BamamaPancakes

Dear Abram I am writing this in the soft gentle glow of our Christmas tree, your tiny footprints among the needles and lights, the salt dough handprints of your sisters and cousins, the season of songs, nostalgia and giving. This is not how I imagined writing to you a year after you were born. It’s supposed to be Springtime, with photos of first outings and stroller rides, chubby legs and cheerios, milestones and the many days in between of raising 3 kids. Sometimes I imagine what you’d look like; how you’d sleep; the girls holding you uncomfortably. I imagine you growing up. In my mind, you’re fast, and you love bikes and basketball and math. I imagine you are sweet and stubborn and soft hearted, like your dad and your older sisters. I could fill pages on every specific thing I wish we had with you, a thousand notebooks on what I’d pictured in our lives for you and with you. Some moments still surprise me. Family and a few friends came over the day after Thanksgiving to g...

  October 8, 2017 Dear Adalyn, You are five today. Five sounds so old to me, so legitimately a “kid,” so beyond-baby, poised at the edge of a chapter, ready to jump into the next phase of childhood. You keep growing, growing, growing, getting longer and leaner and smarter and stronger. You are becoming you. Today, we celebrated you with orange rolls for breakfast, glitter tattoo art, lego building, LC romping, a rainbow carwash per your request, waffles for dinner, a Green Bay win complete with popcorn, and Tag You’re It. It was perfect, because it was You. Yesterday, you pranced around at one of our normal chaotic gatherings that you think is a normal birthday-party, your friends in “Addie-gear” of sparkles and costumes and creative fun; you were thrilled about life.   I can’t believe you are five. You are still shy around strangers, but want to be friends with everyone in your class. You are funny and goofy and try to sneak armpit tickles daily to make...

Routine is a beautiful thing. Some kids go with the flow beautifully, even when that flow may be all over the place. Other kids [insert: Addie and Bria] ere a little more on the side of creatures of habit.   There seems to be a direct correlation between absence of routine and increase in meltdowns, funky sleep resulting in more meltdowns, maddening eating habits resulting in more meltdowns, and swings from happiness to misery, resulting in parental meltdowns. Basically, our kids seem to like when days are predictable and we get ‘in the swing’ of things. So we are pretty happy to be settling into Fall and the lovely routine it brings! One of those lovely routine items is school. Adalyn is in her last year of pre-k and Bria just started in the two year old class. While I was absolutely convinced that Addie still had two more years until kindergarten, Sheaff, Google, and Simply Paying Attention let me know that in fact, that is right around the corner next year. #wtfdth (Whe...