Elijah and Maxwell had tryouts this morning. Yay for 3 1/2 hours at the baseball fields! Although Amelia and Elijah were only there for just under 3 hours of it. I

Amelia is saying words and Amelia is taking steps. Amelia is not talking or walking yet. She is up to 10 steps in a row but they are the wobbly Frankenstein steps. She says words randomly. Some days she uses 5 or so different words other days she only uses one. That one would be Daisy. She consistently says that every day many times a day. Any other words are infrequent but they do happen.

So yesterday went quite a bit differently than I had anticipated. We planned on spending the afternoon/evening at the Baileys’ but then a stomach bug took them down so that didn’t happen. I bought the boys some custard and some fries as a consolation prize on the way home and then they went to the park with their friend Quin.

Jill, Quin’s mom, came over at around 5:20 and said the boys had called and that Xander was hurt. They thought he had broken his wrist. I was preparing for a night with his arm iced and if it was swollen in the morning heading to the pediatrician.

Looking at my calendar today I find it amazing the amount of birthdays there are this month in our family (nieces, nephews, siblings, parents). Many of them are milestone birthdays.

It started with Steve Stalcup's 35th birthday on 12/8, Jacob's 16th on 12/9 (today), Xander's 10th on 12/11, Brigham's 5th on 12/13, Greg's 3rd on 12/14, Cole's 12th on 12/15, Collin's (I don't know how old) on 12/16, Bree's 1st on 12/27, and finally Bryn's 12th on 12/31. (Forgive me if I missed someone, the list is fairly extensive.)

What could be more hectic than having older children plus a baby. Well the sports season is wrapping up so hopefully I will have more time for entries. Amelia and I spend a ridiculous amount of time in the car and things should be easing up for a few weeks at least. Tomorrow is Elijah's official last game of the season. His team made it to the championship game again. Despite having a series of colds Xander's breathing is doing better. Maxwell loves Scouts and is always trying to figure out what he can do for that. Amelia's monster gene has seriously awakened.

Many of you know about Xander's chronic congestion or chronic runny nose. The issue has existed since he was a baby. Most nights he slept in his carrier in our bathroom. I would run the shower a few times a night to fill the room with hot steam. Room humidifiers didn't work.

Jared wishes I would do lots of short posts, but it is hard to have my thought flow ready to post during the short bursts of "freedom" I get.

Ack!

The last time I felt any sort of sadness about the kids going to school was when Maxwell started Kindergarten. It was really hard to have my baby in school.

Differences between today and last year:
I got alone time to enjoy finally having all my boys in school. I like alone time, but with a new baby you get hardly any.

Elijah entered 6th grade. If he went to the local school he would be in Middle School. I thought was so grown up in Middle School and he's still my little boy.

I enjoy the relaxing schedule of summer break. No sports, no school = a relaxed mama.

I've already explained this but Summative is a night at the school where the parents get to see what their kid has been working on in Project Group during the quarter. Project Group covers Social Studies, Science and Problem Solving. The kids do a lot of hands on learning in Project Group.

I like that slogan. I find, like many others, that the older you get the faster life comes at you. In the last 8 days we have had a band concert, scouts, Maxwell's Summative, Xander's Summative, and Elijah's Summative. It has been fun.