Growing Up

Slowly, then all at once.  The Joseph babies were taking bottles and fighting a cozy swaddle, learning to put their arms into sleeves and stand up unaided.  Now they giggle about potty sounds and argue over bananas, like real adults.  Elia just told me she’s tall enough to swipe Dimmy’s pacifier off the top closet shelf (so no place is safe).  Ezra began his reading lessons weeks ago.  Sophia is learning how to fall off a bicycle.  They plod on, conquering epoch over epoch of childhood with vigor and vehemence.  Before long it will be beanie babies, Xbox, mall dates, MySpace, flip phones, and then off to Grove City.  

Snow White police lineup

But rewind momentarily to Christmas 2021, when our babies were mere fledglings.  Once upon that time, we packed and hitched up our wagons, hastened north, and alit into a new home, high atop a peak in the North Cantonian foothills.  There we settled for the long winter, finding new grounds for our Christmas trees and trinkets, and spreading hot chocolate & cheer to our newest neighbors and future friends.  T’was not long before the gifting began, complete with seasonal uniforms for the joyous morn.  Our ensuing travel to kin found itself complete with unmetered merriment—dogs, cheesecake, and hearths aflame.  Great thanks to our family and Honda.

Didn't Summer just pee in those jammies?

COOKIES AND JUICE FOR BREAKFAST

Peter, trying out for the role of Joseph Baby #5

Playing the Peanuts ornament until the battery dies

Since then, we have surmounted all matters of calamity—odiferous apartments, sonorous vehicle suspensions, record snowfalls to say the least.  Onward we have tried unto glorious March, a fair-weather friend and hope of days to come.  Away with the bounce house that envelopes the sunroom, out with the tiny bicycles that occlude the garage.

Our largest nugget, Elia, has recently informed me that this is her birthday week, and she is opting to celebrate by opening a birthday present each night rather than all in one sitting.  She has gained new ground, officially declaring that 8 years old marks the age of a “big kid”, which will be signed into law soon enough.  She has been getting along quite nicely in her volleyball league this winter, and looks forward now to the softball of springtime.  Beyond the turf, the eldest has become a jack of all crafts and a master of craftiness.  Sewing, cross-stitch, Legos, drawing, cooking scrambled eggs.  Her greatest craft is knowing precisely how many times she can ask for help with a craft before Mom becomes unable to cope.  Soon with spring the indoor crafts will slow as she returns to her first love, mud. 

A small candle in the wind

Bay also celebrated a birthday since we last met, and with Elia’s newfound aging, we find ourselves again at even, easy-to-remember ages.  Fitting for our refined dancing princess, her big-day dessert requirement was cheesecake from Oma.  Sophia has run away with reading and can truly climb to great intellectual heights.  Still it brings us great pleasure (and some small misgivings) to spy her actively twirling in her basement alone time to the thunderously booming tunes of Descendants 1, 2, 3, and Aladdin (“the one with real people, Dad”).  Bay seeks to subdue her two-wheel bike upon the rigorous rounds of our slanted cul-de-sac, and may soon succeed if maintaining her present stop-at-nothing determination.

The Aeneid, abridged

Why I do not know Mommy's sizes when shopping with kids (/ever)

            Ezzy, as summoned by Dim-Sum, is a true heartbreaker.  First his Werstler Ave bus driver, and soon (we assume) he’ll test out of his preschool program and say goodbyes to many more adoring teachers/fans.  Only to enter the tutelage of the Perfect Fan: Mom!  Ez is a wildman and prefers to be picked up, flipped around, upside, and wrestled to the ground.  When otherwise not duly engaged, he resorts to his favorite game encompassing the kitchen/dining room/hallway, the objective of which I can only assume is to hit the ground with his feet as hard and as many times as possible in any fixed amount of time (the time limit is typically pre-determined by any related, erratic behavior of his siblings).  Ez has begun his first textbook, an old favorite of ours, “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons” (see also “Teach your Child to Read in 85 Easy Lessons and 15 Incredibly Difficult Ones”).  Force be with you, young padawan.

Covidcake

Look at the teeth on that one!

            Dimmy, empowered by her recent surgical success in the spotlight (of the O.R.), continues to marvel us with her generally easy-going life approach.  As long as she gets what she wants.  What I mean is, she gets what she wants because she’s the youngest.  Not that we spoil her.  What I meant to say is that she hasn’t surprised us, often taking after her siblings in health, milestones, demeanor, etc.  But not hair.  There, that’s it.  Dim is quite capable and at rest with solo time, preferring puzzles and coloring and long naps.  What a relief to the rest of us, and a nod to what Erin and I decided today was our “best parenting decision so far”: quiet time.  Dimmy, whatever she’s on to, does it in the cutest manner possible.

Hiding in the beast's lair

All tubed up and ready to go

Why shipping costs so much

            Such retells the times and tales of action, suspense, woes, and intrigue at our newest and truest abode.  Yesterday we sprung forward an hour of daylight, and now await the warming late evenings with hastening anticipation.  Happy Elia’s birthday week to all!