Viv turns 2! And...Thanksgiving with Paw Paw and GJ

We got to celebrate Thanksgiving and Vivian's birthday with Paw Paw and GJ this year! Vivian's gift to us is sleeping through the night for the past week!  Here are a couple pictures from preschool too. 

Another Milestone!

This 6 year and one month old just lost his first baby tooth! The adult one was already there behind it. The one next to it is loose so the tooth fairy will be making another visit soon I'm sure. 

Max's 6th Birthday Party!

Here are some pictures from Max's party at Lynnwood Bowl and Skate. We just did the bowling part. Hard to believe Viv two next month! She's loving going to 'her school'. 

The Actual Day of Max's Birth

Maybe going to kindergarten is finally catching up with me but I felt so nostalgic on Max's 6th birthday. His party is in a few days and I'll get pictures then but this year I wanted a picture on his actual birthday. I can remember the day he was born and feeling the overwhelming feeling of love that parents experience that takes you into another orbit. 

The hustle and bustle of life can take you away from the memory but I felt it come back in another wave this day. I cry when I look at these pictures of him. His face still melts my heart the way it always has. He'll be getting off the bus in a little while and he may be in one of his foul moods but it doesn't matter. I love him with all that I have to love with and nothing will ever change that. 

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Kindergarten

Here is Max and Viv just before I dropped Max at school today! There has been a huge change in our life here at the Beene's and so far it's been a wonderful adventure. I haven't felt too sad about Max starting kindergarten the way I hear mothers talk about. It may hit after a while of not having him home but so far I've still been too busy to give that much thought. There is a lot of paperwork and on Thursday Viv starts school as well. Lot's of paperwork to get done for that. I have tons of projects that have been neglected and keeping Max on track is a job in itself. Making his lunch and getting him off to school looking decent, homework to come and the PTA! I need to get Viv on a different nap schedule to pick up Max on time and get our days during the week settled into a routine. Tomorrows big adventure is Max riding the bus! He is so excited to do this!!! Charles will follow the first time like Ms. Chorba suggested to make sure it all goes smoothly. I have a back log of posts from the summer to post about but this is about all the time I can give the blog today. 

"It goes by so fast ..."

Dad here, with a long overdue post about the kiddos.

First, our sweet little Vivian, now 20 months old.

Words cannot express how much of a true gift it is to have this little girl in my life. Her toothy smile and sweet little cackle, the way she swings her arms when she runs, the way she says her name so clearly now, and “Daddy” and “I love you” … all moments of the deepest and truest happiness. She is so whip-smart, and puts things together in her mind in the most amazing ways. Max was an early talker; his pre-school teachers and other parents were always commenting on this vocabulary. But Vivian is even ahead of him at this stage. She says things like “Old Macdonald, Daddy’s iPad, me”  when she wants to sing along. Or "Me have cracker, too?" Or “watermelon heavy” when she tries to pick one up. She knows what clothes she wants to wear, so don't go trying to put on her flower t-shirt whne she wants to wear her favorite purple rainbow one! She loves running around in circles with her big brother, giggling the whole time and actually loves playing with his legos and superheros with him. She likes to vroom-vroom cars around, something Max has never really been into. I think any illusions we had that having a girl would be a mellower experience have been dashed long ago. She is a constant buzz of kinetic energy, which has been challenging, even for seasoned veteran parents like us! She won’t sit still for more than about 20 seconds, so restaurants are basically “OK, you eat, I’ll walk her around, and then we’ll switch.” Not exactly a fun time. Oh, and she’s a terrible sleeper. She usually goes down fine, but just won’t stay asleep for more than 3-4 hours before waking up. So she’s still not sleeping through the night. We were feeling pretty close a few months back but she’s regressed. Oh well, one day she’ll figure it out and we’ll all sleep a lot better!

Now, my big boy Max, about to turn 6 …

It’s hard to believe he’s about to start kindergarten.  Mom and dad are both feeling emotional about this major milestone. Every since Max was born, other parents say “it goes by so fast” … I think this is the first point where it truly hits home. He is very excited about starting school, and based on his pre-school experience, I have loads of confidence in his ability to make the transition. He loves to learn (maybe not so much when Dad’s trying to teach him, but that’s OK) and is always the most vocal participant in class and camp (which we'll have to be wary of.) Max is also blossoming into quite an athlete. His ability to dribble a basketball with both hands, crossover and shoot off the dribble is fun to see. And he absolutely loves it, which is the most important thing. He’s also into baseball too, and has really improved catching and throwing even since his first year of t-ball this spring (Dad was his coach!) He loves going to Mariners games (especially the food in the Safeco suite) and one very gratifying thing is to see his growing interest in not only playing sports but following sports teams. That’s something I’ve done all my life, so its cool to see the spark of that in him too … we’ll see how it develops. Sports aside, Max is also really into performing in general and puts on little plays for us (mostly about superheroes), even leading a spontaneous little prayer meeting with us and Paw-Paw and GJ  after going to vacation bible school (which he loved.) He’s a little leader and loves to be in the spotlight, but not in a show-off way, at least not yet.  He’s also getting into space, and really likes an iPad app that quizzes him on the planets and stars. He’s a very well rounded kid in his interests. With his intellect and willingness to converse with anybody, kid or adult, if he can get his tempestuous emotions in check (no thanks to mom and dad for that trait), he’s going to do some amazing things in school and life. He will no matter what. It will be so fulfilling to watch and help him grow.

It’s been said so many times, but couldn’t be more spot-on … being a parent is the single most rewarding and challenging thing you can do. I’m so very lucky to have such a great family (including a super mom and wife!) I need to keep that in mind every day.

The Summer of Camps

I deliberately didn't sign Max up for a bunch of camps  before summer started. I wanted free time, time to be spontaneous. Somehow through friends and good deals we ended up with a lot of camps. I'm so glad though. Art camp has spurred more interest in drawing and building. Sprouting Spirits and VBS have brought out other aspects of Max's personality.

 The picture of Vivian is at Nature school with her friend Ari. Ari's big brother is Jacob who is Max's friend. Next is Max checking out the clouds and Vivian inspecting the flowers. 

Here's a list of the summers schedule:

1. Trip to RI for two weeks.

2. Basketball camp 

3. Tennis Camp

4.Family Works Choir with our old nanny Sarah

5. Camp Sprouting Spirits with Joshua

6. Vacation Bible School with Joshua and Nolan

7. Art class

8. Week long art camp

And last but not least Science Camp

And nature school is ongoing as well.....

We definitely keep busy! 

Tropical Bird

Our tropical bird is just a friendly Western Tanager. Common to our area is the summer but not so common in the city. At least we had never seen them before. It was fun to see lots of them flying through the woods contrasting the ever present browns and greens.

Tropical looking bird at Salmon Le Sac

Salmon Le Sac 2012

We had such a fantastic time on our annual camping trip with our friends. We had a much better location this year! You just can't get any better in my mind than the beauty of the Pacific Northwest! Taryn was the photographer for all of these pictures. I didn't bring my camera knowing I'd be chasing Vivian around so much. Love her photos! I need to go back and find the one with the tropical looking bird. We were all fascinated by the brightly colored tropical birds that were there. I need to go back and find the picture of it. The picture in this post is of the woodpecker. We also saw deer and lots of chipmunks...which Vivian called chippymunks. I did a four mile hike with Viv on my back! It felt sooo good!!!