Creativity

 

This is what creativity looks like at my house.

The picture when I ask my children to clean up after their day of creativity isn't quite so tranquil.

Grumpy

Things that make me grumpy:

1.  When my house is dirty/messy
2.  Spending a whole day cleaning my house
3.  When my kids complain when I ask them to help clean the house

4.  Especially when they complain about cleaning up messes that they made

5.  When my kids continue to make messes WHILE I'm trying to clean the house...like shoveling in a snowstorm

6.  Did I mention spending a whole day cleaning my house?

Truth:  Yesterday I was grumpy.  But today I am enjoying my clean house...and encouraging my kids to just play outside so it stays that way.

Nine Years Old

Adelie is officially 9 years old.  This is her last year in the single digits, so here is my post about all things Adelie at nine.  She weighs 53 lbs (18th percentile) and is 4' 5" (50th percentile).  She wears size 7/8 and 8 clothes and size 1 or 2 shoes.  (Although she is still squeezing her feet into her favorite size 13 boots when she wants to dress up a bit.)  Adelie is in the 3rd grade in Mrs. Hitchins class.  She took part in Young Authors and is in the Recycling Club at school.  She also takes singing lessons and piano lessons, goes to tumbling class every week at Gym Corner (which she just started again in February), and attends NTA classes for Broadway Dance, Stage Kids, and Rising Stars.  She also played a season of volleyball and ran her first 5K race.  Adelie goes to bed between 8:30 and 9:00 (but often doesn't fall asleep right away).  She is slow to wake up on school days and often sleeps in until after 8:00 on the week-ends.

Likes:  Adelie still loves mermaids.  She is constantly practicing her tumbling around the house.  She enjoys putting on plays with Staley and playing in the playroom with Briggs.  Polly Pockets are a current favorite toy.  She also loves to read, create things (with paper, tape, boxes, random things out of the recycling), write (especially poems), draw (especially mermaids), and do perler beads.  When outside, Adelie enjoys riding her scooter and her bike and finding bugs with Briggs.  

Reading is always a favorite in our house.

Adelie is our biggest animal girl (except for dogs) and is often the one to remember to feed the fish and the one who misses Jake and Elwood the most (other than Zach.)  She loves aquatic life and is a Miami Dolphins fan because she likes their colors and she likes dolphins.  With her love of mermaids and love of aquatic life, Adelie also just loves the water.  Swimming is one of her favorite activities.

Adelie enjoys watching movies with the family and playing family games.  She doesn't like to watch scary or sad movies, but is generally amenable to whatever everyone else wants to watch or play.  She does not have the same strong opinions about these things that Staley and Briggs often do.  This more laid-back, people pleasing attitude is also one of the reasons Adelie is such a good friend.  She likes to make people happy so she is very in-tune to the desires of others and enjoys doing what makes other people happy.

She loves Harry Potter, but her initial interest was sparked because her big sister loved it first.

Adelie is a social girl.  She gets along well with others as she is thoughtful, generous, loyal, empathetic, and sensitive to the needs of others.  Her closest friends are Stella and Annaleise, but she has a number of other friends at school, church, Stage Kids, and in the community.  She also loves spending time with her siblings and her cousins.

Adelie gets along well with everyone.  She and Avery really bonded on our Spring Break trip.

Adelie is a generally good eater.  She LOVES fruit and we often joke that she could just live on fruit and bread.  Eating main dishes is not her forte, but she is good about eating her fruits and veggies.  And, of course, she loves her desserts as well.  Adelie remains our slowest eater...and our messiest.

Always messy...but happy about it!

Dislikes:  Adelie is very sensitive and she does not like getting in trouble, disappointing people, when other people are sad or angry, or feeling excluded.  Her more recent fears include hearing noises or seeing shadows at night, gross things (like "what's that black spot on my food?" or "ewww...what's that on the floor?"), and things that she doesn't know where they came from or why they are in a different place than she left them.  (Not sure where this last fear originated, but maybe from reading too many fantasy/magical books???)  She is also concerned about hand washing and germs/safety and getting sick.  (With her care for others, I think Adelie is more concerned about giving COVID to others than herself getting sick.)  

While most kids put words like fun or exciting in their 2022 new year's craft, Adelie said 'covid free' by staying "soshaly distinsed at school, keeping your mask on, and covering your cough."

Adelie does not like shoes and socks, always preferring to be barefoot.  She is often slow to get up in the morning or to get ready for bed at night and is always the last one to finish eating...and she doesn't like to feel rushed along.  Adelie gets frustrated easily, so she doesn't always like when things are hard and can frustrated with homework she doesn't understand or harder songs when practicing her piano.  However, unlike her siblings, Adelie is brave about things like shots, going to the dentist, and pulling out loose teeth.

Although there are things Adelie dislikes, she has way more favorites.  Swimming and Ariel of two of her very favorites!

Skills:  Adelie is very coordinated and flexible.  In tumbling, she can do a back-walkover, front walkover, cartwheels, roundoffs, back bends, and hand stands.  One of her new skills is holding a backbend position without putting her hands on the floor.  She is able to do a back handspring if I spot her.  She rides her bike and her scooter well, is a fast runner, completed a 5K without walking at all, and does great with her spin hopper jump rope.  

Tumbling is something that comes naturally to Adelie.

Adelie's new 'defying gravity' skill

Adelie is very creative and I love her poems and stories that she writes.  Adelie is independent with getting herself ready for the day, doing chores, and completing daily activities (practicing piano, homework, etc.) but consistently needs reminders or prompts to do things and do them in a timely manner.  Adelie is a smart girl who does well in school.  She got all A's on her report card this year (the first year with letter grades) and is scoring in the 99th percentile for reading and the 69th percentile for math on her standardized tests.

Always reading.  Couldn't even be bothered to bring her library book inside...just stopped in the middle of the driveway to read.

Personality:  Adelie is very sweet and very sensitive, but is also very funny and sometimes sassy as well.  She is very in-tune to how others are feeling and goes out of her way to make others feel good.  She is very generous, often making gifts for people and giving away her money to charity or to buy things for others.  We often joke that Adelie will always be broke when she is older because she will just give all her money away.  Adelie is quick with a compliment, can always tell if we are feeling upset or frustrated about something, and is often the one willing to compromise or let someone else have what they want to keep the peace.  

Adelie is naturally sweet and caring...and LOVES her big sister.

Adelie is also very funny.  Just naturally funny.  She loves to make others laugh and has a goofy side.  Adelie does not always have confidence in herself and her skills, but she lights up with compliments or getting chosen for special activities or having one on one time with others.  She is definitely a Daddy's girl (they are very similar in many ways) and loves their special traditions that they've put in place, like when she brings him down a snack to his office so they can have snacks together after school or when they have a quick pretend tea party when she finishes up her shower.  

Always a goofball!

Adelie has a deep faith.  She is the first one to offer to pray at meals or on the way to school and she always has good insights and thoughtful questions when it comes to Biblical truths.  Her sincerity in each relationship in her life extends to her relationship with God as well. 

I love her heart.  I love her mind.  I couldn't love her more!  Each year of life brings new growth and new learning and new interests and new skills.  I can't wait to see what this next year brings!

Things to Remember

At each moment in time, there are things that I want to remember about my kids and what are life at home is like.  Sometimes there are enduring things (like bed-night) and sometimes they are fleeting phases that I know I'll forget if I don't write them down.  At this moment in time, I don't want to forget...

1.  How all 3 kids listen to audiobooks on their CD players when we're at home.  Adelie and Briggs always listen in the playroom while they are playing.  They finished the A-Z Mysteries series and are now re-listening to Humphrey books.  And when they finish the ones they have from the library, they put on 'The Pond' (which has been a long-time enduring classic.)  Staley has been listening to the Harry Potter series in her room while doing calligraphy or drawing.  She is currently on book 5.

2.  How if Briggs is wearing something with a hood, he always has the hood up.  Always.

3.  How Adelie has gotten really motivated with her tumbling lately and is practicing handstands all the time.  She can't walk through a room without flipping up onto her hands over and over and over again.  She has set a goal to be able to do a back handspring by herself by the end of the year.  I love seeing her motivation and enthusiasm for setting a goal and working to accomplish it.

4.  How Briggs loves fleece footie pajamas and wears them every single night.

5.  How the kids are eating SO much!  We used to have leftovers after almost every meal.  Now there is rarely a morsel of anything left on the table...and sometimes the kids still ask for a fruit cup or piece of fruit after everything else has been devoured.

6.  How Staley and now Adelie wear jeans to school almost every single day.  Jeans!  Who would have thought??

7.  How Staley looks for any opportunity to ask to wear make-up, use the phone, or ride in the front seat of the car.  And how, when she takes the back-up phone with her when she walks to library by herself to volunteer, she always finds an excuse to text me about something.  Always.

8.  How Adelie has some irrational fears about noises and shadows and things that aren't where she thought they should be or things that she doesn't know where they came from.  Like, "why is this pencil on the floor?  That's not where I left it?"  Or "There's a shirt in my closet and I don't know where it came from."  It has been an enduring issue over the past number of months (maybe a year??) or so and I THINK it's getting better.  I always just say, "What's the most logical explanation?"  Because some of these fears and concerns seem so illogical.

9.  How Staley wakes up Adelie every morning for school by turning on "We Don't Talk about Bruno."

10.  How doing the nightly Wordle has been a highlight for the girls once they are ready for bed.

Time ticks by whether we want it to or not.  I love each age and phase of life (mostly), and I don't want to forget some of these little things that shaped our lives through each period of time.  

Fetch?

When we were walking home from school one day this week, Briggs saw a big stick by the sidewalk and picked it up.  He asked, "Can I throw this stick?"  Then he quickly added, "I'll just throw it up there on the sidewalk and then run and get it."  I responded, "So you mean you just want to play fetch with yourself?"  Briggs smiled, said "yes", and then proceeded to play fetch with himself all the way down the sidewalk on the way home.

And we still buy them toys.  Why????

She Writes...

Poems by Adelie

*All spelling and punctuation is copied directly from Adelie's poems to preserve them in their pure form.

Furry Friends

I believe,

That our furry friends should be treated with care.

Even though we can't see skin,

They have lots and lots of hair!

A Park

Build a park,

For many people,

For birds that fly,

And kids that cry,

And ladies who are talented at baking apple pie!

Mermaid

Flashing scales, 

Glimmering tails,

A mermaid is near, 

I can feel it!

So watch for that mermaid,

Pull up a chair,

Grab some snacks,

Brush your hair.

A glimpse of fin,

Win win!

Our mermaid friend is here!

When she comes close,

Wave hi to that mermaid, 

Look she is coming very near!

Flower Garden

Look out at the garden, 

Tell the owner,

"Oh pardon!"

Ask him, 

"May I have a closer look at your garden?"

If he says sure,

Your day is pure,

Just look at the beautiful flowers.

You could stay there for hours!

With the lilacs,

Roses,

And lilies,

Tulips, and poppies.

You will like that garden, 

Oh yes!

Just look at the beautiful flowers.

Stars

See the stars,

Shinning bright, 

Just like diamonds in the night, 

Just look at them now,

It pretty enough to raise an eye brow!

Those beautiful stars, 

"Shine on!"

Hello

Say "Hello."

To a friend,

Just around the bend

Say, goodbye, to a guy,

Heading toward main street.

Wave to sis,

And the cat hiss,

And your parents to.

Be a friendly person.

That is easy to do!

Ummmm....No.

Tonight I was making dinner while Adelie was writing poems a few rooms away.  She yelled in to me, "Mom!  Do you want to hear my poem?"  I responded, "I'll be there in just a minute."  To which she replied, "Do you want me to just shout it to you?"

Ummmm...no.