What’s New: Chinese New Year and More

May I always remember this face, beyond excited to come downstairs and start the new day. “Let’s go downstairs and get some brekkie!”

I feel like I’m always remarking on how crazy and fast-paced life feels right now. I’ve been doing my best this week, though, to deliberately slow down. I can be very focused on end goals, to the point that I forget how important my existence and way of being in the present is. Looking at my children, there is so much I want to savor, so much I want to be sure that I never forget. I’ve been doing a bit of photography as mindfulness this week, snapping photos of those looks and moments that I want to drink in and hold close to my heart. The week has flown by, but I don’t feel like it has escaped me altogether, just like we really truly lived it. We didn’t do all that much, really. You don’t have to do much to live abundantly when you have two young children who seem to have life firmly, perhaps permanently, by the ears. 

We did have school, see the doctor, check out a parade in Chinatown for Chinese New Year, and blow off cooking to embrace some unseasonably warm weather. Both Annabelle and Elliot got and recovered from pink eye thanks to the trusty breastmilk treatment. Sometimes I think that even after both children have weaned, I should express milk every few days just to retain the ability to cure all ills with the wonders of human milk, ha! Even though the pink eye was short-lived, both kids have also had coughs since the three of us were sick weeks ago and I was really growing concerned that they were continuing. Fortunately everything looks good! Elliot gave us a little scare with a very short-lived but still alarming stomach bug the next day, which I suppose he may have picked up at the hospital. Who knows!

Taking the train to Chinatown.

The growing pains of adjusting to life with a sibling seem to have subsided, and Annabelle has been an incredibly loving and attentive big sister lately. She loves to read to Elliot and bring him toys or pick up things that he drops, and he continues to stare at her intently on the regular. He is trying so hard, still, to start crawling, but tends to shift from hands and knees to hands and toes with both legs straight. He moves his legs forward, but keeps his hands in place and ends up faceplanting instead of moving easily in the direction he’s aiming for. Sometimes he just does downward dog, too. I’ve no doubt he’ll work it out eventually, even if that means skipping crawling altogether. He can pull up on most anything now, too.

At the Chinese New Year parade, many attendees were unconcerned about their inability to see the parade itself past the crowd. They, and I, were content to watch Annabelle, all dressed up on her new friend’s shoulders, instead. It was such fun to see her enjoying the parade, calling things out as she saw them, “Dragons! A snake! A tiger! Dancers!”

Don’t you just want to kiss him all over?

I have fallen into a groove with Andrew’s absence where I’m able to squeeze in all but the very last thing I need to accomplish during the day to keep things running around here. I’ve done this by abbreviating many things, cooking most of all! Unfortunately, that very last thing has always tended to be reading and writing, so I’m feeling a bit frustrated that I’ve not managed to get anything up this week that I wanted to. I know you all understand and are patient, of course, but I want to write! I do think I’m going to move these weekly updates to Thursdays, since the first part of our week is packed with school and I find myself scrambling to get my what’s new posts written. It seems that those of you who usually link up do so on Thursday or Friday anyway, so hopefully the change works well. I also want you all to know that I have three review and giveaway posts coming up in the next several days. I had hoped to get some of the other content I’m working on up in between for variety, but that other content just does not seem to be getting polished and ready to publish, so I apologize that I’ll have to save it for next week. As usual, the giveaways are for things I’m incredibly excited about and think you’ll love, too, so hopefully those are as enjoyable as my regular content anyhow! Those three are all I have planned for the foreseeable future, too.

Things are really becoming settled at school. The first month everywhere I have taught, no matter how well-established the program, has tended to be crazy as the children take time to settle in and learn routines. No matter how much I know that Montessori works and things will settle, I always find myself wondering. Trusting the process always proves to be worth it, however. This morning was amazing, and such a delight for me. I can only hope that the children enjoyed it as much as I did. This undertaking has not been without its challenges, that is for sure, but it is proving to be so very worth it. I’m loving it!

Now you tell me, what’s new with you!? Feel free to link up below anytime this week if you have an update of your own, whether in words or in pictures.