The Last Couple Days

I love watching the boy's creativity grow . . . making a train with the kitchen chairs while I made dinner.  Isaiah is usually the instigator of creative things like this.

This was another night while I was making dinner. They love to ride their cars all over the basement floor. Putting them on the mattress was a new thing.

Two boys in their new tent/tunnel. Who knows what they were doing but it was darn cute.

Last night Jason and I had an awesome time with the girls after we put the boys down. We had no intention of staying up over an hour with them in their room talking and laughing and talking and laughing. But that is what we did. And it was such a wonderful time. Lots of bonding. It was such a generous gift from God on a day when I was feeling badly about my lack of extra-connecting/bonding with the girls. We didn't have any disconnections yesterday, but they are comfortable enough and doing well enough (for the most part) that they can go off on their own (always together) and play a good chunk of the day. And that is great. But, I am still very aware of the ongoing need to bond and attach with them - it takes a long time. And I'm realizing it is going to take some more intentional effort on my part (which I'm working on). I am so thankful for God's grace that stepped in and provided what we needed as a family. He continues to show up so often for us.

Zoe was making Jason, Claire and I laugh hysterically with her rendition of  the "Zuckerman's" quartet song from Charlotte's Web, not to mention a number of other things. Seriously, this girl is SO stinking hilarious. I love her so much! She was also bouncing off of the walls with her energy and doing pull-ups on her bunk bed. Somewhere in the middle of that Jason and I looked at each other and realized that yesterday was one of the only days the girls did not go outside and play - and therefore did not get any physical activity. So, I quickly realized I would need a plan for today - and many days going forward - now that it looks like the cold weather is here to stay. Zoe loves doing "ninja" moves (ever since we bought them face masks for the cold weather) so I knew she would love Taebo.

Today during nap time the girls and I did Taebo for 30 minutes. They loved it. And I loved being able to do it with them. Zoe had on my old gloves from a kickboxing class I do from time to time. She was totally into it!

Zoe was intense and Claire laughed a lot. Those are good, overall summaries of their personalities, in general. I was proud of Claire for sticking with it for the full 30 minutes.

I went and did laundry and later came back to find Zoe lifting my 10 lb weights. Did I mention this girl is intense?! I gave her some smaller weights so she wouldn't hurt herself and she continued on.

The girls did end up going outside around 4:00p. Claire came in after about 30 minutes and did Rosetta Stone. But, Zoe . . . she stayed outside until after 5:00p. She wanted to stay out there until Jason came home  (he was working from Ames). I heard her drumming away (and I'm sure most of the neighbors did, too!) and peeked out the front door to find her sitting on the skateboard drumming on the Diego trike.

Oh, how I love this girl! And her sister. I already can't imagine my life without these two girls. God has blessed us in so many amazing ways with them.