A Twilight Eclipse

We are moving into full summertime mode around here. The weather is warming up and has been in the high 80’s most of the past few weeks. Lix has responded by organizing the ward’s mothers into a pool hopping club. Jenna and Bo love swimming and Lix loves lounging around by the water chatting with her buddies. And as an added bonus, it takes a lot of energy out of the kids so they don’t put up a fight when it is time to go to bed in the evening. Lix is looking forward to some wonderful summer months enjoying the Texas sun, which often seems like it is only a few miles away.

 

Lix has also gotten used to having a third child because Kenzie has been a working girl lately. The Ennas have had some wonderful times, and Lix has gotten a little creative in the things she does with them. You can only let those kids play in the toy room for so long before everyone starts driving each other crazy. So she’s gone shoe shopping, broken out the sidewalk chalk, hit up the pools, and also took a page out of Tom Sawyer’s book by giving them paint brushes and letting them loose on the back yard to paint the fence and the rocks and the table. It all turned out beautiful.

 

 

 

 
I don’t want to make the girls feel bad or anything, but the best part of the last month has definitely been Bo. One is such a great age, because it seems like that is when kids learn the fastest. It really seems like he is a whole new person every few days. He has gone from crawling to taking a few steps to practically running all over the place in just a few weeks. On Sunday Jarom skipped sacrament meeting with him and spent the time in an empty classroom learning how to stand up in open space. He is very inquisitive and is supremely interested in whatever it is that you happen to have. A few days ago he spent about five minutes pointing the remote at the TV and pushing various buttons. He knew the TV should be turning on, but he just couldn’t quite figure it out. He spends most of his time wandering around the house with shoes on his hands like mittens, and is often climbing on whatever crosses his path. Jenna seems to enjoy playing with him more than she used to, although he still sometimes terrifies both her and Kenna simply by wandering near them. When he gets a little too aggressive and in her face she has taken to calling him a crazy doofus and/or hitting him in the face with whatever stuffed animal is nearby. He thinks this is hilarious and laughs hysterically. It really is fun to watch those two interact and become great friends.

 
Lix and Jarom were watching some videos of Jenna from when they had just gotten here to Texas, and it is remarkable how much she has changed in the past 8 months. She was very much a toddler, and now she is very much a little girl. It is great to talk to her and read books with her and listen to the things that she is able to learn and understand and apply from one topic to another. She still loves music and sings all the time. She also loves dance parties and will sing or hum along with the tunes. Today on the way to the gym she requested the bar closing song, which is one of her favorites. It’s funny the things that she recognizes and remembers and latches on to.

I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention Mother’s Day. Lix had already gotten her present in the form of countertops, but she also got some cards and some flowers and some honey, because she is so sweet and doesn’t go bad, even though she is nearly 30. She is definitely Jenna and Bo’s favorite mom and Jarom sure is glad to have her because she does an amazing job taking care of him and the house and the kids.

 

Happy Mother's Day!

1 down, 74.6 to go

Jenna is pretty good at holding up the number of fingers you ask her to, although it sometimes takes her a few seconds of intense concentration to go from one number to another. But we’ve been practicing with her so that she can show people how old she is, how old she will be, and now, how old her little brother is. Bo survived his first year without too much difficulty. He eats most everything he sees, which has allowed him to triple his weight, an attribute that comes in handy during his two-on-one wrestling matches with Jenna and Kenna. He and Jenna continue to become more and more friendly, although he still puts the fear of God into her whenever she is doing a puzzle and he starts to wander near her. In the last post I mentioned that Bo was taking a few consecutive steps. As is usually the case with these little ones, it didn’t take long before “a few steps” turned into “as far as he wants to go.” The only thing that keeps him grounded now is that he can’t stand up without holding on to something. We’ve loved having him around this past year because he is about as smiley and happy as a baby can get. And the fact that he is a cute chubby guy doesn’t hurt. The only drawback is that having two great kids like Jenna and Bo just encourages Lix to want another one, which means that there is going to be another one sooner rather than later(not an announcement, just a prediction.)

Good kids in their car seats

To celebrate Bo’s anniversary Lix put together a smashing party. She put up balloons and decorated the ceiling, made adorable cupcakes that looked like monkeys and tasted like little drops of heaven, and invited a bunch of friends to come by and enjoy it with us. Jarom spent the morning helping get the house ready for visitors by picking up rooms, vacuuming, and cleaning up the backyard. As he was mowing the 25 square feet of grass they have he was careful to avoid the rabbit den, lest he turn the backyard into a scene from Saw. But it was moving day for the bunnies, and he noticed that one by one they were hopping out of the den and heading off to face the world. So he snagged the last two and put them in a cage so the kids could see them at the party. The weather was beautiful and the kids had a great time playing in the backyard with a bunch of toys and balls that Lix got at the dollar store. Bo wasn’t a huge fan of the cupcakes, but everyone else was. For presents he got an entire fleet of trucks to butch up his playtime. He really loves pushing cars around, so it was a perfect fit.

Jemima Puddleduck and one of her baby bunnies

Bo's birthday cupcakes

Pictures of Bo on his first birthday

Two days later, Lix got her present in the form of new countertops in the kitchen. It was an all-day installation that made the house very dusty and cost us a glass sugar jar, but was well worth it in the end. The new countertops and sink go very well with the existing cabinets, so much so that Lix doesn’t think that they need to be replaced anymore. The undermount sink is great, and so is the fact that she can pull something out of the oven and just set it right down on the counter. And best of all, after a few days she says that she likes it even more now that she’s getting used to it.

Right after the construction finished we got our first Winn visitors in David and Kristi. They were making the move from Utah to Delaware and decided to stop in Dallas and hang out with us and the other Winns for a few days. They were wonderful houseguests, regularly helping out with the dishes and other chores. David and Jarom and Nate played golf a few times. Kristi helped Lix shop for a new paint color and new room decorations for Bo’s redecorated room. Then Jarom and David helped paint Bo’s room. The crew visited a local indoor safari park one day, but mostly just enjoyed hanging out. David caught up on all the Disney movies that he missed as a kid and watched the first half of several planet earth episodes before his daily afternoon nap. And after a week it was time for them to get back on the road and get to Delaware.

The dreaded eight-putt

Bo's interior designer

When Winn children misbehave they have to sleep outside on the rocks

Like peas and carrots, apparently

Now it is just us again. Bo is walking around everywhere, getting into more trouble than ever before. Jenna is still trying to learn how to use her inside voice. Lix is trying to teach Bo some animal noises. He can do a version of “moo” and “woof” and knows which one goes with cow and which one goes with puppy. The kids spend a lot of time wrestling together, usually over a blanket. They also both enjoy reading and will sit quietly on your lap while you read them a book, after which Jenna will ask to read the story to you, turning the pages and mixing the parts that she has memorized with sections of narrative that she makes up as she goes. Bo seems to enjoy both versions of the book equally.

 

You might think that Lix is a bad mom, and you might be right, 

but she just had to get some video evidence of her hyper-sensitive son