have moved on to zoom calls, google meets, and communicating through steam games.

One of Thomas’s favorite things to do is to run across the street and collect treats from his grandparents.  Sometimes he fills his pockets with otter pops and then puts them in the freezer at home so that he can enjoy his stash for an extended period.  He also likes to bring his friends across the street for treats.  I think he enjoys having this extra special privilege that he can share with all his friends.

Thomas’s favorite foods are mostly sandwiches.  He likes when I make a giant sandwich with a loaf of french bread.  His other favorites include egg and bacon sandwiches and grilled cheese. 

His current favorite computer games are Terraria, Stardew Valley and Slime Rancher. His friends pitched in to get him a game called Stray that he has been enjoying the last few days. 

He still hates to dress up in costumes of any kind. This year for Halloween he dressed as “future Thomas” which meant he wore a hat and glasses that lit up.

Thomas is interested in guns, crossbows, and weapons of all types.  Since his sister received a battle ax for her birthday, Thomas has asked for a variety of different weapons. Unfortunately for him, guns and weapons are a topic that can get him into trouble at school and other places so his parents have avoided supporting these interests to any great measure.

Thomas and Ila are still great friends.  They still enjoy playing together and insist on inviting each other to their birthday parties.  Recently Thomas has started enjoying spending time with Nicole on occasion and has matured enough to be more forgiving of her occasional lapses in social skills.

Thomas loves cats and considers it a personal insult when people say unkind things about them.  He was jealous of his sister’s collection of cat shirts and asked for some of his own.  Now his wardrobe contains enough cat shirts that he can wear one every day. His daily wardrobe includes jeans, a cat shirt, and a hoodie.

Inevitably my early risers always start to want to sleep in just before they are required to start getting up earlier for school and Thomas is no exception.  The boy who was always the first to wake up naturally and put his backpack out at the bus stop 2 hours early, is now barely waking up in time to say goodbye before I leave and sometimes choosing to sleep in as long as he can before school. He still packs his own lunch and makes his own breakfast every day and I appreciate his independence in those tasks.

Thomas is a great son who enjoys being part of our family. He likes to have fun with his siblings and friends. He tries to always be kind and I am glad that I get to be his mom! Here is what I wrote about him last year.

Charlotte really enjoys a good book.  Fantasy is probably her favorite genre and she has been reading through Brandon Sanderson’s vast collection of books.  She has read The Stormlight Archives, Wax and Wayne series, Elantris, Warbreaker, Mistborn series, and The Rithmatist.  Her fandom led her to register for and attend DragonSteel (the comic con style convention for fans of Brandon Sanderson). She borrowed her friend’s homemade mist cloak and wore it proudly as she explored the exhibit halls and sat in on some readings.  

Charlotte is an aspiring author and has been working on writing her own book.  She enjoys discussing book ideas and character development ideas with her friends. She describes the book she is currently writing as a “Fantasy with complicated lore involving the 4th dimension.”

Charlotte’s other passion is drawing.  She doodles whenever she has to pay too much attention to something to read. She has been practicing her skill with digital art and does most of her doodling on her drawing tablet.  Several of her friends are also talented artists and they enjoy sharing their artwork with each other and discussing techniques and ideas.  Charlotte is currently working on drawing characters and developing her style and technique.

Charlotte recently discovered a love for history and historical time periods.  She enjoyed her history class so much last year that she signed up for additional history classes from the same teacher this year.  Her ancient world history class was her favorite class last semester.  She enjoys learning about the medieval time period and is particularly interested in medieval weapons and accessories. 

Charlotte aspires to have a collection of really realistic costumes and weapons. She is creative and ambitious in her ideas.  For Halloween she designed and made her own fawn costume.  She designed some stilts and commissioned her grandfather to build them for her.  She glued fur and moss to her pants, cut apart a shirt and turned it into a vest. She created horns and hooves from foil and paint and used chalk and glue to put it all together.   She proudly wore it to school and to her friend’s house.  It was a great accomplishment to take her project all the way from drawings to completion.

Charlotte gathers with her friends weekly for Dungeons and Dragons campaigns.  Her character for this campaign is a Tabaxi named “Horizon at Dawn”.  Which is a cat person who loves adventure and whose main weapon is a scimitar.   Charlotte’s friend group is very creative and share many common interests, unfortunately they go to a variety of different schools and none of the girls go to school with Charlotte. Luckily, Charlotte connected with a girl who goes to her school (Bree) in a creative writing class at girl’s camp. Charlotte and Bree have become good friends and enjoyed eating lunch together at school every day and working on several group projects together.

Charlotte is incredibly skilled with chopsticks.  She can eat (or drink) anything with chopsticks and usually carries a set of chopsticks with her everywhere she goes.  At Girl’s camp, over the summer, she ate all of her meals with chopsticks. The most challenging things she managed to eat with chopsticks were a cup of hot cocoa and an apricot.

Charlotte’s favorite food is sushi.  She also enjoys other asian foods like Thai food and Chinese food. 

Charlotte does not play computer games very often these days. She plays Terraria occasionally and enjoys jackbox games with the family, but she spends most of her freetime reading or drawing. She enjoys watching shows or movies together.  Her favorite shows are Stranger Things and Gravity Falls and she has enjoyed watching The Walking Dead with me.  I love having a show to watch with Charlotte.  She has a good sense of humor and it’s fun to have show related inside jokes with her.  

Charlotte is a junior in high school this year.  She succeeded in getting her Driver’s license on October 22nd.  I think she enjoyed the freedom of driving to school and to her friend’s house, until the car that she had access to was destroyed in November. If you or your kids get involved in a traffic accident, you should look for a car accident attorney Michigan that can help you file a claim. A lawyer for car accidents has the necessary expertise to ensure that your rights will be protected when filing a claim. The car accident attorney Sacramento will guide you and may give you valuable insights to help your situation.

Charlotte enjoys listening to music and says she likes “a lot of stuff” when asked about  her favorite songs/artists.

Charlotte is definitely still an animal lover, though she mostly expresses her love for animals through her drawings.  She is always trying to get as many cats as possible to sit on her lap at the same time.  She calls out to any cat who enters the room, trying to entice them to her lap.  She even anxiously invites cats to join her when she already has two furballs on her lap.

Charlotte’s main considerations in clothing are comfort and pockets.  She wants to wear the most comfortable clothes and be able to fit an entire bottle of soda and possibly a few knives in all of her pockets. She doesn’t care much for brushing or her hair and has no interest in makeup. She celebrated her first day of Christmas break by having her braces removed.  Although she has several months of additional treatment, she appreciates having her month not filled with metal and the opportunity to eat sticky things once again!

Charlotte is a deep thinker with a good sense of humor and I truly enjoy spending time with her. Here is what I wrote about her last year.

I always start off writing about my kids by reading what I wrote about them last year.  Sometimes it feels like they change a lot over the course of a year, other times I almost feel like I could just repost what I wrote last year.  For Ila, I feel like it’s a little bit of both.

She is still a girl who loves cats more than just about anything.  She adores her fluffy orange kitty, Rillian and he loves her right back. He greets her when she gets home and sleeps in her bed every night. She has been known to take twice as long walking home from school if she meets a nice cat along the way. Most of her favorite clothes have cats on them, although she’s currently in a phase where she loves long sleeved shirts and she doesn’t have any with cats on them.  I guess most people call this phase winter, but she has commented to me multiple times recently how much she loves long sleeved shirts.

Looking back over the last year, I missed writing last year about Ila’s participation in Ballroom dance which took place during her last year of elementary school.  She convinced her friend, Tim to sign up to be her dance partner. She was very nervous about preforming, but she enjoyed both practicing and preforming.

The biggest change for Ila is that she started Jr. High school.  She was dreading leaving behind the safe and familiar elementary school experience for the scary halls of the Jr. High.  Fortunately, her experience has been way better than she expected.  She has actually enjoyed Jr. High and says that it’s way better than 6th grade. Ila enjoyed walking to school with her YW group and back home from school with her friend, Evie.  Now that the weather has turned colder, the other girls are all riding the bus and Ila has been spoiled with a ride to school every morning, but she still choose to walk home every day with a friend.

Ila was cast as the Autumn Fairy in the Jr High school musical, Shrek.  It was a fun and memorable experience, but it took over her life from the beginning of September until the first week of December.  She had rehearsal for over two hours every weekday for over 3 months! She became very good friends with Evie during their many hours of rehearsal and their leisurely walks home from the school.  She also learned that she isn’t a fan of fake eyelashes and prefers her no make-up look. Although she’s still firmly in the no-make-up camp, she has started to take some time to make sure her hair is well brushed and looks nice.

Ila has enjoyed playing percussion in her Jr. High Band.  She says her favorite Jr. High classes are band, Science, CCA (College and Career Awareness), and history.  Ironically she hasn’t had the history class yet, but she’s already designated it as a favorite because she decided last year that she really likes history. She also took drama and Spanish as electives. She has added doodling on her arms and legs during class to her list of hobbies.

Ila is still very good friends with Tim.  They were both in the musical together, but since rehearsals took up so much of their time, they haven’t spent as much time together outside of school.  She has improved friendships with some of the YW in her class this year, but the biggest change was when she became very good friends with Evie.  They have spent every available moment together after school and on weekends for months. I have loved seeing that friendship blossom, but Ila is now feeling heartbroken as Evie moved to Texas during Christmas break.

Ila has enjoyed her second year in our church Young Woman’s organization.  She started off the year as the class president and has especially enjoyed having the girls in her grade join the class in January.  It was her first time ever having the girls from her school grade in the same church class and she’s not looking forward to advancing to the older class in January.

Ila continues to be a deeply caring person who doesn’t like to see anyone feel sad. She is a good friend to her brothers and sisters.  They love to be together and almost never argue or fight.  Thomas is a lot more confident when he has Ila by his side.

Ila still enjoys reading, and has enjoyed having access to a school library where she can check out books. She consumes books quickly and eagerly, but sometimes struggles to find a new book or a new series to read and spends significantly less time reading when she’s not in the middle of a series.  She has started trying to write her own book.  She says that she’s writing two at once.  She is writing “a futuristic magic book” and “a book where the world is breaking because of magic.”

Ila’s food preferences haven’t changed at all this year.  Salmon is still her favorite dinner.  She still likes Kroger brand frozen pepperoni pizza better than any other pizza. Chicken strips are preferred to chicken nuggets and hamburgers and tacos are not ok.  She still only likes one kind of potato chips (Lays Wavy Original) and is reluctant to try any new foods. She does like to bake.

In her freetime, Ila likes to hang out with friends, play computer games, pet cats, and watch shows.  She says her favorite shows are Bob’s Burgers, Simpsons, and Home Movies, although admittedly she hasn’t watched a large variety of shows. She loves to spend time with family and play games.  She likes to go on walks, ride scooters, and try out the electric skateboard.  

Ila is a kind and loving girl and I am lucky to be her mom!

It’s been a big year for our oldest son.  Here is what I wrote about him last year.

Isaac graduated from High School at the end of May.  He has always been smart, but he hasn’t always been very good at completing assignments and turning them in on time.  This meant that instead of easily sliding his way to graduation, he found himself scrambling to complete some neglected online courses while preparing for two AP tests. Although he may not have graduated with a top GPA, he was able to complete enough concurrent enrollment classes and AP classes that he should be starting college with credits for Music, French, Calculus, Statistics, Physics, and Chemistry!

Isaac completed his second full year of having his driver’s license with a clean driving record. I have enjoyed having an extra driver around, especially since he took care of all the trips to and from High school for himself and his sister.  His dad appreciated having someone he could send out for a burger run when they both craved hamburgers.  

As much as Isaac enjoyed the freedom of driving, when the weather is nice, his favorite mode of transportation is our fastest electric scooter. He made a special request to ride the electric scooter for his last week of high school and then rode it to his HS graduation with a trailer attached to transport his french horn, cap, and gown.  In case of any accidents or injuries while riding, Columbia, SC personal injury lawyers can provide legal assistance to help you navigate the aftermath and pursue compensation if necessary. They specialize in advocating for the rights of accident victims and ensuring they receive the compensation they deserve for their injuries and losses. Also, seeking advice from a personal injury lawyer can help ensure your rights are protected and you receive proper compensation for any damages incurred. Injured in Palm Bay, FL? The personal injury lawyers from Kogan & DiSalvo law firm can help.

Isaac enjoys listening to music and enjoyed his last year of band.  Although he opted out of the Marching Band for his senior year so that he could focus on AP classes and those neglected online courses, he still enjoyed playing in the concert band. The band became a great social outlet for Isaac throughout high school, and he really enjoyed the tour. With the help of event ticketing software, the event was organized at Disneyland in California.

Computers and technology continue to be a key interest for Isaac.  He has enjoyed dabbling in computer programming and says he finds coding to be relaxing and fun.  He loves to learn about and try any new technology.  He follows news on space and technology and continues to be fascinated and excited about all the new advances in those fields.

Isaac enjoys flying drones in interesting places and capturing pictures from different perspectives.  He’s always up for an adventure that involves a chance to fly a drone.  The first social activity that he arranged at college was to invite a friend to come take sunset pictures at a local park.  Since then, he has ridden out to a variety of locations around town to take drone pictures from different perspectives.

Isaac enjoyed his Government class this year and he has started to be somewhat interested in politics.  He started following news about the war in Ukraine and watching daily detailed news updates on a Youtube channel by a former Navy Seal.  

Additionally, check out this blog on 9 family day out tips, including The Budget: Every outing costs money, and as things are not getting cheaper, make sure that you have enough money to cover the entire cost.
 

Isaac has always been a kind and considerate older brother.  He helps his siblings with computer problems and games.  He plays with them and encourages them.  He will gladly host a game for a brother or sister to play with friends. He has even been known to spend his own allowance on a game for a sibling to play along with him.  Isaac is generous with his time and never fights or argues with his siblings. 

Isaac is currently working through a plan to step his way up into independent adult life.  He started off with an opportunity to attend a For the Strength of Youth (FSY) conference.  FSY is a “five-day event that includes activities, devotionals, and classes designed to help strengthen faith in Jesus Christ and provide opportunities for youth to grow spiritually, socially, physically, and intellectually.” Isaac loved the experience and felt like it was enriching both spiritually and socially.  He appreciated having an opportunity to go live with a roommate that he had never met in preparation for the next step of his plan.  The next step was to attend a summer term of college away from home at Brigham Young University-Idaho (BYU-I). 

I had assumed we’d start Isaac off easy with on campus housing and a meal plan at a college cafeteria, but when we toured BYU-I over spring break, we discovered both of those options were not available. He would have to live in an apartment off campus where he would shop for and cook all of his own meals. Isaac enjoys visiting a nearby store to pick up some stuff to cook. The store is similar to those that install shopfronts UK. In light of this new realization, we started having Isaac cook and assist with cooking dinner every night.  He did much of the cooking while I was in Europe at the beginning of the summer.  When I came home we picked out some of his favorite recipes and made them together.  We printed recipes for his own cookbook or copied favorite recipes from some of my cookbooks.  By the time he left for college towards the end of July, he felt fairly confident in the kitchen.

As Isaac has embarked on his summer of college, he has been making steps to be ready for the next part of his plan which is a desire to serve a full time mission for our church.  He will take two years off of college and go to an area assigned by the church to teach people about Jesus Christ and the restoration of His Church. Isaac has always been diligent about his church service and he is eager for a chance to serve.  We have hopes that the maturity gained through serving a mission will help him to overcome some of his weaknesses.  Specifically his shyness about approaching and talking to his peers as well as some of his less than perfect school related weaknesses.  In other words, we’re hoping the mission helps him mature enough to be successful in school on his own as well as in friendships and dating.

Isaac is a diligent and faithful young man and a wonderful son.  I feel blessed to be his mother.

Nicole just finished middle school and is officially a high schooler.  It’s really hard to believe that she’s old enough for high school.  She transferred over to Spectrum Academy (SA) one month into her 2nd grade year.  Although I’ve considered pulling her back to the public school over the years, I think we’re all fairly well settled on the idea of Nicole graduating from SA. It’s fun to see her in her element interacting with her peers, laughing and sharing inside jokes and enjoying being part of a group. They accept each other without reservation and appreciate each other’s differences. 

Last year was a particularly difficult year for her at school.  She had a lot of conflict with teachers and recieved school discipline regularly.  Her 8th grade year progressed smoothly with almost no conflict.  All her teachers were impressed with how much better 8th grade was for her than 7th grade.

Nicole loves fashion.  She likes to create a signature style every day using a theme or a color.  Her basic wardrobe is a shirt, a skirt, and leggings.  She has been adding vests, belts, and other accessories to create outfits that she feels represent her unique sense of style. She wants to stand out and be noticed and she feels like most people are lazy about their style.

Nicole continues to be fascinated by bugs.  I love to see and hear the joy she feels when she finds a particularly nice beetle.  She was beyond thrilled to find a katydid a while back, but she did not want to keep it in a container.  She was thrilled to have it crawl around on her arms.  One night she slept with the katydid and woke up devastated that it was nowhere to be found.  I had to send her to school a little distraught.  I decided to tidy up her bed in hopes of discovering what happened to her beloved friend.  I found the katydid amongst her blankets and she was able to continue loving it until it died.  A few weeks ago she found a June bug on the way to church and was thrilled.  She considered it a lucky find and wanted to keep it in her pocket through all 2 hours of church.  Luckily I was able to convince her to leave it in a special place outside of the building and she happily retrieved it after the meetings. Several nights later, I heard her sweet little voice at about 2 in the morning.  I went in to check on her and found that she was sleeping with and talking to the June bug, fortunately she was cuddled up to the container with the bug in it and didn’t have the June bug crawling free in her bed.  Over the last several weeks, some of the neighbor girls have brought her crickets in jars which she accepted joyfully.  Unfortunately her favorite thing is to have the bugs crawl on her and she does not appreciate my rule that she can only have jumping insects crawl on her outside.  Several times over the last week, I’ve checked in on her at night and found her talking to and loving an insect outside of it’s enclosure!

Nicole is passionate about music.  Music speaks to her soul and brings her joy.  She loves music from the 80s and 90s, especially rock anthems and metal.  She knows the words and sings along, often at the top of her lungs.  She loves music by Bon Jovi, David Bowie, and has too many favorites to name.  She loves to dance with energy and movement. 

Roblox is the primary game she plays on the computer.  She will also play a variety of steam games with her siblings.  She enjoys finding and sharing amusing memes and funny videos and is particularly interested in AI (artificial intelligence) generated content.

Nicole is at the age where boys have become interesting to her and she dreams of romance.  She imagines the movie style romances where she bumps into someone and music starts to play and they fall in love.  In real life she’s on the lookout and claims not to be too picky, but hopefully she will refine her taste at least a little as she gets a little experience.  Nicole is fairly open about how she feels and we all appreciate her candor.  She often makes us laugh with her open and sometimes amusing ideas about romance and boys.

Nicole seeks after uniqueness.  She wants to be interesting more than she wants to be trendy.  She likes to express opinions that are uncommon and enjoys the reactions she gets from such opinions.  The more unusual the opinion, the more appealing it becomes to her.

Nicole was invited to a summer school enrichment program in science either because of her interest in science or her aptitude for it.  They never specified which reason prompted her invitation, but she does enjoy learning scientific concepts.  She was thrilled to get a microscope for her birthday last year, but disappointed that she couldn’t see things at a cellular level through the scope.

Connected with her interest in science is her fascination with disease and medical knowledge. She likes to learn about the causes and symptoms of diseases. She has several books on medical diagnosis and treatments that she enjoys reading. She still enjoys using a starting symptom to investigate potential diseases people might have.  She says she was able to diagnose an adult at school one time with an accurate rare diagnosis.

Nicole is particularly good at entertaining children.  She has the ability to engage with them enthusiastically and to be flexible enough to avoid potential conflict.  Usually in situations where a young child would appreciate being entertained, Nicole will respond enthusiastically to my request to entertain the child and she will be a very giving and kind host. I’ve been amazed to see my autistic daughter demonstrating so many good social skills and being so good at relating to others. Just the other day I pointed out a shy younger boy that I knew and asked her if she’d invite him to play.  She made up a fun new game with him and they had a grand time together.  

Nicole enjoys our pet cats and they’ve become good friends to her.  In the mornings the cats love to go into her room with me to wake her up and they will walk all over her bed meowing at her and enjoying pets and loves from her.  Sometimes at night one of the cats will bring small stuffed offerings to her door and I’ll find a pile of small toys lovingly laid outside the door.

Some of Nicole’s favorite foods are Taco Bell soft tacos, “restaurant chicken”, Panda express honey walnut shrimp, and buttered noodles.  She usually requests a “traditional American breakfast” in the morning which means she wants eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast.  Special drinks have always been a favorite treat for her.  She likes mixed drinks, flavored water, or juice.  She also loves asian candies and sodas.  

Nicole is a delightful and kind girl.  She is enthusiastic about the things that interest her and eager to accept and love others.  I feel very privileged to be her mother.  I love watching her grow and mature and I genuinely enjoy her company. Here is what I wrote about her last year.

Thomas is now in the 4th grade and continues to enjoy his ALL (accelerated) class.  He is a naturally smart kid.  His math scores are in the 99th percentile compared against the national norm and all of his reading/fluency/comprehension scores are marked as “above goal.” It is still hard to interest him in reading just any book, but when he finds a series that he likes, he reads the whole series quickly.  Most of the time he just rereads his favorite books over and over again.  His favorite books series for the last few years is the 13 story treehouse series. He recently enjoyed reading Richard Paul Evans’s Michael Vey series and the Tom Gates series.

Thomas loves to play with friends and is often eager to play with a friend as soon as he gets home from school.  The ones he plays with the most at school and home are Christian, William, Davey, and Ian.  Periodically he gets a letter from his friend Kal who lives in Spanish Fork.  Thomas is always eager to write back and to set up a time to play together. Other friends that he enjoys playing with are Nate, Sean, Simon, and Louie.  Recently someone asked him if he has a hard time making friends and he responded “I don’t know” because he has never really had to put any effort into making friends. I guess there have always been lots of boys his age around and he just naturally relates to them and has fun.  I wish it were that easy for all my kids!

Thomas has developed a goofy playful personality that works well with his friends, but drives his older sister crazy.  He sings silly made up songs and does dance moves.  He has made up songs and taught them to all his friends at school.  He has even typed up some of his songs and printed out copies for people.

Thomas gets along best with his sister, Ila.  They have always watched out for each other and been there to cheer each other up.  They share books with each other and often play with friends together. They try to sit together on the bus and see each other at recess. I think it will be hard for them next year when Ila moves on to Jr. High.

Thomas reports that his favorite foods are chicken nuggets and pizza. He also enjoys grilled cheese sandwiches, eggs with toast, apples with peanut butter, and hotdogs. He hates vegetables of all kinds and considers being forced to eat them torture.  

He enjoys using his computer for a variety of things. He can do basic coding on scratch, set up or join Zoom meetings or Google Meets, and access school work via Canvas and other programs.  For his birthday he asked for a new keyboard and a second monitor.   His favorite computer games are Terraria, Stardew Valley, and TABS (Totally Accurate Battle Simulator).

Thomas enjoys building with Legos and he has enjoyed Hotwheels cars and tracks for years.  The thing he really wanted for Christmas was a new Hotwheels track.  We were worried that he’s starting to outgrow Hotwheels, but he insisted that he would play with it a lot.  He got the track for Christmas and did enjoy toting it around all day, but he hasn’t spent very much time using it.  It’s sad to say, but he might be getting to that age where toys just aren’t as much fun as they used to be.  It’s that transition age where you think you still want them, but have a hard time enjoying them for long.

Thomas enjoys playing chess with an actual chess board and online.

Last year I mentioned how he was getting used to masks, but was very particular about which ones he’d wear.  He’s still particular, but has lost his mask stamina.  Once he was allowed to take the mask off, he never looked back.  He will wear a mask when required for short periods of time, but if there’s an option to take off the mask, he definitely takes it.  He was the only family member who chose not to get vaccinated against covid. We forced the flu shot and he had a hard time with it.  The anxiety leading up to the shot and then the sore arm afterwards were enough for him.  When he was finally eligible for the covid vaccine he presented his case, explaining how all the friends who got covid got mild cases and he was more willing to get sick then get a vaccine.  By this point in the pandemic it felt wrong to hold him down and force it, so we honored his request.  Thomas did test positive for covid in January.  He had a fever one night and cold symptoms for about a week or two.

Thomas is my early riser.  He wakes up at 6:30 every morning, packs his lunch and has his lunchbox out at the bus stop (in our driveway) by 6:45.  The bus doesn’t come until about 8:53, but he gets really upset if he sleeps in as late as 7:00.  I love his independence and sense of responsibility and hope he continues to be so diligent into his teenage years.   

Thomas is particular about clothing.  He has his own school uniform.  He wears jeans, a t-shirt, and a hoodie to school every day.  He will not deviate from that outfit for as long as the weather is cool enough for hoodies.  He hates wearing coats and refuses to wear one, even when the temperature is well below freezing.  He claims the hoodie is warm enough, even though he wears it all day inside his classroom as well as outside at recess.  As soon as he gets home, he takes the hoodie off.  He does not like PJs and will sleep in his clothes every night unless we make him put on PJs.  He has always hated Pajama days at school.  I think he tolerates them now, but has never participated in one.  He hates all forms of dressing up.  Costumes for Halloween, school plays, or school activities are not acceptable in his book.

He likes cats.  I feel like he has been trained to be obsessed with them by his sisters.  He does enjoy petting them, playing with them, and observing them being ridiculous.  He enjoys cat memes and cat games with his sister.

Thomas loves to go across the street to his grandparent’s house for popsicles and treats.  He has been known to visit them several times a day.  He also loves to bring his friends to over for a treat as well. The frequency of visits and amount of friends he brings could sometimes be described as excessive by his mother.

Thomas inherited a BB gun from his great uncle through his grandfather.  He has been very excited about receiving the BB gun and can’t wait to shoot it for the first time. Once he heard that he was getting it, he asked about it nearly every day. 

Thomas races through all his assignments and art projects. He likes being done. He loves when I come into his classroom to teach art, but he does not want to take time to be neat or artistic.  

Thomas is a great kid and I’m lucky to be his mom.  Here is what I wrote about him last year.

Charlotte has spent most of the last year with her eyes glued to a book. She has read through the entire Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson; The Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series by Tad Williams; Neal Shusterman’s dystopian unwind series; Robin Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy, Animal Farm, To Kill a Mocking Bird, and is currently reading Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb.

When her eyes aren’t glued to a book, Charlotte is usually drawing. She has recently transitioned from doodling on paper to trying her hand at digital art. She likes to draw fantasy characters that are often andromorphic which are basically like a cross between animals and humans. Her drawings are generally in the style of realism with a little bit of a cartoonistic style.

Charlotte has joined a Dungeons and Dragons group that meets every Saturday. She developed a close friendship with the girls in the group and has really enjoyed creating and developing story lines with her group and has spent time writing an elaborate back story for her character. After developing a goat like character, Charlotte has developed a fascination with goats. Fawns are her favorite fantasy race and Kitsunes are her favorite mythical race.

Charlotte’s favorite foods are mostly Asian food and salads. She loves sushi, honey walnut chicken, and Thai food. She hates melted cheese and American cheese. She is quite good at eating with chopsticks and usually keeps a pair of emergency chopsticks with her at all times.

Charlotte has completed the coursework for driver’s ed. She’s not eager to get her license or to practice driving very much, but she recognizes the convenience and freedom of having a license, she’s just not in a big hurry. New drivers should learn where to find diesel mechanics who can help maintain their vehicles.

Charlotte listens to music on her earbuds whenever she’s not reading. She keeps a constantly changing playlist that includes a variety of older songs mixed with new stuff. When she hears a song she likes, she adds it to her playlist, when she gets sick of a song, she removes it so her playlist is always evolving. One of her current favorite band is Of Monsters and Men which is an an Icelandic indie folk/rock band.

Charlotte loves all animals and takes time to enjoy all the cats she encounters at home, at her grandparent’s house, or roaming the neighborhood.

Charlotte has wanted to dress up as a Kitsune for Halloween for years and was thrilled when her tails arrived in the mail. As a girl who is typically very much an introvert who seems to like to blend into the background with a book, her desire to have an elaborate costume seems a little out of place. She picked out fur at the fabric store and made her own ears and accessories to go with her tails and wore the whole costume to school complete with face paint.

Charlotte is a Sophomore in High school this year. She is glad to be out of the gloomy Jr High building and appreciates the more mature student body and the significant increase in natural light that the High School building has to offer. Her favorite classes this year have been History and English. She enjoys the fun teachers, inside jokes, and occasional debates in class. After her teacher told the class about receiving emails from a “possessed marmoset” Charlotte decided she needed to draw the new class mascot and drew the following picture:

Her favorite show is Stranger Things. She enjoys things that a creepy and/or mysterious. One of her favorite things to do is to sit and watch a fire burn. She loves the warmth and the way the flames dance as well as the way it looks when something turns from a solid object to ashes.

Charlotte likes to get dirty and hates shoes. She wore flipflops to school until the temperature dropped low enough that her feet were purple before finally donning some proper shoes. She earned the “Roughing it” award at girl’s camp for her constant lack of shoes.

Her only request for her 16th birthday was a battle ax. She is very proud of her battle ax and gets a big smile on her face when talking about it. I have to admit to being a little hesitant to buy it for her, but after realizing she was also of an age to start dating, perhaps it is an appropriate gift after all. I always get a follow up question from others about what my daughter will do with her battle ax which I’m not entirely sure how to answer. I think she will mostly have it hang on the wall, perhaps she will take it along as a prop for her D&D games, but she will always remember her insane request and receipt of a a very memorable 16th birthday gift.

In our family/church/culture, we don’t allow dating until age 16. Charlotte is excited to enter the world of dating and was happy to have her first date just two days after her 16th birthday.

Charlotte and I don’t see eye to eye on everything, but I always enjoy spending time with her and appreciate her good sense of humor. Here is what I wrote about her last year.

Ila is a girl who loves cats. I’d say it’s impossible to know Ila and not know that she’s obsessed with cats. She is almost always wearing something with a cat on it. She often responds with a quick Meow. All of her online identities are cat themed. She plays cat related games and obsesses over her own furry friend, Rillian who she refers to as her baby. She takes all negative comments towards cats personally as if they were said about her or intended to hurt her feelings.

Ila cares deeply about how everyone feels. She can’t handle seeing anyone sad. She has always been sensitive in this way. She would cry anytime anyone got yelled at. She seeks out the sad and endeavors to make them feel better. She even can’t stand seeing people on movies or TV shows who are either sad or embarrassed. She hates when everyone knows something except for the main character and that character is made to seem a fool for not knowing.

Ila continues to be one of my most avid readers. She loves a good book series and is an amazingly quick reader, she can tear through a 300 page book in an afternoon and still have time to play a game or two. Her teacher has challenged each student in the class to read 40 books this school year, Ila completed the 40 book challenge in the first month and a half of school.

Ila is in her last year of Elementary school (6th grade) and is not looking forward to Jr. High. Her teacher this year, Mrs. Berger is really good at finding fun ways to study world history and Ila has loved learning from her. They preformed a play to learn about Ancient Mesopotamia and put together a museum for Ancient Egypt. Ila has regaled us with daily facts about the cultures she has been learning about.

Ila is just finishing up her first year in our church’s Young Women’s (YW) organization. She is currently serving as the secretary of the 12-13 year old class. Considering the advancement to YW the year they turn 12 and her December birthday, she has spent the year being the youngest girl in the organization and the only one in her group who hasn’t started Jr High/Middle School. She has made several good friends in the group and enjoyed attending the weekly activities. I was impressed to see her leadership skills on display this summer at Girl’s camp when she created the “Camo Cats Club.”

Ila was thrilled to go inside the temple for the first time this year. She is eager to go as often as we can get an appointment!

Ila’s best friend at school this year is a boy named Tim. They play together every recess and hang out after school on Thursdays. They have a lot of fun playing and laughing together. She still keeps in touch with her friend Cecily who lives in Lehi. Cecily and Ila mostly play and chat online and have infrequent chances to get together to play in person.

Ila’s favorite food is Salmon. The other main foods in her diet include chicken strips, baby goldfish crackers, Lays Original wavy potato chips, grapes, bananas, hardboiled eggs, French fries, frozen pepperoni pizza, peanut butter, chocolate, and salt. She still doesn’t eat a big variety of food. She would much rather eat Kroger brand frozen pepperoni pizza than any take out pizza. She doesn’t ever eat noodles, rice, or any type of sandwiches. She doesn’t eat quesadillas or any Mexican food, in fact the only way she eats cheese is on pepperoni pizza.

Ila set a goal to learn how to bake independently this year and quickly mastered making chocolate chip cookies without any help. She has since made a variety of baked goods with minimal help from her mother.

Ila still gets along well with her siblings. She plays regularly with Nicole and Thomas and they enjoy occasional sleep overs in each other’s rooms. She likes to have long talks with Charlotte and appreciates how helpful and kind Isaac has been to her. She rarely fights with any of her siblings, although she has been known to occasionally snap at someone, but she feels guilty about it soon after. Next year will be the first year for both her and Thomas to be at schools with none of their siblings.

Ila enjoys playing with her friends, time with family, playing at the park, walks around the block, swimming, jumping on the trampoline, petting cats, visiting her grandparents, and playing on the computer. Apart from these, she likes to play chess and Rook and other games. She enjoys watching Studio C , Bob’s Burgers, old episodes of the Simpsons, Phineas and Pherb, and a variety of movies with the family.

Here is what I wrote about Ila last year.

I started to write this post over a month ago when Isaac turned 17, but I quickly discovered that I needed more information if I truly wanted to compose a good description of who he is at age 17. Isaac has been working on developing a variety of technical computer skills which I don’t fully understand, but I will do my best to define them in a more meaningful way.

Isaac has been interested in computer languages and coding for many years. He considers himself fluent in C#, Javascript, Python, CSS, DOS, Jquery, and ArduCode. He knows some C++, but does not consider himself fluent in C++. He uses his knowledge of computer languages to program robotics, build his website, and design computer programs. He is always trying to find useful applications for his programming skills. He has invested many hours into writing a computer program that uses a simple webcam to allow you to control your computer using hand gestures instead of a mouse. He also programmed a “hexagonal tower defense game that is 5X harder than rectangular because of the math involved.” He has programed smaller things like a calculator with graphing functions, a dice game with high score and save system, and a card game with high score and save system.

He wants to involve technology in everything he does, which is why his first objective after getting his license was to design and program an android auto system for use in the car.

He got his license last summer and has been driving for the past year without incident. He has enjoyed the freedom of being able to drive himself to and from school and other things and appreciates the use of a car that he hasn’t had to share.

He is working on a personal website where he can collect some of his projects. He has worked hard to make his website load quickly and be difficult to hack. Isaac created the Orbit Simulation on his website which is an interactive simulation that uses principles of physics to predict what would happen if you added a planet with different masses into the simulation. The other simulations on his site were not his creations, but were modified by Isaac to work well on his website.

As you can see if you clicked on any of those links in the previous paragraph, Isaac has had a keen interest in space. He’s particularly a fan of Elon Musk and SpaceX, but he pays close attention to anything new in the world of rocket science and space exploration. He started playing a game called Kerbal Space Program in elementary school which peaked his interest in orbital mechanics and rocket science. He kicked off his last summer before graduation with a trip down to Florida to see a rocket launch and explore NASA with his dad.

Isaac enjoys listening to music. His current favorite bands are U2, The Cure, Guns n’ Roses, Foo Fighters, and Pink Floyd. His favorite songs are Beautiful Day by U2, Walk by Foo Fighters, On The Turning Away by Pink Floyd, and Just Like Heaven by The Cure. He also says that listening to heavy metal helps him think when he needs to concentrate on something, but I don’t quite understand how that works.

He participated in the marching band through his Junior year, but missed many of the experiences that were discontinued because of COVID. He decided to continue to play the French Horn in the advanced Wind Symphony, but not participate in marching band for his senior year. The graduation of many of his marching band friends was a significant factor in his decision not to continue marching band for another year.

Isaac successfully completed AP Calculus and AP Physics this year. He passed both exams, but got an impressive 5 on his AP Physics test. He will take AP Statistics and AP Chemistry his senior year and be a TA for the computer programming class.

Isaac is an appreciator of food. He’s always up for trying new things and really enjoys eating out. When treating himself, Taco Bell and Burger King are his favorites. It’s sometimes nice to have a kid who will eat just about anything to balance out the children who are excessively picky.

I asked for a list of his favorite YouTubers and he gave me the following list:

–Mentor Pilot about the world of aviation including descriptions of procedures and hints on how to access the industry

–TIK which describes it’s content as detailed and super-accurate World War 2 documentaries

Sub Brief about cold war submarine history

Scott Manley who creates videos about orbital mechanics and rocket science

Veritasium which is about science, math and education

Minute Physics which describes it’s content as “cool physics and other sweet science”

Computerphile which is “about computers and computer stuff”

Numberphile about numbers and math

Jim Browning who tracks and identifies scammers and hackers and explains how legal scams work

Walter Lewin who posts his MIT physics lectures and help sessions

Matt Lowne who makes videos about Kerbal Space Program and Space updates

James Brunton a former toy designer and electrical and mechanical engineer similar to those at eicr glasgow, creates videos about inventions and robots. Visit this YouTube page to learn more about InventHelp Inventor Services.

Isaac is a big fan of cats. He enjoys their companionship, but also finds them incredibly entertaining. He thrills to find them doing ridiculous things or sleeping in a weird place. I’m fairly certain that the majority of pictures on his phone are cat related as he’s always quick to pull out his phone when he sees them doing something funny.

Isaac did go on his first date this year and took a girl to the prom. Both experiences were nerve-wracking for him, but totally worth it. I’m sure he’s hoping his senior year will include a lot less covid related restrictions and a lot more dating opportunities.

Isaac is serving as the first assistant in the priest quorum at church. He takes his church responsibilities very seriously and makes a point to arrive early so that he can help out or set up.

Isaac is a very kind and helpful brother and son who helps all his siblings with their computer issues. He will play games with them, or help host games for their friends. He enjoys solving technical issues for grandparents or helping run the church broadcasts during covid. He genuinely tries to always do what’s right and I am fortunate to be his mother. Here is what I wrote about him last year

Reading over last year’s post reminds me how much the whole world has been different this last year. We paused his guitar lessons and he’s had less time with friends outside of our family. He’s getting used to the masks, but is very particular about which ones he’ll wear. Thomas has weathered all the changes rather well, probably better than most of my other children, though he might have a harder time when everything goes back to normal and things like church happen in-person every week and last longer.

He’s still very much a quintessential boy full of energy and craziness. He makes friends remarkably well and always has plenty of kids with which to play. The friends he talks about most from school are Kaden, William, and Davey, but he’s also good friends with Nate, Sean, Thomas F, Christian, and Ian.

His aspirations for the ALL (Accelerated Learning Lab) were realized and he joined the class this year. He does well academically, meeting or exceeding expectations in almost every subject. His biggest downfall is his on reticence to read challenging books and to write. His teacher was able to out stubborn him on the writing part, but we’re still trying to get him engaged in some of books from the Mensa list his teacher gave him.

One of Thomas’s best qualities is that he’s efficient and automatic in the morning. He wakes up by himself an hour and a half to two hours before the school bus comes, gets dressed, eats breakfast, packs his own lunch, and usually puts his backpack in the bus line at least an hour early.

I haven’t pushed my children towards independence in the kitchen, so Thomas has surprised me by learning to be more self sufficient on his own. After successfully making his own sandwich one day, he started making his own sandwiches regularly. He perfected the art of cooking frozen corn dogs (48 seconds, turn, 10 seconds) and ate corn dogs for breakfast and lunch for days. For his birthday dessert, he wanted to make his own M&M cookies without my help. His sister, Ila has been practicing baking and was excited to teach him how.

Thomas loves to play on the computer and on his tablet. I think he would probably spend all his time looking at a screen if he didn’t have parents to pull him away and make him do other things. He is competent at coding on scratch and was able to complete all the coding projects for his school coding contest on his own. Some of his favorite computer games are Terraria, Balloons Tower Defense, Valheim, and Cat Quest 2.

I think Ila is still his favorite sibling. They play together often and get along well. They’re the only children of mine who go to the same school this year and they love to see each other in the lunch room or at recess.

Thomas told us that he couldn’t see to read something we casted to the TV one evening, so I told him I’d set up an appointment to get his eyes checked. He was immediately excited and impatient for his appointment. He asked me several times before bed if I had made the appointment yet, then he asked first thing in the morning and the moment he got off the school bus after school (luckily I had called and set up an appointment while he was at school). At school he told his teacher and his whole class that he couldn’t see the board and that he was going to get his eyes checked. Once the appointment was set, he counted down the days till the appointment. After the appointment, they told him to expect his glasses in 3 weeks. We marked the date on the calendar and he kept track of how many days till his glasses would arrive. He even kept his friends updated at school. After I got the text that his glasses were in, I told him as soon as he walked in the door after school. “They’re 6 days early!” he said, “I told all my friends my glasses would come in 6 days, they’ll be so surprised tomorrow!” On the way home from picking them up, he listed the order in which he was going to show off his new glasses; first to all the family that was home, then he’d run to the classmate’s house two doors down to show him, then across the street to show his grandparents. I have never seen a kid so excited to get glasses.

He still hates dressing up in any sort of costume and refuses to wear PJs to school when they have pajama days.

Although not as obsessed with cats as his sister, he loves to pet and play with cats and kittens.

He learned to mow the lawn earlier this year (click here for services). It seems like a random fact to throw in here at the end, but it’s just another evidence that my youngest is growing up. It’s both great and hard to see him do things that are more and more grown up, but it’s all worth it when I see the pride he feels at being able to do something he had never tried before.

I consider myself very lucky to be his mom and look forward to seeing all the great things he’ll do as he continues to grow up!

Charlotte is funny and talented and doesn’t like people.

But she loves animals, especially cats.

Charlotte is halfway through her 9th grade year. She is the only one of my children who wanted to do online school when given the option. However, after evaluating her classes we decided that the electives are kind of terrible online so she opted to take electives in person and to take all of her core classes online.

Her favorite thing about online school is that she can take kitten breaks or even incorporate holding cats into her schoolwork.

She loves to be out exploring in nature and if we lived near a forest, she would probably never come home.

Charlotte not only isn’t afraid to get dirty, she loves to play in the dirt.

She also likes adventures and is not afraid of a long drive. She went on a short adventure before school started where they drove 38 hours over 3 days both starting and ending at home.

Charlotte likes to draw and is clearly the best artist in the family. I am constantly amazed by the quality of her doodles.

She loves to laugh and has a good sense of humor. We watched all of Parks and Rec and The Office together and laughed together often. She’s also always up for a good meme!

As you may notice, she’s not afraid to experiment with her hair and is developing her own sense of style. Among the things she feels passionate about are pockets. She finds the lack of pockets in women’s clothing personally offensive and will only wear dresses that have pockets. I have also had to start buying her boy’s pants because they have better pockets.

Charlotte started carrying chopsticks with her at all times. She has become quite skilled with them and can eat just about anything with them.

Just because you can eat anything with chopsticks, does not mean you should. Charlotte would agree that hamburgers are not best eaten with chopsticks, but she was willing to try.

This is one of the rare photos from before she started wearing nothing but hoodies from zayn malik merch. At some point she decided that hoodies are just the best clothing ever and since that point has worn hoodies every day and night. She even wore them all summer outside in temperatures above 90 degrees because apparently she’s crazy. She now has a rather large collection of hoodies as a result because her mother insists that they must be cleaned regularly.

She hates when people love dogs, but hate cats. She considers herself an introvert and doesn’t like to be around crowds of people.

She is interested in creepy things, conspiracy theories, and YouTube videos. She loves sushi and spends most of her allowance on it. She also likes Thai food, honey walnut shrimp, big salads, Mochi ice cream, cookie dough ice cream, licorice, Pez, and Hi-Chews.

Charlotte is a good big sister and a good listener when her little sister needs to talk about the stresses of life. I love her dearly and am glad that I get to have her as my daughter.

Here is what I wrote about her previously.

One of the best adjectives for Ila is sweet. Sweet is defined by the internet as pleasant, kind, and gentle toward other people and she is all of those things.

Ila gets along really well with all her siblings. She can’t stand to see any of them upset and will make extra effort to cheer them up. She encourages them all to do well and points out their good qualities.

Ila loves cats. All of her favorite things to wear have cats on them. At recess she plays cat games with her friends. She loves to read books about warrior cats and all her online identities are cat related.

When Zach decided to surprise the children with a kitten, he brought Ila with him. She fell in love with a fluffy orange kitten and since Zach had a different favorite, they brought them both home! Ila’s kitten is named Rillian and she absolutely adores him.

One of her other loves is reading. When she finds a good book, she has a hard time putting it down. She started the Warriors series towards the end of the summer and loved it. Most of the books are 300-400 pages and there’s about 90 of them and she has now read them all.

After all the trips I made to the library for her this year, we were happy to get her an ereader for her birthday that can download books from the free online library service.

She still has a soft spot for babies, but not much access to them. When her twin cousins came to visit for a week, Ila spent the whole week entertaining them and never seemed to tire of them.

Ila’s favorite foods are salmon, chicken strips, and goldfish crackers. She also enjoys sweet things, especially chocolate. She still doesn’t eat a wide variety of foods, I don’t think she’s added anything new to her approved list this year.

Cecily is still Ila’s best friend. They don’t see each other very often, but they’ve had to find creative ways to communicate with each other over the internet. They started off communicating through scratch coding projects, then through the school district gmail hangouts, and now they have to settle for emails. Ila will send Cecily a message and then not want to leave her computer for fear she’ll miss Cecily’s response. Without Cecily to play with at recess, Ila has continued to play with the boys and has developed a stronger friendship with two boys in particular (Isaac and Tim).

The distance required to keep loved ones safe during the current pandemic has been hard on her. She’s always been quick to hug loved ones and it hasn’t been easy to keep them at arm’s length.

She still has a strong drive to do what’s right. She never wants anyone to be unhappy with her and becomes distraught even when others get in trouble.

Other things she loves to do are go on walks, play at the park, swim, explore, play board games, and play on the computer. Here is what I wrote about her last year.

Isaac is such a kind and helpful brother that when asked who she wants to marry, Nicole’s only answer is “someone nice like Isaac.” He helps his siblings with all their computer issues, introduces them to new games and has spent all his allowance at times on games for his siblings so they can play together.

Isaac identifies himself as a nerd who loves math and science.  He follows tech news as well as NASA and SpaceX.  His favorite clothes are his “nerd shirts” which feature amusing math or science references. For his Junior year in High School, he has signed up to take AP Calculus, AP Physics, and Chemistry. We just really hope he gets to take all those classes in person since he does really well in class, but less well at completing school work at home.

Isaac has become skilled at working out computer issues. If you are interested in starting a tool franchise business, you can check franchise.cornwelltools.com/franchise-opportunity/investments-and-costs and learn about various tools needed to run your own business. He can do some programming in C#, Arduino code, Java, and HTML. He is good at working out the bugs in whatever technical setup he is creating.

Isaac was excited to start his second year of marching band. He thoroughly enjoyed marching band last year and didn’t even complain about the week of practicing from 8AM until 6 or 7 outside all day in 90+ degree heat.  He loved the inside jokes and fun social times and was particularly eager to start in person marching band practices after spending the end of the school year quarantined at home.  He has tried for months to convince his sister to join the marching band and finally succeeded by doing her Saturday chores for a week in exchange for her trying band for one day.  His efforts were rewarded as Charlotte enjoyed band and has continued going.

The whole state shut down for Covid-19 quarantine the week before his driver’s ed course which meant that he had to take the classroom portion online. The ranging part was modified so he drove the course one day with his dad and the second day all by himself in the car and he’s still waiting for the state to approve the part where he drives in the car with his instructor. You can check this site out to find one.

The other new world that opens up with his 16^th birthday is dating.  Our church recommends waiting until 16 to start dating, at which point group dating is encouraged.  Although when pressed, Isaac will admit to liking several girls in his classes, he’s very reluctant to elaborate on the issue. Considering the pandemic, organizing a big group date seems inappropriate, so for now the issue of dating is on hold.

Some of Isaac’s favorite foods are hamburgers, Pasta-Roni which he makes himself, and Butterfinger Blizzards. He enjoys riding electric scooters around, going on adventures, building things, and playing computer games.  Some of his favorite games are Kerbal Space Program, Terraria, and Scrap Mechanic.

Isaac’s favorite books are nonfiction and science fiction. He enjoys science fiction movies and TV shows. He recently watched the entire Star Trek Voyager series and read all the Star Trek books he could find. Isaac’s favorite music includes Pet Shoppe Boys, Belle and Sebastian, Journey, and The Planets by Gustav Holst.

Isaac enjoys cats, particularly when they do something amusing or strange. He loves to find the cat doing something ridiculous and take a pic to share with the family. The cats also like him and one cat in particular can often be found sitting on his mouse pad or in front of his computer.

He was excited to work out a system for playing jackbox games with all his cousins in other states.  He created a live YouTube stream (click here to see it) with a really low latency in order for them to collaborate on one game together. He’s also been brainstorming ideas for creating something useful using robotics.

Isaac is a genuinely good son who is often helpful and kind. I’m fortunate to have him as my son for the last 16 years! Here is what I wrote about him last year.

It’s hard to believe this tiny, enthusiastic child is 12. I thought she’d stay a child forever, but now I’m starting to see glimpses of adolescence.

She’s very interested in the idea of Romance. Her eyes light up whenever she sees signs of affection between her parents or if she sees a couple in real life or on a movie. She told me that she keeps telling two of her classmates that “they should date when they turn 16.” Occasionally she’ll bring up romance or crushes in conversation or her ears will perk up if she hears about someone getting married or falling in love. She has random periods of being extremely distressed that she doesn’t know if any boys in her class have crushes on her, but she is usually only distressed for a few minutes at a time.

Nicole continues to find bugs fascinating and adorable. It always makes me smile to hear her passionately arguing with someone that insects are adorable. When she thinks of attractive bugs, one of the first examples she mentions is locusts. Sometimes she gets out one of her books on insects and goes page by page extolling the virtues of each bug in an attempt to sway her audience. She is also totally ok with insects eating each other. She can be talking about how adorable a grasshopper is one moment and hoping a spider enjoys eating it the next. She started a terrarium of bugs she had found in the yard and as she added new bugs to the container she would often remark how it would be ok with her if they ate each other. It’s uncanny how she can switch sides so regularly between adoring and wanting to protect a creature and wondering if another creature might enjoy eating it.

Her interest in bugs and romance collide when she starts to imagine or project romance onto her creatures. Sometimes she’ll ask if I think two particular bugs will fall in love or she will say “I hope they marry each other.” She was disappointed to find out that all her Millipedes are females and is eager to introduce a new love interest into the habitat at some point. The idea that these little creatures are crawling around having millions of love stories and marrying each other just thrills her.

Nicole is still enamored with the 80s. She is constantly belting out 80s tunes no matter what she’s doing. Her ideal hair style involves lots of teasing to make it big. She likes side ponytails and one day would love to have an 80s style hair poof. She says people today are too lazy with their style.

For the first time in her life, Nicole has started to feel and express embarrassment. All her life she has been completely genuine and never cared what anyone thought or felt about her, but now she has a new awareness of how others might see her. She worries that people don’t think she’s attractive or that her voice is ugly. She will now get very upset sometimes if she hears me talking about her or telling a story about something she did. This might sound like a bad thing, but in some ways it’s also a good thing too, because her lack of self awareness causes her to alienate potential friends. She still struggles to see other’s point of view, but is starting to realize that other people have thoughts or feelings about her.

Nicole does not like to go places or see people very much. When the quarantine started, she was very excited about the prospect of not going anywhere. After more than a month of not leaving the house other than to play outside or ride around the neighborhood, she still has no interest in going anywhere. While some of her siblings got super excited to see their classmates in Zoom or Hangout meetings, Nicole had no interest. I did talk her into a few online meetings, but I couldn’t convince her to participate in any of the end of the year events with her class or go to the reverse parade at her school.

Nicole has had an interest in diseases for many years. Some diseases she has thought about, talked about, and sung songs about the most through the years are leprosy, the black plague, and rabies. As one might imagine, living through a pandemic for her has been both intriguing and terrifying.

Nicole finished her last year of elementary school online. She does ok academically. Her tendency is to race forward without stopping to actually learn how to do the assignments and then be resistant to one on one coaching. I’ve also learned that she doesn’t like to learn the concepts from the videos because she “hates the way the guy on the video sounds.” As you can imagine, crisis/online school with her was not my favorite. I still can’t handle the fact that this child is entering middle school next year. Luckily she attends a charter school designed for autistic children because the idea of sending into the public Jr. High would terrify me.

She has a love/hate relationship with her siblings. Her sisters are still her best friends and she says she wants to marry a boy like her big brother Isaac because he is so kind. She likes to think of ways to make her siblings happy and regularly shares things with them. She really likes to be part of the sibling group and gets super upset whenever she feels like they’re not including her. Unfortunately, she also does things that alienate her siblings at times. She is often really loud in the mornings when her siblings want it to to be quiet. She often talks too much without giving her conversational partners enough turns to speak. She also reacts very loudly with yelling and crying instead of working out disputes.

Nicole is especially interested in Asian culture and treats. Some of her favorites are Pocky, YanYan, Ramune, and Popin Cookin. She loves to play computer games and watch videos of people making crafts, doing experiments, or growing plants. She loves to listen to music and sing at the top of her lungs. She likes to create things.

Nicole is a moody eater. She tends to love one food and want to eat it all the time; one day she asked how much mushrooms to eat a day. then suddenly refuse to eat it at all. She will also be super particular about weird things like the color of the spatula used to cook something, the store brand of cheese, and the dishes she eats on or the stove that cooked the food.

Lately she’s been asking me if I’m glad I had her or if she’s too much work. She asks if she’s worth it, if she’s worth all the extra effort she requires. I always tell her that I absolutely am glad and that I would never wish I didn’t have her. She might often take more work than all her other siblings combined, but she also brings a tremendous amount of joy, love and laughter to my life. She brings so much love and light to our family that I can’t even imagine life without her.

Here is what I wrote about her last year.