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Thomas sometimes strikes me as the quinticential little boy. Full of crazy energy and little bit of trouble. With the freckles across his nose and big brown eyes, he loves to laugh and play. He likes to wrestle around and talk about things like grapling hooks and weapons. Headbutting is one of his favorite skills.

Thomas is in 2nd grade and was very excited to have the same teacher as last year. He’s hoping that his teacher will just move up a grade with him every year because he really likes her and he doesn’t like change. He is doing well academically. His math, reading, and spelling are all above grade level. He took the accelerated test a few days after his birthday and is already planning on accelerated placement with his good friend, Christian. I’m not sure how he’ll take it if he doesn’t get in since he’s been talking about it like it’s already been decided.

Thomas is good at making friends and he’s lucky to have a lot of boys in the neighborhood his age. He plays with them in spurts. He will play hapily with his siblings for days and then suddenly decide he needs to play with a friend urgently. Luckily he has two friends on our street and several more within a few blocks.

Thomas likes corn dogs, pizza, peanutbutter/honey/jam sandwichies, spam, grilled cheese, garlic french bread, and most kinds of meat. He hates vegitables and soups.

Thomas likes to play games on his computer and tablet. He likes to build with Legos and play with friends. He loves to ride his electric scooter as fast as possible. Thomas likes to read when he finds a good book and he enjoys falling asleep to stories on the Alexa in his room.

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Thomas is learning to play the guitar. He really enjoys his guitar lessons houston and learns things quickly, but isn’t a big fan of practicing. His teacher has commented on how Thomas has picked up several things faster than his jr high students which has lead Thomas to proudly proclaim that he’s better at guitar than all Mr. H’s Jr High students. You can check here to get more details on music lessons. While that might not be the case, his teacher is impressed with his ability to learn and play chords relatively quickly.

Thomas has a good relationship with his siblings. One of his favortie things is to have a sleepover with his sisters where he sleeps on the floor of their bedroom. Although he generally gets along well with all his siblings, his favortie sibling friends have been Ila who is closest in age to him and Isaac who is his only brother. There are times when no one can cheer him up faster than his siblings, not even his mom!

Thomas is a great son. He’s loving, kind, smart, and energetic. As he grows through all the stages of life, I find myself reflecting on all the lasts that he brings. He was my last baby. My last to start school and next week he will be my last child to be baptized. Yet he will also be a first because he has asked his brother to baptize him. He will be the first to be baptized by his brother.

Here is what I wrote about him last year.

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Ila is in 4th grade this year and doing well in school. She excels in every subject to the point where her teacher suggested having her take the accelerated placement test for next year.

Ila has been a varacous reader this year. Once she finds a book or series she likes, she will read every spare minute until she has read through every book in the series. Her teacher let her borrow a Land of Stories book over Thanksgiving break and now Ila has read all 6 books and moved onto another series (each books is about 500 pages, the whole series is almost 3,000 pages long).

Ila’s best friend, Cecily moved to another town over the summer. Ila was devistated and has struggled to develop the same deep level of connection with any other friend. Ila says the girls are boring at recess because all they want to do is walk around and talk. She has taken to playing with the boys at recess every day because she says they’re more fun. She has reported that she eats lunch and plays with the same two boys every day.

Ila was adament that she wanted to be part of the elementary school ballroom class this year. She has really loved participating and looks forward to every dance class.

Ila is my sweet sensitive child. She always tries to do the right thing and follow all the rules. She never wants anyone to be unhappy with her so she rarely gets in trouble. Occasionally she will be caught in a minor infraction and at the slightest rebuke, she will crumple and start to cry.

She continutes to nurture relationships with beloved adults. She’s quick with a hug and a smile for all her special people.

She also still really loves babies. She takes every oppertunity that she finds to play with babies. She was particularly fond of her baby cousins who came to visit over the summer and she spent every spare moment holding, feeding, and loving those babies. After they left she missed them terribly and told me she would dream at night about playing with them.

Ila is kind and genererous to all her siblings. She has been an especially good to her big sister, Nicole who has in tern become a little obsessive over Ila. Ila has spent her allowance money more than once to buy things for each of her siblings. There are times when her siblings are more easily calmed after an upset by Ila than by me.

Ila loves all things kitty. She likes to play with toy cats and kittens and is always excited to recieve or wear anything with a cat on it.

She continues to be particular in her food choices. Salmon and chicken with lots of salt are her favorite foods. She likes vanilla ice cream, pumpkin pie, Lays Wavy Original potatoe chips (she will accept some generic brands in a pinch, but not un-wavy chips or chips with any other flavorings), and apple cinnomin oatmeal.

Ila is a greatful child. We gave her an electric scooter for her birthday and every time she rides it, she thanks us profusely and tells us how much she loves it.

Ila loves to swim and play in the water. She likes to do any kind of art project or play at a park. She likes to play on the computer and experiment with computer coding. She even devised a way to communicate with her BFF via coding projects posted on scratch. She likes to bake and watch shows with the family. She is a delightful, obediant, loving child and I am super lucky to be her mom!!

Here is what I wrote about her last year.

Isaac loves to learn. When asked what his favorite class is, he starts listing every class in his schedule.  Despite his love of learning, he is not a fan of homework.  He can easily ace any class in which everything is done in class, but if there are assignments to be done or finished at home, it’s a whole different story.

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One of my very favorite things about Nicole is her sense of Wonder.  The fact that small things can bring her large amounts of joy and happiness.  The whole family enjoys her enthusiasm (most of the time).  Whenever we see an interesting bug or particularly sparkly anything, we call Nicole because she reacts with such genuine joy.

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Thomas turned 7 at the beginning of February, but I’ve had a hard time figuring out what to write and remembering to write about him at a moment when I had some time to do it.  

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Charlotte is a “Sevie” (in 7th grade) at Canyon View Jr. High and mostly likes the transition to Jr. High.  If you asked her, she’d tell you that the only down side is the homework.  Charlotte is taking every available accelerated class this year mostly because all of her friends are in those classes.  Among her chosen electives French and Peer Tutoring.  Her favorite classes are science and band.  She plays the flute and has improved dramatically over the last 6 months since she started playing.  She has been teaching herself to play songs by ear (figuring out the notes from listening to the song).  Charlotte really wants to try out Drama, but had to drop the class when she changed her schedule to include more accelerated classes. Read more »

Ila loves people and wants everyone to feel happy and loved.  She continues to nurture her relationships with adults in her life.  She searches out her previous teachers at church and school and gives them hugs every time she sees them. Some of them she’s been searching out and hugging for many years.  She hugs her grandparents every chance she gets and makes sure to tell us all that she loves us everyday.  Since her dad has been traveling to Portland every week, Ila has figured out how to send him messages from her computer.  Sending messages to beloved adults has become a favorite activity of hers.  She’ll send loving messages, emojis, and memes to every adult she has access to then sit at her computer excitedly awaiting their responses.

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Isaac turned 14 last week.  Here is what I wrote about him when he turned 13.

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If you are my friend on facebook, you might sometimes wonder if Nicole is my only child.  That is because she regularly says and does the most fantastically absurd things or comes up with the most uniquely interesting perspective on things.  She finds wonder and joy in tiny everyday things like bugs and especially large worms. Her off the wall absurd take on life is one of my very favorite things about my girl.

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Thomas turned 6 on Tuesday.  He has been so excited about this birthday that he had been counting down to it for weeks and making all kinds of plans for what he’d do.  Luckily when it came down to it, he was happy with a relatively simple day of celebration.

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Charlotte is halfway through her last year of elementary school.  She has done very well in 6th grade.  She is especially good at math and has been getting 100% on all her math tests.

Charlotte graduated from primary at church and is thrilled to be a Young Women.  She told me that Young Women’s is 10X better than primary.  The girls have been very welcoming and inclusive.  Her first lesson was on how to welcome new girls and Charlotte reported that they didn’t even need the lesson because they were already so good at it! Read more »

Ila is kind.  She likes to make other people happy.  She gets along well with all her siblings.  She nurtures her connections to the adults in her life.  She loves to see and hug her old teachers at school and at church. She cuddles up to her grandmother during stories and gives her mother plenty of hugs.

Ila is in 2nd grade and she still likes school and her teacher. Her biggest disappointment this year is not having her very best friend, Cecily in her class.  Ila sits at the boys’ table during lunch so that she can turn around and talk to Cecily.  They both sneak little stuffed animals to school to play with at recess together and look forward to their nearly weekly playdates.  They play together seamlessly, never fighting or needing me to give them ideas for what to do. Read more »

Just some video for now. Kathleen can add more text later if she wants.

Video is from my little DJI Spark; I’m not an awesome pilot, and there were a couple of close calls. But it sure was fun to get up into the craziness in the sky.

I am amazed at the amount of growth I’ve seen in Isaac over the course of the last year. I’m not sure that he’s grown much physically, but he has matured this year.  Last year as he left elementary school he seemed so small and young and this year he suddenly seems like he is approaching adolescence.

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I have been thinking about writing my annual post about Nicole for the last month since her 9th birthday, but I feel like I’ve written about her so much that I’m not sure if I have anything new to write.  I’ve written a yearly post near her birthday she turned 8, when she turned 7,  her 6th birthday (I can’t seem to find the about her post for turning 6), Nicole at 5, Nicole at 4, Nicole at 3, Nicole at 2, and Nicole at 1.  In addition I’ve written about her neuropsychological testing part one and part two, autism diagnosis, a personality sketch at age 2 1/2, starting a new school a year and a half ago, an example of one of her tantrums (say what I said), her sense of style, Q and A with Nicole (Comparison at age 3 between October and March), evaluation at 3 1/2, and a variety of other posts.  Not to mention the one liners I share on fb regularly and the things I wrote about her in April for autism awareness and understanding month.

I guess the only answer is to just start writing and see where it takes me.

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I wrote some things on Facebook for Autism month in April that I decided I wanted to Save somewhere else so I’m posting it here:

I love that they added the word understanding to autism awareness month! I feel like most people know autism exists, but few understand it well.

When my daughter, Nicole first got her diagnosis, I was careful to say she has autism and never call her autistic. I saw the word autistic as an all encompassing label and there is so much more to my girl than that label. She’s bright, beautiful, creative, funny, energetic, loving, and joyful. I thought that calling her autistic meant that autism was the most important thing about her. It’s been a few years since her diagnosis and my understanding of what that label means has changed completely. I see autism as an important part of her identity, but not a bad part. It’s not something to be cured, it’s something to understand and embrace.

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Thomas turned 5 almost two weeks ago and I’ve been thinking about what I should write about him on and off since then.  Here’s what I wrote about him last year, and at age 3, age 2, and age 1.

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Charlotte seems to be maturing right before my eyes these days.  She’s interested in make-up, she has a crush on a boy, she actually thinks about what she wears to school.  She has even started remembering to brush her hair occasionally without being asked.

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Here’s what I wrote about Ila last year when she turned 6.

Ila has blossomed with the whole school experience.  She was worried that she wouldn’t love first grade as much as she loved Kindergarten, but she has found that first grade is great too!  I don’t have as many opportunities to volunteer in her class this year, but everytime I come in she is always thrilled to see me.  She eagerly anticipates the days I am coming in and she jumps up and hugs me as soon as I enter the classroom.

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After Little Wildhorse Canyon, we had lunch at Goblin Valley then let the children run and climb:

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