Flying Solo

Writing this means we survived without Michael for four days! He gets home tonight from Nashville where he did a few days of a crash review course getting ready for his upcoming oral boards. It was fun for him to see his residency friends and probably fun to have a break from bedtime -- amiright -- but it was a lot of info poured onto him gearing up for one big stressful final test. 

Bennett was home from school this week because of positive Covid cases in his class, and Westin somehow got to keep going even though half his class was positive or quarantined. They keep them in groups at school so if a case is positive then just the people in close quarters with them have to quarantine, where Bennett's class is considered one big group since 3-5 year olds are not pros at keeping masks on. Except, by now, yes they are. So, Bennett did virtual school this week and I was more attentive to him and his mute/unmute needs while I was a house painter early last school year than when I was a nursing newborn mom but, we did our best. 

We had a really hard day with Westin this week and his hard time with transitions spilled over into school and all I want to take away from it is -- I'm grateful for support in my kids' lives from other teachers and counselors and leaders who know them, and I'm also super grateful for the awesome kid Westin is. He is smart and an old soul and inquisitive and working through his hard things with him is privilege because he's a special soul. We have our hard days but watching him grow up is a really incredible experience. I wish I was more confident in what the right thing to do is with parenting a lot of time but I know the bottom line right thing at all times always always is to just love them. 

Bennett is working through his reading book with me, Camden is working hard at learning to not scream, and Asher is giving us all more smiles every day and we're loving it. He had a couple great nights of sleep this week and a couple that I saw every hour of the night on my phone and I've noticed with all four of my babies that even though my many prayers don't seem to put them back to sleep in the night, they DO seem to help me not be very tired the next day even when I'd expect to barely be able to function. So I'm grateful for that.

We met our friend's new puppy and Camden wasn't too sure,
while Bennett was completely head-over-heels smitten.

Sometimes he stays in the exact same sleeping position after a feeding is done like a cute little statue and it's my favorite.

A little bundle.

Dark eyes like his oldest bro! But kind of his own look apart from that these days.

Bennett wanted to make a picture for grandpa

"We're leaving the house? We don't do that much at all... are you sure about this?"

Studying and holding babies. He's done this for hours over years and years.

Happy little sweetheart

Camden's big into measuring things lately,
and brings me this all the time for me to pull a few inches out for him so he can go on his way and 
"do some measure stuff!"

My lunch dates.

I had a phone meeting with an accountant this week (the side of all this fun book stuff that I do NOT enjoy) and it looked like this on my end. Tricky times.

Bennett gave Camden Lite Brite and Spot It lessons this week and it was adorable.

Westin had a friend come home from school with him one day this week to play and everyone in our house loooooved it. This sweet kid wasn't quite sure about all of the attention though (he's the youngest of four boys). At one point he said to Westin, "Do you hate being an older brother??" I laughed inside and then melted when Westin said, "Well, it's hard when we fight and stuff but mostly I really love it!"

When you think you've put everything away in this house...
you never have. We worked super hard Saturday to clean and put EVERYthing away and I told the boys they could choose dinner and a movie that night if we did a good job (they went with burgers and The Incredibles), then I saw this snake after all our efforts and felt like it was mocking me haha.

He's super into sharing daddy's chair after he gets out of his high chair,
and this week I had to do.

2014 vs. 2022

This was our Sunday best today... don't judge us.
Caught sacrament meeting on Zoom and Bennett wanted to know where all the conference treats were.

Michael back with his Fresno peeps!
He had such a friendly residency program.