I can't believe it's been a month since I last blogged! So many things are happening and I am having huge regrets that I'm not recording them all on the blog. Kam is growing super fast and going through stages as quickly as Mommy goes through yellow lights. Devynn is saying and doing the sweetest things, and Kade is moving from school to basketball to weight lighting to assistant coaching to hanging out with friends in a constant circle.
Here's a little of what's new...
Kam is nearly five months old. I want to cry as I say that because where has the time gone? And I know it will continue to fly by no matter how slowly I want it to go. On one hand I feel like I am more aware (than I was with Devynn and Kade) how quickly he will grow so I am trying to treasure every single moment and stage with him. On the other hand, I have two older kids that have lots of activities that I am shuffling them to and from, so our family is on the go quite a bit which makes time fly even faster than it did when I had two kids.
Kam rolls over back to front and front to back. He's lost most of his hair, but it's now growing back in. Because a baby's hair grows slowly, I am not expecting him to have much hair at all until he reaches the big 1 year mark, which I am in no hurry to get to! He is sitting up pretty good with assistance, but is not big enough yet to sit on his own. He's a big smiler and the most frequent comments I receive about him are:
What a happy baby!
He looks just like his sister!
What pretty blue eyes he has!
He started eating rice cereal a couple of weeks ago although I've been pretty bad about keeping him on a good routine for eating it regularly. We travel in the car quite a bit and he is typically very good about rolling with whatever we have going on and behaving very well in his car seat. I just hope he doesn't get permanently stuck in a car seat position because he rides in it more than I would prefer.
Speaking of which, let me provide an update on Kade and Devynn, which will explain why we are in the car so much.
Devynn turned five in March and she's busy, busy, busy. She is currently playing flag football and she is the only girl on our team! Ryan is coaching her team and many of the parents catch me after practice or a game and say, God Bless your husband. Yes, coaching four, five, and six year-olds is not easy as their attention span is very short. Which is why Ryan enlisted Kade to help him coach. So Coach Kade is the assistant coach! I have to laugh because Kade will moan about kids not listening to him or various other gripes and I simply say, How do you think your coaches feel? I sincerely hope he thinks about the coaches perspective in his future sports endeavors. Devynn is doing great, she is a superb little hustler, listener, and athlete. She's been around football long enough that she grasps the concept which really puts her ahead of the game for right now.
Devynn loves science at school and they have been studying caterpillars and butterflies. We have caterpillars galore all over our driveway and she gripes at me each time I drive down the driveway because I am killing them. Sunday afternoon she spent the entire afternoon with a butterfly net (actually Kade's fishing net) chasing delicate little yellow butterflies around our house. It just made my heart smile seeing her running around with that net high above her head and a beautiful smile glowing in the sun!
Devynn has the sweetest temperament right now and as we start to prepare for kindergarten next year, I really pray that she is able to keep her sweet innocent personality for as long as possible. Last week after having studied the Easter story at church, home, and school she came up to me and said, Mommy I wish I was one of Jesus' disciples. After my heart finished melting, I explained to her that she is in fact a disciple and explained to her how that worked. So now every time she does something nice she says, I am being a disciple.
Kade is playing select basketball this spring and summer and he practices two evenings a week and has tournaments on the weekends. This in and of itself has been keeping us pretty busy. But he is improving quite a bit and getting lots of hours in and I'm really looking forward to the payoff it will have for him over the next several years. He is also weightlifting twice a week and tells me things like, Coach Muns wants me to gain more weight so I need to eat more calories so please bring me more snacks after school. I recently convinced him to cut his hair, so he isn't looking too shabby these days. He's getting taller and I predict by next year at this time he will be taller than me. I wonder if he will have eaten enough calories to weigh more than me by next year?! It's weird thinking that my son is soon going to outgrow me.
Ryan is busy with work, enough said there. As I mentioned already, he is coaching Devynn's little team and other than spending time at practice and games, he doesn't have a lot of free time.
As for me? Just call me the crazy dog lady. Ryan and the kids picked out a black and tan German Shepherd puppy about four weeks ago. Why might you ask did our family think we needed to add another member to our family? I cannot answer that question. As if diapers were not enough, I now spend time cleaning puppy pee and poop! Yesterday I took the new puppy and TJ to the vet's office. I had to schedule two different appointments because I simply cannot manage an infant and more than one dog on a leash at the same time right now. When I brought the puppy in the vet eyeballed me and asked, So how many dogs do you have now? Three, sir. And how many kids do you have now? Three, sir. And you thought you needed another one? For a brief moment I understood how Michelle Duggar must feel. And I felt bad for her. DO I NOT LOOK CAPABLE OF HANDLING THREE KIDS AND THREE DOGS? Is it my unkempt hair or my puffy eyes or the state of my dog's condition or just my general lack of organization that tipped you off? Instead of yelling these thoughts inside my head, I simply smiled and replied I believe we're done. Today I go back with the third dog.