Dance Party

The other evening we were enjoying our outdoor room and the boys started dancing.  Jacob especially has some awesome moves.

sick girl

In the wee hours of Friday morning we woke up to a sick baby girl.  This was her first bout with a tummy bug and those are never fun.  The upside was that Mama got to snuggle on the couch with this sweet baby for day.

It didn't last long and she was feeling much better the next day.

 We were even able to go to church on Sunday although she still needed some extra snuggles.

Cub Scouts

This past Thursday evening Joseph's Cub Scout Den met at our house to complete their cooking requirement.  It was a gorgeous evening and we had a spectacular sunset.

 We broke in the new camp stove which Papa gave us for Christmas and the boys grilled hot dogs and sweet potato fries.  

18 months!!

Denbigh had her 18-month well-visit this morning.  She is so much fun at this age.  She has definite opinions about how her life should be and is not at all shy in expressing them.  She loves to play with her brothers and can be find chasing them around while screaming and giggling.  We are working with her on being gentle as she loves to smack their backs to get their attention.  She also loves passing out hugs and kisses.  Her play kitchen is a favorite toy and she can often be found in the play room cooking or feeding her dolly in her high chair.  Joseph loves having tea parties with her and Jacob loves to help her cook.  She loves to have books read to her and will bring me books several times a day.  Her favorite motion song is "Itsy Bitsy Spider." She talks non-stop although most of her vocabulary is still babbling.  Joseph and Jacob like to interpret what she probably means and almost always it is something to their benefit.  She imitates everything her brothers do and I have to constantly remind them to set a good example. Denbigh sleeps between 10-11 hours at night and is down to one nap a day lasting 2-3 hours.  

 And her stats:

Weight - 27 lbs. 13 oz. (94%)

Length - 34.7 inches (99%)

As you can see she is a typical Swearingen.  

(edited to add: I forgot to say that Denbigh got one shot and didn't even cry!  Super Trooper!!)

Here are the boys' stats at 18 months:

Joseph

Weight - 27 lbs. 14 oz.

Length - 34.75 inches

Jacob

Weight - 30 lbs. 7 oz.

Length - 34.6 inches

And for even further comparison I found my 18-month stats:

Mama

Weight - 23 lbs. 7 oz.

Length - 32.5 inches

(see - she is definitely a Swearingen baby)

I found this pic on FaceBook today and loved it.  There are always little ones watching.

Super Hero Dreams

My eight-year-old son is pretty brilliant.  As his mom I say that with a fairly heavy bias.  He loves math.  Like - loves it.  Begs for me to give him extra math homework.  Comes home from school depressed if they didn’t do enough math.  Wants to play math games in his free-time.  Cried one Friday night because we made him take a break from homework to play. (We have that on video.) But, before you start thinking that he’s all left-brained, he also loves to read and write stories.  He is a dreamer – a very scheduled, analytical dreamer.  Since he could talk he has expressed his desire to be a doctor.  That was until first grade when his amazing teacher inspired him to want to teach.  Both are incredible professions but in my Mama brain I see him more as an engineer or quite possibly a math professor.  Then recently I heard him explain to his brother that he probably wouldn’t be going to college.  He had a new career goal and he didn’t think he’d be able to learn the needed skills in college.  Say what??!!  I interrupted their brother-convo to inquire about this turn of events.  His head ducked instantly and he looked somewhat embarrassed and declined to share. 

Later that day I was able to take him aside privately and asked him to share his new dream with me.  His response: I want to be a Super Hero.  A Super Hero that doesn’t kill bad guys because my super power would be to change their hearts with love.

How do you even respond to that? I paused for a moment and then hugged him and told him that was an amazing goal to have.  He swore me to secrecy. (Before you think I’m breaking a huge confidence, I had him read this and he approved.)

But since that moment my heart has become more and more overwhelmed by his words.  He wants to change hearts by showing love.  Isn’t that what we should all aspire to do? Imagine how the world could be changed!  In these days of terrorist acts and racial conflicts, discrimination of all kinds, bullying at schools.  IMAGINE HOW THE WORLD COULD BE CHANGED!

Today we honor a man who had a dream.  A big dream.  We have come so far but there is obviously a long way to go.  I don’t know how long my child will have his dream of being a super hero who changes hearts with love but I hope that some form of that dream will always exist for him and I hope I can live out that dream as well.

Our playground

There is a community playground close to our house that was recently revamped.  It was quite popular right after the renovation and still is pretty busy on the weekends.  Jacob, Denbigh and I will sometimes stop by on the way home from walking Joseph to school and we usually make a family trip at some point during the weekend.  On week day mornings there are usually just a few small kiddos there with their moms or nannies.  But on weekend days there are quite a few families and we almost always run into school friends.

some random photos

And here are just a few of my other recent favorite pics that didn't make it into another post:

And I had to throw in the view from our back yard! 

 Our outdoor room.

We have been having some gorgeous sunsets!

Last Day of Christmas Vacation!!!

This past Monday was the last day of Christmas Vacation.  Guess what we did! Yep - Legoland!!!

 The park was empty and we got to ride at least four new rides.  And we rode every ride multiple times.  There were even people working in the Lego assembly room that day. The boys think that playing with Legos every day as your job would be pretty awesome.  I have to agree.

Such a great way to end our very long break!

Repeat day at the beach

Since we had so much fun with our Thursday morning adventure we decided to repeat it on Saturday so the whole family could participate.

 We took our sleds along this time for some sand sledding.

This beach also has a great playground.