Nine...

Today we are celebrating Grant's nineth birthday. I've been a mom for nine years, and somehow that feels like a lifetime and a blink all at the same time. What a journey the past nine years have been! Being this kid's mom has been both fun and intense. And I've learned a lot. I am a better person because I'm Grant's mom. So, here's my list of ten things I love about Grant at nine years old.

1. Grant knows every word of the national anthem of the United States...and Canada...and Japan...and Greece...and Austria. Of course we have to take his word for it that he singing the correct words for the non-English songs, but when it comes to Grant's ability to memorize things is amazing, so I don't doubt it. And speaking of memory, he knows a crazy lot about the history of the Olympic games including where and what year all of the summer and winter games occurred and significant medal winners in each of the games.

2. Grant loves to cook, and he is quite good at it. He finds chopping, slicing, mixing, and grinding to be very soothing. He is also self-aware enough to know how calming cooking activities are for him and will ask to cook when he is feeling stressed.

3. Grant has made a name for himself at his school. I'm starting a new job at Grant's school in a few weeks, and as I've been to some early meetings I've been introduced many times as "This is Sheryl Ferguson, you know, Grant's mom." Invariably that is followed by, "Oh, I love Grant!" Me too.

4. Look how far we've made it. We have been on quite a journey with Grant, and this year I've been very conscious of just how far we've come. I've had some pretty wonderful conversations with Grant this year. I remember the days when I wasn't sure if I'd ever be able to have a real conversation with him. Thinking back on how hard we all worked to get where we are today has made each of the conversations I've had with him in the past year all the more precious to me. So proud of that kid and can't wait to see where we are next year.

5. Grant is very generous and sees no reason not to share everything he has. Earlier this year Grant and Travis went to a Jewell basketball game that was downtown. After the game they were walking back to the car and a homeless man named Curtis stopped them. Curtis was friendly, talked with them a bit, and gave Grant a beaded necklace. As Grant and Travis went on their way, they talked about Curtis. After some questions from Grant, Travis explained that Curtis probably does not have a home. Grant's immediate response was "Well, he could come live with us. We have room." How humbling it is to have to explain to the kid why that simple solution couldn't happen. I am proud to have a kid who can look past Curtis's appearance and want to share what we have to help him.

6. Grant is a big thinker. If Travis or I comes up with an idea of something to do, Grant takes it up about 10 levels suggesting a much more spectacular idea. He asks things like "When can we go to Sydney, Austrailia?" the way that most kids ask when they can go to the park. While it's true that fielding these questions can be a little exhausting (I don't know, Grant, let me check the calendar and get back with you on when we can buy a yacht and sail to New Zealand), I have a feeling that Grant is going to do some pretty extraordinary things in his life simply because he thinks he can. (Though I will admit that I hope he never gets his own credit card.)

7. Grant prefers experiences to things. Given the choice between doing something and getting something, he'll pick doing something every time. He is a kid who wants to see the world. I appreciate his desire to get out there and see all that there is to be seen.

8. Grant is very civic minded. He often says he wants to go to city hall to help the mayor. He also can't understand why people don't just do the right thing whether that is standing up for the the national anthem, following the speed limit, or volunteering whereever they can.

9. Grant is sweet in an old fashioned kind of way. His manner of speaking is most often very polite and sprinkled with phrases like "Why of course you can" and "Well, certainly". Last week Grant and Travis took a guys' trip to St. Louis. While they were gone Grant called me a couple of times to tell me he loved me, and on the way home, he insisted on stopping to get me some flowers.

10. Grant has never met a stranger. He will talk to anyone. Anyone. While this makes his introverted mother anxious (hello, stranger danger), a friend of mine recently commented that she thinks Grant will probably have some pretty amazing experiences and relationships in life because of his willingness to engage with the people that he comes across. Probably true.

Happy birthday, Grant! I'm glad you are mine.

Lill...

So my last post about Lillian was when she was seven weeks old. (Gosh, how exhausted I was then.) She's now seven and a half months old and is doing all of the wonderfully amazing things that seven and half month olds do...sitting, starting to eat real people food, sleeping through the night, playing. She laughs and yells to get our attention. She insists on having something to eat if others are eating in front of her. She flirts with people. It's amazing how fast time goes (once you get past the painfully exhausted stage). Crazy to think of how much things has changed in a year. Last July (the 19th to be exact) we found out our baby was going to be a girl. And now Lillian is turning into her own person with her own personality and preferences. Last year I was just beginning to feel her kick inside me, and now she's here and has even grown up enough to have favorite things...favorite toys, favorite songs, favorite people. Last July it was hard to get our heads around what it would be like to be a family of five. Now Lill fits right into our family with her own spot at the dinner table and everything. Crazy.

Oh, summertime...

Oh summertime, how we love you. You make us feel human again. To think that Travis and I ever considered jobs where we wouldn't get summers off. Crazy. The Fergusons have always loved their summers, but this summer has been particularly good for us. After a busy school year that included both of the big kids now in elementary school and extracurricular activities, the addition of a new, adorable yet exhausting Ferguson, and two working parents, summer brought a much needed opportunity to slow down and catch our breath. We are loving the summer pace of life. Some highlights of our summer so far:

Grant and Sophia both attended summer school and LOVED it. Though we didn't really give them the option of not going (Ferguson kids--and parents--function better with the routine of school), they both begged to "get to go" to summer school when the flyer came home from school in the spring. (Well, ok kids, if you really want to, but now you can't say we never let you do anything fun.) It's always nice when the kids think they are "getting" to do something that you would probably "make" them do anyway. Both Grant and Sophia had a great time. Grant enjoyed riding his scooter to and from school each day and got to take an engineering class. Sophia got to take a cheer leading class, which she could not have been more thrilled about. On the morning that the class started Sophia told me, "Mom, you are probably going to get really tired of hearing me talk about cheer leading, but I can't help it. I'm just so excited!"

With the Bigs in summer school and Travis teaching summer school in the mornings, Lillian and I got to spend some extra time alone together. We LOVED it. I really struggled when it came to sending Lillian to a babysitter when I returned to work after my maternity leave. We had a fantastic sitter, but it was really hard for me. So, I loved spending the days in June alone with Lillian. She is at a wonderfully fun age where she is growing and changing everyday it seems. I loved the time we had to take life slow with each other as I relieved myself of the mommy-guilt that ate at me during the school year.

Travis had the opportunity to go with the students from church on a backpacking trip to Colorado. Travis had a wonderful time and I am really glad that he had the opportunity to go, however I will admit that prior to his leaving for Colorado I was really worried about the prospect of parenting three kids on my own for a whole week. I worried that it would be really hard to meet everyone's needs and that it might make me a little crazy. It was and it did a little. However, the kids and I also had a lot of fun together and I spent a lot of quality time with them that I don't normally do in an average week. We tried to do a little something fun each day in order to make the week go a little faster--I ran a little version of Camp Good-Mommy, which is similar to Camp Good-Buddy for those of you familiar with that. (I also found that the house stayed cleaner if we stayed out of it, so...) Some highlights of the week were: a trip to Penguin Park followed by milkshakes, a couple of swimming trips, a visit to Steamboat Arabia (the kids went on a field trip with kids from our church), a trip to Yogurtini to celebrate the last day of summer school, a visit to Chic-Fil-A to celebrate Canada Day (hey, we like to celebrate, and both have red and white as their colors, so it worked), and a trip to Crepes on the Square followed by the Farmers Market and the library. (Wow, we ate a lot. That explains some things.) All in all we did pretty good. Might have even boosted my parenting confidence a little.

Now that summer school is over, we are doing a lot of swimming and just hanging out. Loving every minute, but so sad to see the calendar moving so quickly towards August!!

She's six....

Sophia turned six...three and a half months ago. I know. I've been awful at keeping up with this blog thing. Life just keeps on happening. Anyway, Sophia is six and while I may be terribly late at getting it up, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to post my annual ten things I love about my kid list. It seems like Sophia has grown up a lot in the last year. She's losing teeth, has friends I've never met, and no longer likes all of the clothes I pick out for her. And while most of the time she still thinks I'm really cool, every once in a while I get a look from her letting me know just how lame I really am. I am amazed, however, at the person she is growing into. It was too easy to come up with a list of ten things I love about Sophia. I could have written a thousand, but here are ten...

1. Sophia is a learner. She is a girl after my own heart. Sophia loves to learn. She soaks up knowledge, loves to ask questions and share facts. She loves to read and talk about what she has read. Sophia could play the "what if" and "why" game all day. In this respect, she is a teacher's dream, and she makes her teachers look really good.

2. Not only is she a learner, but she makes really interesting connections too. Several months ago when having a conversation about death, Sophia made the comment that everyone should love God so they can live forever.... "And, you know, become vampires." Theology meets pop-culture right there. True, we have some ironing out of our theology to do, but really, that is some good connecting of things she has learned about. She frequently connects life situations to things she has read or learned about in school.

3. Sophia is proud to be a girl. While she has always been drawn to all things pink and sparkly, only recently have I come to understand how her girly-ness is really not as far from my feminist tendencies as one might think. She loves being a girl. She knows what she likes and is confident about expressing it. Being a strong, confident girl, of course she likes glam and glitz...and even tennis shoes once in a while. What more could I ask for than for my girl to be proud of who she is? While it scares me sometimes to see the way that pop culture influences and shapes Sophia's taste, it is fascinating to watch her take in her world and express herself. Her taste in clothes and other things is often different than mine (I know, no surprise) but I admire her boldness and the way her sense of style matches her personality.

4. Sophia is confident. When Sophia was a strong willed two year old, we taught her the mantra, "I am a smart, strong woman" to remind us as parents that who we allow her to be as a child shapes who she will be as an adult. And wow, she is really growing into that! So often I see her walk into what I would imagine to be a scary situation with her head held high and a smile on her face. Sophia enjoys a challenge and rarely backs down.

5. Sophia wants to be a runner! (Yes, I admit that this is a little self-absorbed of me to list this among the things that I love about her, but really, I could get on a soapbox about how good athletics are for girls.) Off and on last summer Sophia talked about wanting to take up running. Last fall one of Sophia's friends ran in the Kansas City Kids' Marathon and got a medal. Well, that sealed the deal. Sophia has decided to be a runner and is actually doing it. She is now working on completing the kids' marathon herself. I'm not sure whether she really enjoys running, really wants that medal, or really enjoys the time with me that keeps her going, but she's doing it.

6. She loves being a sister. Sophia has always been very loving and understanding with Grant, but I have been blown away with the enthusiasm with which she has taken to having a baby sister. Lillian may be the luckiest little girl in the world to have Sophia for a big sister. Sophia cannot get enough of that baby! She talks to her, sings to her, and will do anything to make that kid smile. A while back I was telling Sophia, "Just think, by this time next year Lillian will be walking around, getting into things, and you will be saying 'Lillian, get out of my stuff'." Sophia was taken aback and said very seriously, "Why would I ever say that?!? She is my baby sister, so of course I'll share my things with her." We'll see. I love that she truly believes that right now though. My heart swells when I imagine the relationship that I can envision my girls having years from now.

7. She is gracious. Truth be told, I feel like I've needed a lot of grace as a parent this year. The whole being pregnant, having a baby, and working full time kind of got the best of me this year. Time and time again when I was feeling like far less of a quality parent than I'd like to admit, Sophia wrapped her arms around my neck and told me that I'm "the best mom ever". And it's not that she has been blissfully ignorant either. There have been many, many times this year when Sophia has not gotten her way and she has been patient and understanding with her mom, brother, and sister. She is a gracious and forgiving kid who loves her people. She humbles me sometimes.

8. Quality time is Sophia's love language. I bet if I looked back at Sophia's birthday lists this characteristic would be on each of them. Sophia loves people and will do almost any activity if it means spending time with the people she cares about. More than anything else Sophia wants to spend quality time with people. She is a talker and likes to fill her time with people asking questions (many, many, many questions) and telling stories. I wish I had her gift of being able to slow down and truly be in the moment enough to really enjoy people as much as she does.

9. Sophia remembers and anticipates things. She counts down days until exciting events (right now we are counting down to a Taylor Swift concert!) and later savors the memories of those events by looking at pictures and telling the "remember when" stories. Stories of our experiences are important to her. Sophia still talks regularly about our trip to Disney last year and anticipates when we will go back with Lillian. I think part of this quality goes back to quality time being her love language. She enjoys her time with people and relives those times by telling the stories.

10. She's got a lot of sass and spunk, but deep down has a wise and compassionate heart. Sophia is a firecracker and sometimes the things she says cracks us up. Sometimes she plays the part of a flake and sometimes she truly drives me crazy (like right now, she has asked about 50 times in the last 4 minutes how many more minutes it will be before Lillian wakes up from her nap). But her first name means "wisdom" and and her middle name is Grace, and when I watch interact with her brother and sister or when I hear her talk about her friends at school, or when she hugs my neck and tells me that I'm "the best mom ever", I know that she is growing into her name. She is a special kid, and I am so glad she's mine.

Helpful reminders . . .

One day last week Sophia posted notes like this all over the house. I have to admit that when she started her little project I had to bite my tongue to keep from telling her not to waste sticky notes. However, once she explained that she was going to leave notes around the house for the rest of us to find so that we'd be surprised by reminders that she loves us, how could I not let her use as many notes as she wanted? I smiled every time I saw one of those little pink notes.

Seven Weeks . . .

Lillian is seven weeks old. This is my current favorite picture of her.

Maybe I'm awful, but I really love pictures of crying babies--not that I actually love to see babies cry, but their pictures are so passionate. Can't resist. Lillian, I'm sorry. I really do love you.

I like happy baby pictures, too.

Sledding . . .

Gary Lezak is my favorite Kansas City Weather Forecaster. We were watching Gary in 2003 during the tornado that hit the building we lived in at Jewell. Gary said to take cover, and we did. Right before the tornado hit. Gary was right that time. This a couple of months ago, Gary said there would not be much snow in Kansas City this year. Gary was wrong this time. The kids have had so many snow days that they don't even seem fun anymore.

The first snow day of the season, however, was very fun. We joined some friends up at Jewell for an afternoon of sledding. I have to admit that I was a little nervous to take the kids sledding. Truthfully, I thought they would get cold and whiny and that they would hate walking up the hill. I was wrong. They had a blast and did amazing with the hill climbing. Sophia, who is normally a bit dramatic with the slightest injury, was able to laugh off multiple wipe outs. Grant even joined in a snowball fight with a bunch of high schoolers.