I am just so in love with life right now. I feel like it's never been better, and I'm not trying to sound braggy. Actually I wake up every day feeling so humbled and undeserving of this beautiful life God has blessed me with. Having to fight so hard for my children has made me more aware of how amazing it is that they are actually here and that is sure a blessing in disguise, especially on those days when they are driving me CRAZY! (yes, those sweet faces are not all that innocent!)
I think the weather has greatly improved my mood of late. It feels like we've already had one month of summer and it's not even June yet! I love that all we need to get out the door is shoes. No jackets, no snowsuits, no mitts and toques and scarves. It's glorious!
Our back gate goes directly out to a park, which I can see from the kitchen window. It's practically our backyard. Cassidy calls it "our park". John even oils the swings and waxes the very slow slide! This year I've started to let Cassidy play at the park by herself. Often she wants to go out but I can't leave the house because Avi is napping so I open the back gate, leave it open, go over a few rules and she's good to go! It's been absolutely wonderful. There are always other kids playing there so she gets to go and make friends and I get some time to do housework or relax inside with a sleeping baby. Bliss! The first few times I was super nervous but she does so well and has followed our instructions to the letter. Actually I'm more worried about someone seeing her by herself and calling CPS on me because apparently that is the thing to do these days. Dumb, isn't it? I refuse to let myself live in fear of what someone else will do and I want her to learn independence and have some freedom so I'm fighting against these fears and doing what I think is best for her (and praying of course. Lots of praying.) She loves it, we love it. Everybody wins!
Speaking of Cassidy, I can't believe how grown up she's getting. She is very proud to be 4 and announces it to anyone and everyone she meets. "Hi, my name is Cassidy and I'm 4!" This girl is not at all shy, which I think is great! I was very shy as a kid (shocker right?) and I always hated being that way. She is so excited to start preschool in the fall and I'm anticipating she will do great! She is a sponge and soaks everything up that she hears. She's taking swimming lessons and I just about burst with pride when I watch her listening so carefully to her teacher and trying everything asked of her, even if it makes her nervous. She's the biggest goof ever and the stuff that comes out of her mouth keeps us laughing constantly. She's also got a big attitude but I've definitely seen her maturing over the past few months and temper tantrums are few and far between these days, thank goodness! She's just the best. Every year gets better and better!
Aviannah is doing great! She finally, for a month now, has started eating good! It has always been a struggle to get her to eat alot, and with her already small size it caused me a great deal of stress. Around the beginning of April we switched from formula to whole milk and she loved it and started drinking twice what she usually did. Along with that, her eating of solid foods greatly improved. Before she would maybe eat 2 meals a day, and not a big amount. Now she's eating at every meal, plus 1 morning snack and a before bed snack. She doesn't always eat alot at a time, but she is a small person so I imagine she gets full pretty fast. She still takes a bottle and I have no plans of weaning her anytime soon. She can drink from a sippy cup but she doesn't prefer too and she still needs to catch up so we let her eat and drink whenever she wants. I know she won't be on the bottle forever and she's getting much needed calories from it right now and that's what's important! She is turning into quite the little person. She speedily gets around by crawling and loves to get into mischief. Whenever we tell her "no" she gives us this impish grin and I can't help but smile, even though I'm trying to be stern. She's cute and she knows it! She has a temper too and doesn't like it when she doesn't get what she wants. She's still addicted to her middle fingers on her right hand. Every time I pull them out of her mouth she gets very mad at me so I'm not worrying about that right now either. I can tell she badly wants to keep up with Cassidy and Levi. I'm guessing in a few more months she'll be walking.
Just this week I've finally got back into a regular routine of working out. I was doing so good last year, then we got the call and went to Las Vegas, then I had a new baby, then Levi started, and I could just never carve away the time, and honestly, I didn't care to. I'm running a 5K and am a bridesmaid in a wedding, both in July, and I want to get in better shape. I'm being more careful about what I eat and doing my workout when Avi naps in the morning, that way I still get the afternoons when all 3 are resting. It's only been a few days but I'm already finding I have more energy and just all around feel better. It helps that we are not housebound and can actually get outside and go for walks!
So that's our life lately! Still busy (it's taken me all morning just to get his written) but still happy!
