These ladies right here. I have felt a bit lonely in Charlottesville, especially after my original group of friends left (Jamie Smith, Allison Vedomske, Sarah Simmons, Kaycie Taylor, Rachel Bailey...) and we moved away from the Elmers. I have found some of my best friends in Heather Kasik and Sara Knight. They are there for me and love me and I love that. Our kids are also the same age which makes everything that much better.
Valerie and Madison Knight are only about 4 weeks apart. I hope they become good friends! And oh my goodness! Look at Valerie's arm rolls! I just want to eat them.
I had the opportunity to help chaperone Cole's school field trip to Carter's Mountain and had a fun time hanging out with him and his buddy Abel.
This boy has a unique set of personal struggles he is working hard to overcome and I wish with all my heart I could just wave a magic wand and take it all away so he could just be a kid and enjoy life a bit more. He is amazing and his ability to stay kind and positive in the face of adversity amazes and inspires me daily.
Cole has always been my sweet, kind boy and I love that.
He has started taking Ritalin for ADD (actually we started him on Adderall but changed it later to Ritalin and that seems to work better). His appetite is significantly decreased which is a concern for me, but his ability to focus at school and work through distractions and situations that would have originally triggered a melt-down has improved significantly. He's learning at school, participating, and his trips to the office are becoming less and less frequent. I'm grateful we've found a tool to help him be who he wants to be.
Life for the rest of us is moving along. Jude also started Adderall for his ADHD and has seen HUGE improvements in his ability to focus, complete assignments, and retain information, as well as follow directions. The school year is improving for him and I love to see it.
This girl continues to be insane a good portion of the time. She reminds me of the girl with the curl from the poem:
There once was a girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good, she was really really good
But when she was bad, she was horrid.
Truer words were never spoken.
I am struggling to find constructive ways to parent this child who is so full of passion. I love that she's fierce and willing to fight for what she wants, even standing up to authority with a big fat middle finger when she thinks she's in the right, but MAN that's hard to deal with when I'm tired and frustrated. George and I are committed to not spanking our kids, but I have to admit I've swatted Lily on occasion out of desperation. I feel guilty and terrible, but honestly sometimes I don't know what else to do. Don't get me wrong--she is also kind, funny, sweet, and super super smart, but too often I allow the hard times to overshadow the good ones. I need to work on that.
Lance LOVES George. I think he feels a bit of a kindred spirit in him and I love that he feels comfortable talking to George about all aspects of life. George loves Lance, too, and is often the nicer, more understanding parent. I'm glad I get to coparent with him. We don't always see eye to eye on various aspects of raising kids, but we make a great time.
Life is so good.
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