MIA

I've gotten into the habit of not blogging.  Not that I don't want to share my thoughts; I am constantly thinking a hundred things I'd love to tell the world about my amazing kids, our adventures, our family.  Especially Lilly, who accomplishes so many great things every day and who is becoming such a lovely beautiful intelligent young lady (at the age of almost 7), or sweet just-turned-one Ben, who is doing new and funny things every day.  I want to capture these memories, and then for some reason, I don't follow through on doing it.

I get nervous, sometimes.  Jon's very similar to me in this aspect, but I always feel like I'm jinxing things.  If I tell you Ben is such a good sleeper, all of a sudden he'll be up all night.  Or if I share how incredible Lilly's doing in school, she'll pull a fast one and sneak out of class the next day.  True stories.  In some ways I always feel like the kids are always doing great, but if I say it out loud, if I share it on facebook, if I blog about it, if I brag just a little bit... I feel like it might be taken away, or turn into opposite day.  So instead I feel incredibly blessed in the privacy of my own head. 

But to be honest, the kids really are doing great.  Lilly is so smart.  She is reading, she is doing math, she is writing notes to her friends and putting them in their cubby's at school.  She has great friends, and she is a great friend - we are still enjoying lots of playdates and birthday parties.  She walks into school, and tons of kids - ones I don't even recognize, from pre-K through 8th grade, come up to her "Hi Lilly!" "What's up Lilly?"  We ran a 1 mile race last week for her school's annual Lion's Roar, and I'm not even kidding that 12 year old boys - who looked fairly grown up and tough - were cheering her on by name.  She is a very lucky girl, to be in an environment that is so caring and enthusiastic.  I give a huge amount of credit to the teachers and administration for doing the apparently atypical thing of treating Lilly like she is just like any other child.  Which is what we've always done, but they don't want her to be seen as being different - she is a child created by God just like any other, and their positive attitude affects the other kids and parents in the school.  And it also strongly affects Lilly: if the teachers teach a lesson to the class and truly involve Lilly as much as every other child in the class, and hold their expectations to the same level, then Lilly will think she can do everything they give to her, and that's why she is having such a good year.  But now I'm a little bit rambling; but I do think it's amazing how well she's doing - academically, socially, spiritually (she knows all her prayers) - and it's because of who she is, but also because we've never given her limits.  She has no idea she might not be able to accomplish something; so instead she gives it 10 times more effort until she does accomplish it. 

And Ben is doing great as well.  We celebrated his 1 year old birthday a couple weeks ago on April 16th, and also celebrated it a week before in Atlanta at a family birthday party, and in Bethesda a week after with all our friends here.  He is a lucky boy!  His favorite person in the world is Elmo, so we had lots of Elmo decorations including an Elmo cake.  He is confident and curious, and thank goodness he is not one of those early walkers - he can hold our hands and toddle around but is not ready for total independence yet.  He loves his sister more than anyone (except Elmo), and many mornings at 6:30 it's not unusual to see Lilly in his crib with him after he wakes up, and the two of them sing and hug and have special moments for a half hour or so, until I interrupt it to get the day going.  He has lots of teeth and gives a funny grin when you say "Show me your teeth!"  He's also good at "How big is the baby - so big!" and has just started to point at things.  Whenever he sees a duck he says "da da" or "ba ba" - he is trying to say "quack quack" but is so serious about it. 

We are moving in a few weeks to a house we are buying a few miles away, and it will be great to own a house again.  There are some projects to undertake in the next couple years in it, but it's exciting (although it will be tiring to pack and move!).  Lilly's picked out the biggest room for herself, and the smallest room for Ben.  We'll also have a guest room for visitors...

The summer is already getting full.  We are going to Disney World for Lilly's birthday week (Polynesian concierge!), and taking the auto train down to Orlando for that trip.  Then we drive to Atlanta for 3 weeks of summer camp, while Jon works back here in DC, and then Lilly has a few weeks of camp at her school.  And still trying to figure out if we can plan a week at the beach in August...

So that's all for now.  Will get some birthday pics of Ben up on here in the next few days.