EASIER--
- Everyone can buckle their own seat belt in the car. And unbuckle themselves. It takes a bizarrely long time for this to happen, but it does happen.
- All six kids are old enough to handle a daily chore that ranges from loading/unloading the dishwasher to washing their own clothes, to vacuuming the living room. However, we are still working on quality control. For example, if you happen to notice the new spots on my couch slipcovers, ask me about the crayons that ended up in the laundry.
- Rarely does anyone ask me to play with them because they all have a pretty close to same age companion. This does not hurt my feelings. I do not like to play with dolls, I do not like to color, and I do not like rolling cars around the living room.
- Grace has become an amazing older sister! She sat down last night and painted everything single fingernail in the house. Often I find her reading to her baby sisters at bedtime. She is sweet and patient and my dearest BFF!
- They are becoming much less picky eaters. Some of them will even eat brussel sprouts!
- And we can eat at a restaurant without drawing undue attention. Don't get me wrong, we still get stared at like crazy, but not because of broken dishes or spilled drinks (quite as often).
- I can pretty much have a reasonable conversation with any of them about a lot of different things. Like farting. One of my boys can find a way to work in farting into pretty much any conversation.
- We can almost have a family game night. We introduced the kids to Uno the other night and there was no bloodshed and only a little bit of crying (that might have come from Brian).
- We can watch an entire family movie. And sometimes we can even watch it without spilling an entire bowl of popcorn.
- Haven and I just finished a really hard 750 piece jigsaw puzzle. I used to be a puzzle fanatic, but pretty much haven't done one that didn't include a princess or a super hero in almost 10 years. I am genuinely excited that one of my kids shares my love of jigsaw puzzles!
HARDER--
- My kids have been fighting/bickering/arguing/tattling/and generally driving me crazy all summer long. It has reached a fever pitch since we got back from our camping trip. We are all suffering from some serious summer is over blues :(
- They are all becoming emotionally much needier than they were just last year. Their very complex personalities are emerging, sometimes in really lovely ways, but sometimes in really hard ways. For instance, one of our kiddos has a tendency to flip into rages over really small things. They don't usually last too long, but when they are in full swing it is exhausting and makes everyone in the house really sad.
- They are obsessed with their tablets and TV. Screen time is a daily argument.
- They talk back. Probably something they learned on Nickelodeon or the Disney Channel!
- They seem much messier than ever before. I think because they are bigger and each have more individual possessions. And their toys all have a gazillion pieces.
- My big girl is moving into puberty. And I think I am probably moving into menopause. Oh the mood swings. This will probably need to be it's own blog post.
Ages and stages. And days, months, and years spinning by too quickly. I really struggle with my kids getting older. I want them right here, right now, forever. Wonder what the next year will bring?