dear god

R drew some squiggly lines on our white board and told me it was a letter from God. I asked him what God said. I'm super sad I didn't catch this exchange on video because I don't remember it precisely, but it was wonderful and fascinating to hear his thoughts on what God would say. 

I started him off by saying that it read: I love you. I love S, I love O...

He finished with a beautiful rendition including:

I love everyone in the whole world

I died and I'm very happy to be alive again. 

I guess he is listening when he's in church. 

[Photo captured when I let S choose our pew and he was sad we didn't go to the very front where he likes to sit. So, he hung out in the aisle until he got tired and sat by himself behind us--which was hilarious and adorable to me.  He looks so grown up!]

go away

At our Wednesday night church (different than our Sunday morning church, because who doesn't need 2 church families praying for you with 3 kids), after music class, our kiddos went outside to play. I loved watching S hanging out with some older girls and engaging without hesitation. My kiddos are growing up!

Then, the other girls ran off and I called to S to come over and not go inside with them. She came over and angrily told me that the girls had told her to "go away!" and she burst into tears. And I received my first opportunity to try to help my child navigate the social world. 

I knew this was a temporary pain and that she would get past it, but I did want her to experience the heartbreak and rejection while snuggled in my embrace. So, I let her cry a little. And I loved her. And then I told her that just because they didn't want to be with her at the moment that it didn't mean they didn't love her.  I reminded her that she doesn't always want to play with her little brother, but that doesn't mean that she doesn't love him. And I told her that sometimes our hearts will hurt. But we have lots of things that fill our hearts. 

And while it hurt my heart to see her hurt, I know she's now a little stronger. She will probably still be heartbroken the next time it happens, but hopefully she'll also be a little stronger until one day, when her heart is broken, she won't need my embrace and reassurance to pick herself up and dust herself off and move on. 

school festival fun

friday family film fun

I think the Vassariños' favorite thing about Friday family film night is not the movie or eating the popcorn, but MAKING the popcorn. Simple pleasures. 

easter

So, this is not exactly timely, but an important day and adorable pics, so I had to share. 

gardening

The Vassariños have really enjoyed starting a garden. We created a little patch with okra and peppers and another patch with basil. We recently added some tomato plants and even though it's late in the season, I'm tempted to plant some carrot seeds I have...  They were great helpers in creating the garden and are still great helpers in watering and weeding and checking in on our crops. They get super excited when things start growing and they notice changes. It's so fun. We've harvested one pepper so far. We planted okra seeds and I'm told we only need 1-2 plants...  We have like 40. And that's after giving away as many as we can to friends and anyone who expresses any interest in gardening. I wasn't sure how well we'd do at growing the seedlings and planted extras. We did quite well...  

Tía Candy got in on the fun and brought some dirt that they used to prepare some okra seedlings to share. Best thing, the dirt came with worms. The kiddos were hilarious as they discovered each worm, excitedly wanted to put it in our compost, nervously tried to hold and often dropped the worms as they started squirming, and just plain enjoyed learning about the natural world. I wonder if this excitement will carry over to sweeping, raking, mowing, edging...

family

violin

We never expected to be THOSE people who had their kids in activities at ungodly young ages. We are now THOSE people. But, we blame R. Two Christmases ago, when he was barely 3, he asked for a violin for Christmas. We thought, 'Pshbt, you're a kid, you're getting toys.'  Last Christmas, he asked for a violin AND lessons. OK, kid, I guess you're serious.

We did get the violin for Christmas. And he was beside himself. Wouldn't put it down for days. Showed it off for weeks after. We finally got around to scheduling those lessons in March. Better late than never. 

We LOVE our violin teacher. He is amazing with kids. Great patience, engages well, it's fantastic. And the twinkids have fierce concentration faces. 

We could stand to do a little more practicing. Teach said on the first day that the kids won't fail to practice, they're just kids. If they don't practice, it's on me. Yikes!  I'm pleased to say that each week we've practiced more than the last. But, I didn't set the bar very high at first...