Enjoying the Early Years

It has been a busy season!  The kids keep growing up and I'm trying to heed the advice given to me to enjoy the early years as much as possible because this season passes too quickly.   Yet as much as I live in the moment, I can't believe how quickly the time is passing.

Aliyah is rolling around trying to crawl, playing with and throwing toys, interacting with people, babbling, and eating solid foods!  She had her 6 month  immunisations yesterday and she is doing well.  She is chubbier than the boys were so I think she responds to the shots better than they did (full term vs premie).   She loves people and is so friendly already - her whole body lights up when she smiles.  Her hair is still gorgeously dark and her eyes seem to be blue so far!

 Her brothers are so good with her still, and they often try to help her settle by bringing her toys or tickling her toes - sometimes they like to cuddle her by "laying on top of her!".  But she doesn't seem to mind!  Last week Malakai wanted to share one of his favourite things with her  - dirt - and proceeded to feed it to her.  She is learning that not every gift from them is perfect!   One of the sweetest moments was watching him try to teach her how to blow out one of those birthday party favours (that unroll).  He kept saying, "Blow, Leeyah" and he'd show her and carefully try to hold it in her mouth for her, "Doo do it!" he encouraged.

In Oct - Leigh had taken two weeks off work and it was fabulous!  We did a lot of cleaning and organising as we tried to get Aliyah's room ready for her.  It's amazing how one family can accumulate so much "stuff", but her room will be ready hopefully by next week.  It will be difficult for me not having in our room anymore, and a bit sad, as I try to let go of our 'baby' in the family.   And we're just moving her into another room - imagine school!  Yuck!

Levi is still my cuddly boy.  He loves to be in my arms whenever Aliyah is out of them.   The only problem is these days Levi is NOT light.    He is very strong, and often tries to get his way with Malakai with brute force.  He likes to play loudly.   He thrives on the drama of dumping all of his toys out on the floor, and yelling UH-OH!  Kai sometimes can't flip the toy buckets over, so Levi will come to the rescue and do it for him.  He'll also try to carry heavy items such as nappy boxes, planters, and water buckets.  In such moments he earns the nickname Bam Bam.  He has started to really enjoy projects such as play dough, and blocks, and trains.   His latest infatuation though is vacuuming, and when I say infatuation, I mean it in every sense of the word.  The first time I let him play with it, he vacuumed until he could no longer physically stand anymore, so he laid on the carpet vacuuming beside himself.  The best gift he ever received was a toy vacuum from our friends Nic and Meg for his birthday.  

Recently we got our hands on a second-hand, second-hand little tykes car.   This has been a huge delight for the boys.  If anything it has taught the boys about taking turns, and I proudly watch as they step back allowing each other their "turn" in the car.  How many times have they've driven so recklessly they have overturned the car?  Too many to count!  We also were able to score a second hand plastic playground with slide, which they love to play on as well, while chewing on mint they've picked from daddy's garden.

Malakai would spend all day, every day outside if he could.  He loves to dig in the dirt, and play in the sand pit.  He especially loves finding sticks and hitting things with them.  The dirtier he is, the happier he seems.  He loves to play hide and seek, and will spend hours hanging out in his cardboard cubby house.  What Levi has in strength, Malakai has in speed. He is a quick runner, and will rarely walk anywhere.  I am finding it hard to catch him these days, so I will need to keep fit, to keep up!  He absolutely loves Auntie Sezzy's puppy and would play for hours with Ty, who is just as happy to have someone play with him too.  We have found that he is becoming more and more in love with soccer and will dribble the soccer ball up and down the hallway over and over again.

Both boys are excelling in their swimming lessons, and are brave enough to jump in and swim on their own now in the deep end (with water wings).   It has been amazing watching what little kids can do in the water once they are confident around it.  Both boys have no fear of putting their heads under  the water and have even swam through daddy's legs.

All three kids are still hugely into music, which is why we decided to have a music themed birthday party for the boys.  Our invites were "ticket invites", and we held a small children's concert at the party.  I personally would have loved to have the time to "go-all-out" and create a stage, with lights, and swag table, etc but I just didn't have the time.  Everyone seemed to have fun anyway, and it was a delight to watch the boys enjoy all their family and friends that were there to celebrate with them.  

We got the boys new bikes for their birthday.  They are called balance bikes and unlike a bike with training wheels, teaches kids to balance on their own giving them confidence to transition to a real bike much more quickly.  They are a tad short for them yet, but in a month or two will be able to do it on their own.  I am looking forward to the day that we can all go riding bikes together!