Eleven Years Old

Staley is officially 11 years old.  She weighs 72 pounds (22nd percentile) and is 4'10 tall (62nd percentile).  Staley wears size 10 and 10/12 clothes and size 3 shoes.  She is in the 5th grade in Mrs. Bishop's homeroom.  Staley participates in NTA programs for Rising Stars, Stage Kids, and Broadway Dance.  She has played basketball and volleyball over this past year, as well as run her first 5K.  She participated in 4th grade drama club last year and middle school drama club this year.  Staley takes piano lessons, singing lessons, and is playing the flute in the 5th grade band.  She also volunteers at the public library on a weekly basis.  Staley typically goes to bed between 8:30 and 9:00 and generally wakes up between 7:00 and 8:00, often staying up later and sleeping in later on the week-ends or in the summer.

Likes:  Staley still loves all things singing, dancing, and acting.  NTA activities and drama club are her favorite after school activities.  At home, she enjoys putting on original plays or making original movies with her siblings, cousins, and friends.  Costuming, hair, and make-up are always included in these original productions.  

Performing is what Staley loves to do!

Staley's other favorite activity is reading.  She devours books in her free time.  For school they have to do a reading contract each quarter, choosing a specific number of books to read every 9 weeks.  The minimum is 5.  Staley has read at least 25 books each quarter.  Her favorite genre is fantasy.  Harry Potter and Land of Stories are still two of her favorite series, but she reads a large number of other books in other genres as well.  

Staley also enjoys listening to music on her iPod.  Musical soundtracks are her favorites.  Zach made a clean version of Hamilton using some editing software, so she loves listening to songs from Hamilton, Wicked, Encanto, Into the Woods, and other movies and musicals. 

All her thoughts have been replaced by Hamilton lyrics.

Staley also enjoys artistic and creative pursuits.  Writing books or stories, making perler bead designs, drawing, and doing calligraphy are current interests.  She rarely plays with toys anymore, although will sometimes still take Barbies or figurines into the bath if she takes a play bath.  She does enjoy board games with Clue, Dragon Realm, Just One, and Apples to Apples being family favorites.  

Staley and her calligraphy

Staley enjoys watching movies.  She has gotten more interested in "bigger kid" movies like the Harry Potter movies and Lord of the Rings.  But she is still happy to watch family movies and shows on Disney + like Encanto or Bluey.

Movie time is always a special treat.

Staley continues to enjoy playing various sports, going for walks and runs, and roller blading.  She still loves to swim. Staley has recently gotten more interested in putting together outfits, shopping for clothes, accessorizing, and doing her hair.  She enjoys looking through hairstyle books and trying out new hairstyles.    

Trying out a new hairstyle

Staley is a good eater and has gotten much more adventurous with the things she will eat.  She prefers to order off the adult menu at restaurants, often splitting a meal with me.  It's hard to list favorites because there are few things she doesn't eat anymore, but cheeseburgers and tacos are always a hit.  Staley has a variety of friends at school, church, and NTA without a specific core group of friends that she hangs out with on a regular basis.  She has made many new friends this year from Goodfield and Congerville, and has also made new friends through NTA now that Eureka often combines with other casts.  Her cousins remain some of her closest friends.

Staley loves all her NTA friends.

Dislikes:  Staley is very agreeable about most things these days.  She still dislikes vegetables, especially peas.  She sometimes gets annoyed with her younger siblings and doesn't always love household chores, although is good about doing them without too much complaining.  She still occasionally feels carsick on long car rides and gets light headed with blood.  She doesn't like the pulling when I'm doing her hair into french braids.  She also really dislikes the anticipation of anything painful like shots or pulling teeth.

Skills:  Staley has a variety of skills.  She has a natural ability with acting and continues to improve with her singing and dancing skills.  Her stage presence is always top notch.  She memorizes things easily and never has difficulty memorizing her lines or songs for shows that she is in.  Staley is very responsible, getting herself up and ready in the morning without much prompting.  She continues to get better with doing her own hair.  She helps a lot around the house with things like unloading and loading the dishwasher, making simple meals and baking, cleaning the bathroom, making her bed, changing sheets, and putting away laundry.  Her recent interest in calligraphy has seen her develop strong skills with lettering.  

Sticker mosaics are fun too!

Staley continues to do well in school, getting all A's on her report cards and scoring in the 98th and 99th percentiles for standardized testing with math and reading.  Although athletic pursuits aren't where she focuses her time, Staley is good at roller blading and ice skating, is a proficient swimmer, improves with each sports season she completes, and can run 3 miles without stopping.

Personality:  Staley has a lot of the typical first child personality traits.  She is responsible and a rule follower.  She is a good helper around the house and with her siblings.  She has grown in her independence and now enjoys going for walks by herself, doing her volunteer work, helping out with the younger kids at NTA, or being "in charge" if Zach and I go for a walk together.  

She has really enjoyed her volunteer hours at the library.

Although Staley is social and enjoys time with friends, she is also very content to have alone time for reading, listening to music, and doing creative pursuits.  Staley is confident in herself and her skills.  She generally embraces a challenge, like training for her first 5K or competing in the school spelling bee.  

Competing in the school spelling bee

Although she still has strong opinions and can be quick with a retort or an excuse, Staley has also softened to being more open to suggestions or opinions from us.  Staley is very creative and imaginative.  Although getting older, she still likes to snuggle and spend time with us, especially if it's one on one time together.  She continues to grow in her faith, completing her Bible reading and keeping a Bible journal on her own, as well as doing a devotional time with me.  I love watching Staley grow up and getting a front row seat to the way God is working in her life.

Love my big 11 year old!

Another Sad Good-bye

About a month after saying good-bye to Jake, we had to say good-bye to Elwood as well.  Just 9 days shy of their 20th birthday, Elwood reached the end of his life.  Although he had been the one who had been declining more evidently for several years, he held on a little longer than his brother.  I'm sure that losing his brother and forever companion was hard on Elwood.  When he too stopped eating and purring and became unable to walk, we knew that it was time to say good-bye to him as well.

Although brothers, Jake and Elwood had very different personalities.  Where Jake was mellow and social, Elwood was more high-strung and stand off-ish.  For years, the kids probably thought of Elwood as some kind of urban myth because he would run off and hide as soon as he heard them coming.  From his early days, Elwood was always the one who was climbing the curtains and skittering away from us.  He was the more active and athletic one.  We could recall times where he would be chasing Jake around the house.  He'd run so fast that he'd just jump over Jake and keep running, thus going from the chase-er to the chase-ee.

While most of my pictures of Jake were him sleeping or relaxing, many of my pictures of Elwood are of him playing or exploring or getting into mischief.

We were never quite sure where we find Elwood or what he would be up to.

Elwood could never resist a moving piece of string or a fun toy.  This is a perfect representation of the brothers.  While Jake is just resting, Elwood is busy playing with a birthday party invitation.

Elwood was known to dart through an open door or hide under our bed where we couldn't reach him.  He had plenty of instances of getting locked into a closet after he'd dash through without us realizing it.  But it never seemed to stop him from doing it again.

Just as Jake couldn't pass up a good box or paper, Elwood was more prone to find a new nook or corner to explore.

But Elwood still liked a good box...

piece of paper...

and snuggle as well.

And in his last weeks, he was definitely more interested in snuggling and spending time with the family...

even the kids.

Even though he was more active in his earlier years...

he still had some athletic prowess even in his old age.

We were so blessed to have Elwood as part of our family for almost 20 years.

The house doesn't feel the same without Jake and Elwood here...

but we have 20 years worth of memories to cherish.

My Kids

It's always amazing to me how 3 kids raised in the same home with the same parents can be so different.  Staley has always had an abundance of confidence in herself and holds strong to her own opinions, regardless of what those around her think.  Adelie lacks the confidence in herself that Staley possesses.  She is more of a people-pleaser, always wanting to make others happy and go along with the crowd.  Briggs is my most self-conscious child, never really wanting to do anything that makes him stand out.  He is very sensitive about thinking that people might laugh at him.  

The weeks leading up to Christmas were a prime example of the differences in my children.  The kids' schools had various dress-up days leading up to Christmas.  Briggs did not want to participate in any of the dress up days at all.  I could occasionally coax him to wear red or green or a Christmas shirt, but sometimes even that was a stretch.  Adelie was more willing to participate in the dress up days, but she was definitely more a middle of the road participant.  Nothing to flashy or show-y or stand-out-ish.  And then there is Staley.  While I was coaxing Briggs and encouraging Adelie to participate, Staley was making plans to wear her elf costume to school.

I love that all 3 of my kids are unique and have their own distinct personalities...although there are also times that I would love to take some of Staley's confidence and infuse it into the other two.

He Says...

I was asking Briggs if he wanted to sign up for the spring session of Stage Kids where they will be performing "The Music Man, Jr.".  He responded, "No thanks.  I only want to do it if I can be the music man, but it will probably be an older kid."

Reading

We are a reading family.  We have always been a reading family.  From the moment our kids were born, we've read to them.  We are permanent fixtures at the public library.  We have shelves full of books in our house.  All our kids have loved books and loved reading and have consistently grown into better and more independent readers.  And just this past week, Briggs has taken the next step on his independent reading journey.

Briggs has gotten to be a good and proficient reader.  He has been reading a chapter book series (Dinosaur Cove) aloud to us since this summer, improving almost weekly with his fluency and efficiency.  This past week-end, Zach was reading on the couch and Briggs asked to join him.  Instead of asking to read aloud to Zach or asking Zach to read to him, Briggs instead decided that he would finish his current Dinosaur Cove book silently to himself.

After finishing that book, Briggs started scouring the bookshelves for other easier chapter books that he could read to himself.  He polished off a Magic Treehouse book, an I Survived book, and several Princess in Black books over the next day or two.  He then went to the library, came home with a pile of Magic Treehouse and I Survived books, and has been devouring them.

Briggs is now reading his chapter books to himself every chance he gets.  He has been leaping out of bed as soon as his alarm goes off in the morning so he can get ready quickly and get some reading in before school.  He has been reading in the car, reading in his room, reading on the couch.  This realization that he can read chapter books to himself has ignited a new fire.

I love my reading family.  I love watching my kids grow in their love of reading.  I love the pride that they feel when they've conquered a new step in their reading journey.  

And I sure do love my new independent reader!

Truth

It has been well documented that all things media--television shows, magazines, celebrities, social media, movies--provide unrealistic views of people and of life.  This, in turn, often leads us to compare ourselves to these unrealistic expectations and, inevitably, come up short.  I have come to realize that the parents on the animated cartoon, 'Bluey', set a high expectation of fun and connected parenting that I aspire to emulate. 

I'm not sure if it's a sad commentary on our culture that comparing my parenting to animated cartoon dogs makes me feel like I'm coming up short...or if it's just a sad commentary on me.

Staley's Birthday

Staley had a great time celebrating her 11th birthday, stretching it out over a full week.  She got to celebrate with family during our Christmas celebrations last week-end.

Brownies, presents, and singing at Grammie's house and cake and singing at Uma's house

On her actual birthday, Staley took treats to school.  She then enjoyed her dinner of choice (Zach grilling out in the January cold) and shared dessert (Oreo balls and Uncle Bob's ice cream) and present time with grandparents.

Staley was excited about her new chair, earrings, make-up, clothes, bookcase, and coupons from Adelie.  Briggs made her some perler bead dinosaurs a few days later.

The week-end after her birthday, Staley invited a few friends (Charlotte, Lucy, Morgan, and Olivia) and her cousin (Lila) over for some birthday fun.

They hung out, ate birthday treats, opened gifts, talked, and giggled.

Then I took all the girls to Bloomington to go ice skating.

Staley had never been ice skating before, but she picked it up really quickly and had a great time.

The girls all had a fun time skating and Staley loved having the opportunity to spend the afternoon with some friends.

Staley finished off her birthday celebrations with a fun sleepover with Lila.

It's good to be 11!

The Blog

I started this blog 11 years ago when Staley was first born.  It was a way for people to keep up with our family, but more importantly, it was a way for me to document our everyday life.  I wanted it to be an honest picture of the good and the bad, the big and the small, a snapshot of our daily life.  My hope was that one day our kids would enjoy looking back over the blog, sparking memories and helping them to see their childhood, the big moments and the small, through the eyes of parents who loved them.

I enjoy keeping track of the moments and the memories.  And I often find myself reading back through the blog.  I'll start looking for a specific memory and will instead find myself reading through years full of memories instead.  There are so many little things...funny stories, phases, photos, quotes...that I would have easily forgotten had it not been for the blog.  Each year for my birthday, my mom makes me a printed book of the previous year's blog posts as yet another way to preserve the memories and moments.

Within the past year or so, my kids have gotten really into reading through the blog books.  They love to pull out a stack of the books, paging through them and stopping to read snippets.  They especially like reading funny stories about themselves or each other.  They then want to read them aloud or retell the stories to each other, giggling and laughing about the funny things they did or said.  Watching them pour over the books or listening to them tell each other stories or having them ask me "do you remember when..." fulfills my wish for this blog.  It's exactly what I had hoped it would be for them.

I love watching the kids read the blog books, knowing that the moments they may not know or remember are being rebuilt, giving them a clearer picture of our ongoing family story.

Feminism? Not yet.

The other day Staley and I were discussing cooking skills.  I told her that I never really liked cooking when I was younger and so I really didn't know how to cook when I got married.  To which Staley replied, "Then why did Daddy marry you?"  

After I extolled her with all my wonderful qualities that made me a great catch...and made sure she knew that cooking, good or bad, should not be the basis for marriage...we then had a discussion about things that are and are not important when choosing a spouse.  After our entire discussion, Staley then informed me that she still is planning to be a good cook for her husband.  

So Adelie was just playing a game with mermaids becoming humans to impress a prince.  Now Staley thinks that my lack of early domestic skills should have hurt my chances at marriage...and wants to avoid that fate.  Here I thought I was modeling female strength and independence.  I thought Zach and I have done a solid job of demonstrating a partnership in domestic duties.  Obviously we have done something wrong along the way.  I blame Disney movies.

Christmas: The End

With COVID derailing some of our Christmas plans, we finally had the opportunity to finish up our Christmas festivities with family this past week-end.

We enjoyed our Christmas get-together with my family on Saturday.

Although Ethan didn't make the trip down from Chicago, he was still a part of the day.  After each person opened their gift, they would bring it over to the phone to show Ethan.

There were lots of gifts to open, cousins to play with, visiting to do, and yummy brunch to eat.

And we also took the opportunity to celebrate these 2 January birthday kids (plus Evan).

It was wonderful to have the opportunity to be together with family!

The next day we got the opportunity to enjoy Christmas with Zach's side of the family.

There were more presents to open, more cousins to play with, more visiting to do, and yummy lunch to eat.

I love how the cousins make or buy special things for each other.

(And don't these 2 look so much alike!)

Cade is always so good about playing with Briggs...and Briggs loves it!

We also took the opportunity to celebrate these 2 January birthdays.

And no family get-together is complete without a performance of some sort.  This rendition of 'Little Red Riding Hood' was one of their best.

Christmas may have been prolonged a few more weeks than usual, but that just made the opportunity to spend time with family all the more sweet and special.  Even though it was a week into January, it was still a very merry Christmas!