January Highlights.

Let’s wrap up January, shall we?

Javi and Lola were busy with basketball! They are both enjoying their time on their teams, although I think Lola likes it a bit more. She hasn’t missed a practice — Javi’s less thrilled at the thought of going but has fun once he’s there!

Eva got invited to her first friend birthday party! She was so excited to choose a gift for her school friend and the party ended up being at her dance school — so she was very comfortable there!

We got our first snowstorm of the year and the kids had a snow day! They loved playing in the snow and it was the first year I got to watch them play from inside! That felt like I was truly leveling UP in my parenting game. 🙂

They are doing well in school! I’m still a little worried about Javi not loving it and seeing school as just a total party/social time. He is totally obsessed with the math curriculum and I’m debating signing him up for a math club. I continued to volunteer in his class each Wednesday afternoon which was really nice but I’m taking a break from it during February and March. Lola has been reading a ton and making little books and gifts to share with friends at school. She comes home with new stories every day and it’s clear she’s making connections and having a lot of fun. She’s also becoming interested in completing work at home and uses an online language program to practice sounds, letters, and reading.

Eva is making lots of friends — and is LOVING the snow on her playground every day. She comes home exhausted. She’s less excited about the actual “school part” and often has an excuse why she can’t go. She comes up with fun reasons and truthfully, I look forward to her explaining why she needs to stay home! My favorite so far? She goes to school to make friends and she already has friends so now she doesn’t need to go to school anymore! Duh!

Javi and Sean went to a hockey game that was a fundraiser for school. They made a night out of it and had a lot of fun at dinner and the game. We’re unsure if Javi likes hockey… or just the outing/popcorn/snow cone/treats that all goes along with it. 🙂

The kids had a lot of time at home. I wrote about some activities we did in January but they also continued to play with new toys that they got for Christmas, starting watching Full House which has been amazing for me (!) and did lots of painting, crafts and cooking. Plus they broke out the air hockey table (I swear it’s because I considered donating it… then all of the sudden, they were playing with it every day!)

Between basketball (Tuesdays + Saturdays), Cub Scouts (Sundays), Girl Scouts and Tumbling (Tuesdays), dance and gymnastics (Wednesdays) and swim (Wednesdays)… it’s been a whirlwind of extra curricular activities! Lola’s been hustling those girl scout cookies and they are still for sale!

We celebrated my dad’s birthday with dinner and ice cream cake!

My weekly OB appointments continued, but the iron infusions and physical therapy sessions have stopped! The weekly non-stress tests have begun. Things are as good as they can be… all things considering!

In the land of home improvements… we started the home shift that needs to happen in order to have space for baby #4! The first part was clearing out the dining room, painting the ceiling, walls and trim and moving our bedroom to the space! Even the kids helped somewhat reluctantly. I don’t have an “after” picture yet but we’ve been sleeping in our new space for about 10 days and it’s been great!

Our living room became a shared living/dining room space which is a little tight but we’re calling it cozy. 🙂 Part of the reason it’s tight is because it currently has a lot of extra furniture in it since phase two of this little shift is to convert the playroom into an office/art space! So there’s just stuff everywhere. Sean’s been hard at work taking up the carpet and repairing the walls. The girls also switched rooms — more on that later!

We’ve been purging stuff like crazy and made 12 trips to the donation center during the month of January! We’ve also dropped off bags at textile bins, and when things were just way overwhelming, we called a junk removal place and they came the next day and took anything and everything we pointed at and asked them to take. It was exactly like the commercial!

We went out to dinner a bunch and it was especially fun to celebrate Javi winning the Pinewood Derby!

Some other notable moments of the month: Javi and Lola got invited to a birthday party for a shared friend, Lola had a wellness visit and was pumped when she discovered she didn’t need any shots, Javi visited an orthodontist, my car broke down and had to be towed, and we geared up for February with some new Valentine’s Day dresses!

Happy February!