End of Summer Update

It has been really hard to find the time to write the last few weeks.  I'm just trying to keep up with the kids and our life every day.  I start back to school this week and it's only going to get infinitely more difficult.  I seriously do NOT know how I'm going to manage, but I am trusting that God has this figured out just like everything else. 

So how are we doing?  Here's an update on all of us at the end of our amazing summer:

In the last 10 weeks, Solomon learned how to swim.  When he came home he was terrified to not be touching the bottom of the lake or pool, he didn't trust a life jacket, he wouldn't even let one of us hold him in the water.  This weekend, he was doing cannonballs off a diving board and swimming to the ladder to do it again.  He also learned how to ride a bike, discovered the joys of video games, and has eaten more pizza than any child I've ever known.  He's gained 4.5 pounds, now tipping the scales at a massive 49 lb!  A recheck at the ophthalmologist showed that the pressures in his eyes are not coming down, in spite of a month's worth of eye drops.  We're now trying new drops for another month, if that doesn't work, surgery to implant a drain and relieve the pressures.  Not panicking, just taking it one step at a time.   Solomon is the world's worst backseat driver.  He watches everything I do behind the wheel, asking questions incessantly, telling me when to turn left (he loves that he knows where everything is now), verifying that my turn signal is on, reminding me that the red lights on the back of the car ahead of me means it's braking, and often saying, "Mom, sign is speed 45, you is speed 48, you is ticket".   He got light up Spiderman shoes for school and literally had tears of joy in his eyes. 

Tinsaye also learned how to swim (much faster than Solomon), but her real challenge was learning to ride a bike.  She spent many evenings falling off and laying in the street crying while her heartless parents ignored her drama before she just forced herself to keep practicing and learn it.  Now she's a pro!  She is still a major league drama queen, but we have reduced the number of tear soaked kleenex dramatically.  Her ophthalmology recheck showed that her eye pressures are down to healthy levels, no doubt because she spends so much time crying!  She has gained 6 pounds, primarily due to her obsession with ice cream, cookies, cake, candy, and those gigantic muffins from Costco.  There is rarely a day without some tears shed due to being denied her desire for limitless amounts of sugary garbage.  Besides all things Hostess, she mostly still eats just bananas, avocados, bread, peanut butter, eggs, and yogurt.  She loves American TV and music, singing along with my iPod and watching as much mindless Nickelodeon drivel as I let her.   Tinsaye is the emotional barometer in our family.  If any of us is even a little bit sad, she is there immediately seeking to help, comfort, or solve the problem.  Every night she wraps her arms around me and whispers in my ear, "I love you so much, Mommy."

Thomas and Meredith pretty much continue on as always.  Meredith is patient, dreamy, funny.  Thomas is impatient, bossy, funny.  They've had some sad times and have struggled with adjusting, but they seem to be leveling out.  They really seem happiest when all six of us are doing something together:  riding bikes, going to get ice cream, traveling.  They both say that our family is more fun now, which makes me really happy.

I am tired.  I have spent countless hours dealing with medical issues (making appointments, going to appointments, getting prescriptions, getting shots), making kids read, write, turn off the TV, stop fighting, and eat something other than hot dogs for lunch.  I have taken the kids to the library, the pool, the hairdresser, their friends houses, the lake, the ice cream shop, the farmers market, church, school, and, of course, the doctors office.  I have cleaned up kool-aid faces, bloody knees, popsicles off the porch, muffin crumbs off the chairs, and pee off the bathroom floor.  I have made enough peanut butter sandwiches to feed every child in Michigan.  My roots are gray, I've gained five pounds, my normally beautiful gardens are an atrocity of weeds.  I am really tired.  But I think I've gotten our family off to a really good start.